Firefly

I cried when I heard that the downtown Firefly had closed. Literally. In this hour of sorrow, I can comfort myself with the fact that I enjoyed the chorizo stuffed mushrooms and pitchers of delicious sangria here as many times as I could during this restaurant’s short life. Still, it’s cold comfort.
RIP Downtown Firefly — let’s hope your successor can live up to your high standards. Somehow, I doubt it.

The best place to enjoy the Fremont Street Experience! The restaurant sits at one end of the street overlooking the canopy. It’s decorated to be a modern dimly lit tapas house. It is red, to go along with their «fire» name. The service was respectable. They didn’t have any tables ready for us so we sat at the bar area for some beverages where it seemed that no one wanted to sit. As soon as our table was ready, we were quickly seated close by the window with a view in the tower room.
Everything on the menu looked so appetizing. I ended up getting the paella and we also got a few other tapas. The paella is definitely not like the spanish paella that I was accustomed to but it was tasty nonetheless. The tapas dishes were so good that we ended up ordering 2 of the same ones. Even though they were reasonably price, ordering twice of the same stuff added up pretty quickly!
Overall, a good place to just have light meals over drinks with friends. Nothing really spectacular about the taste and quality of the food or drinks, but the view was fantastic!

Firefly overlooks the Fremont Street Experience and is a nice place to go to, whether you’re loading up on a bunch of tapas or you’re going for drinks. I had a whole bunch of dishes and can’t remember them all but here are a few of the memorable ones:
Tuna Tartare: layers of mango, marinated ahi tuna, avocado, taro chips. Can you say yum?
Ceviche of shrimp: tiger shrimp, avocado, crispy corn tortilla. Just the right marinade of flavors mixed together.
Stuffed dates: bacon-​wrapped, smoked almond, red wine reduction, blue cheese. If you told me to order this, I would decline. But if someone else is ordering it, of course it’s obligatory to try, right? O-​M-​G. What a delightful surprise of deliciousness!
A group of six of us went and shared a whole bunch of dishes so it was perfect, while we talked and drank. The only reason for the one start ding is because service was very intermittent at times. But when they did manage to come to our table, it was very polite and the order was brought promptly. But my idea of good service is not having to ever have an empty glass on the table. Fail. Luckily, we were all have fun so it wasn’t too big of a deal. You should definitely go here at least once, after the Plaza is done with their renovations.

Great view over freemont street. Lamb skewers excellent. Mussels were average but but good spice.
The sausage and chorizo stuffed mushroom are a must
The salads are huge so share one.

Hard to rate
Food 3
Service 4
Location 0 unless you count the cheese factor then it’s a 5
Pitcher of red sangria– good
Chicken salad– not so much
Bacon wrapped dates– burnt bacon
Stuffed peppers– good
Thai beef salad– good
Beet salad– simple but very good
Mac n cheese– how can you go wrong with cheese over pasta? Good
Chicken and chorizo stuffed mushrooms– nasty
Camarones Diabla– this was my favorite dish all due to the sauce
Crispy duck roll– it was ok but better covered with the Diabla sauce
The result is definitely an adventure. Had I not seeked this place out, I would have refused to come. The Plaza Hotel is run down and getting to the restaurant through the lobby was confusing. Once inside the view up Freemont Street was good. The food was better than expected too. All and all, it’s no place to impress with all the 5 star, celebrity chef, over the top dining experiences in Las Vegas but there’s something about Firefly you need to see for yourself.
Hard to say if I’ll ever go back but I’m glad I went. You should try it once.

One of my favorite places in town. This location’s even better than the original. Great view, great service, great food and great drinks. A magical combination.
I always get the bacon wrapped dates, they’re perfection. I thoroughly enjoy the shishito peppers and lamb skewers as well. I haven’t had a single dish that I haven’t enjoyed here. Definitely a favorite in town! This place is great for groups, parties, anniversaries, birthdays, any occasion really.
I’d recommend making a reservation for larger parties, especially on the weekends!

First, I must start by saying that I love love LOVE the Firefly on Paradise. Being such a Firefly fan, I decided to eat at the Downtown location one night while out on Fremont.
The place itself is really nice — great room, good ambiance. And the most awesome part is that it is a prime viewing location for the Fremont Street Experience (the canopy light show).
Despite it being a weekend night, we were one of the only tables in the place. And despite being one of the only tables, service was quite slow and inattentive.
The worst part was that my standard Firefly favorites fell short. They weren’t the same amazing dishes I experience time and time again at the Firefly on Paradise.
While I love Firefly and really enjoy the view at this location, the difference in food quality is just way too drastic. Despite me ordering my favorite dishes (which I normally devour), I couldn’t even finish most of them — they were barely edible.
Hopefully, it was just an off-​night.

My boyfriend took me here for our anniversary.
Pros:
–It has such a cool, romantic environment with the low lighting and dark colors.
–The view is AMAZING!
–There wasn’t many people at all, but that could’ve just been on that day. —Some of the food is pretty tasty!
Cons:
–The service is as slow as molasses. After we got the menu, we asked for a minute, and she gave us at least 30. We were so hungry that we just wrote down everything we wanted and handed the list to her when she was serving the table next to us, for the 3^rd time. This is unacceptable considering there were only about 5 tables of people and 3 servers
— The food really wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. I guess all the great reviews left me with high expectations that weren’t fulfilled.
All in all. I would come back, but only for the view and a little dessert.

I’ve read some of the recent reviews, and honestly, I don’t know what these people are talking about when they give a less than stellar view.
Firefly* is awesome.
Yup. Firefly* is awesome.
I’m a chef. I’ve run several kitchens. I understand what goes into making a dish that is successful and complete, and this location has nailed it. I understand the difficulties involved in coordinating the FoH & the BoH, but on 11÷1÷10 Sean & the BoH were getting along just fine. His service was impeccable, and the other 2 gentleman who also swung by the table for various wossname’s were extremely thorough in their service.
We dined around 7:40pm, and thankfully they weren’t crowded the day after Halloween. The view was amazing, though the constant flash of lights did bring to mind thoughts of flicker vertigo. This problem was quite simply resolved by not facing the Fremont Strip, though the Wife and such didn’t seem to mind the dazzling display of lights.
Over the next hour we enjoyed numerous dishes, my favorite being the ‘Albondigas.’ Whenever I hear the word ‘meatball’ for the rest of my life, Firefly* is going to be at the forefront. I’ve had amazing meatballs here in Atlanta. I’ve MADE amazing meatballs of my own. As near as I can recollect, these are the best meatballs I’ve ever had. Maybe the marinara deceived me. Maybe the thickened tendrils of melted cheese ensnared me. Either way, my Sister and I demolished the ‘Albondigas’ and the remaining sauce with a Gusto I have not experienced in nearly 10 months.
Oh sure, there was delicious ‘Tomato Bread,’ the Sherry Vinegar biting the back of the tongue and surprising the palate. I suppose I should’ve read the menu a bit better, but the fact that it was Chilled was a surprise, though not unwelcome. The bread was a little hard, but the tomato & garlic mixture was more pleasant than I had expected.
When the Serrano Ham & Manchego arrived, I did wish that the Ham had been cut much finer, but everyone else was thrilled for the experience. Tasty.
Baked Tetilla = Delicious btw. I’m a cheesemonger from once-​upon-​a-​time, and I was served with a number of great Spanish cheeses this night. This was an engaging number with a pile of roasted tomatoes in the center of a bunch of BCB joy. BCB’s = the ‘Burnt Crunchy Bits’ where the cheese just gives up and bubbles into the mouth with happiness. My Sister and her Husband killed this before I was able to stop taking pictures of Fremont. Drowning the slices of Baguette/​Ficelle in cheese was quite enjoyable.
However, the ‘Firefly*Fries’ were just about the best fries I think I’ve ever had as well. The Aioli has Mayo in it, which while not a sin on the palate, is not what I’ve come to expect from ‘Aioli’ in the general sense. Given that it was Fries, I was pretty much prepared for the Mayo, and the table was definitely happy. They were even more enthralled when the ‘Empanada’ plate arrived with even more Aioli. The roast pork/​pepper mixture was amazing, and I really wish I had more space to eat this bliss.
While I don’t do Sausage, the Terra y Mare skewers were tasty. I’m told be the Wife & BiLaw that the Chorizo was «F’n Great.» The Lamb skewers were equally tasty, but definitely not half the YUM that was the ‘Albondigas.’
My sweet Lady insisted on ‘Camarones Ajillo,’ or rather, «some sort of shrimp.» These coincided happily with the ‘Tierra y Mare.’ Shrimp abounded, and it was good.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the ‘Spinach Salad.’ I should’ve ordered this in the first round, and this too was an oversight on the «Is this hot or cold?» dishes. Warm, tasty, and though the Artichoke was a little strong in the context of the salad, the Feta and Pine Nuts more than made up for it’s bold character. It all balanced well with the roasted Red Peppers.
The drinks prices were reasonable as well, at least by comparison to $ 9 on the strip. We got away at $ 6 per Jack & Coke, which isn’t cheap by comparison to burning cash in the penny slots, but was still better than the ‘Rat Pack is Back’ show, also at The Plaza.
All in all, we left at less than $ 80 for 4, and any 2 of the dishes would’ve made me summarize this as a better evening than the one at Zeffirino’s the night before. The atmosphere was amazing, the food was perfect, and I couldn’t have been more pleased. Add in the fact that they give you a free postcard with dinner whether you pay the $ 10 or not for a larger picture and you’ve got yourself a great evening. If you want your trip to Vegas to be memorable, eat here. If you want a good night on the town with quality that rates a Michelin star (IMHO) at a reasonable price, eat here.
Did I mention Eat here?
Eat here.

First time to the downtown location. The service and atmosphere was nothing like Paradise location. Had to remind the staff that is was happy hour, they acted like it was something new. Waiter was friendly but a little slow to respond to a dining area that had 5 tables of eaters (all right next to each other). The food as usual was outstanding.
Service-​3
Food-​5
Love Firefly!

Halloween was a clusterbitch and I just wanted something to nosh and to sit the hell down! With Firefly in the horizon, it seemed a better choice than fast food and diners in most the DT properties.
BF and the Unilocalizzles Elnino and Andy were my company.
The BF and I weren’t too hungry so we shared
Boquerones– one of my faves. I love white spanish sardines.
Veggie Empanadas– comes with 2 and some salad. It was pretty good… I appreciate that the veggies werent processed down to a paste and were stuffed with slices of mushrooms and diced spinach.
Chorizo and Chicken Stuffed Mushrooms– meh. My BF said it reminds him of Hamburger Helper on a mushroom. After he said that, that’s all I can get in my head. Won’t order this one again.
Dessert Platter– comes with chocolate tres leches, passionfruit cheesecake, lemon tart, flan. All pretty decent. I liked the idea of the chocolate leches, I really like the passionfruit, tart was okay, flan was a surprise that it was good (light, almost panna cotta like).
Got a white sangria since I usually get red. It was alright… it’s a bit tart which I like, but I dunno… I think the bolder red makes more sense with tart fruits.
Now the service was spotty and wait for items was kinda long. I however wasn’t going to dock them down for it only because our server was very apologetic and really tried to help her tables. I looked around and the place was filled and there wasn’t enough staff coverage for the volume. I always feel bad when that happens because it’s not the servers fault if they get spread thin. Someone could have called in and screwed everyone or upper management/​owners haven’t hired enough people. Tapas is about sitting around and chatting so I wasn’t in a hurry. Just keep that in mind though– come when you feel like having a long nosh since speed and service isn’t a strong suit.
I’m a «fan» so I put it up to a 4 star since my visit was positive, but it’s a round up since there are some obvious hangups.

The view alone at this place is worth the 5 stars. The dining room looks right down the Old Vegas strip (see my picture), and it’s the perfect way to start out an adventure. Someone also told me that a scene from Casino was filmed in here, and I can see why.
They’ve got an extensive menu of tapas, most of which were excellent. A few (vegetarian) stand-​outs include the mac & cheese, the stuffed peppers and the artichoke toast. We got a whole ton of stuff, and nobody complained about any of it. I’ve had better sangria, but it did what it needed to do.
For dessert, we got the nutilla sandwich… which was exactly what we had hoped for. Just delicious, and the desert sampler offered a few more tasty offerings.
The only complaint I have is that the tables are pretty small, especially in the booths. This can make an abundance of tapas tricky business, but besides that I think this place is a must-​see for any new tourists to the area. It was certainly a memorable experience for me.

«I THROW MY HANDS UP IN THE AIR SOMETIMES, SAYING AA-​OOOOOOOO»
«CAUSE WE GON’ LIGHT IT UP– LIKE IT’S DYNAMITEEEEE»
Fellow friends and Unilocalers including Francis C. and Christine G. were eagerly waiting for this song to be played at this fancy Tapas bar… but unfortunately, the crowd may have been too old for us (eeks… did I just say that?) I was sad that the sounds of Taio Cruz weren’t blasting this evening, but for a night out with small bites and good drinks, Firefly is sure to provide!
Located in downtown Vegas right across from Fremont Street, Firefly offers up a clubbey/​lounge area for party goers that want to avoid the crowdedness of the Strip. Firefly gets extremely busy, so I highly recommend making a reservation before hand. The management allows a ten minute grace period from your reservation, but try not to be late. Once inside, we were impressed by the luxurious environment we were placed in. We were on the second floor of the building, giving you a glimpse of Fremont Street and a cool view of the lights surrounding Sin City.
Once again, you won’t be dancing your drunk butts off at Firefly, but you’ll be enjoying a chill, fun night out. For those that don’t know, Tapas bars provide small bites and big drinks. Everything on the menu is made for either 1 – 2 people, so if you are hungry, this may not be the best place to go because it can add up. However, we came for some light food, and for the amazing Sangria they have here. Our waitress was very sweet in giving us recommendations on foods and drinks, and was fun to chat with throughout the night. They also have a worker going around taking photos of your party, which you can pick up afterwards. So for service and ambience, it’s not bad so far.
On to the food options. I tried the following:
Sangria [$ 24 for pitcher] — Worth it! This was absolutely delicious and makes a great, sweet drink to wash down the food that you’ll be eating with it.
Dates Wrapped In Bacon [$ 6] — You get five pieces of these little suckers. They were mad delicious! The bacon was crispy, and the juices infused with the hot dates made a remarkable explosion of tastes in my mouth.
Skewered Steak [$ 10] — Two skewers of marinated meat that goes extremely well with the free bread provided. Definitely get them more on the rare side because they were extremely tender… so good!
There are many things to try here, so feel free to experiment and find what flavors suit you the best. For my first tapas bar experience, this was definitely not bad. If there was a dance floor inside and cheaper drinks, life would be perfect.
Parking can be hard, but my friends and I parked at the California Hotel. It’s free, and you just need to get your ticket self validated. It works!

4.5 stars
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Or, in this case, don’t judge a fantastic restaurant by that fact that you have to go through the scruffy Plaza to get there. (Pay $ 5 to park in the Plaza’s concrete funhouse of a garage, get your $ 5 refunded at the cashier’s cage, blow your $ 5 on a slot machine.)
Design: Moody pictures of flamenco dancers in the entry. The glassed-​in dome overlooks Fremont Street. Go after dark so you can enjoy the spectacle while pretending to mock it. Try to reserve one of the circular booths overlooking the street for maximum sex appeal. Although it’s plenty sexy without one, and there were groups as well as couples.
Service: Pleasant, professional, not cloying. No handholding: Tapas will not be explained to you unless you ask.
Food: Ok, if you’ve gotten this far. You deserve a reward, so let’s get those salivary glands going. Husband and I had six small plates, and we were so full we could not order dessert.
Stuffed dates. Exquisite, bite-​size nibbles. And nutritious, involving 3 of the 4 food groups!
Artichoke toasts: Sour, in a good way.
Manchego mac n cheese: Both creamy and snappy, but without the wow factor of the other choices.
Albondigas: Tasty little meatballs.
Fish sticks: Yay for spicy tartar sauce and golden, panko-​shrouded goodness
Duck rolls: Big and awkward to eat, and not as flavorful as duck ought to be. Ate my half anyway.
Cava was lovely, and husband’s mojito was A-​1.
And how much did this little feast come to? Fifty bucks before tip. I was in shock. This was one of the best meals we had in Vegas and the cheapest.

Firefly has the coolest dome in part of the restaurant that looks out onto Freemont Street. You can see pretty much the whole thing, and while inside you can also watch the giant TV canopy thing if it’s time for the show.
Misti Y took me here for dinner on my last night in town and I really enjoyed it. They serve up tapas style foods so we got a ton of small plates to share including the manchego mac and cheese, artichokes hearts on little toasts, lentils and veggies, bacon wrapped dates, and spicy shrimp. All of it was pretty good, but my favorite actually turned out to be the artichoke hearts. I know, I know! Who would have thought compared to manchego macaroni and bacon wrapped anything, artichoke hearts would win, but they did and they were damn good.
Firefly also has a pretty decent drink menu including a sparkling sangria cocktail that I ordered. Yes, it’s sangria made with sparkling wine. It was chock full of fruit, too and fairly sweet so it you don’t like sweet drinks you may want to try something else.

I had a great meal here tonight. My rating would have been 5 stars if the dishes had not come out almost concurrently. Next time, I’ll order one tapas at a time and have more time to enjoy the experience.
I had the bacon wrapped dates, the veggie empanadas, and the chicken and chorizo stuffed mushrooms. For dessert, I splurged ands went with the dessert platter. Wow. Great!
I’ll be back.

If you want to experience old Vegas and the grit of downtown, but from a safe distance… come to Firefly! This restaurant floats in a secure glass bubble, overlooking the Fremont Street shenanigans. It’s almost like being at the zoo, with a comforting wall of glass between you and all the strippers, hookers and downscale hoi polloi with their plastic footballs full of frozen daiquiri. If that’s your bag, then you’re a pussy — but you will like this restaurant.
I was prepared to dislike the place because I was such a HUGE fan of the swanky old-​time steakhouse that used to occupy the space. As always, they had to rip out something cool to make way for something trendy and overpriced. But it actually turned out to be really cool! As mentioned it’s a great view, good food at reasonable prices, and a MUCH better atmo than the other Firefly (on Paradise), which is loud and thick with poseurs. The atmo here is more laid back — dim lighting and stylish comfy furniture, with lots of windows looking down at the circus maximus. Bonus tip: if they don’t have any tables looking out toward Fremont (as they claimed when I went there, and tried to seat me at a table looking at a wall), just go sit in the lounge area. Great view and less hassle, with all the same service!
Food-​wise it is fancy schmancy tapas. Everything I ordered was rich and full interesting flavors and ingredients, and the prices were good, so no complaints on that front. The French bread they serve was greasy, though, like it had been basted or even soaked in Canola oil before being toasted.
All in all, this is a fantastic place for you suburban walled-​fortress-​dwellers to experience downtown without WALLOWING in downtown. Only caveat: the valet parking is located right next to the downtown Greyhound Bus station. So you’re gonna see some real grit and grime anyway, puss!

A perfect night.
I had a very large party to celebrate my birthday, and even though our reservations were last minute on a Saturday night of a three day weekend, they gave us the best table in the place. Prime view of the Fremont Street experience.
They also did not insist on our entire party being present before seating us, which is super cool.
The food was AMAZING, the service was efficient and best of all, they put up with me and all of my drunk ass friend attempting to reenact Caligula’s Greatest Hits.
so yeah, don’t ask me what we ordered, because I really can’t recall anything except the Mojitos (which were pretty great.). But hey, it’s tapas so I’m pretty sure there were fried potatoes, mussels, olives and manchengo cheese, shrimp ceviche, and empanadas. And given the fact that I’m a pretty finicky bitch, the fact that I don’t recollect complaining about anything bodes well for the food quality.
I didn’t see the bill, but judging from the prices on the menu it was REALLY inexpensive for what you get. Definitely the best bang for my buck in Vegas, and I’ve had a lot of bangs.

Budget conscious tapas
As per Many other peoples’ suggestion
My brother and his friends wanted something lite, tasty, and relatively inexpensive; Firefly fit the bill. Though we intended on going to the smaller late night location, somehow the wrong Unilocal click, give me directions led us here.
I have to say I was thrilled with my misclick; the view was spectacular. I haven’t had the opportunity to see Downtown with the covered lights and people bustling about; this was definitely the way to do it.
Great french fries, my salad was okay, beers were inexpensive, the meatballs looked good, nice empanadas, and a happy full set of tummies for all.
Friendly staff, beautiful lofted glass ceiling, separate dimly lit bar, full drink menu, plenty of cozy booths with views, what more could a girl ask for?
Date Rating: 4
Pick up Scale: N/​A (almost empty when we came, it was closing time, great space though has potential).
Strong Suggestion: Don’t confuse this location with the nearby smaller cozy one; but if it’s early and you don’t want to wait it’s pretty much the same menu.

great addition to Downtown !
I am a firefly on Paradise fan, to expand the ops to Downtown where i prefer to get my gamble on — this is great !!
can’t vouch for the menu being exactly the same as the mothership but it looks about right .
½ price sangria and other libations — all good too (even though the gf doesn’t drink — i went with the pitcher of sangria for $ 12 — the bartender said it was equal to 4 drinks — i call bullshit on that one — it was more like 8 glasses — great deal !!)
we had some of the usual items — dates, meatballs, shrimp, sausage platter, etc etc (pics attached)
besides my monthly trek to the Flame at el C (don’t knock it — i still think it’s the best value in downtown — try the stone crabs — or for the meat eaters — the prime rib) i plan to hit firefly, at least 1/​month.
hit it a 2^nd time on friday with my sis — the place was hoppin’ ! just missed the happy hour — it’s ok — tried the sparkling sangria this time — nice starter drink — my sis had an infused vodka drink and later the raspberry mojito — she liked it !
for this visit — tried the sliders — the meat tasted great — bun a little too big, loved the mushroom stuffed with chorizo; calamari — ok. loved the shrimp/​filet/​sausage skewer.
Downtown is gettin better !