Best Friend Park MGM

The first thing that stands out about Best Friend is the entrance to the restaurant, which is designed to look like the storefront of a liquor store. 

The theme carries through inside when you’re greeted by a bright, playful liquor store/bar area, and there really are things for sale here. If you didn’t know what you were walking into, you’d probably not expect that you were working your way back into a highly-rated Korean restaurant that serves amazing food.

Once you get past the bodega-inspired entrance, your senses will be immediately surprised by the change in ambiance. We read a professional review that compared the interior to being inspired by a Korean spa. We’re not entirely sure about that, but the dining room is different than you’d expect it to be from the entrance. 

Best Friend manages the marriage of elegance and fun. If you have high expectations for a quiet and relaxing fine dining experience, this probably isn’t it. 

Still, the food is of fine dining quality, and the ambiance isn’t one that will disappoint – although it can get a bit noisy, with a combination of the lively environment (everyone is excited about the food!) and the music coming from the live D.J. in the D.J. booth. 

Overall, Best Friend offers a fun vibe that we wouldn’t hesitate bringing guests to, as long as the occasion didn’t call for a quiet, low-key environment. 

When you go to your best friend’s house for dinner, you anticipate the food being spot on. Even if your best friend isn’t a great cook (which isn’t the case here!), they know what you love when it comes to food and don’t want to disappoint. 

In this aspect, we found Best Friend to offer a similar dining experience – fun, comfortable, and dishes that were just spot on with what we were craving. 

Chef Menu

Many of the most popular fine dining restaurants in Las Vegas offer a chef’s menu, but seeing one at Best Friend had us excited. 

The chef’s menu is by far one of the most popular choices, and it’s affordable compared to what you’d pay at other Las Vegas restaurants on the Strip. Currently, it’s $69 per person, and you get a ton of flavor for that price. 

The tasting menu includes Banchan, Kimchi Fried Rice, Kogi Tacos, Slippery Shrimp, Garlic Chicken, Kalbi, and dessert of Date Cake or Strawberry Cheesecake. 

The chef’s tasting menu is served family style and requires a whole table presentation. In other words, if you can’t purchase just one chef’s menu while the other person at your table orders something else. Everyone needs to be all in! 

Regular Menu

Once we moved past the bodega entrance, the first thing we noticed about Best Friend Las Vegas was the aroma of all the flavors in the dining room. Our mouths immediately began salivating. Just the scent gives a hint to the fact that you might be about to experience some of the best food you’ve ever had. 

There’s a bit of something for everyone on the menus. If you want an order of french fries, you can have them, but these are sprinkled with ramen dust and served with sambal mayo. The Korean chicken wings are also really good as a starter. 

The Korean BBQ selections include dishes such as bone-in short ribs, spicy pork, yuzu shrimp, and a bbq platter that includes both garlic chicken and spicy pork. The BBQ scallops with chimichurri are a favorite. 

There’s also an L.A. portion of the menu that features some of the most popular dishes that Best Friend offers. These include short rib tacos, street corn, slipper shrimp, and Baja fish tacos. 

The “Vegas” selection includes a Cowboy Chop, which is an absolutely massive 34-oz ribeye, buttermilk fried chicken, and a dish called Kimchi Chicken Parm, which features kimchi fried rice, kimchi red sauce, chili oil, and cilantro. 

If a bowl is more your speed, we suggest the Uni Dynamite Rice, the Kimchi Fried Rice with a poached egg, or the Kimchi Carbonara. The only complaint we had during the meals we’ve had at Best Friend Las Vegas is that we wish our stomachs had more room. 

Vegan Options

Best Friend Las Vegas offers a designated vegan menu. If you’re vegetarian or are avoiding dairy products, there’s actually quite a bit on the regular menu for you to enjoy. However, if you’re strictly vegan, you’re not going to feel left out by ordering from these selections. 

The menu is set up to be a Prix Fixe menu for $59 per person, but you can also order items individually. The selections include Banchan with broccolini and sprouts, Miso Squash, Veggie Fried Rice, and Eggplant Schnitzel. We like eggplant in small doses but were pleasantly surprised at how the Eggplant Schnitzel tasted and would have happily indulged in seconds. 

The dessert offered is a coconut raspberry shaved ice that is the perfect finale for this meal. 

Desserts

After a dinner of great food, you might not have much room left for something sweet, but we strongly suggest at least sharing one of the desserts. They’re so good and unexpected when compared to other Korean restaurants in Las Vegas that we have visited. 

The list of desserts isn’t huge, but it doesn’t need to be. The Medjool Date Cake is a sticky toffee pudding with caramel ice cream. It’s rich and gooey but not overly sweet. The strawberry cheesecake tastes more like a strawberry-mango cheesecake, thanks to the mango-passion fruit sorbet that accompanies it. 

The shaved ice, Gochujang Pot De Crème, and Best Friend Bathtub Sundae are also equal contenders for the best dessert. 

Desserts are priced anywhere from $13 up to $19.

Drinks

You might not expect to find slushie machines in a Korean dining spot, but Best Friend Las Vegas has them. Frozen slushie drinks are some of the most popular and include flavors like Pina Colada, Strawberry Daiquiri, Margarita, and Watermelon Slushie with vodka. 

There’s also a full bar, so you get your favorite drinks, or “dranks,” as Best Friend Restaurant calls them. The Peach Tea or Midori Sour goes really well with all the flavors on the menus.

Beer, wine, sake, mocktails, and soft drinks are also available. 

Chef Choi is the culinary mastermind and passion behind Best Friend Las Vegas. Chef Roi Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea. His family moved to southern California when he was just a toddler. He was raised in Los Angeles, which would be where he got his start in the culinary world. 

After studying at the Culinary Institute of America and working in a Michelin Star restaurant during his training, Choi eventually returned to Los Angeles, where he opened a Korean BBQ food truck, which served such delicious eats that it propelled his career. 

Chef Choi opened several restaurants in the Los Angeles area and earned national recognition in the process. While Roy Choi rated among the top chefs in L.A., Best Friend Las Vegas was his very first restaurant outside of the L.A. area. Jumping to Sin City is a huge move for a chef whose work was primarily centered in one area throughout his career. 

But the move definitely paid off. The Las Vegas restaurant has become a huge hit in Sin City, and it’s also become one of our favorite places to eat and visit.  

Reservations for Best Friend Las Vegas can be made right from the website. They can also be made by calling the restaurant directly at 702-730-6770. 

Best Friend can accommodate larger parties with advance notice. Private dining is also available. They offer private dining that seats fourteen guests, which is the perfect size for a birthday dinner or bachelor/bachelorette dinner before a night on the town. 

If you need more space than the private dining room allows, reception-size parties can be arranged for up to 200 guests. 

The dress code at Best Friend Las Vegas is casual. You don’t have to dress up unless you want to. You can show up in a nice pair of shorts and a casual top and get served. However, you might want to refrain from casual wear that looks too athletic. Running shorts, sneakers, and a sports bra or coming straight from the pool would be pushing the casual dress code too far. 

The dining room and bar at Best Friend are open daily at 5:00 pm. During the week (Sunday thru Thursday), the restaurant stays open until 11:00 pm. On weekends, closing time is midnight. The restaurant also stays open late on Dolby Live show nights. 

Best Friend is located inside the Park MGM, located at 3770 S Las Vegas Blvd. 

Once inside, Best Friend is easy to find. From the main entrance, you’ll head toward the casino and walk through the casino floor. From there, follow the main pathway. The bodega storefront of Best Friend is easy to spot. It’s also located right next to Eataly, which is equally hard to miss. 

• Best Friend Las Vegas serves Korean food with L.A. flair in a cool environment at Park MGM.
• Chef Choi never disappoints with dishes like Slippery Shrimp and Kimchi Fried Rice. 
• The Vegas restaurant plays with the senses with a bodega storefront, hip-hop music, and amazing food.
• We recommend reserving the chef’s table for a special occasion.
• This is the only place in Las Vegas where you enter a bodega and find yourself in your new favorite restaurant.