There is a local’s casino and gas station chain called “Terrible’s”. They have a property that is on Paradise Road (parallels the strip about a mile east); Flamingo Road runs just north of the hotel. I regularly eat breakfast there when I go to Vegas every year for a convention; it is a throwback to when all the hotels had fantastic food specials. Despite the name, it is a nice place with friendly people.
For dinner, the best steakhouse in town used to be at Binion’s Horseshoe. The Binion family is no longer involved with the hotel (it is owned by MTR, the owners of Mountaineer Park in West Virginia), so I don’t know whether the food is as good as it used to be. When I first ate there 25 years ago, the restaurant used to be in the basement of the Horseshoe; it was moved to the penthouse of the old Del Webb’s Mint, which is the adjacent building and was bought by the Binion family and consolidated with the Horseshoe. This property is downtown, on the “Fremont Street Experience” at Casino Center Boulevard.
Another excellent breakfast restaurant not connected to a hotel is the Peppermill, which is near the Riviera on the strip.
The place in the basement - yes! We used to get off duty on Friday nights, go back to the barracks and shower and change and go there. It got to the point where the wait staff recognized us (a group of ten jet engine mechanics is hard to forget) and put us in a dining room. It was always awesome. I'm glad it's still around (even if it's upstairs in the old Mint now). They were always good to us GIs.