Zest – Bistro & Bar

Rolled New York was amazing Donna and staff was on top of there game. Places décor is funk/​modern/​eclectic trying to define itself. But the bar is neighborhood pour friendly, food is fantastic and look forward to trying out their Lasagna Wednesday’s. Wife and I licked the plate from the rolled New York dogwood you want to come back next day! Gnocchi was smooth and delicious!

Loved the food and the people. My husband and I enjoyed the lasagne and Alfredo. They were both amazing.

We already love dinner here. We decided to try their brunch buffet and it was simply amazing. We had the Signature and was able to try almost everything on it. Homemade biscuits with sausage, burger with bacon, eggs and gravy!!! The Apple waffle, the strawberry shortcake French toast, the Sriracha wings, (nice and crispy) oh my goodness! The kids loved their menu as well. Pineapple mimosa was my favorite! If you haven’t been, you have to try it. Ask for James. He’ll take great care of you!

Formerly known as Off the Strip, this place has a new name, but the same great food. If you’re feeling adventurous, ask for the «Around the World», and then sit back, relax, and let the wait staff bring you 7 or 8 tasting size portions of various menu items the house has selected for you. It’s an amazing dining experience you won’t forget. If you aren’t adventurous enough to give up control, then some of the can’t miss menu items are the Thai chili prawns, the French pork chops, and the beef Wellington.

Great place! Amazing food! James is phenomenal. Saturday/​Sunday Brunch is awesome. I recommend… EVERYTHING!!! Save the Hamburger with cheese fries for the grand finale. Absolutely incredible. Super mean bloody Marie’s!!!

They must have changed the name b/​c it’s definatly not «strip quality» food for «off the strip» prices, way over priced for very mediocre food. Went once before & thought to give another try… Same result! Second time/​last time to eat there.

We came here for brunch. It was amazing! The hollandaise sauce on the Benedict is to die for! James was our waiter and he was so professional, friendly and helpful. They have all you can eat for brunch or you can just order an item al la carte. The ambience is fun and trendy. The quality of food was superb. Our bill wasn’t much more than rise n shine but the service, food and experience were sooooo much better! We will definitely be back!

Been going here since it was called Off Strip. Great local stop w/​great food. It’s casual, approachable, family friendly.
Just visited here recently after the name change. Food and service still the same. The shrimp scampi is delicious and the cheesecake is a must.
Love having a place like this nearby w/​out The Strip prices. I highly recommend giving this place a shot.

Their food here is amazing. A cute date night spot in Southern Highlands, but don’t leave without getting the cheesecake!

Zest has to be far our favorite place to dine. Donna and crew are simply amazing. The food is always spot on. Tonight was a tough night it was our anniversary. So we ended up having everything! Kidding aside. The rolled New York and slow roasted ribs were delicous. The French style porkchop and the chicken Alfredo were amazing as always. You can’t go wrong!

For outstanding food at reasonable prices, Zest can’t be beat. We’ve been here at least a dozen times and we’ve always walked out smiling and happy we came.
The spaghetti with meatball and sausage (humorously known by those in the know as the «Lance Armstrong») pasta with marinara sauce is simply the best pasta dish I’ve had. My girlfriend prefers the garbage salad which she said is spectacular. I also highly recommend Zest’s Linguine with white clams. It’s freakin’ yummy! Finally, don’t miss the side of spinach. It’s never overcooked and is skillfully seasoned with garlic and olive oil.
Donna, the bartender/​waitress, keeps her cool no matter how buried she is and she consistently takes the time to make us feel at home and welcome. Jesse is great too. The thing about Zest, is that it has a locals feel (think your favorite pub) with stellar food. That’s a powerful combination! My only complaint is the bread. It’s consistently hard and somewhat tasteless. However, overall this is one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, restaurants in Las Vegas. 5 stars are well deserved. We’ll keep going back for great dinners. Nicely done Billy, nicely done!

Finally had a chance to check out Zest’s Sunday brunch since the name changed from ‘Off The Strip’.
We opted not to do the All You Can Eat brunch and instead ordered al la carte. We were a bit disappointed at portion sizes (½ waffle with turkey meat in it… $ 10). We were told the al la carte servings are basically one ’round’ of the all you can eat option. Everything tasted great, just didn’t think it was a good value.

Not bad, it’s more like a 3.5 rating I rounded up because I definitely will be back.
The menu is a mixture of Italian and American dishes… I feel like it’s more so Italian than American. I ordered the Chicken Parmesan sandwich, comes with steak fries and my boyfriend ordered the Chicken Milanese. I know it doesn’t matter to some, but I love my food to be pippin hot. And pippin hot was what Zest delivered. To my surprise, my sandwich was on the smaller size. I finished the entire thing in one sitting. Normally I would have leftovers but nope… not here. It was just right for a dinner portion though. Boyfriend actually loved his dish more than I liked mine. I wasn’t in the pasta mood that night, but next time, I want to give some of them a try. They looked (from Unilocal pics) and sound really good!!!
Service was attentive. Atmosphere was a nice locals-​feel restaurant. Just be aware of the one person bathroom. Don’t wait until you really have to go or else you risk running to the bathroom only to find out someone is in there. I don’t know why restaurants do that. It should be against code laws to only have 1 bathroom per gender. Even most Mc Donald’s have multiple stall restrooms.

Remember the show «Cheers»? Where everybody knows your name!!! That’s Zest! But zest is classy with fantastic food, incredible staff, an owner who is passionate about his business and makes everyone feel like they are his «favorite customer».
Can’t say enough about the dinner menu: shortrib ravioli, rib eye steak (traditional for me), chicken parm and the cheesecake is top notch!!!
They just opened this weekend for brunch and it was AMAZING!!! Finally, a great brunch place in #southernhighlands which conveniently reopens at 4 for a great evening ;-)
I highly recommend Zest Bistro and Bar!!!
Shout out to Donna, Jesse, Johnny and everyone else who makes this place a great place to eat drink and be merry ;-)

Wow the eggplant parmigiana is fantastic here! First time back in a long time, it was quiet but the food was good! We will be back!

Haven’t updated in a while… And I have a few issues with the mean reviews I’ve recently read here. Because they couldn’t be further from the truth. Let me explain… no busy restaurant is ever perfect. But many of these ‘complaints’ I feel are shady and here’s why…
A. If these people were so so sooooo unhappy with their order… WHY didn’t they just tell their server and order something else? Boom! Easy fix.
B. If people felt like they were being ignored. WHY didn’t they just say, «YO! Rememeber me. Get me a seat!» –I know people ‘feel’ they shouldn’t have to do this. But give me a break and get thicker skin. This is a BUSY BAR/​RESTAURANT!!!
If I everrrrr feel like a place forgot to seat me, I remind them very quickly. Then I get seated and definitely don’t hold some weird grudge to later trash them on Unilocal. (I have these exact examples in my reviews to prove this.)
C. Don’t trash a restaurants’ reviews based on their prices. You see the prices before ordering. It’s not fair in my opinion. A restaurant’s set prices, that you see before ordering. Aren’t a reason to trash them on Unilocal.
Anyways. I felt it necessary to say all this because, this restaurant has consistently been great. At all times… And if I ever ordered something I didn’t like, it was a quick fix. The staff has always been so very nice… Have I ever had to wait longer than usual on a very busy night? Who hasn’t. But it’s impossible to please every single patron at all times… I just enjoy the atmosphere and good conversation with whoever is next to me, Until the very attentive staff has time to get back to me.
This is a small restaurant. Nothing corporate about it, and I love that, so should every reviewer. They shouldn’t knock the place for what makes it so unique and awesome. Great ambiance, unique dining experience and A+ food.
Apparently if you’re too shy to shout your drink order to a bartender in a busy restaurant like this, it’s fair game to trash the place??! Let us all rememeber what Unilocal is for… To give FAIR and honest reviews. Not to leave one out of 3 lifetime reviews, that were all negative, hoping to get something for free.

Meh, I can make better food at home.
All in all, I don’t really think I’ll be going to back to Off the Strip. I ate here about six years ago and decided to give it another try. The service is good and the server is friendly. She is knowledgeable about the menu, but I would say her description about the taste is way off. We ordered the crab cakes to start. They were a huge miss and I got some shell in mine. As for the entrees, I ordered a wedge salad and the kabobs. My father ordered some type of mess of a chicken dish. Anyway, the wedge salad was sad. I could tell they had all the right ingredients, but it felt amateurish. Also, the kabob was a bit bland. As I started with, the food is okay, but I know I can make it better at home. This place really isn’t worth going to. I would rather go to the Italian place right next to it.

The restaurant next door had a wait, so decided to go here instead. It was great! The name didn’t stand out to me. Luckily my friend was with me and suggested it. There were no tables available so we sat at the bar. Every time the door opened we could feel a cold chill which was consistent throughout dinner.
I couldn’t decide on wine so I was offered a taste of the two German rieslings. The castle was too sweet, so I went what I know… Dr Loosen. Love that one. He did forget the lemons for our water.
Bread is served skinny loaf with a couple of partial slices through and toasted to a crunch. Butter packets on the side.
The entrees came with salad, I requested and alternative as I don’t eat salad. They offered me a chicken vegetable soup. It wasn’t terrible. I did question of it came out of a can. It was very salty but would have been good otherwise. It did have carrots, potatoes, zucchini, and kale.
Ordered the special, Sea Bass with sweet chili sauce. It arrived in the other lemon caper sauce. He was eager to fix the issue and brought another fish in the sauce we ordered. The sweet chili had a kick and a sticky texture because of the sauce. Was over powering in my taste and took away from the sea bass. Friend loved it. I preferred the lighter flavored and flaky texture of the lemon caper.
The chicken fettuccine alfredo was great. Creamy sauce good all around.
Almost forgot my precious to go box and the bartender reminded me. Server was friendly and attentive. Wanted to try the beef Wellington but seemed pricey. Just a bit more than I prefer to spend here over other restaurant options.

The ambiance, staff and food are ALWAYS perfection! Jessie was our server this evening and he is AMAZING! Thank you. Y’all never disappoint!

We dined here for NYE. For NYE there was a special menu so I’ll definitely have to come back in the future and try some items from the regular menu as well.
The location is interesting and probably not a location would be easy to stumble upon if you live somewhere other than Southern Highlands. My coworkers highly recommended this spot which is how I learned of this restaurant. Being in a shopping center does mean that there was ample parking and it was a quick walk from the car.
I wasn’t sure what the ambiance would be when looking at the menu versus knowing that it was in a strip shopping center. The menu lends itself to a fancier setting, but inside the restaurant is casual. To me it felt similar to the feel of a casual pizza spot. The good news is that you don’t have to get dressed up for good food here.
We started with Crab Cakes and Short Rib Ravioli. The Crab Cakes were full of crab and well seasoned. The sauce on the crab cakes paired well with the crab flavor. Our waitress told us that these are made in house. The Short Rib Ravioli is made outside of the restaurant, but was delicious as well. The gravy like sauce on top paired well with short rib and the ravioli was a nice texture. We were also brought bread which was unremarkable and I’m not sure why they even bother serving it. It just didn’t seem to be in line with the quality of the food here.
For the salad course we had a Greek Salad and a Wedge Salad. The Wedge Salad was good, but pretty standard. The Greek salad was a jazzed up version of the standard Greek Salad with plenty of feta and balsamic vinegar dressing.
For entrees we went with the Seafood Linguine Fra-​Diablo and Prime Rib. For sides we opted for the Truffle Mac & Cheese and the Potato Au Gratin. The entrees and sides were all very generous portions. My husband enjoyed his seafood dish and the sauce on top. My prime rib was moist and had a nice herb flavor on the outside. The rarer parts had the best flavor. The Potato Au Gratin flavor was okay, but it was a bit dry and not the highlight. The Truffle Mac & Cheese was amazing. The truffle flavor was the perfect amount and I could eat this as an entrée. Loved this side!
Dessert was NY Cheesecake and Tiramisu. The NY Cheesecake is prepared in house and was very good. NY Cheesecake has a lovely, rich flavor. The chocolate on the side was delicious and could be enjoyed alone. The Tiramisu was probably the best I’ve ever had. It had more of an alcohol flavor than other tiramisus I’ve had, but it was done in a way that really enhanced the sweet instead of overpowering it.
The service was very good. My husband commented that he thought the service was up there with some of the best service we’ve had in town. Our waitress was friendly, attentive, and gave us a lot of good information about the food. They were also efficient at clearing dirty dishes and refilling drinks.
They also offer take-​out which is nice. We’ll definitely be back to try some of the usual menu items or at least to grab some take-​out for a night at home.

So, I have eaten here before and previously given positive reviews, however tonight was a different story. I will say that the server was courteous and nice, but food and pricing was a different story. First off, the wedge salad was actually made with a half head of cabbage, to remake it took approximately 12 minutes. Second we ordered 2 «Mother of all burgers» which apparently for $ 12 don’t include any toppings. When ordered the server stated, «want those loaded?» To which we answered, «yes.» Which actually turned out to mean that they add on $ 8 in toppings turning it into a $ 20 burger. Not worth your time, drive north 3 minutes to Distill.
So, I’ve received two responses to this review which I will post below. Just to clarify the prices may be stated on the menu and I’m not disputing that. However, when you order something and the server says, «Loaded? Do you want everything on that?» I think most reasonable people assume they’re not going to get a 60% up charge. And as for quality, it was ok, not great, not bad by any means. Anyhow, I’ll let you all judge based on employee responses.

My wife and I tried this restaurant for her Birthday. Quaint place but loud. The food was the best we had in Las Vegas. The beef Wellington was excellent and the linguini and clams was unbelievable. The service was excellent! And one added bonus was the music.

Used to love this place. Chicken parm to die for. Now — not so much. Mushy breading. Ick! First serving of bread could’ve been croutons. Second serving? Ice cold. Who’s checking service here? 3^rd serving — warm and soggy. Geez!
I think it’s time to find somewhere new. Sad. Truly sad.

Love this place! The food is amazing the service is as well! Everything about the place is GREAT! I would recommend to anyone & everyone to go & eat there!
I laugh at some of the bad reviews I have read because I can’t believe anyone gets bad service or bad food from that place everyone is so kind, laid back & professional! & if maybe the day they went they did have a bad experience I would definitely say give it another chance! No one is 100% perfect & I know for a fact if they gave it another go round they would change their mind! Alls I can say is every time I have been there nothing but wonderful! All day Off The Strip AT THE LEAST 5 STARS!

Good and tasty but service was TERRIBLE
Tuesday night I had my best friend visiting from Chicago and I wanted to take her out to a cozy dinner and wine. Off the strip is near my house and I’ve heard amazing things about this place.
The waiter took a while to get to our table and say hi, he took our drink order and turned around while we were still trying to order an appetizer.
We had calamari (tasty)
He never brought us the complementary bread until I asked for it since I noticed all the other tables had bread.
He never checked back on us until I waved him down (witch I hate to do)
We both ordered all you can eat pasta (great deal)
The food was amazing and the location is perfect for me but the service makes me not want to go back again :(

The food is way too salty. We didn’t even touch the meatloaf after the first bite. The service is welcoming but slow. If it is not one of the very few selections at this local area, I wouldn’t come and I won’t come back as well.

Whenever people come into town, I always bring them here. It’s just delicious. I have been here so many times and order different stuff every time and it’s always delicious.
The one exception is my girlfriend ordered something off of the «light» menu and that was pretty gross. Don’t order off the light menu. Order full fat meals and you’ll be delighted!
If they have Beef Stroganoff that day– order it! And you MUST order the cheesecake. It’s a game changer.

I like this place a lot, in particular because of one special dish, Chef Al’s rigatoni. It’s tangy and flavorful, and it’s seasoned just right, so yummy that I can probably eat this every week.
The bacon wrapped shrimp is also very good.

I’m only giving this place 3 stars because they gave me a free beer while I waited 45 minutes for my food.
It was my first time there and I only went because I live close to it. The service was eh and the food was NOT the business… The meatball was super salty and the sauce was on the oily side.
I wasn’t even there long. Not even long enough to finish my beer.

We went here because of all of the good reviews and it was close to home — which is always a plus. We started with a pesto garlic bread appetizer, which was very tasty. It was a little on the soggy side, but the flavors were good, so I won’t hold that against it.
For entrees, I had the lobster ravioli and my husband had the Burger (M.O.A.B.). The ravioli was bland. The dish also came with mushrooms and asparagus which were diced up very tiny and were sparsely sprinkled throughout the dish. Maybe there were more but whatever was on the dish had been drowned in the Ragu sauce that filled the dish. The sauce was OK, but it tasted like something that came out of a jar and that kind of put me off about any flavor it had.
My husband had the Mother Of All Burgers with a side of truffle fries. The burger was overcooked (he asked for it Medium and it was definitely Well Done with no trace of pink left in the meat). That’s not usually something we’d write a bad review about, but the fact that it was served on a baguette was unforgivable. It made it very difficult to eat. The bottom of one of the baguettes was split completely in half and had to be held onto until the entire half was eaten lest it all fall apart. It also made the burger awkward to even bite due to it’s enormous composure (maybe it the guts of the bread had been carved to some extent, this may have helped that situation).
The truffle fries he ordered were out of this world. They were dusted with a little parmesan cheese and were absolutely delicious. The Caesar salad that came with my meal was also very good.
I almost want to give this place 3 stars because our waitress was phenomenal. I wish I could remember her name, but she was really top of the line. The runner/​busboy also did a good job at keeping the drinks full and dishes cleared. Service is always a big deal to us, but I don’t think it’ll be enough to prompt us to go back to this place.
EDIT: My husband saw my review and was upset that I forgot to add his biggest ripoff factor and why he will not bother giving the place a 2^nd chance; THEY CHARGE $ 4 FOR A FOUNTAIN SODA!!!

Great spot, excellent food, fantastic service, we hit up this spot on a weekday for dinner. Full bar, you could dress up or casual dress, kids are welcome menu to please everyone (mostly Italian) good portions. Can’t say anything bad about this place, we’ll be a returning customers! Stephanie was our server, she was more than good!

Visiting with my brother. Was introduced to this place by my cousin who is a local in Vegas. I must say that the food is sooooooooo good!
It was my first time here and I ordered the fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp recommended by my cousin. He said it was the best he has ever had so I had to try it for myself. All I can say about the pasta: Amazing!!!
It was not like any other fettuccine Alfredo pasta I’ve ever had. It was sooooooo good! And so filling! The sauce is truly homemade!
I will definitely come back for some more!!! If you’re looking for a good Italian spot to eat, this place is definitely a must try! It’s super totes ummmmmazing! You won’t regret it for sure!!!

The food is good but bartender is a rude person, sitting at the bar every time she tosses a bottle in the trash everyon jumps. Asked her to please set the bottles in the trash and she gave a mad look and said sure as she smashed another Bottle. I walked out after that. Mean old woman

We have lived five minutes from this restaurant for five years and never ate here. I wish we had sooner now.
Great food and atmosphere and reasonably priced. We shared a Caesar salad, pesto garlic bread, chicken Parmesan sandwich and rigatoni vodka.
All were outstanding and generous portions. By far, the rigatoni was our favorite. Great vodka sauce! Sandwich was good, but I would just get chicken parm as a dish next time.
Service was top notch and we didn’t wait at all. On top of all that, it felt great to support a local, family owned business!

A true gem in the area, it’s worth visiting for their Beef Wellington alone. Now they have a strip location which sounds a bit odd… :)

Nice and cozy location on the south west side of the town. We came here about an hour before they were closing the restaurant. We ordered clam chowder soup for starters. The soup was ok, it seemed like they had to dump the left over soup with dried up crust in a bowl for us. It wasn’t bad, but you can tell that it was made 6 hours ago.
Our main entrée included pesto crème salmon with penne (mine) and my gf got halibut with rice and vegetables. They gave her salmon instead of halibut and didn’t even realize it until we brought it up to the waitress attention. She was very nice about it and offered to change it for halibut, but my gf was ok with what she got. My pasta was very good and as I got the fish that I had ordered.
We ordered their NY cheesecake, which I can say is the best cheesecake I’ve ever eaten. It was not too sugary and very light for a cheesecake. When the bill came the waitress didn’t charge us for the cheese cake. The dessert was on the house since they messed up my gf’s order.
The service is excellent and I’ll definately be back to try out their beef wellington.