Cloud Diner on Hughes Center Drive will soon be home to Taste of the Caribbean Express Las Vegas.
The brainchild of Guyana-born Chef Bernard James, Taste of the Caribbean began as a food truck and then a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the Los Angeles area. The location at Cloud Diner, where the restaurant will serve both delivery and dine-in customers, is the restaurant’s first in Las Vegas.
“I’ve been getting a lot of calls from Las Vegas,” Chef Bernard told What Now Las Vegas in a phone call on Monday. “Everyone is telling me, ‘You need to come to Vegas.’”
Commenting on the cloud kitchen approach, which has blossomed during the pandemic, he added, “I’m big on delivery. It’s more easy and simple right now than a sit-down restaurant. I’ve had that kind of restaurant before. The overhead is huge, and people aren’t heading to them like before.”
The restaurant is famous for its selection of modern Caribbean dishes like jerk salmon, coconut curry shrimp, oxtails, and steamed pumpkin with garbanzo beans. It is the fruit of Chef Bernard’s long culinary journey, which led him to a sous chef position on Carnival cruises, a period during which he spent his free time studying and exploring the cuisine of the islands of the Caribbean.
Located at 325 Hughes Center Drive, Cloud Diner is a 7-suite cloud kitchen in which seven different restaurant kitchens can service delivery orders, with a dine-in space where customers can choose items from any of the seven menus. It is expected to open on December 1.