I’ve been spending lots of time in Las Vegas lately for work and for fun. The best part about Vegas is not the ability to legally drink in the streets. It’s not the clubs, or the bars, or the shows, or the gambling. It’s the food.

In the past few years, Vegas has turned into a foodie Mecca, where foodies from all over can travel and enjoy food from Michelin-starred chefs, celebrity chefs and up-and-coming chefs alike.

The first in my Vegas Shameless Foodie series is Yardbird, located in the Grand Canal Shops in the Venetian.

Yardbird is a southern-themed restaurant, focusing on”farm-fresh ingredients, classic Southern cooking, culture and hospitality”.

One of my favorite foods ever is fried green tomatoes, but they are pretty much impossible to find in California. When I saw fried green tomatoes on the menu at Yardbird, I just had to make the trek.

These fried green tomatoes come with house smoked pork belly (I got without), pimento cheese, frisee, smoky tomato jam and lemon vinaigrette. They were delicious, even though I could easily have eaten 5x as many.

I also ordered the herb garden Caesar salad, served with egg whites, red onion, dried tomatoes and Parmesan capers. Capers are so good, but again, they’re not incredibly common.

My boyfriend opted for crispy chicken biscuits with pepper jelly, as well as the herb garden Caesar salad.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Southern meal without some good ole bourbon! I loved the Blackberry Bourbon Lemonade (substituted with Makers), while Sean sipped on the Southern Peach.

I can’t wait to come back here when I have more time to relax, and maybe spend a few hours ordering up all the bourbon cocktails and some small plates.