What the Peppermill is
The Peppermill Restaurant & Fireside Lounge is a 24-hour coffee shop and cocktail lounge on the north Strip, opposite the Wynn, that opened in 1972 and has barely changed since. The restaurant side is a neon-lit diner of pink and blue lighting, mirrored ceilings, artificial cherry blossom trees and booths the size of small cars, serving enormous breakfasts, sandwiches and dinners around the clock. The lounge side, the Fireside Lounge, is a dark, sunken room built around a fire pit rising from a pool of water, with wraparound velvet sofas and a cocktail list of 1970s fantasies like the 64-ounce Scorpion. It has appeared in Casino, Showgirls and dozens of other films, and it is one of the few places on the Strip that locals, tourists and the city's hospitality workers all use without irony.
It is not fine dining and does not pretend to be. It is a Vegas institution, and one of the last of its kind.
The room
The dining room is bright and loud in the diner way, the colours turned up to eleven: neon tubing, mirrored surfaces, fake foliage, deep blue and hot pink. Booths are oversized and comfortable; window tables look out on Las Vegas Boulevard and, across it, the Wynn. The Fireside Lounge is a different mood entirely — dark, low, intimate, with the fire pit as the focal point and a soundtrack of soft rock. It is a genuinely romantic place for a late drink, and also one of the best spots in the city to nurse a hangover with a Bloody Mary at 4am. The two rooms connect, and you can order the full menu in the lounge.
The building sits between the Wynn and the Sahara on the north Strip, a walkable but warm 15 minutes from the Fashion Show Mall.
What to order
Breakfast, at any hour: the fruit salad, which arrives as a mountain of melon and berries in a bowl the size of a hat, is the dish people photograph; the omelettes, the country-fried steak and the pancakes are what they eat. Lunch and dinner: the Peppermill burger, the French dip, the prime rib after 4pm, and a Cobb salad that feeds two. Portions are absurd by design — one plate between two is a legitimate order. In the lounge, the Scorpion (a 64-ounce rum and brandy bowl with straws, for sharing), a Fireside Lounge Mai Tai or a straightforward Bloody Mary; the nachos are the correct bar snack.
Coffee is bottomless and there is a full bar at every hour that the law allows.
Price range
As of 2026 and subject to change, breakfast plates run $15–25, sandwiches and burgers $16–24, dinner mains $25–45, the fruit salad around $20, and cocktails $14–20 with the Scorpion $40-plus. Two people eating breakfast with coffee will pay $40–60 before tip; a couple in the lounge with two cocktails each, $60–90. It is not cheap-cheap — Strip rents apply — but it is a fraction of any casino café's dinner prices and far better value than the resort coffee shops. Check the Peppermill's site for the current menu.
Reservations, waits and dress code
The Peppermill does not take reservations. Waits are the practical issue: weekend brunch (9am–1pm) routinely runs 30–60 minutes, and the lounge on Friday and Saturday nights fills from 10pm. Weekday afternoons, the hours after midnight and the early morning are walk-straight-in times. There is a small free parking lot beside the building and a larger one behind it. No dress code whatsoever — pool clothes, gowns from a night out, pyjamas and convention lanyards all sit side by side. Children are welcome in the restaurant; the lounge is 21-plus after certain hours.
Best for
Late-night and early-morning eating, which makes it a pillar of our late-night guide. Hangover breakfasts. A romantic late drink by the fire pit at the end of a night out. Film fans and anyone chasing vintage Vegas. Families with children who will eat pancakes at 9pm. It pairs naturally with an evening at Wynn or Resorts World, or with a visit to the Strat a few blocks north. See also cheap eats.
Pros and cons
- Pro: open 24 hours, no dress code, no reservation, walk-in at 4am.
- Pro: a one-of-a-kind interior that has outlived the resorts that surrounded it.
- Pro: huge portions at fair prices; the lounge is genuinely romantic.
- Con: the food is diner food — competent, big, not memorable.
- Con: weekend brunch waits are long and there is nowhere to wait but the lounge (which is not the worst outcome).
- Con: the north Strip location is a walk or short ride from most centre-Strip hotels.
Verdict
Every visitor should go to the Peppermill once, ideally at an hour when no other restaurant would let them in. Order the fruit salad and something fried, then move to the Fireside Lounge for a drink by the fire and a look at the room that half of Hollywood has filmed in. It is not a meal you will remember for the cooking; it is a place you will remember for the rest of your life.