5 of the best shrimp cocktails in Las Vegas

In 1959, the Golden Gate in downtown Las Vegas began serving a shrimp cocktail for 50 cents, drawing crowds. Post-World War II advances in refrigeration and shipping made possible a steady supply of the ocean crustaceans in the high desert.

Over the decades, the shrimp cocktail spread throughout the city, becoming a signature dish. Until the Vegas food revolution began in the late 1990s, 99-cent shrimp cocktails were as plentiful as buffets.

Those days are over (for widespread cheap shrimp cocktails and buffets), but the dish lives on here, ranging from traditional versions to chef-driven takes that celebrate the new Vegas. Here are five options for shrimp meets cocktail sauce.

Lola’s

Lola’s brings Cajun cooking to Summerlin with lunch, dinner and brunch, plus live music, terrace seating in good weather and seasonal crawfish boils. The Crescent City (another name for New Orleans) shrimp cocktail features a half-pound of seasoned and chilled shrimp, with housemade cocktail sauce. lolaslasvegas.com

138 Degrees

Chef Matthew Meyer opened his 138 Degrees last fall, naming the Henderson restaurant after the ideal temperature for finishing steaks. One classic accoutrement to a good steak is a good shrimp cocktail. The chef twists tradition with his wild shrimp cocktail backed by tomato coulis and wasabi yuzu. 138restaurant.com

Piero’s Italian Cuisine

Piero’s, a Vegas institution for decades, offers a jumbo shrimp cocktail with spicy cocktail sauce, horseradish and lemon among traditional Italian starters such as mozzarella fritti, fritto misto and Piedmontese beef carpaccio. For folks really in a shrimp mood, jumbo shrimp scampi is an entrée. pieroscuisine.com

Saginaw’s Delicatessen

Cooked baby shrimp topped with lively cocktail sauce arrives in a tulip glass with a lemon wedge. This shrimp cocktail re-creates the version once served at Circa’s sister property, the Golden Gate, which introduced a 50-cent shrimp cocktail as a promotion in 1959. circalasvegas.com

StripSteak

Chef Michael Mina, a three-time James Beard Award winner, reopened StripSteak in January 2023 after remodeling and a menu makeover. The shrimp cocktail features sustainable Oishii shrimp cooked in dashi that lends umami and a jot of smokiness. The cocktail sauce blends raw gin and botanicals for complex flavor. mandalaybay.com

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ItsJLW on Twitter.