Vegas Dining Secrets: Best Slice of Pizza

One of the unarguable truths about Las Vegas is that its rampant tourism has seriously elevated the city's cuisine. While the days of the $3.99 surf and turf dinner are still alive and well down on Fremont Street, the Strip has turned into a veritable foodie's paradise. Celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay, Michael Mina, Gordon Ramsay and Jose Andres pepper the biggest and newest mega-resorts with their latest and greatest restaurant concepts, offering their delectible combinations of unique flavors in trendy, nightclub-esque abodes.

So why is Las Vegas, a city famous for all-you-can-eat buffets and cheap shrimp cocktail, so quickly becoming a mecca for the world's best chefs? As Encore's reknowned Korean chef Jet Tila described to Anthony Bourdain on a recent episode of "Parts Unknown," the cuisine followed the money. As he puts it, a Chinese tycoon will come to Vegas for a week of fun and gambling, throw down a million dollars in the casino, then want an amazing meal (either to celebrate or drown his sorrows). He's going to want something familiar, but he's also going to want the very, very best, because it's what he's used to. So, the best Asian restaurants in the world, such as the James Beard award-winning Lotus of Siam, started cropping up on and around the Strip to cater to the high rollers who demand the highest quality of food in the world.

The problem now is that Vegas is sort of bi-polar when it comes to food. Yes, you can find the most amazing dishes in the world if you are willing to pay for it. But you can also get burned just about anywhere you go on pricey and overhyped but otherwise average-tasting meals. This is where my series, Vegas Dining Secrets, comes in. My husband and I have tried the good, the bad, and the outstanding when it comes to food in Sin City, and, luckily, I'm nice enough to let you in on some of our secrets. We admittedly have neither culinary degrees nor the most sophisticated palates, but we know and appreciate good food.

First up in the series is my personal favorite category of food: PIZZA! Every weary tourist has at least one instance during their Vegas trip where they just want a slice of "pie" (as my New Yorker Italian husband calls it). And, depending on your luck of the draw, you can pretty much find the best and worst in the city within a stone's throw of where you are staying.

So what's the best when it comes to pizza?

As I eluded to in my last post, Pizza Rock in downtown Vegas is the very best when it comes to that authentic Napoletana-style Margherita pie baked in the stone oven, compete with San Marzano tomatoes and fresh basil. It's absolutely perfect. But, the secret to Pizza Rock is that you have to sit down and order it in the restaurant. They don't have the margherita in their by-the-slice window, and the offerings they do have at the window are nowhere near as good as the whole pies inside. For the best quick by-the-slice options, there is a little place at the Venetian's food court called Pizzeria da Enzo that is amazing. And Aria's FIVE50 also has a great selection of by-the-slice options. But, when it comes to the quick slice, the life-changing, earth-shatteringly good pizza parlor inside of the Cosmopolitan is, in actuality, Vegas' best-kept pizza secret.

There isn't a sign or a door, and it's not to be found anywhere on the resort's website. Part of the Cosmo's hipster charm is that air of secrecy. The pizza parlor, if you must know, is located down an unmarked hallway next to Jaleo on the third floor. The receipt just says "Pizza" and although I firmly believe I coined the phrase myself, others have also taken to calling it "Secret Pizza." Yelp reviews and blogs such as this one are slowly bringing this secret into the light, but it's definitely not "out there" yet.

A one-topping slice at Secret Pizza is currently $5.50, which I could swear has crept up from $3.00/slice when we first went there a few months after the Cosmo opened. Although they specialize in the perfect slice, you can also get a fresh whole pie if you have a crowd to feed (or are just ravenously hungry). Either way you go, I recommend the white pizza (pictured at left). It's impossibly chewy and crispy at the same time, with generous dollops of ricotta and just enough grease to sop up a night of too much alcohol. Another little secret to the secret pizza place is that all their pizzas aren't out on the counter, so if you don't see the slice you want, ask. They may have one under the counter. It's also open super late, possibly 24 hours, but there's really nowhere to check that, since it only exists to those who are in the know... wink, wink! Welcome to the club..... and shhhhhhh!