Red’s Old 395 Grill

CITY GUIDES | NEVADA

The 12 Best Restaurants in Carson City: Great Spots to Eat Between Hearings

By Mei Chen | Dec. 23, 2025

AUTHOR BIO: Mei Chen has worked for nearly a dozen start-ups in as many years, taking her to several West Coast cities. While she’s sure her current day job is permanent, she also has her eye on Carmel.

I go to Carson City for the legislature, which means I’ve learned the rhythms: the early meetings, the late votes, the hallway conversations that last longer than they should, and the particular fatigue that comes from listening carefully while trying not to look like you are doing math in your head.

For a long time, I treated dinner here like an afterthought, because it is easy to file Carson City under “sleepy small town in the desert” and move on. Then I started eating like I had more than one night to get it right, and the place began to show its hand: Basque staples that feel important beyond dinner, chefs that try harder than they need to, and enough personality in the dining rooms to make me forget I came here to watch adults argue over commas.

These are the Carson City restaurants I look forward to the moment the day’s agenda finally ends.

Bali Express

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Bali Express finally has a home base at Fuego & Bali, which means you can stop treating Koming Suryani and Barry Williams’s cooking like a fleeting street encounter. I come here when I want big flavors, with dishes like rendang above, the kind of cooking you’d get at home if you were lucky enough to grow up in a Balinese family.

Best for: A weeknight reset of serious flavor

Cucina Lupo

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Cucina Lupo is Mark Estee’s downtown Italian restaurant, with chef Thomas Linnett running a menu that leans hard into house-made pasta and Park Ranch beef. I start with the cast iron focaccia or the pull-apart cheese bread with a frico crust, then I usually commit to something like short rib ravioli with wagyu beef, mushrooms, demi glace, and truffle mascarpone, or pappardelle bolognese with Park Ranch beef and pork. If the day didn’t go your well, order the thousand-layer potatoes as a side and accept the glorious consequences.

Best for: Modern Italian comfort with serious house-made pasta

Eve’s Eatery

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If you want to understand chef Cisco Espinoza’s whole deal, start with the oxtail soup and then order the clam chowder bread bowl anyway, because restraint is overrated. The menu pivots comfortably into house-made pastas like cacio e pepe, shrimp scampi, and agnolotti stuffed with braised short rib and finished with horseradish and short rib sauce. I like that it feels like a neighborhood place until your plate shows up and reminds you someone in the kitchen is paying attention.

Best for: Pasta night with personality

The Fox Restaurant & Brewery- Carson Carson City Nevada Best Restaurants

Fox Brewpub

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Outward appearance might say bar, but the food here is far from an afterthought. Fish tacos are crispy-battered, the hot brown sandwich is the size of a manhole cover, and the pot pie, when it's on special, is just as flaky and decadent as you'd hope. But if the goal is a shot and a beer, this is a fine spot for that too.

Best for: A long meal that starts with “one beer”

Glen Eagles

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Glen Eagles is a dinner-only spot on North Carson Street that isn’t trying to reinvent dishes you’ve had before, serving entrees where the protein reliably sits aside a starch and veg. I start in the “we do not care what year it is” section: escargot in garlic butter under melted brie, then continue on chicken in chardonnay sauce, aged steaks, prawn scampi, or whatever's on special. I finish with the “famous silk” chocolate fudge pie, because Glen Eagles clearly believes dessert serves as a closing argument.

Best for: Date-night food in a grown-up space

Kei Sushi

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I like Kei because it isn’t one of those modern omakase counters that takes itself too seriously—it’s just solid sushi in the middle of the desert. Yes, there’s a ridiculously cheap all-you-can-eat option, but I typically go a la carte to avoid overdoing it (again). I order the rooster salmon nigiri (salmon with lemon, pickled jalapeño, spicy crab, cilantro, sesame seeds, and sriracha) and then I usually add the quail egg shooter with ponzu and tobiko. If you stick with the ACE option, the menu still has enough range—nigiri, hand rolls, and long rolls—to keep you from eating the same thing eight times.

Best for: Sushi variety without guesswork

Nashville Social Club

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This place works because it commits to its own premise: live music, cocktails, and Southern-leaning food that does not feel like it came from a theme park. The fried green tomatoes show up with pimento cheese and chow-chow, and I have also had good luck going straight to comfort like shrimp and grits or chicken and waffles. If you are with a group, you can order like a committee and still land on something everyone is happy about.

Best for: Dinner that turns into a night out

Red’s Old 395 Grill

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My unofficial survey over the course of years has determined Red’s is the Carson City restaurant every single person likes. Perhaps it’s because Red’s does everything well, starting with the ribs, brisket, smoked chicken, and house-made sausage. The place also throws in whole buffalo wings and wood-fired pizzas, which sounds chaotic until you realize it is exactly what a group wants after a long day. The beer list is part of the identity here, including a deep tap lineup, so it plays well with anyone who treats “one more round” as a lifestyle.

Best for: Feeding a table of indecisive people

San Marcos Grill

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I order the table-side guacamole because it gives the meal a starting gun, and then I pick something that arrives loud and proud, like fajitas in a sizzling skillet. If I am leaning into comfort, it’s mole poblano con pollo, and if I am feeling ambitious it’s the lobster enchiladas. Yes, you can order margaritas by the glass, but they also come by the pitcher, which tells you exactly what kind of evening San Marcos is prepared to host.

Best for: A big, celebratory Mexican dinner

Sassafras Eclectic Food Joint

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They put “eclectic” in the name for a reason at Sassafras, which proudly does everything it makes in ways you just won’t see elsewhere. In a dining room that feels like an old-school roadhouse, the dishes that land on the table are not your average bar food: a garlic-stuffed Superfraggacheesalicious loaf of sourdough, black-and-blue shrimp fondue, and thick-cut bologna with “licious sauce.” The lobbyists won’t be spotted dead here, which, come to think of it, is exactly why some folks go.

Best for: When you want something different, because this definitely is

Tee Jay’s Corner Cafe

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Southeast Asian street food isn’t your typical casino restaurant, but this gem holds down space in Cactus Jack’s Casino. The menu swings between Indonesian and Thai comfort: pad thai, drunken noodles, shrimp mie goreng, Indonesian fried chicken. It also does the small, snackable stuff like lumpia and sate cups when you want to graze.

Best for: Casino-adjacent food that’s truly original

Villa Basque Cafe

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Villa Basque feels like a Nevada institution because it is one. The menu headliner here is “Pete’s World Famous Chorizo,” but things take lots of detours from Basque cooking, like paella, burritos, and tacos. But respect a place that will sell you a Sheepher Cheese Burger, with one beef patty and one chorizo patty. When I want something that tastes like regional history instead of trend-chasing, this is where I go.

Best for: A taste of Basque Nevada in one meal