Yardbird Southern Table and Bar

Every year that I go to Las Vegas, I make a list of restaurants that I want to try during my trip.  One restaurant at the top of my list was a new restaurant called Yardbird Southern Table and Bar.  I have a friend who is also a foodie and she has raved about the Miami location for some time, so I was pleased to see that the restaurant had opened up a second location on restaurant row in the corridor between The Palazzo and The Venetian.

Dining Area

Shortly after checking in to The Palazzo, my wife and I took the short walk to grab some lunch at Yardbird.  We decided to try out several items, including the Fried Green Tomato BLT, Lewellyn's Fried Chicken, Buttermilk Biscuits, and the Macaroni and Cheese.  The restaurant makes a point of delivering items as soon as they are finished cooking, so we sampled the biscuits first and they were still piping hot.  The biscuits were wonderful in every possible way and were made even better when you added the honey butter and strawberry jam to them.

Buttermilk Biscuits, Honey Butter, and Strawberry Jam

Next up was the fried green tomato BLT.  Normally one associates a BLT with a sandwich, but this particular item was a fried green tomato topped with pork belly, greens, house-made pimento cheese, and tomato jam.  My wife is more a fan of fried green tomatoes than I am, but I really enjoyed the pork belly and pimento cheese which added flavor to the dish.

Yardbird's version of a BLT-Fried Green Tomato, Pork Belly, Greens, Tomato Jam, and House-Made Pimento Cheese

The fried chicken and mac and cheese arrived shortly after we finished off the BLT.  The fried chicken was very good and it was easy to see why it made Southern Living's list of The South's Best Fried Chicken.  I would certainly put it among my fried chicken top five.  The mac and cheese was made with a combination of Torchio pasta, five cheeses, and was topped with a crispy herb crust.  It was good as well, but it was not as good as the other items we tried on this visit.

Lewellyn's Fried Chicken and Macaroni and Cheese

I also dined at Yardbird a second time on my third day in Vegas.  My wife was at the pool, so I sat at the bar, watched some college basketball, and ordered the Smoke Brisket Sandwich and the House-Cut Fries.  The sandwich was made with brisket, tomato, and Swiss cheese on grilled bread.  This plate also included house-made ketchup and some pickled veggies.  I was a little surprised that the brisket didn't have a lot of smokey flavor and didn't include any bark.  Although it was very different from the brisket sandwiches I am used to, I really liked the flavor of this sandwich.  It tasted more like a spicy pot roast, but the flavor went great with the grilled bread.  The fries, which were topped with bacon salt (aka salted bacon bits), were amazing.  A buttermilk dipping sauce accompanied the fries and really added to the flavor of the fries and bacon.

Brisket Sandwich and Fries with "Bacon Salt"

Since I dined here twice, you can already guess by now that I really liked this restaurant.  The service at both the tables and the bar was excellent.  This casual restaurant has some excellent Southern cuisine and I can certainly see why the original location was nominated for best new restaurant of 2012 by the James Beard Foundation Awards.  If I had stayed another day in Vegas, I might have eaten at Yardbird a third time.  This restaurant is a great addition to the Venetian/Palazzo family.

Yardbird Southern Table and Bar
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Livin the Good Life Rating=4