Since opening on an unassuming corner in Miami Beach, Yardbird Southern Table & Bar has established itself as one of the neighborhood's most popular dining destinations. With unpretentious yet delicious comfort food like their signature fried chicken and pickled watermelon, the sophisticated and somehow familiar establishment has stood as a homey antidote to the unabashed decadence found on Collins Ave. Now, the Yardbird team is bringing that same recipe for success to another party-crazed town—Las Vegas.
Opened last month at the Venetian, the new Yardbird is the kind of place where reclaimed wood lines the wall and the hoppy IPAs are served in Mason jars. Eating there feels like stepping into a South Carolina roadhouse—with a Vegas twist. It’s there to provide diners an authentically Southern experience that is mostly—and surprisingly—lacking elsewhere on the Strip.
But not matter how great Yardbird looks—and it looks fantastic—the real attraction here is the food. We already mentioned the supremely tender fried chicken (charmingly referred to as Llewellyn’s Fine Fried Chicken on the menu), which is a must-order, but Yardbird also serves up fall-off-the-bone, slow-cooked pork ribs, a Pan-Fried North Carolina Trout that is cooked to perfection and conjures up summer on the Bayou, and a 12 oz. filet mignon that could challenge the best in town. Of the appetizers we tried, the deviled eggs—piled high and sprinkled with trout roe (which they call ‘redneck caviar’—and the fried green tomato BLTs were standouts.
But true to the restaurant’s name executive chef Todd Harrington has made the his masterstroke. Served fried (duh), with waffles, with biscuits, or smoked and BBQ’s, the bird is what’s going on here. That, and the bourbon, of course.
