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| - TENDER steak and & seafood looks like an old-school steakhouse, with its dark leather chairs, hazel floors, and its burnished umber surroundings. But this restaurant in the Luxor also plays by its own rules, offering diners a chance to sample meats like bison, venison and boar.
My first visit here was a late night one. The main restaurant was slowly closing for the night, but the bar and lounge were still open. We ordered a selection of cheeses and the charcuterie board that included wild boar sausage, duck ham, and antelope pastrami. Those quick bites hit the spot, and along with their selection of Belgian ales, led to our decision to visit a second time.
Unfortunately, trip number two was a bit of a disappointment.
First the good. The appetizer I sampled was astounding. It was a short rib ravioli that was cooked to perfection and served with a horseradish marinara sauce and a bit of crisped smoked bacon. I would highly recommend it.
Having dabbled with their game meats the last time I was here, I ordered the wild game tasting as my main. I was feeling adventurous, and I imagined if it was good enough to be on the menu alongside the Omaha beef and Kurobuta pork chops, they knew what they were doing. The tasting included three meats, but sadly, each one was tougher and a bit more disheartening than the last one.
I need to stress that this wasn't my first encounter with wild game. I've typically eaten it in bit and bites, most often in sausage, or cured, or served tartare style, as I did on my first visit to TENDER. I know these meats can be quite tough if cooked less than perfectly, which is why they're often served as charcuterie items. You get the full flavor without having to gnaw through meat that would be better used to make Lady Gaga a Grammy dress.
The wild boar loin was the best of the lot and did echo this restaurant's name, but the venison medallion served alongside it was a bit too dense. Venison tends to be drier than beef, because it lacks the same kind of fat marbling in its meat, and this cut was cooked just a bit too long for my liking. Next.
The Nilgai antelope osso buco was even more vexing. A perfect osso buco is cooked low and slow and falls off the bone. This one was simply unyielding. To be fair, I've never cooked antelope myself, much less in an osso buco, but my understanding is that the process is very similar to the veal version, and the meat should be cooked slowly until it is fork tender. This was not the case on this night, and most of the meat on my plate remained uneaten.
It's truly unfortunate, because this dish was priced at $36, which is not unreasonable. It's low enough where one might be willing to gamble that amount for a new foodie experience -- this is Vegas after all -- and a fair price for the exotic meats included in this tasting. But they were definitely not representative of what they could be, and I would hate to think someone might be enticed to try them (as I was) and leave with the wrong impression:
"I went to Vegas and ate antelope! It wasn't that good. It was dry and tough. It's probably just a gimmick, but I can scratch it off my bucket list."
I am not, however, ready to condemn TENDER completely, and might try a regular steak there some day, just to see if they've got the chops to handle the chops. I did really like the side I ordered with my sampler -- a trio of exotic grains that included a quinoa and corn pilaf, farro piccolo, and black forbidden rice.
I am also fond of the cheeses they have available, that are typically served with fresh baguette, honeycomb, dates, quince paste and a cherry fig chutney. I would suggest the cabernet sauvignon soaked Purple Moon Cheddar from California's San Joaquin Valley, the nutty Marieke gouda from Wisconsin, and the butter-like San Andreas sheep's milk cheese from Valley Ford, California, if they're ever on the menu.
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