During our Miami trip, we planned one dinner out on South Beach to decide if we wanted to go back for a day trip or another dinner. A highly recommended hot spot was Yardbird Southern Table & Bar, which is American comfort food focused on Fried Chicken and bourbon cocktails. Yardbird is one of three restaurants in the 50 Eggs Group. The others are Swine, Yardbird’s pig cousin and Khong River House, a new Thai restaurant.  The pics could have been better at this joint – the least impressive food and photos of our trip.

Another single story nondescript white building, wow, that’s different! The inside does come to life with a Southern country atmosphere – beamed ceilings and leather banquettes. The place is packed. You’d think nobody ever had fried chicken before. This trend might be getting on my nerves at this point. But, I am seeing huge shared plates of food coming out and everything looks delicious. Step one, order a bourbon cocktail. I am not a big bourbon drinker, but they had a white whiskey and watermelon concoction that appealed to me. Steve stuck with a brew.

White Whiskey & Watermelon
Fried chicken is not the only thing that likes watermelon. Light, clean, and refreshing Troy & Son’s Moonshine  $13

The menu concept here is to share among friends. Gee, also new! We made a couple of selections from Small Shared Plates and one big one from what they just call ‘Shares’. We’re big fans of deviled eggs and pork belly if you haven’t noticed that pattern. Hard to find a spot without pork belly on the menu these days!

DEVILED EGGS
Lake Meadows organic eggs, fresh dill, ‘redneck caviar’ smoked trout roe  $10

FRIED GREEN TOMATO BLT
Heritage Acres Farm pork belly, fried green tomatoes, greens, tomato jam, house-made pimento cheese  $14

For the main course we had to have the chicken and waffles. After all, this is what the place is famous for! The chicken was damn perfect and served with two sauces, one somewhat like hot wing sauce and the other a boozy bourbon maple syrup. Spiced watermelon was also a nice touch.
This was more than we could eat, so we took a doggy bag. We may have enjoyed it even more by the pool at our hotel the second time!

CHICKEN ‘N WATERMELON ‘N WAFFLES
Yarbird’s signature ‘Old School Fried Chicken’, hot sauce honey, chilled spiced watermelon, cheddar cheese chow chow waffle, Bourbon maple syrup  $36

And we mistakenly ordered and unneeded but amazing side, mac and cheese. They call the sides Fixins in keeping with the theme. And this mac was fixin’ to please with 5 cheeses and served in a cast iron pot. Coated with a ton of breadcrumbs that get all over the table as you serve, this was another over the top Southern comfort dish. We had this added to the doggy bag.

MACARONI & CHEESE
Torchio pasta, 5 artisanal cheeses, crispy herb crust $10

Overall, this was a fun spot. Worth a 20 minute cab ride to South Beach? Questionable.

But we did stop at the famous and very amusing Barton G for a really bad $17 mojito afterwards. Now that was what I was expecting for drink prices! But we enjoyed watching people get their giant cotton candy, sundaes and funnel cakes all at absurd prices int eh name of special occasion fun.  Bad shot, but this is cotton candy 2X size of human head and a 10 scoop ice cream sundae in front of it!

While we were at it, we hit a dive called the Fox Hole where people still smoke cigs. Then back off to Miami we went. And we did not return for a beach day. Perhaps another trip!

http://runchickenrun.com
1600 Lenox Avenue – Miami Beach – South Beach