Nowhere does late-night dining quite like Sin City. If you’re one of the many who finally look up from the blackjack table in the wee hours of the morning — or stumble out of a nightclub bleary-eyed and hungry — you’re in luck: Las Vegas is full of restaurants that never close. While 24-hour Chinatown hotspots and endless sandwich options on and off The Strip offer plenty of round-the-clock choices, one of the most distinctive places to eat at any hour is the seafood counter tucked inside Palace Station. Located just off the Strip and beloved by locals, the Palace Station Oyster Bar is an 18-seat counter set right in the middle of the casino floor, and it almost always has a line, even at 3 a.m. Whether you’re craving raw clams, seafood pasta, or lobster chowder, this is the place to go.
“The first time I went to Vegas we landed at 10 p.m. and went straight to The Palace Station Casino and stood in line for 3 hours,” wrote a Reddit user. “I think it was one of my top three meals to date.” “We avoided the wait by arriving at 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday,” wrote a Tripadvisor reviewer. “Tuesday-Thursday are the best days to avoid a long wait.” Even so, you never know who will be craving clam chowder and raw oysters at any given time in Las Vegas — it will almost certainly be more than 18 people — so prepare to wait. But once you sidle up to the bar, surrounded by the soundtrack of slot machines and jackpot jingles, you can order oyster shooters with a beer or bubbly and watch the controlled chaos as you eat. Las Vegas truly is the most fun city in America.
Ordering at the Palace Station Oyster Bar
There’s so much happening right in front of you at the Oyster Bar counter. A half-dozen pressurized steel pots that cook most of the entrées release clouds of noisy steam as chefs and servers deftly pivot between bubbling cookware, beer taps, and the shellfish-filled ice chests lining the back bar. The Oyster Bar does indeed serve oysters on its menu, freshly shucked to order. Gulf oysters are available year-round, alongside rotating seasonal specialties, sometimes Kumamotos, sometimes Blue Points. There are clams, shrimp cocktail, New Zealand mussels, an indulgent “seafood jackpot,” and linguine with shrimp scampi or clams.
Cajun-Southern classics anchor the menu: étouffée, bouillabaisse, and gumbo, served in massive bowls teeming with ropey shreds of crab and hefty shrimp. Chowder comes Manhattan, New England, or Alaskan-style, the latter loaded with shrimp, crab, and lobster. (Try ordering it “dirty,” half New England, half Manhattan style in one bowl.) If you’re not a pescatarian but somehow find yourself at a 24-hour seafood counter, you can order gumbo with chicken or sausage…