SoulBelly BBQ Opens at Miracle Mile Shops

By Scott Roeben, on April 30 2026
3 min read 1 comment
Las Vegas Las Vegas Restaurants

The Las Vegas Strip is a wasteland for fans of barbecue, but there’s been a recent glimmer of hope.

A popular downtown BBQ restaurant, SoulBelly BBQ, has expanded its reach with a counter in the Miracle Eats food court at Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood.

The menu is limited (see it below), but the prices aren’t outrageous, and anything is almost always better than nothing. Sorry, Virgil’s, you’re mid.

The word “barbecue” comes from the Taino people. “Barbacoa” was a raised rack for cooking meat. If you think just because the words “rack” and “meat” were in the same sentence, we’re going to make an infantile joke, you do not understand the maturity and restraint of this blog.

SoulBelly BBQ is from Chef Bruce Kalman.

Here’s what they say about him on the official site: “New Jersey native and SoulBelly Founder Chef Bruce Kalman launched his culinary career in his hometown of Paramus. He solidified his skills through a hands-on culinary program at Jersey City’s Hudson Community College, and after rising through the ranks of local kitchens, moved to Chicago to serve as executive chef for restaurants including Okno, Green Dolphin and Coco Pazzo.”

Don’t laugh, we attended a community college before real college, too.

Kalman was also involved in Santa Monica’s Misfit, West Hollywood’s The Churchill and he’s a chef-partner for California’s Sunkist Growers, “helping spotlight the brand’s local and family-owned citrus growers.”

What all that has to do with his BBQ pedigree, we have no idea.

All we know is our pulled pork sandwich was fantastic, despite the fact it should’ve had a “spicy” icon next to it on the menu, because our face melted.

Don’t freak out, we took the vegetables off after the photo.

We’ll leave it to BBQ fans to judge whether SoulBelly is good or “good for Las Vegas.” We have found BBQ fans have serious, passionate views about BBQ.

Beyond SoulBelly BBQ, the Miracle Mile food court has wrangled some very strong concepts recently.

There’s Carnegie Pizza, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Irv’s Burgers, Tacotarian, Lobster ME, Chipotle and the ever-popular Fat Tuesday. Here’s a video in case we forgot anything.

The new food court is part of the ongoing evolution of Miracle Mile Shops.

The saddest part of this evolution is the Desert Passage has been slowly removed. There used to be a giant sea-going vessel here.

Want theming back? That ship has sailed.

If you don’t remember the boat, here’s a photo, because at one point or another, we have taken pictures of literally everything in Las Vegas for occasions just like this.

See, before Planet Hollywood, it was the Aladdin, hence the mall was called Desert Passage. At one point, it was called “Deserted Passage” due to the lack of tenants. Desert Passage became Miracle Mile Shops on May 1, 2007.

Miracle Mile Shops has covered all its culinary bases, and the food court is definitely pulling numbers.

Food courts are the new casino buffets, of course.

There were definitely more items on the “Mini-SoulBelly” menu we need to try.

Can a brother just get a brisket sandwich? Thanks.

We didn’t realize until now that they have soft serve. Damn it.

If you’re coming in from self-parking (no longer free, but just get the Caesars Rewards credit card and you’re good), turn left. Miracle Mile Shops literally has “mile” in the name.

Check it out and let us know what you think. Especially you BBQ fans, and by that we mean “obsessives.” But in a mostly good way.

For the record: Downtown, there’s Benny’s Smokin’ BBQ Binion’s and Project BBQ at Circa. Locals have Ellis Island (its BBQ restaurant has closed, but you can still get it in the Village Pub & Cafe), SNS, Big B’s Texas BBQ (coming soon to Plaza casino, per our exclusive scoop), Wild Fig and Jesse Rae’s BBQ.

If you disagree with our picks, don’t “@” us, or whatever the kids are doing now to express displeasure. Because they certainly aren’t voting. Yeah, we said it.