Yellowtail Bellagio: Menu, Prices, & Hours

From the atmosphere and food to the Michelin Star executive chef Akira Back, here’s what to expect. 

Being located in the Bellagio Las Vegas, Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant offers wonderful views of the Bellagio fountains from the terrace, and the dining room decor offers several remarkable physical features, like a large 25 x 13 ft bronze dorsal side of a yellowtail fish as you walk in. 

The striking contrast of wood and stone decor lends a warm, welcoming feel without losing the modern Japanese ambiance. The result is the most memorable dining experience with great food and multi-sensory experiences in the Bellagio Las Vegas. 

Akira Back is a world-renowned, accomplished chef with a reputation for excellence in his restaurants around the globe. Chef Back, who was born in Seoul, later came to the United States, where the Rocky Mountains of Colorado inspired him to take up snowboarding. 

As someone who commits fully to achieving excellence in everything he does, it didn’t take long before Akira Back met the professional circuit. 

Although he made a name for himself, snowboarding wasn’t his true calling. Instead, it was the culinary arts, in which he has excelled, with nearly two dozen restaurants to his name, including Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge in Las Vegas and his Michelin Star award-winning restaurant, Dosa, in Seoul. 

Yellowtail, which opened in 2008, was the chef’s first restaurant. Yellowtail brought cutting-edge Japanese cuisine to the Strip, setting a new standard, and Las Vegas has never looked back. 

Michelin Star 

Accomplished executive chef Akira Back was awarded his first Michelin star in 2018 for his Seoul-based restaurant Dosa. 

The accomplishment, which is a huge honor for any chef, holds even more significance for chef Akira Back, as Seoul is the town he was born and raised until he moved to the United States when he was fourteen years old. 

Dosa pays homage to chef Akira Back’s heritage with his unique culinary approach to traditional Korean cuisine. 

Yellowtail Sushi 

Fresh, seasonal fish and other ingredients for Yellowtail sushi are flown in daily from around the world, making Yellowtail the location for the freshest sushi restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip. 

The sushi menu isn’t the most extensive in all of Sin City, but it is by far the most innovative, decadent, and memorable. 

Sushi and Sashimi selections include delicate pieces of bluefin tuna belly, king salmon, Japanese Yellowtail, Japanese snapper, and squid, among other selections. Add a quail egg to sushi and sashimi for an elevated touch. 

The Rolls

The sushi rolls make up a significant portion of the sushi menu and feature some surprising, innovative creations. 

You’ll find classic Japanese sushi rolls, such as the Unagi roll with cucumber, sesame seeds, and eel sauce, or the soft shell crab roll with cucumber, avocado, cream cheese, and spicy eel sauce. 

Then, there are the specialty rolls, with each offering something so unique you’ll want to order a table full to sample them all. A few selections from the specialty roll menu include:

• Baked Crab Hand Roll – The baked crab roll features soft shell crab, spicy aioli, crispy onions, and soy paper 
• Rock Shrimp Roll – Dynamite sauce and scallions 
• Popping Spicy Crab Sushi Roll – The pop-rock roll features cucumber, asparagus, and, yes, pop rocks!
• Mile High Roll – Tempura crab, asparagus, avocado, spicy ponzu aioli, and mixed sashimi 
• Happa – A spicy tuna roll with spicy aioli

Shared Plates 

Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge is the ideal spot for an intimate dinner, either with someone special or a small group of close friends. What better way to celebrate the occasion than with a table of shared plates? 

There are both cold and warm shared plates to enjoy. Some favorites from the selection of shared cold plates include the Akira Back Tuna Pizza that’s blessed with a drizzle of truffle oil, Seared Albacore with micro cilantro and blood orange sauce, and the Salmon Tiradito with charred peaches and cilantro oil. 

For warm plates, we loved the Tempura Lobster with sweet ponzu and serrano chili pepper, Filet Mignon Toban with mixed mushrooms and garlic butter, the Crispy Tofu with green onion, and the Grilled Halibut with crispy shiitake mushrooms, leek, serrano chili pepper, soy garlic butter, and eel sauce. 

Just imagine a table of these small plates to share with your favorite people. 

Entrees

Finally, we get to the entrees. These are beautiful plates that are as visually appealing as they are to your palate. We had the Braised Wagyu Beef Short Ribs, which were accompanied by garlic teriyaki, baby root vegetables, and puffed rice. It was so delicious. 

The Jidori Chicken with potato puree and garlic cream was an unexpected selection on the menu, but nonetheless delicious. We also started our meal with the cucumber salad and edamame served with Maldon sea salt, but you could also opt for sweet chili instead. 

The Surf & Turf, with a more than generous cut of ribeye and lobster tails (yes, plural), with kizami wasabi butter, was nothing short of decadent. 

Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge also offers a multi-course tasting menu, with seven courses and an optional sake pairing. 

Vegetarian

Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge doesn’t offer a specific vegetarian menu, but it’s not a stretch to say you can definitely find plenty to enjoy that’s aligned with the vegetarian lifestyle. 

If this includes eating fish and seafood, then you have more selection to choose from than if you omit fish or are vegan or plant-based. 

Desserts 

Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge offers an impressive dessert selection. Each sweet dish is artfully prepared and perfectly tantalizes the palate without being too sweet. 

The Apple Harumaki with cinnamon cream cheese and apple gelato are divine, as is the Chocolate In a Cup with Nutella and banana foam. 

Yellowtail offers a wonderfully curated collection of wines that includes a selection of sake that will appeal to any discerning sake connoisseur. The wine list has also been created to offer a wine or sake pairing for every dish on the menu. 

Are you in the mood for a Big Eye Tuna Pizza with truffle oil, or can’t stop thinking about the potato puree that is a far cry from what you think of mashed potatoes as being? Yellowtail has a sake for that. 

Maybe the sweet chili specialty rolls, diver sea scallops, or lobster tempura? Chef Akira Back has every base covered for the perfect sake pairing.  

Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant is considered a fine dining experience at the Bellagio. The prices reflect this, but it’s also very reasonably priced for the quality, creativity, and artistry in every bit. 

Specialty cocktails tend to cost about $20-$22, like the Sunset, which is a very refreshing vodka cocktail with blood orange puree. 

There’s a range of prices for the shared plates, with the mid $30 range to mid $50 being where most of the small plates fall on the price scale. 

Entrees average $40 -$60, but the Surf & Turf and the Kagoshimi A5 Wagyu cost significantly more. 

Once you factor in a first course, drinks, and dessert, plan on spending about $125-$150 per person. 

There’s no denying that one of the most wonderful aspects of dining at the Bellagio is that the resort offers several restaurants that provide a gorgeous view of the Bellagio Fountains, Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant included. 

The veranda at Yellowtail offers the best views, especially on a warm summer evening when the fountains erupt in a display every fifteen to thirty minutes. 

Reviews of Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant are overwhelmingly positive. The restaurant has 4.8 out of more than 2,000 reviews on Opentable, 8.5/10 on FourSquare, 4.8 stars on Kayak, and 4.3 on Google. 

Positive reviews rave about the food, the service, and the ambiance. Spicy miso soup is mentioned more than once, along with the most delicious spiced tuna. Many people choose Yellowtail as the setting for a special occasion dinner and have zero regrets about their choice. 

Those that weren’t so fond of their experience at Yellowtail mostly cite small portion sizes and long wait times as their main complaints. 

Private and group dining for parties of sixteen or more is available. Contact Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant directly for more information and to make reservations. For large parties, you can reserve a semi-private dining room for up to 38 guests. 

It’s also possible to buy out the restaurant for 200-300 guests, depending on if it’s a standing or seated event. You can also reserve the veranda or the lounge for smaller groups.  

Business casual attire is preferred at Yellowtail, which translates to looking nice. You can definitely dress up a little more for a special meal at Yellowtail, but showing up in slacks and a collared shirt or dress pants/skirt and a nice blouse is perfectly acceptable. 

What isn’t acceptable is showing up in shorts, a tank top, athletic wear, swimwear, visibility worn and torn clothing, or wearing flip flops. 

Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge is open nightly for dinner service. They begin service at 5 pm nightly and stay open until 10 pm during the week and 11 pm on Friday and Saturday. 

Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant is located in the Bellagio Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. You can find the restaurant near the north valet, right near the Via Bellagio shops.  

Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant and Chef Akira Back offer a new type of upscale Japanese dining experience at the Bellagio Las vegas. Yellowtail is the perfect place to enjoy a table of shared small plates with innovative flavors and exciting cocktails that stimulate the taste buds. Make your reservations today for the best seat in the house.