Downtown’s El Cortez has a new restaurant, an offshoot of its recent casino expansion: Hot Noods. Hot Noods opened on Feb. 22, 2025, in conjunction with a media event officially christening the casino’s $20 million casino expansion.
Despite our best efforts, we attended the media event. (Our aversion is based upon the fact there are often media at media events.) The upside was we got to snap pics of the food and try some samples.
Our conclusion: Downtown’s other best Asian restaurants, Le Thai and 8 East at Circa, had better up their game because this is some seriously fabulous fare featuring flavorful favorites. We’re going to need a minute as we’re pretty sure we just sprained our inner alliteration muscle.
Beyond the sly, cocksure name, Hot Noods boasts some legit culinary talent in the form of Michelin Guide-recognized Chef Po Fai Lam. The chef has been doing this for 50 years in places like Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Manila, Montreal and other places Americans can’t locate on a map.
Hot Noods comes from the folks behind Summerlin’s well-regarded Chinglish Wine Bar and Kosher Chinglish. Those restaurants closed June 9, 2024.
Here’s the news release overview of Hot Noods: “Hot Noods Noodle Bar blends its fast-casual menu with a lively atmosphere, offering sake bombs and outstanding hospitality, to create a truly memorable dining experience. Led by Michelin Guide-recognized Chef Po Fai Lam, Hot Noods is committed to delivering Asian comfort food in a fun environment, making it a must-visit spot on Fremont Street for both locals and tourists.”
It’s unclear how they knew the restaurant would have a lively atmosphere before it even opened, but news releases gonna news release. That said, the restaurant is basically located on the casino floor, so it’s a reasonable assumption it will be lively.
We should probably just get to the menu so you can judge it for yourself.
You can find out more on the official Hot Noods Web site. You’ll notice that when a restaurant has good prices, they aren’t afraid to post those prices online. Beware the ones that don’t.
As mentioned, Hot Noods is sort of inseparable from the new casino expansion at El Cortez. The expansion is glorious.
Here’s a look inside the El Cortez casino expansion.
If you’re having a minor freak-out, don’t worry. The expansion is half the casino, while the existing half is still just as old-school and gritty as you’d like El Cortez to be.
The expansion is just sort of a bridge between the olds, the grinders, and our fellow youths, the Fremont East bar-hoppers.
The El Cortez expansion is getting lots of positive chatter.
The folks @ElCortezLV did something brilliant to market their new casino expansion—they made it awesome and worth talking about. We’ve heard multiple conversations tonight between guests and staff at other casinos on Fremont praising it. You can’t buy that kind of buzz.
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) February 23, 2025
The casino expansion provides an alternative to the dark, smoky parts of El Cortez where people still love the grime and grit of playing coin machines.
Hot Noods gives players a quick way to grab satisfying food for half the price of a similar restaurant on The Strip.
As we didn’t have any full-blown entrees, we can only judge from bites of 6-8 dishes being passed around the media event, but everything we tried was exceptional and bodes well for Hot Noods as we are a noted foodie as long as we don’t have to eat anything more exotic than dumplings.
If you’ve never been to El Cortez, you’re missing out on a true throwback casino with charm and colorful characters galore. If you haven’t been to El Cortez recently, now is the time to visit again.
New food, new faces, new games, new ventilation, new vibe (without sacrificing the previous one).
One tip: If you’re looking for the best video poker pay tables, get a cocktail at one of the two new bars (Roulette Bar and Show Bar) and find a machine on the casino floor.
Oh, and another huge selling point of El Cortez: It’s 21-plus only, like Circa. As all hotel-casinos in Las Vegas should be.