Restaurant Week: Yardbird

Yardbird at Venetian was another restaurant that piqued my interest during Restaurant Week. After success in Miami Beach, the Las Vegas location opened about six months ago. I must admit I don't dig fried chicken, so I was in no rush to check it out. However, the restaurant week menu convinced me. It seemed to showcase much of their menu at the reasonable price of $40.15 per person. We had friends join us, our party of four was promptly seated in the center of the dining room for our 7:30 reservation.

In addition to our restaurant week appetizer, we got started with Warm Farmer's Cheese & Watermelon ($5) it is a refreshing bite that is equally salty and sweet. A nice way to whet our appetite.



Extreme richness followed with Deviled Eggs, the stiff peaks were topped with trout toe. The stunner was the Fried Green Tomato BLT. I've never had anything like it and it was mighty delicious. Crispy, creamy, salty, smoky... it was a fiesta for my taste buds.



No one in our group opted for the shrimp & grits. Instead, we each had the 27 hour Fried Chicken and House Smoked BBQ Pork Ribs, with a side of Mac & Cheese and biscuit. We were blown away by the portion size. No one was going hungry tonight. The chicken is moist and it has excellent flavor - considerably better than most, but when it comes to fried chicken, I want crunch. Unfortunately the breading was soggy. Still, I liked it better than the Pork Ribs. The mac, was extremely cheesy. I cannot believe I'm saying this, but it was too cheesy. I wanted bits of bacon or jalapenos to make it more complex. Once I ate the crispy topping, I lost all interest in it. The biscuit was fantastic. I only wished there was honey or butter to slather on it.



It took us an extremely long time to receive dessert. We began to wonder if they were milking the cows to make the ice cream. I found the Apple Praline Bread to be worth the wait. Warm desserts with a cold ice cream is a weakness. The Mississippi Mud Pie was rather run of the mill.





Overall, I was satisfied by the experience. It was a ton of food! Even if it wasn't all quite up to par. It is a fine choice to share some comfort foods among friends.