Las Vegas has never had a shortage of steakhouses. And you can’t throw a roulette chip in most casinos without hitting a celebrity chef restaurant. After decades of familiar formulas and imported concepts, it’s becoming difficult for a Strip restaurant to feel genuinely new.
And yet, at Sahara Las Vegas, Chef Kwame Onwuachi has created just that with his new Caribbean steakhouse, Maroon. He did it, he recently told the Food and Loathing podcast, by “giving Las Vegas what it needs, not what it wants.”
Onwuachi has long pushed the boundaries of American fine dining by celebrating the culinary traditions of Africa, the Caribbean and the American South at New York’s Tatiana and Dōgon in Washington D.C. When he looked at the Las Vegas Strip, however, he decided to give it something original.
At Maroon, he tells the story of the escaped slaves known as Maroons, who settled in Jamaica’s mountains. By reimagining the classic Las Vegas steakhouse through the lens of their cooking techniques, flavors and traditions, he’s created something truly unique.
“I’m sure [the city] wants a Tatiana Las Vegas,” says Onwuachi, sitting in Maroon’s hidden speakeasy. “I’m sure it would do very well. But [Las Vegas] needed something like this.”
Familiar, But Unfamiliar
Maroon occupies the space that was once home to Bazaar Meat, though longtime Vegas diners may barely recognize it. The room still hints at its predecessor’s dramatic bones, but Maroon feels younger, moodier and more intimate. Guests enter through a tunnel-like hallway that wraps around the main bar before opening into a dining room filled with hanging meats, live-fire cooking and an energy that feels closer to a downtown lounge than a traditional steakhouse.
The menu works the same way. On paper, many dishes resemble steakhouse standards: pasta, raw seafood, steak sauces, grilled meats. But the flavors constantly pivot into Caribbean territory.
A curry goat agnolotti arrives looking almost Italian until the jerk spices and green seasoning hit. Cocoa bread replaces the standard bread service. Steakhouse sauces become tamarind-mint, jerk-barbecue, and Scotch bonnet-based condiments. A toro bujol layers tuna belly, hamachi and braised octopus over a Trinidad-inspired seafood preparation traditionally eaten with crackers.
Onwuachi described the goal as creating dishes that feel “familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time.”
That balancing act is what makes Maroon work. Nothing about the restaurant feels watered down for mainstream Vegas audiences. But it never feels academic or inaccessible.
Celebrating cultures
The menu also reflects the chef’s Nigerian, Trinidadian and Louisiana roots while acknowledging the broader cultural blending that shaped Caribbean cuisine itself. Onwuachi also spoke about Chinese, Indian, African, British and Spanish influences, all of which helped shape the islands’ food traditions.
“There [are] rice dishes in every nation,” he points out. “There’s a braised meat dish in every nation.”
That accessibility matters because Maroon arrives at a moment when Las Vegas diners appear increasingly willing to embrace cuisines that once might have been considered too regional or unfamiliar for large-scale success on the Strip. Maroon pushes that evolution further.
The restaurant also carries historic significance as the first Las Vegas Strip restaurant to bear the name of a Black chef. But Onwuachi seemed less interested in discussing milestones than in what the restaurant might mean for diners recognizing their own traditions elevated in a luxury setting.
“They’re able to eat oxtails and propose, and that’s not common,” he said.
“I don’t think other cultures even think of that.”
Of course, none of this would matter if the food weren’t exciting. But it is.
The smoked jerk chicken may be among the best versions of the dish currently available in Las Vegas, with seasoning and smoke penetrating deep into the meat. The truffle mac pie combines Caribbean macaroni pie traditions with black truffle decadence. Even dishes that initially seem familiar often trigger a kind of mental reset once the flavors arrive.
That may be exactly what Onwuachi intended.
Las Vegas already knows how to build another steakhouse. Maroon feels like an argument that the city is finally ready for something more original.
Hear my entire interview with Chef Kwame on the May 22 episode of the Food and Loathing Podcast.
