When Paymon Raouf opened his Mediterranean Cafe in 1987, it was one of the few ethnic shows in town.

There were just a handful of other ethnic restaurants, said Jeff Ecker, cafe general manager. There were the usual Italian and Mexican offerings, he said, but no other Mediterranean restaurants -- not to mention Peruvian or Russian spots.

"Most of the ethnic restaurants were Mediterranean in a broad sense," Ecker said. "They were Mediterranean regional, like Italy is in the Mediterranean."

That has all changed, with Las Vegas home to restaurants representing almost all of the world's most vaunted cuisines.

"What's exciting to me about the entire cultural explosion in Las Vegas is the ethnic dishes that come along with it," said Van Heffner, president and chief operating officer of the Nevada Restaurant Association and the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association. "I know in this community we have at least 80 different languages spoken and 1,430 dialects."

And the speakers of those languages have brought their food styles with them.

"We are truly a melting pot, and our food is coming up in due course," Heffner said. "I just think there's such a wonderful cultural explosion in dining."

He noted the presence of Brazilian restaurants, as in Samba's and Yolie's; Japanese country cooking, offered by Hamada and Osaka; and classical Chinese and Thai outlets.

"There are a lot of fun little holes-in-the-wall around town that I slip in and out of: Great Wall; Nozomi, which is Hawaiian and Asian; the Hawaiian Plantation House, which marries Hawaiian, Asian and some cosmopolitan flavors."

Other favorite spots, Heffner said, include Andre's.

"I dined at Andre's at the Monte Carlo the other night and had wonderful fare," he said. "His classic (downtown) restaurant is what I consider French. Monte Carlo I consider more cosmopolitan.

"I love the Crown & Anchor. They have great classical steak and kidney pie and mushrooms and beef in a Burgundy sauce."

Heffner pointed out that many restaurants one wouldn't normally consider ethnic have ethnic influences -- sometimes two or three. Picasso, he noted, has elements of country French and Spanish cuisines, "and it's a fabulous marriage of both." Another example is Renoir, where the cuisine is Franco-Italian.

And the Mediterranean Cafe, he said, has "an incredible offering."

"It's Middle Eastern food, and yet he's got some Greek items on the menu, and some that are Lebanese -- a whole blend of cultures."

Indeed. Ecker said the cafe's style actually encompasses five or six different cuisines, such as Greek, Italian, Indian, Lebanese, Israeli and Iranian, the home style of owner Raouf.

The Iranian fesenjan is homemade daily by Raouf's mother, Ecker said.

"It has crushed walnuts, pomegranate, chicken," Ecker said. Another Iranian dish served at the cafe is koobideh, a ground-beef kebab.

As in politics, the borders in cuisine are often fluid.

"It's kind of tough to track the origins of some of the dishes because (several) countries claim them," Ecker said.

He said one thing that has contributed to the success of the Mediterranean Cafe is "we've tweaked it toward the American appetite." The reason some ethnic spots quickly fail, he said, is "they're so traditional that Americans aren't willing to really embrace that, as opposed to something that's more Americanized."

While the flood of ethnic restaurants is filling the needs of those who grew up with a particular cuisine, there's been a bonus for the rest of us as well.