When you’re in the mood for a night out, there’s nothing like a good cocktail to get you going. Whether you’re picking up with old friends or meeting someone new, these five are some of the best bars in Las Vegas, where you can enjoy a lively atmosphere and great food and drinks.
5 Top Lounges in Las Vegas
- Planet Hollywood Observatory – This bar/lounge offers visitors to Las Vegas a breakaway experience from that traditionally taken in at casinos on the strip. Planet Hollywood is perfect for those patrons looking for a bit of that Hollywood glitz and glamour.
- The Mob – The Mob is an upscale sit-down bar located in Downtown Las Vegas. This is a real VIP lounge with a modern luxurious bar specializing in the best cocktails in Las Vegas. This bar, which is housed in a restored 1920s brick building, offers a great selection of classic cocktails to enjoy as a speakeasy-style bar. The bar is typically packed during happy hours, so reservations are highly recommended.
- The Pool at the Cosmopolitan – The Cosmopolitan is one of my favorite hotels in Vegas. It’s got a great location (right in the middle of the strip) and is a really fun building. The Pool at the Cosmopolitan is one of the coolest hotel pools I’ve ever been to. In fact, the hotel is famous for having one of the only cocktail tasting rooms in the entire world. The tasting room is packed with guests and includes a number of different craft cocktails. You basically get to taste the booze to see how it compares to liquor. I recommend ordering craft cocktails. Ever tried Dogfish Head or Garage or Tito’s Handmade Vodka? If you haven’t, you need to go now! If you are into the big names, check out Last Dogseye’s Whiskey Sour and Curmudgeonly Whiskey. Open daily for brunch, it’s a great place to come for a drink and a tasty meal. The best part? It’s only 200 dollars for both brunch and dinner!
- Beer Garden at Dogfish Head – #1 on the list of best bars in Las Vegas, this Beer Garden is a great place to see live music. They play local music four nights a week and they are open late, too! On summer nights, the Beer Garden is packed and it’s usually quite crowded. Saturdays and Sundays are quiet and more laid back. On summer nights, this is a great place to go if you’re looking to unwind. The Beer Garden is open for dinner Tuesdays-Sundays from 5-9 pm.
- Table & Tap – This bar specializes in breakfast, lunch and dinner in Las Vegas. There’s not much of a youth crowd here, but definitely a mix of people from all age brackets. Table & Tap is a great place to go to have a quick bite or meet up with friends for a glass of wine. There are 24 different draft beers available at Table & Tap, but a couple of favorites include the Burnt Tail Belgian-Style Tripel and the Molly Bohl Whiskey Sour.
When it comes to drinking in Las Vegas, the only thing that matters is the quality of the drinks and the experience. You can go to any of the fancy casinos on the Las Vegas strip or you can head to downtown Las Vegas to one of the many dive bars. The best bars in Las Vegas are the ones that have the best drinks and the best atmosphere.
Planet Hollywood Observatory
Planet Hollywood Observatory is a restaurant and pub-themed after the Hollywood stars and awards. The restaurant has two floors and the decor is inspired by the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Even though the bar is inspired by famous stars and movies, cosplay (costume play) is allowed on the premises, and the restaurant even serves drinks based on the movie or TV show that you’re watching. If that film or TV series is Sharknado, you can guarantee they’ll have some fierce drinks to wash it all down.
As Neon Desert continues to grow, they are adding a wine bar to their menu. On draft or bottles, you can get a margarita, rum cocktail, or piña colada. Since it’s a wine bar, you will also likely find piña coladas or a tequila flight.
Located near the museum, The Savoy is a classic, modern-day bar in Downtown Las Vegas. Their expansive menu is the perfect place to enjoy a drink and meal. The star attraction, however, is their innovative cocktail menu.
If you’re feeling cocktaily, don’t miss their signature pineapple margarita. They also have a seasonal cocktail menu where ingredients change with each season.
Alcohol can be great companions to the conversation, especially during the fall and winter months. With bars like The Shanty and The Hydro all over Downtown Las Vegas, you’ll find the perfect place to come and chat.
Located near the McCarran Airport, Fogo de Chao is a laid-back restaurant with an amazing Vietnamese fish sauce cocktail on each table. The restaurant also offers great cocktails like their Hemingway, and the gokeek sandwich. If you’re craving an inexpensive date night, order fish tacos from their walk-up window.
If you’re craving an authentic tropical bar, Wood-Age of Las Vegas is a must-try. This bar is an antique glass-and-metal restaurant, complete with a full bar and stools for dining. Each of their cocktails is inspired by a different time period, from Prohibition to Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
The Best Cocktails in Vegas
- The Cromwell is a cocktail made with vodka, lime, simple syrup, and sparkling water. It is a very refreshing cocktail that is perfect for summer. This cocktail is perfect for The Pool at the Cosmopolitan whilst overlooking the wrap-around pool on hot days.
- The Mob cocktail menu features a variety of classic and seasonal cocktails, as well as their famous margaritas and signature cocktails such as gluten-free margarita, smoked tomatillo margarita, and amaro chili margarita.
- The Revelry is a cocktail bar and restaurant that is found in Lake Mead Village and features a rotating selection of carefully curated handcrafted cocktails. The Revelry’s eclectic cocktails are inspired by everything from Mexican to European to Native American ingredients.
- The popular lounge at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino features Florida stone fruits such as strawberries, mangoes, and yuzu placed into house-made cocktails, savory options like avocado toast and Amado shiitake mushrooms, and complimentary bites from local chefs Joshua Rhodes of Skylab Gourmet Hot Dogs & Fish Shack and Die Hard Coffee.
- Situated in Las Vegas Boulevard North at the southwest corner of Fremont Street, this building is worth a visit for its architecture alone. The Birdbath is an elevated rooftop bar that overlooks Las Vegas Boulevard and the Fremont East development.
Cocktails and food go hand in hand at this contemporary cocktail bar located in Henderson Square. There are a large number of onsite food vendors as well as takeout options, like Linden Street Deli & Catering, Shinola Watch and more.
Worth a Mention – Luxor
Luxor is named after an Egyptian city on the east bank of the Nile River, opposite Karnak and Louxor, and about 7 miles (11.2 km) north of the island of Philae. The original Egyptian name was Iwnw, its modern name, Luxor, is the French spelling of al-Uqsur, Arabic for “fortifications”. The 7th and 8th centuries BC Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III constructed the city, which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This leisure complex is home to the cosmopolitan and glittering Egyptian cocktail haven, The Shokshow. This riverfront bar is named after the theater, built for the Nile Show, a 750-seat annual riverboat event. The credit for original cocktails goes to a mixologist named Robert Perry, who developed an Egyptian “piquant lemon” known as “the falcon”. While citrusy, balanced and refreshing, this concoction was a hit with visitors eager to taste the very thing they loved about these bar scenes: colorful lighting, artistic booze menus, and, of course, some good old-fashioned Egyptian fun.
Luxor is home to a small, independently-owned distillery. The site also features a micro-museum that documents the history of booze in Egypt as it relates to The Shokshow.
Additionally, the establishment serves delicious traditional Egyptian cuisine made with regional produce, imported cheeses, and spices reminiscent of the Holy Land. Luxor’s deli counter, carried out by a team of young, cobbled-together employees, is the “Biblical tale of life at the beginning of everything” as it states on every sip of the shokshina, or bottled beer. This ancient establishment provides excellent soups, stews, and freshly made rugs for the restaurant.
This Mediterranean entertainment and nightlife spot comprises an impressive collection of eateries, iconic art deco architecture, and rooftop pools that afford patrons the best vantage point over the Las Vegas strip.
While not exactly a bar, Ocean Dive has been Las Vegas’ longest-running dive bar. Originally opening in Las Vegas’ famous Las Vegas Ice Cream Parlor in 1951, this unique speakeasy featured live entertainment on the second floor.
How to experience a Vegas Lounge when not in Vegas
There is no way to fully replicate the Vegas experience whilst outside of Las Vegas but there are some things you can do to bring that Vegas feel home. The first is to get yourself some premium spirits, a cocktail recipe book, an ice crusher and a mixer. This will allow you to recreate some of the famous Las Vegas cocktails you would associate with a Vegas Lounge.
The second step is to set up a lounge area within your home. This can be done at a kitchen island if you do not have a bar in your home. With a few decorations, a dimming of the lights and enough of those homemade cocktails you might just forget that you are at home.
The third step in getting that Vegas experience is to bring the casino home. This can be done through downloading a social casino game or if you want to risk real money, signing up and playing at a Vegas-styled online casino like Vegas Lounge Casino, which offers a live casino product to enhance your virtual vegas experience.
The final step is to invite some friends over to share the experience with you. Nothing lifts a night like sharing the experience with friends and family.
