It's not often you find yourself perusing a menu crafted by a celebrity chef before sampling their signature creations at their restaurant, but there I was. This was worlds away from the stuffy white linen and pretentious amuse-bouche – this was far more thrilling.

Celebrity restaurants have emerged as a cornerstone of flourishing culinary scenes around the globe, with new establishments opening each year as chefs lend their names to brands and expand their enterprises. Britain alone boasts numerous celebrity chef eateries from the likes of James Martin, Marco Pierre White, Rick Stein, Gordon Ramsay and Atul Kochhar, among many others.

Even Celebrity MasterChef contestants have launched their own establishments, including champion Steven Edwards, who opened etch. in Brighton and Hove, alongside Tom Simmons, who established Thomas in Wales.

This is before considering the renowned chef restaurants scattered worldwide, with Ramsay successfully taking his empire to America.

During a visit to Las Vegas, I sneaked a glimpse inside Ramsay's legendary Hell's Kitchen, which features a wall of merchandise, an elegant menu, and a life-sized video of the chef personally welcoming each diner upon arrival. However, I wasn't there for Ramsay – I was there to experience the offerings of another celebrity chef at his restaurant Best Friend, located on the famous Las Vegas strip within the Park MGM resort, reports the Express.

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Best Friend is the brainchild of Roy Choi, a Korean-American chef who helped pioneer the food truck revolution and is renowned for his unpretentious cuisine. He stars in the Netflix series 'The Chef Show', whilst the 2014 film 'Chef' draws loose inspiration from Choi's own journey, transitioning from upscale dining establishments to a flourishing food truck enterprise.

Calling Las Vegas his "second home", Choi launched Best Friend in December 2018, showcasing his "greatest hits" and delectable offerings from his celebrated Kogi food trucks in Los Angeles. This concept immediately appealed to me, so I was keen to experience it, though its environment proved quite different from what I expected.

Stepping into Best Friend is an adventure in its own right, with a lively bar, bodega and eatery all under one roof. Glass-fronted counters reveal shelves brimming with vibrant supermarket goods, quirky stickers adorn an elongated table, and eye-catching neon signage greets you before you even reach the dining area proper.

Within, there's a DJ booth for spirited evenings whilst enjoying meals with mates, diverse graffiti-covered walls and suspended foliage overhead, creating an ambience that transports LA straight to Las Vegas. And Choi's menu proved equally enticing.

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Featuring street-style sharing plates, I was absolutely spoilt for choice with dishes ranging from BARBECUE and bowls to LA s**t and Vegas s**t - a culinary adventure where two worlds spectacularly collide. During this mouthwatering banquet, I sampled Korean wings, garlic chicken, BARBECUE ribs, grilled shrimp, marinated cucumbers, boneless ribeye, street corn, rib tacos and spiced pork - and every single bite was outstanding.

Each dish placed before me exploded with flavour, comfort and indulgence - seamlessly blending together. I even managed to squeeze in Choi's Medjool date cake, strawberry shortie and the legendary Best Friend sundae - though I desperately wish I'd had the capacity to polish them all off.

The entire experience was unlike anything I'd encountered previously, both the cuisine and the surroundings. It captured the essence of a food truck, transformed into a lively restaurant with an exciting, dynamic atmosphere, and how would I describe it?

Completely down-to-earth.

It proved to me that simply because it's a celebrity chef's establishment, it needn't be showy or carry an eye-watering price tag purely due to the reputation attached to it. At Best Friend, it delivered outstanding cuisine and a brilliant ambience at a fair price.

What more could anyone ask for? I reckon I might have discovered my new favourite chef.