A Fresh Wave of Restaurants Is Reshaping the Strip
Back where I’m from in the Midwest, a new restaurant can become the main topic at the hardware store, the gas station and three separate family dinners. In Las Vegas, you can miss an opening because you took the wrong escalator.
That pace has been especially noticeable on the Strip in 2026. Resorts have introduced several major dining rooms with serious chefs, distinct culinary identities and enough ambition to compete for an entire night of a visitor’s itinerary. This is not one fictional restaurant boom built around vague promises. Maroon at SAHARA Las Vegas, Cantina Contramar at Fontainebleau Las Vegas and Sartiano’s Italian Steakhouse at Wynn Las Vegas are all open, giving diners three very different reasons to arrive hungry.
The most exciting part is that these restaurants are not copies of one another. Maroon reframes the steakhouse through Afro-Caribbean cooking. Cantina Contramar brings Gabriela Cámara’s seafood-focused Mexican approach to Fontainebleau. Sartiano’s combines Italian cooking with the full theatrical weight of a Las Vegas steakhouse. That is a mighty wide spread for one stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Why Maroon Is One of the Year’s Biggest Arrivals
Maroon by Kwame Onwuachi opened at SAHARA Las Vegas on April 24, 2026. It is Onwuachi’s first West Coast restaurant and his largest dining room to date, according to the resort. The James Beard Award-winning chef is known for Tatiana in New York City and Dōgon in Washington, D.C., but Maroon is not a carbon copy of either restaurant.
Instead, Onwuachi has built an Afro-Caribbean steakhouse around jerk cooking, smoke, spice and the food traditions of the Caribbean diaspora. A custom jerk pit sits at the heart of the kitchen. The opening menu included rum-aged steaks, jerk chicken, banana leaf snapper with tamarind chutney, curried goat agnolotti and an oxtail Wellington made with jerk beef bacon and black truffle.
That lineup tells you this is not a standard steakhouse wearing a tropical shirt. The familiar Las Vegas signals are still here, including premium beef, a substantial wine program and a polished dining room. The difference is the point of view. Maroon filters the format through Onwuachi’s Jamaican heritage and his broader exploration of Afro-Caribbean food.
The restaurant’s name carries weight, too. It refers to the Maroons, communities formed by Africans who escaped slavery and established independent settlements in Jamaica’s mountainous interior. That history informs both the restaurant’s cooking and its design, which was created by Modellus Novus, the firm that also worked with Onwuachi on Tatiana and Dōgon.
The dining room has 125 seats, along with a bar-lounge and private dining areas. In other words, this is not the tiny, secret counter described in some early chatter. It is a full-scale Strip production. Maroon opens nightly at 5 p.m., although hours, menus and availability should always be checked before heading over.
Other Major 2026 Openings Worth Knowing
Maroon may be one of the year’s boldest debuts, but it does not stand alone. Two other new restaurants show how broadly the Strip is defining destination dining in 2026.
Cantina Contramar Brings Gabriela Cámara to Fontainebleau
At Cantina Contramar, chef Gabriela Cámara has introduced Fontainebleau Las Vegas to the bright, seafood-forward style that made her Mexico City restaurants internationally known. The official menu features dishes such as tuna tostadas, pescado a la talla, seafood cocktails and pescado al pastor tacos.
The restaurant’s philosophy is refreshingly direct. Ingredients are treated with restraint, dishes are designed for sharing and seafood takes center stage. That simplicity can be harder to execute than a plate with 14 decorative dots on it. Back home, we might call it not getting in the food’s way.
Cantina Contramar is open for dinner daily, and Fontainebleau requires upscale casual attire. Children must be at least 5 years old to dine there. Those policies are worth knowing before the family walks across the casino in matching vacation T-shirts.
Sartiano’s Adds Italian Steakhouse Glamour at Wynn
Sartiano’s Italian Steakhouse takes a different route. Located beside the private club Zero Bond and overlooking Wynn Golf Club, the restaurant combines Italian cooking with the scale and ceremony of a classic Las Vegas steakhouse.
Three-time James Beard Award winner Alfred Portale directs the culinary program, while executive chef Michael Rubinstein leads the kitchen. The menu draws from restaurateur Scott Sartiano’s Neapolitan heritage and the original Sartiano’s in New York. It includes handmade pasta, seafood towers, American Wagyu and a 40-ounce dry-aged bistecca Fiorentina carved tableside.
The room follows the food’s lead. Arches, brass details, vaulted ceilings and golf-course views create a setting inspired by midcentury Milanese design. It sounds fancy because it is fancy, but Las Vegas has never been shy about putting on a clean shirt for dinner.
Sartiano’s is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday and closed Monday and Tuesday. Wynn lists the dress code as upscale casual chic, and children younger than 5 are not permitted.
What the 2026 Openings Say About Las Vegas Dining
Calling this a surge does not mean every Strip restaurant opened this year or that every announced project arrived on schedule. Restaurant timelines move. Menus change. A place that looks finished from the casino floor may still be weeks away from serving dinner.
What is clear is that several marquee resorts have committed valuable space to restaurants with recognizable chefs and tightly defined concepts. Maroon is not merely “steak, but new.” Cantina Contramar is not a generic resort version of Mexican food. Sartiano’s is not simply another red-sauce dining room. Each is selling a specific culinary perspective alongside the usual Vegas polish.
That matters because dinner here competes with everything. A restaurant has to pull attention from concerts, gambling, nightclubs, sports and the deeply persuasive idea of lying in a hotel bed with room-service fries. Name recognition helps, but identity is what gives a new dining room a chance to last.
How to Plan a Meal at the Newcomers
- Reserve ahead: These are prominent resort restaurants, and prime dinner times can disappear quickly.
- Confirm current details: Check official restaurant pages for operating hours, menu changes, dress codes and age policies before leaving.
- Match the restaurant to the occasion: Maroon suits diners curious about jerk cooking and an unconventional steakhouse menu. Cantina Contramar is the seafood pick. Sartiano’s delivers pasta, steak and big-room glamour.
- Budget for the full experience: Premium cuts, cocktails, wine and shared dishes can raise the total quickly, even when there is no fixed tasting-menu price.
For a broader look at what locals and visitors are eating around the valley, ESB’s guide to Las Vegas restaurants worth trying in July 2026 offers more options beyond this trio.
The Strip’s 2026 restaurant story is ultimately about range. In one evening, Las Vegas can offer jerk cooked over live fire, carefully handled Mexican seafood or a porterhouse carved beside the table under soaring ceilings. Back where I’m from, choosing dinner usually meant deciding who had the best parking lot. Out here, the hard part is accepting that one stomach is not enough.
