Here’s what you need to know about Hash House A Go Go’s pork tenderloin

The things I do for my readers.

It’d been a few years since I had dined at Hash House A Go Go, and in that time the little restaurant group had waxed and waned and waxed again. Through it all, a constant in the culinary conversation drifting around me was how big the portions were, which was taken both as a positive and a negative, depending on the person and their mood.

I usually replied that I thought it was mostly optical illusion, the plates sized and shaped to make the portions look larger than they were, the effect furthered by oversized garnishes like the rosemary treelet that adorns most plates.

And then I went to the new Henderson location on Stephanie Street near the Galleria at Sunset mall and, because fried pork tenderloin is one of the most common requests to cross my desk, ordered the Pork Benny ($15.99). And holy moley, or mama mia, or oy vey or whatever they say in Iowa, ground zero for the group’s “twisted farm food.”

As the server plunked it in front of me I could actually feel my eyes bugging out. This had to be an entire pork tenderloin, taking up almost every inch of a platter that I measured at 16 1/2 inches long.

Again, I’m pretty sure it was an entire pork tenderloin (which usually averages about a pound, pound and a half), hammered until it was comparatively thin, breaded and fried until it was nicely crisped around the edges.

But wait — there was so much more. It started with a huge mound of HHAGG’s skin-on smashed potatoes, topped by a split biscuit, topped by fresh spinach and a couple of slices of tomato, and then the pork. On top was a few scrambled eggs, topped by a barbecue cream sauce (our server made sure I wasn’t expecting Hollandaise, but this was so much better with this dish) sprinkled with scallions and tomatoes and I don’t know what else.

I ate maybe a third, took it home and two of us split the rest. So really, it’s enough for three people.

Not all of the restaurant’s dishes are quite so Bunyanesque. A scramble with sun-dried tomato, basil and goat cheese ($10.99) was more reasonably sized and very good, the chewy, concentrated tomatoes and earthy goat cheese playing nicely off the eggs. That one came with a biscuit, too, served with some house-made strawberry jam that tasted of spring.

We loved the atmosphere of the place, which continues the group’s farmy/industrial feel with wit and whimsy. And we definitely liked the food.

But it seems like that pork ought to come with a warning from the Surgeon General.

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