Las Vegas sparkles with cheap restaurants – you'll find steaks, burritos, pizza, even a three-course lunch, says As featured in our Las Vegas city guide No tour of Old Vegas's ethnic eateries would be complete without a stop at its oldest restaurant. It opened in 1950, and has had José Aragon at the stoves since 1955. He will tell you his cuisine is New Mexican, not Mexican, and his chile verde and chile colorado, with their deep, fiery flavours, are as reminiscent of Albuquerque as anything you will find in this neck of the woods. Aragon's salsas, burritos, enchiladas and huevos con machaca are made from scratch – not from a can – at prices ($10-$13) that seem to have been frozen in the "We Like Ike" era. If you're looking for spicy authenticity, this is as cheap as it comes. • 807 South Main Street, +1 702 382 9234, no website, mains from $10. Open Mon-Thurs 11am-4pm, Fri-Sat 11am-8:30pm Bar + Bistro, Las Vegas. Chef Beni Velázquez has turned this moribund space into a place foodies flock to.

His cheesy mac 'n' cheese, definitive Cuban sandwich and do-it-yourself fish tacos have enlivened the downtown eating scene. Tapas and small plates are the watchwords here and Velázquez's signature dishes such as shrimp or crab mofongo, carnitas tacos and sweet potato cabrales (cheese) fries have become legendary. , main meals from $26, average tapas price $9. Open Mon-Fri 11am-3pm and Mon-Sat 5pm-10pm, Hangover Brunch Sat and Sun 11am-3pm; bar hours Mon-Sat 4pm-11pm The Steakhouse at Circus Circus A steakhouse in the cheap eats section? Yes, if you're in the mood for a slice of prime steer and a sip of old Vegas at (relatively) bargain prices. First, you have to brave the smelly environs of Circus Circus, but if you do, you'll find the best bargain in dry-aged beef in town. The steaks here average a good $10-$15 less than similar cuts in the more high-falutin' hotels, but they've got nothing on the $42 porterhouse steak in a meat locker you walk past to get to your table. /steakhouse, main courses from $28.

Open Mon-Fri and Sun 5pm-10pm, Sat 5pm-11pm Japanese noodle house Monta, with its 10-item menu and 26 seats, proves that less is more in succulent form. The proof is in the pork. The chashu (roasted pork) melts in your mouth, right after you pluck it from bobbing in the tonkotsu (pork bone) broth that simmers for hours to extract every bit of goodness. The lighter shoyu (soya) ramen also come topped with roasted pork, along with shredded green onions, bamboo shoots (takenoko) and wood-ear mushrooms (kikurage). best of the press wine festival, basic ramen from $6.95. shop red wine online indiaOpen daily from 11.30am-11pmst james wine review yelp on Flickr /best way to package wine for shipping

No noodle trek through Chinatown is complete without an obligatory stop at China Mama for soup dumplings. There are dozens of excellent savoury items on the long and confusing menu, but every one starts with the soup dumplings (item P23). Called "Steamed Juicy Pork Buns" by the management, they are a staple of Shanghai noodle parlours and have a rich broth contained within the pork-filled dumplings. Man does not live by dumplings alone, however, so be sure to order the crispy beef (sweet, hot and crunchy – H28 on the menu), and the spicy lamb with cumin (H39). best wines to have with pizza• 3420 South Jones Boulevard, +1 702 873 1977, no website, average main meal $10. best bottle of wine as a gift Greenland Supermarket Food Court Fronteras Desk on Flickr/ This food court is in an Asian supermarket at the far end of Chinatown (about four miles west of the Strip) and will allow you to take your time and experiment with the myriad combinations of meat, noodles and vegetables that comprise the Korean diet.

You can't really go wrong with any of the food stalls, but we're partial to Chapaghetti's jjambbong (which means "mix up" at $7.99) – a spicy melange of seafood and vegetables. Also highly rated are Noodle Village's bowls of cold and hot noodles – of which the spicy noodle with vegetable ($6.99) has the biggest variety of plants, and the spicy chicken ($10.99) takes no prisoners.• 6850 West Spring Mountain Road, +1 702 459 7878, no website, main meals about $10 Payard Patisserie and Bistro Payard Patisserie and Bistro, Las Vegas. If this place was easier to find it would have a queue out the door all day long. As it is, you can stand directly in front of the patisserie portion of the operation and not be aware there's a cosy, comfortable 40-seat bistro adjacent to all those intense pastries and chocolates. As good as the breads, pastries and brunch items are, it's the seasonal prix fixe lunch that grabs the attention. Three courses cost $21, including either a vine-ripened tomato salad with buffalo mozzarella or shrimp Romesco, followed by either a nice hunk of sea bass over ratatouille or an impeccably roasted poussin.

, main meals from $11. This sole bastion of Verace Pizza Napoletana (pizza certified as authentic by Italian authorities) in Vegas has deliciously raised the pizza IQ and created a standard for excellence that makes it difficult to return to lesser pizza. True Italian wood-fired pizza is about the smoky, chewy-yet-crispy dough, and one bite of pizzaiolo Carmine D'Amato's margherita, cheese-less marinara or carbonara pizza with egg will have you swearing off franchised pizza forever.• 140 Green Valley Parkway, +1 702 222 3556, settebello.net, pizzas from $8.50. Duck served at Raku. Chef and owner Mitsuo Endo continues to create pristine Japanese robatayaki (Japanese barbecue) creations that put all others in town to shame – at prices that are far from wallet-bending – although the blizzard of plates that invariably show up on your table can ratchet up the cost if you're not careful. Every chef and foodie who comes to Vegas now makes a pilgrimage to Raku. What they find is a menu that's simplicity itself.