An Unpretentious Culinary Adventure at Roy Choi's Best Friend
A food writer recently visited celebrity chef Roy Choi's Best Friend restaurant at Park MGM in Las Vegas, discovering an extraordinary dining experience that defies typical celebrity chef expectations. The restaurant serves exceptional Korean-American street food in a vibrant, lively atmosphere that captures the essence of Choi's food truck origins.
The Celebrity Chef Restaurant Phenomenon
Celebrity restaurants have become a cornerstone of global culinary scenes, with new establishments opening annually as chefs expand their brands. Britain boasts numerous celebrity chef eateries from James Martin, Marco Pierre White, Rick Stein, Gordon Ramsay and Atul Kochhar, among others. Even Celebrity MasterChef contestants have launched successful establishments, including champion Steven Edwards with etch. in Brighton and Hove, and Tom Simmons with Thomas in Wales.
Gordon Ramsay has successfully taken his empire to America, with his legendary Hell's Kitchen in Las Vegas featuring elegant menus and personal video welcomes. However, the focus of this culinary journey was not Ramsay, but rather the offerings of another visionary chef at his Las Vegas establishment.
Roy Choi's Culinary Vision
Best Friend is the creation of Roy Choi, a Korean-American chef who helped pioneer the food truck revolution and is renowned for his unpretentious cuisine. Choi stars in Netflix's 'The Chef Show', while the 2014 film 'Chef' draws loose inspiration from his journey from upscale dining to flourishing food truck enterprise. Calling Las Vegas his "second home", Choi launched Best Friend in December 2018, showcasing his "greatest hits" from his celebrated Kogi food trucks in Los Angeles.
The Best Friend Experience
Stepping into Best Friend is an adventure in itself, with a lively bar, bodega and eatery all under one roof. Glass-fronted counters reveal shelves brimming with vibrant supermarket goods, quirky stickers adorn an elongated table, and eye-catching neon signage creates immediate visual impact. Within the dining area, a DJ booth sets the tone for spirited evenings, while diverse graffiti-covered walls and suspended foliage overhead create an ambience that transports Los Angeles straight to Las Vegas.
A Culinary Feast of Flavors
The menu features street-style sharing plates with dishes ranging from BARBECUE and bowls to creative culinary categories. During the visit, the writer sampled Korean wings, garlic chicken, BARBECUE ribs, grilled shrimp, marinated cucumbers, boneless ribeye, street corn, rib tacos and spiced pork - with every single bite proving outstanding. Each dish exploded with flavor, comfort and indulgence, seamlessly blending Korean and American culinary traditions.
The experience concluded with Choi's Medjool date cake, strawberry shortie and the legendary Best Friend sundae, though capacity limited full enjoyment of all desserts. The entire experience captured the essence of a food truck transformed into a lively restaurant with exciting, dynamic atmosphere.
Redefining Celebrity Dining
The visit proved that celebrity chef establishments need not be showy or carry exorbitant price tags purely due to reputation. At Best Friend, the restaurant delivered outstanding cuisine and brilliant ambience at fair prices, offering a completely down-to-earth experience that stands apart from typical white-linen celebrity dining. The writer discovered that exceptional food and vibrant atmosphere can coexist without pretension, potentially finding a new favorite chef in the process.
This Las Vegas culinary destination demonstrates how street food authenticity can thrive within a celebrity chef framework, creating memorable dining experiences that prioritize flavor and atmosphere over formality and exclusivity.
