Jerry’s is big on dessert — and everything else, too

If you’ve happened upon the coffee shop, which is the flagship restaurant of Jerry’s Nugget in North Las Vegas, you’re no doubt aware of the desserts. They’re big, elaborate and about as indulgent as it’s possible to imagine — so much so that the restaurant used to have a binder with color photos for customers to leaf through at will. It appears the book is gone, but the desserts live on, literally showcased today in a number of glass cases near the front of the restaurant. You may see a sign, as we did, recommending the eclairs, but be aware that a Jerry’s eclair is about as big as one’s foot, and I’m not talking about a size 5.

While Jerry’s offers breakfast and sandwiches and Greek and Mexican specialties of every size and type, on this visit we decided to try a couple of meals. One would be old-school liver and onions ($12.99), just because it’s so hard to find in restaurants anymore, and one a special, the haddock ($16.89). Both came with soup or salad, choice of potato and a vegetable, and in no case were portions modest.

First, the liver: Beef liver, it was, tender and moist (and lots of it), carefully browned with lots of lightly caramelized onions and three crisply cooked strips of thickish bacon. The broccoli and cauliflower were overcooked and mushy, so we skipped those; ditto for the dinner roll, which was just OK. Mashed potatoes and gravy were also just OK, which was fine because we were enjoying the main event so much.

We had the soup with this one, chicken tortilla, hot, hearty and flavorful and possessed of one rather odd thing: lumps of something green. At first we took it to be avocado, but it was too firm for that, and then it was revealed to be chicken — which, thankfully, wasn’t green inside. So it was good but weird, presumably colored by seasonings or something.

The fish was billed as “charred on a hot skillet,” and indeed it was, but we thought perhaps a bit too long because the crust was formidable. Great flavor, though, the fresh fish accented by the olive oil, lemon and garlic, although the asparagus on the side was, like the broccoli and cauliflower, overcooked. With this one, we had a salad, which was as huge as everything else, with lots of iceberg and romaine and too much dressing.

And dessert. With all of this food? You’ve got to be kidding. If you want to have dessert at Jerry’s, you have to plan ahead. But you may not because the rest of the food’s pretty good, too.

Las Vegas Review-Journal restaurant reviews are done anonymously at Review-Journal expense. Email Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Find more of her stories at reviewjournal.com and bestoflasvegas.com, and follow @HKRinella on Twitter.