The Park Isn’t a Park, But It’s a Great New Restaurant Row on the Las Vegas Strip

We should probably say this right up front. The Park isn’t a park.

What is it, then? The Park is a pedestrian promenade, located between New York-New York and Monte Carlo, featuring a collection of restaurants and bars. Oh, and a giant naked woman.

Let’s get some requisite snark out of the way and we’ll dive right into this shiny new offering on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Park billboard
We can’t help it.

The Park comes from the folks at MGM Resorts, and takes advantage of some new energy and foot traffic being generated by the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena.

While The Park doesn’t have grass or wildlife, it does have sass and nightlife. Yes, we made that up all on our own.

The Park
The entrance to The Park is unmistakable thanks to two long walls of cascading water. The stroll between the walls is not to be mist. See what we did there?

The opening of any new restaurant on The Strip is newsworthy, but an impressive four restaurants opened simultaneously at The Park. No small feat.

Here’s a quick look at The Park set to the music of one of the best bands in recorded history.




The four new restaurants at The Park are Bruxie, Beerhaus, California Pizza Kitchen and Sake Rok. (MGM Resorts includes Shake Shack on the list of restaurants at The Park, but it’s been around awhile and is really more a part of New York-New York than The Park, so we’re skipping it. We’re rebellious like that.)

Here’s a quick look at each new spot to eat, drink and potentially hook up with a complete stranger. Hey, a blog can dream.

First up, Bruxie.

Bruxie
Bruxie offers pure cane sugar sodas, but we won’t hold that against it.

Bruxie, possibly a play on Brussels—we are a blog, not a etymologist—is an offshoot of a restaurant in Orange County, California.

Bruxie
Sign up for the Bruxie loyalty club and get a $5 credit. Find out more.

The restaurant’s hook is using waffles for its sandwiches rather than bread.

You can get up all inside the Bruxie menu.

Bruxie waffle restaurant
Should we order another Bruxie sandwich or not. See, we’re waffling. These are the jokes.

Next is Beerhaus. It’s described as “a remix of the American beer hall.” Beer halls aren’t really American, but we sort of have to take credit for everything.

Beerhaus
We tried to count all the kinds of beer at Beerhaus, but our abacus melted.

This beer garden (another misnomer, as there’s no actual garden involved) has an extensive list of (wait for it) beer, as well as games like foosball, shuffleboard and ping pong. Mainly because such games are now required at any new Las Vegas venue that might want to appeal to Millennials.

Beerhaus
So many new bars, so little time.

Here’s the Beerhaus menu if you prefer actual useful information rather than our pointless rambling.

Beerhaus
Beerhaus makes it easy to grab some grub with your suds. Say that five times fast.

Next to Beerhaus is California Pizza Kitchen, a known quantity for many Las Vegas visitors.

CPK
We seem to recall reading somewhere that this is the world’s largest California Pizza Kitchen. Take that, California. And the 15 countries where there are California Pizza Kitchens.

California Pizza Kitchen, or “CPK,” as people with short attention spans refer to it, is reliably good, and the outpost at The Park ups the ante with dishes not available at other locations. We don’t exactly know which dishes, as that would involve “taking notes” or “exerting minimal effort,” which is clearly not happening anytime soon. Here’s more.

CPK Las Vegas
Yes, CPK has a bar. Perfect for when you’re flying solo. You should probably have that growth looked at, by the way.

The final stop on our virtual tour is Sake Rok.

The interior of Sake Rok is the most visually stunning of all the restaurants in The Park.

Sake Rok
Sake Rok has its own private sake label. A fact you’re 95% likely to forget immediately after your first shot of sake.

The menu has, perhaps not surprisingly, a Japanese thrust. There’s also sake at Sake Rok. This isn’t rocket science.

Sake Rok
Sake Rok is so beautiful, we’re going to let the whole “social dining” concept slide.

We’re looking forward to our next visit to Sake Rok despite this phrase in The Park’s news release, “By night, Sake Rok transforms into a high-profile social dining extravaganza, immersing guests in an experience part culinary, part performance and completely unexpected.”

Other than that, and threats of “lip-sync serenades,” we’re completely up for another outing to Sake Rok.

Sake Rok Godzilla
We’re pretty sure Sake Rok can’t say this is Godzilla, so we’ll just go with “a fire-breathing reptile of indeterminate origin that looks a metric hell-ton like Godzilla.”

One of the best aspects of Sake Rok is an upstairs patio area, overlooking The Park and the new Park Theater at Monte Carlo.

Sake Rok
The view from Sake Rok’s patio is already a stunner, and the theater isn’t even done yet.

Pretty much all of the new restaurants at The Park have an outdoor patio, space which is lovely for the three months of the year in Las Vegas with temperate weather.

One of the most appealing parts of The Park is what it doesn’t have, specifically, shopping.

Early plans for The Park promenade had a significant retail component, but that was before MGM Resorts decided it would expand the Monte Carlo theater in preparation for a rebrand of the hotel.

The Park
Your view as you exit the New York-New York parking lot via some sweet new escalators.

That change of course meant the retail aspect of The Park was given the boot, making the area nearly retail-free, a refreshing change from recent trends in Las Vegas.

In case you’re still having trouble picturing what’s where at The Park, we did a walk-through of the entire promenade. Take a look if you find yourself with far, far too much free time.




A distinctive element of The Park is the towering Bliss Dance statue seen at the end of that video. The 40-foot-tall sculpture was created by Marco Cochrane and is lit by about 3,000 colored LED lights.

Bliss Dance
The newest must-have selfie on the Las Vegas Strip, Bliss Dance.

Bliss Dance is intended to convey female empowerment and strength. To most casual observers, however, the sculpture conveys booty.

Bliss Dance
She’s even beautiful in the daylight.

Also dotting The Park are massive, trumpet-shaped shade structures.

The 16 structures range in height from 55 feet to 75 feet tall, and are illuminated once the sun sets.

The Park shade structures
The Park’s shade structures were made by a ship building company and took 32,000 man hours to construct. Sorry, “person hours.” Oh, who are we kidding? They were mostly dudes.

Overall, The Park has something for everyone, and serves as a convenient place to meet friends, dine and drink. Especially that drinking thing.

The prices throughout The Park are what you’d expect on The Strip. Elevated, but not outrageous.

The Park
Jokes aside, the attention to detail at The Park is remarkable. Approximately a bajillion small tiles line the promenade, and all were laid by hand.

For the most part, restaurants open mid-morning and close around midnight weekdays and at 2:00 a.m. or so on weekends. The hours are different at each venue, though, so check the official Web site for details.

And make sure to check out the schedule of entertainment and special events at The Park.

While The Park restaurant district isn’t a park, per se, it’s well worth a visit and offers up a fun, diverse new addition to the Las Vegas Strip.

We took a bunch of photos of The Park, so pace yourself. Let us know what you think of The Park.

The Park Las Vegas