Red Bank Archives - Chattavore

Typhoon of Tokyo

March 8, 2017

Typhoon of Tokyo is a popular quick-service Hibachi restaurant that’s been around in Red Bank, Tennessee for years. They’re known for their white sauce!

When Philip and I were first dating, he lived in an apartment off of Mountain Creek Road in Red Bank. When I revealed to him that I had never seen the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, he was pretty much beside himself and insisted that we plan a date night in which we would get dinner from Typhoon of Tokyo, a restaurant of which I had never heard, and watch the movie, which, of course, he owned. Naturally, I loved both immediately! Once we got married, we actually lived in that same apartment complex for the first year. I miss three things about apartment living: 1) no yardwork; 2) weekly trash pick-up that consisted of putting the trash outside the door of the apartment; 3) close proximity to Typhoon of Tokyo.

Sadly, for many years we rarely got to go there because they were a cash-only establishment, but a few years back they rocketed into the 20th century (not the 21st century, because everyone else was taking cards in the nineties) and were finally accepting credit and debit cards. Now we can go there whenever we want! Of course, now we have lots of other places to go, so we don’t get to go there super-often, but Typhoon of Tokyo is one of those places that I get a craving for on a pretty regular basis. I wrote about it very early in my blogging days (July 2011, to be exact) so I thought I’d update with some nicer pictures.

Typhoon closes briefly after the lunch rush, at 2:30 each afternoon, and reopens for dinner at 4 p.m. We went for a very early dinner at about 4:15 on a Saturday. It was early enough that there were not a lot of people, but it definitely wasn’t dead. Several tables were occupied and several people came in to pick up take-out orders while we were there.

When you walk in to Typhoon, there is a seating area the size of your average fast-food restaurant (the building used to be a Bojangle’s) and you walk up to the counter to order. Once you have paid, the server (usually there is only one server, and somehow they manage to keep up with it all!) brings you your drink, a bowl of very simple chicken broth based soup, and a small bowl (or two if it’s dinner time) of white sauce for dipping your food. Their sauce is the best I’ve ever had, though mine is a pretty close second. We also ordered some spring rolls. The soup is maybe a little bit too salty but still delicious. The spring rolls were okay, but not the best I’ve had. They were a little more doughy on the inside than we prefer.

For many years Philip and I both went with the small chicken dinner but on this visit I decided to order the teriyaki chicken, which only comes in one size. It’s a huge portion of fried rice served alongside chunks of dark meat chicken, zucchini, onions, and a little bit of broccoli. They used to serve mushrooms in their vegetable mix but there were none today, so I don’t know if they have stopped serving mushrooms or if perhaps they were just out. The fried rice here is always good and the white sauce makes it even better! I honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the regular chicken dinner and the teriyaki chicken. It’s lightly sauced with a slightly sweet soy sauce based glaze, and it’s delicious.

Philip has moved from the chicken dinner to the chicken and steak combo dinner, but on this visit he decided to get just the steak. The steak dinner is basically the same as the chicken dinner – steak and vegetables served alongside fried rice. The steak was very tender and lightly sauced just like my chicken was.

The teriyaki chicken dinner, the steak dinner, and two spring rolls (and two waters) was $15.59 pre-tip. The menu items all fall into this price range (I think the actual price on the small chicken dinner is $6.25) with the larger meals costing a dollar or two more. It’s tasty, quick, and consistent-the chicken dinner is exactly the same now as it was in 1999 when I first started eating there.

Typhoon of Tokyo is a great quick dinner and also a great take-out option. I highly recommend it!

Typhoon of Tokyo is located at 3953 Dayton Blvd., Red Bank (Chattanooga), TN 37415. Their phone number is 423-875-6142. They are open Monday through Friday, 11-2:30 and 4-9 and Saturday from 4-9. You can like Typhoon of Tokyo on Facebook.

The Big Table (Red Bank, TN)

September 15, 2013

The Big Table is a small restaurant in Red Bank, Tennessee. It’s just a tiny bit off the beaten path (not too far) and they serve homemade favorites!
Funny thing about being a food blogger…you have to learn to be a photographer too. This was something that I didn’t know when I started Chattavore, but I very quickly learned that if I wanted to be taken seriously as a recipe blogger I better get pretty good at taking pictures. It has taken me a long time, but I finally feel like my photos are getting where I want them to be-through a lot of hard work and research…and natural light. Summertime is a food blogger’s best friend, what with the daylight lasting till 9 p.m. and all. Fall is upon us, though, and those long days are quickly getting shorter, so I knew I had to do something to make the most of the daylight hours. We’ll be doing our restaurant visits during the week so that we can use the daylight hours on the weekend for food photography. Our first weeknight visit: The Big Table.

I’ve been meaning to make it by The Big Table for a long time…really, I have. I’ve heard from several people that it was an excellent place to eat. Until I visited Merv’s, which is directly in front of The Big Table, a few months back, I was not 100% sure where the restaurant was located, though I did know the general vicinity. I also knew that it was a small space and that it was gaining in popularity, so a Friday or Saturday night would probably not be the best time to visit (at least for someone who doesn’t like to wait and hates crowded spaces), and I knew I really wanted to try their dinner menu. Early dinner on a Wednesday seemed like a perfect idea. And it was.

There was no one-NO ONE-in the restaurant when we got there. The Big Table is located in an old house, with the dining space taking up the two front rooms. I didn’t count the tables but I would estimate that there were not more than twelve (there is another house next door with the name The Big Table Too, so I don’t know if this is an overflow space or if it is currently being used-anyone else know about this?), with the official “big table” located in the room where we sat with engraved name plates. Sarah (or maybe it was Sara), the niece of the owners, explained to us that “the big table” was located in the dining room of the owner’s childhood home and the children had to wait for someone to grow up and move on before they could sit at “the big table”. There were lots of family pictures used as decor. I was immediately smitten with the space, with the family memories being recalled here.

Sarah brought us menus and a specials menu. Apparently the crab cakes are a very popular menu item, but we decided to pass on them (two ladies came in and ordered them while we were there though and were RAVING about them). There is a casserole of the day (on this day, poppy seed chicken over rice and a chicken, spinach, and red pepper casserole), a risotto of the day (I don’t remember what it was), a vegetarian entrée of the day (on that day it was a vegetarian risotto), and the chicken and fish are prepared daily with a special sauce or prep style.

I would have loved to try the risotto but at $15 I felt the price was a little steep considering that risotto is one of my home specialties. I considered the pané chicken (which was being served with a marinara sauce) and the grilled fajita marinated chicken alfredo, but I really, really wanted to try the poppy seed chicken. Poppy seed chicken is a creamy chicken casserole with mushrooms, shredded chicken, and, of course, poppy seeds. Every entrée is served with either soup of the day (today: corn chowder and vegetable beef) or a salad (house salad with pears, walnuts, feta, and raspberry vinaigrette, or Caesar). I decided on the house salad, but Sarah also brought us a cup of corn chowder to share because I had such a difficult time deciding between the house salad and the soup. I liked the soup, which definitely tasted homemade and had lots of great herby flavor. It was a thinner chowder and quite tasty but it did need a little more salt. The salad was nice…I liked the flavors together (it was similar to my Thanksgiving leftover salad!).

I really liked the poppy seed chicken. It wasn’t super-heavy as chicken casseroles can often be. There was more chicken than creamy sauce, and the sauce tasted homemade, not like processed soup. There were enough poppy seeds to taste (my more recent reading claim that eating poppy seeds will not cause you to fail a drug test, which is a good thing because I love poppy seeds.). I think poppy seeds have a great flavor; I used to work at a bagel shop and poppy seed bagels were my favorite. The rice was cooked well, not mushy, still a little chewy. I did need a little more salt in my chicken. The vegetables were fresh, nicely cooked with still a little crunch. I would have loved to have had more of the vegetables! I would love to see them serve a housemade roll or a roll from a local bakery (Bread Basket, anyone?).

Philip decided on the pot roast, which he knew he was going to order as soon as he saw it on the menu-it’s made with smoked brisket. Um, yes please. It was served with potatoes as well as the vegetable medley that I got. He decided on a Caesar salad, which was fairly nondescript. The pot roast, however, was not nondescript. It was served with a thick gravy that tasted homemade (and was well-seasoned) as well as potatoes and carrots cooked with the meat and potatoes au gratin and mixed vegetables on the side. The meat itself was perfectly tender, just short of falling apart but tender enough to cut with a fork. The potatoes were well cooked, well-seasoned, and tasted like they were actually made there and not out of a box like you might be afraid potatoes au gratin may taste. He stopped short of licking the plate, though he did give it brief consideration.

It was Wednesday night when we went, and Wednesdays are “buy one dessert, get one free” day. The desserts are homemade, and who are we to turn down buy one get one free desserts? They had chocolate chess and key lime pies as the specials, but if I see lemon bars on a menu I am pretty much obligated to order them, and Philip wanted to try the double fudge cream cheese brownie. We (or at least I, since Philip is not a huge fan of lemony desserts) felt pretty sure we’d hit the jackpot when we saw that we got two of each bar, which meant that we both got one of each….and the jackpot indeed it was. I’d say go there if for no other reason than for the desserts-the lemon bars and the brownies were both fantastic.

Our total for this visit was just under $25 pre-tip. I was really happy with our experience at The Big Table. I love small, family-owned and operated establishments. To me, The Big Table is like Red Bank’s version of Blue Ribbon Café, which many of you know is one of my very favorite places. They have a small menu, which means that they are not overwhelming themselves trying to make a million different dishes, and they serve things that a lot of other places don’t serve. They were extremely friendly and they have a pretty loyal crowd of regular diners. If you are looking for someplace just a little bit different from the mainstream, give them a try!

Personally, I am looking forward to going back to try the lunch at The Big Table sometime.

The Big Table is located at 118 Cross Street, Chattanooga, TN 37405 (like I mentioned before, just behind Merv’s). They have their own parking behind the building. They are open 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. You can call them at 423-634-0772. You can read more about them at their website, thebigtable.net and you can also find them on Facebook. They also offer catering.

Merv’s-June 5, 2013

June 9, 2013

Merv’s is a dive bar located in Red Bank, Tennessee that claims to serve the best burgers in Tennessee. Here’s what I thought.

Boy, I found out on Friday just how passionate people are about burgers. For starters, my “Chattanooga’s Top 5 Burgers According to Chattavore” post garnered me my biggest blog day thus far (and that’s in 2 years of writing this blog!). Second, I definitely stirred a few people up on Facebook. They did not agree with my opinion. That’s the beauty of blogging, though. I can write my opinion, you can write yours. Maybe I’ll change my mind, maybe not. No matter, really. Burgers are…a good thing.

The reason I start with that is because since I was student teaching in the fall of 2000 I have been hearing about the awesome burgers at Merv’s. My cooperating teacher was actually the first to tell me, and I have heard it from many, many since. The restaurant claims, in fact, to serve not just Chattanooga’s best burger but Tennessee’s best burger. As I mentioned in Friday’s post, Philip and I lived in an apartment complex on Mountain Creek Road for the first year that we were married and we never made it to Merv’s. That was a different time for me, though, and if I wanted a burger I probably went to the Burger King just a little bit farther down Mountain Creek. For shame.

My excuse for not going sometime between moving away from Mountain Creek Road in 2001 and now? I thought Merv’s was a bar and thus a smoky environment. I guess that at some point in the past this probably was the case, but (maybe because of the smoking ban that rendered the under-21 crowd unable to enter a smoking-allowed-establishment) Merv’s may be a “bar” (as in they serve beer and have darts and pool) but it is not a smoky joint. Look, they have a kids’ menu. You’re safe. I knew that if I was going to write about my opinion about Chattanooga’s top burgers, I was going to have to check out Merv’s first, so Philip and I invited one of his friends to have dinner with us at Merv’s.

First impressions? The parking lot kind of sucks. All of the spaces were full when we got there and there were actually two cars that had created their own spaces at the end. We could have made another space by the telephone pole but instead we parked kind of caddy-cornered across the street in the parking lot of the former Food Lion. I’m all about far-away parking. It’s exercise you don’t really have to think about. There are booths and tables inside, plus a bar (of course) and televisions playing various sports channels. It’s a pretty big place, sparsely decorated, with a jukebox and a crowd of people who are obviously regulars. I actually saw the servers hug a couple of people as they were leaving. One server took our drink order, but then she ended up behind the bar (and eventually in the kitchen, I think) and another very friendly girl whose name I regret I didn’t get brought our drinks out.

The menu consisted of several fried appetizers, several sandwiches (including a BLT with eight-that’s right, eight-strips of bacon), plate dinners, salads, and, of course, the burgers. I really wanted to try the fried pickles (which a friend had told me were good) but at $6.95 they cost as much as the burgers, so no…..There really was no question about what we were going to have. We went for burgers, and burgers we would have. We asked the server for recommendations about the burgers, and she recommended the bacon cheeseburger hands down. That’s what all three of us ordered (mine without onions, of course). We considered the onion rings, but since she told us that they were frozen, not homemade like the fries are, we decided to go with fries instead. She promised the large basket would be plenty for all three of us. Just as an aside…they also make homemade chips….but have bags of Lay’s and other packaged chips on a shelf behind the bar. Why someone would buy bagged chips when homemade are available is beyond me. Anyway….

It took maybe a little longer than we expected for the burgers to come out, but not really a long time. No big deal. They came out with a cup of ketchup on the side of each. The burgers were large but not the biggest I’ve seen and served on a standard sesame seed bun. Nothing fancy here. They were topped with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mayo, mustard, and ketchup. The burgers were cooked through without being overdone, juicy and just verging on greasy but not overwhelmingly so. While I consider a Tubby’s burger a 10-napkin burger, this was more of a 4-napkin burger….but that’s not a bad thing, because sometimes it can get a little ridiculous. The bun was grilled, giving it a crunchy edge, which I liked but Philip thought that was the only problem (but he just doesn’t like grilled bread or buns)-so if you don’t like grilled bread/buns, be sure to ask them not to grill yours. She wasn’t lying about the basket of fries being large….it was a large basket of fries and between me and two grown men we still had at least one or two servings left in the basket when we were done. I liked the fries, which had the skin left on. They were cooked well but not overly crisp, which is just how I like my skin-on fries. I did not feel that they were very greasy. I did, however, think they could have used a little more salt.

Merv’s is a dive, but it’s not scary or shady at all. The burgers are great. I’d be interested to try some of their other menu items but I seriously doubt I could ever bring myself to order anything else. The prices are about average. The beer list leaves something to be desired if you aren’t into cheap beer…they did have Sam Adams, Yuengling, Killian’s, and Shock Top….but other than that it was your standards…Bud, High Life, etc. We split the fries with our friend and the total for Philip’s and my meal was around $17 before tip. Not a bad price, since we were just discussing the other day that unless we go to a fast food place we generally expect to pay at least $30 once the tip is factored in. If you are looking for a good burger and fries at a decent price in the Red Bank/Signal Mountain Road area, Merv’s is a great choice (and let’s be honest, if Sofa King wants their food to be competitive with Merv’s and Tubby’s that close by, they need to step up their game)!

Merv’s is located at 713 Mountain Creek Road, Chattanooga (Red Bank), TN 37405. You can call them at 423-877-0221. They have a website (which is really just a menu with contact info and a map): http://www.mervsofchatt.com/Mervs_Restaurant_Chattanooga_TN.html. There are links on the website to Facebook and Twitter, but the Facebook link just takes you to the homepage and they only have one tweet…so right now I would really bother with the social media.

Update 2/14: Merv’s flooded not too terribly long after this post went up last summer. They were closed for remodeling for a very long time, with rumors floating around that they were permanently closed (I saw this on Urbanspoon, of all places!). Good news! The rumors were false. As of last week, Merv’s is reopened for business!

Sofa King Juicy Burger-May 31, 2013

June 2, 2013

With its wacky, off-color name and serving burgers & gourmet shakes, Sofa King Juicy Burger has (quite literally) made a name for itself in Chattanooga & beyond.

While my mom and sister were sifting through the Black Friday sale ads on Thanksgiving, I noticed a headline in the business section of TFP (Chattanooga Times Free-Press, for you non-Chattanoogans) about a new burger joint coming to the Red Bank area-Sofa King Juicy Burger. As a big SNL fan (there’s a Sofa King sketch that used to air on SNL a few years ago), I immediately broke out into laughter and ran to show the paper to Philip, who had a similar reaction.

It didn’t take long for the reaction to begin. If you don’t get the joke yet….well, I’m not going to explain it to you. I, however, am not offended in the least by expletives, real or implied, so the publicity just made me laugh even more. Sofa King even made it to Huffington Post….and so the set-up began.

As soon as the place opened in March people started asking me if I’d been yet. We actually attempted to go the week after the place opened, but the parking lot was so full that we couldn’t find a space so we just drove on to somewhere else. I definitely heard lots of opinions on the place, though. The lines instantly became legendary, and they ran out of buns on the first day, forcing an early closure and prompting a hysterical YouTube video. The thing about me, though, is that no matter how hyped a new restaurant is, I’m not going to wait 30 minutes or an hour or whatever. That’s not my style. After the “no parking” situation we quickly decided that we were going to wait for a weekday, not-during-a-meal-rush opportunity to go there. Friday I tweeted the following and Philip suggested that we could check out Sofa King:

We definitely got there at a good time. There were plenty of parking spaces and, while there were quite a few people inside, there were only a couple in front of us. Of course, you instantly notice the decor….the walls are lined with sofas and there are lots of retro signs, ads, and pictures hanging everywhere. Of course, I had to post the logo on Instagram….

There are a few specialty burgers, including a “classic”, the Awesome burger with Boursin and strawberry jam, and the Nutty burger, with peanut butter and bacon (intriguing, but I’m not sold). I considered the Awesome Burger but ultimately decided to go with something basic so I could judge the burger based on its….”burgerness”, not on an interesting combo of ingredients. I just went with the “build your own” with a beef burger (there’s also a veggie burger, which is a grilled portobello) on a white poppy seed bun with classic sauce (more or less a Thousand Island-ish dressing), cheddar ($1.00), bacon ($1.00), lettuce, tomato, and pickle. Philip decided to go with the Classic Burger-a beef burger on a white bun with lettuce, tomato, and classic sauce. Since our burgers were basically the same….I’m not going to talk about them separately. Mine’s first with the cheese and bacon. The burgers are made with grass-fed beef, which is always a plus. Each burger is made with two thin patties, which allows for a bit of a crispy edge (which I really like). The buns were very fresh and everything had a good flavor. I liked the sauce a lot….I really like the mayo-ketchup-relish combo and often add it to my burgers at home. I would rate the burger as good, and I really appreciate the use of local, grass-fed beef….but I wouldn’t place it in my “top five” (that’s gotta be a Friday list soon).

We decided to split an order of onion rings, battered with Budweiser (not PBR? What’s up, hipsters? There was a huge stack of PBR cases in a little storage area in the back….more on the beer in a minute) and Aretha Frankenstein’s pancake batter (Sofa King shares an owner with Aretha’s and Crust Pizza) and a milkshake-we decided to go with the Cat Man Du-vanilla ice cream, Himalayan sea salt, cashews, and, on the cashier’s recommendation, we added caramel to it. The onion rings were pretty good…sweet, more crumbly than I was expecting from a ring coated with pancake batter (I guess I was expecting a more tempura-like consistency). I really liked the shake (which had more of a soft-serve consistency than a shake consistency and needed to be eaten with a spoon); Philip liked it okay but said he wouldn’t really want to order it again. I really liked the sweet/salty combo of it.

Okay, back to the beer. They have a sign outside that boasts $1.00 beers. What? Okay…that’s PBR, Budweiser, or High Life. There’s no drink fountain, and those three canned beers cost less than canned Coke products (at $1.50) and are the least expensive drinks on the menu (there’s also a craft beer list for “beer snobs”, which we did not view). “Gourmet” sodas like Blue Sky are $2.50 apiece, and a Steaz coconut water is $4.95. Hmmmm. That brings me to my final verdict…

Sofa King Juicy Burger has been hyped a lot. I’ve talked to a few people who said they loved it, and I’ve heard a lot of people express disappointment in the quality of the food, and honestly I think when a place is so overly hyped you are pretty much doomed to be disappointed. I try not to let the hype get me, and I wasn’t disappointed with the food. It didn’t blow me away. I’d eat there again, but probably only if someone else was paying or I was going with a group and that’s where everyone else wanted to go. My big problem? The price. For 2 pretty basic burgers, an order of onion rings, and a milkshake (or a “liquid nitrogen milkshake”, whatever that means) we paid $25.00. I kind of feel like Sofa King Juicy Burger is all hype and not a lot of substance, and there are definitely other places that deliver food-wise without the hefty price tag. So, I didn’t hate it, and I’m not going to tell you not to go there.

Try Sofa King Juicy Burger at least once and make up your own mind….but don’t expect too much or you might be let down.

Sofa King Juicy Burger is located at 1743 Dayton Boulevard, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-490-SOFA. Check out their website: http://www.sofakingjuicyburger.com. You can also “like” them on Facebook.

Vietnamese Bistro (Dayton)-May 18, 2013

May 18, 2013

Vietnamese Bistro is a tiny and quaint Vietnamese restaurant in Dayton, Tennessee with delicious food and friendly service.

Vietnamese food is not exactly easy to come by in this area, and I’m not going to lie….the first time that I noticed a “Vietnamese Bistro” in Dayton, I was a little suspicious. Dayton is pretty much a hole in the wall sort of city, a “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” sort of place (just like my hometown of Soddy-Daisy, so I’m really not making fun) and I just had to wonder how well they could really do Vietnamese food. Which was a dumb thing to wonder because of course Vietnamese people know how to make Vietnamese food, and several months back I got an email from a reader who was raving about the Vietnamese Bistro in Dayton, telling me that it was better than Old Saigon. Well, ma’am, you have my attention, because I freaking love Old Saigon, so….

Somehow it still took us a while to get down there. I don’t really know why. I guess it’s because there’s really not a lot to do in Dayton, so the typical Saturday doesn’t really see us driving thirty minutes just to eat Vietnamese food. This week, though, I was off on Friday so we’d gotten our typical running around out of the way. We stopped at the antiques store in Sale Creek for a fruitless Fiesta ware search (lots of pieces but not a single one in a color that I want) then headed down to the Bistro.

There were a couple of tables occupied in the tiny restaurant, which was truly a blink and you’ll miss it sort of place; in fact, I had to point out the Philip exactly where it was in the former Wal-Mart complex as we drove by to park. There were probably not more than ten tables. A friendly young man told us to sit wherever we wanted then brought us menus and took our drink orders. The place is definitely about food, not atmosphere….several large photographs of Vietnamese scenes on the wall and photos of menu items under the glass on the tables is pretty much all the decoration you’ll find. I didn’t go there for atmosphere, though, so no big.

The menu is large and a little confusing to read; I actually found the to-go menu a little easier to follow for whatever reason. The regular menu begins with vegetarian selections then moves into the regular (carnivorous) selections. We decided on a couple of appetizers: 2 pork & shrimp spring rolls for $3.50 and an order of fish ball dumplings (which I never would have ordered on my own but Philip wanted to try them) for $1.99. The appetizers came out quickly, the dumplings on a skewer and drizzled with sriracha and some other sauce (hoisin, perhaps?). They tasted like…fish. The texture wasn’t weird and the flavor was fine, but I don’t know that I would order them again. But that’s just me. The spring rolls were amazing, stuffed with shrimps, a thin slice of pork, rice noodles, lettuce, and mint leaves. The mint really set off the flavor. I’ve got to make these things at home. I’m not positive what the sauce was….I want to say that the menu said it was ginger sauce, and it had fried shallots and some chili oil in it as well. It was pretty tasty and just a little spicy.

I pretty much knew before I went here that I wanted to order the phở bò (beef rice noodle soup), which is the Vietnamese national dish (by the way, that is pronounced fuh bah). I waffled briefly, though, when I saw a rice noodle salad on the menu…but in the end the regular-sized bowl of phở bò ($6.99) won out (by the way, chicken phở is called phở gà). What came to me was a gigantic bowl of broth, strips of beef, meatballs, rice noodles, onions, scallions, and cilantro, with a side dish of bean sprouts, basil, and lime, and bottles of sriracha and hoisin. I pulled the cilantro off the sprigs and dropped it in, tore up several basil leaves and dropped them in, put in a couple of handfuls of bean sprouts, and doused it with a little sriracha. This stuff was not easy to eat, because (a) it was so hot! and (b) how do you eat the noodles? Fork? Spoon? I ended up doing both, and once the soup cooled down enough I pretty much put my face in the bowl and shoveled it in (as evidenced by the photo below). The meatballs had some oddly textured little pieces in them but tasted good; the strips of beef were perfectly textured and delicious, and the broth was flavorful and perfectly seasoned. I would order this again…and again….and again.

Philip got much deeper into the entrée portion of the menu than I did, eventually settling on the thit kho (which I believe was pronounced “teet kuh”-no comments from the peanut gallery, please!) for $7.99, which was described as caramelized pork in condensed fish sauce (most of the descriptions that I found online called it caramelized pork belly, which this was not). All of the plates were served with either steamed rice or a choice of rice or egg noodles. Philip asked our server what he would recommend and he said that he usually eats it with steamed rice, so that’s what Philip ordered. It came with cucumbers (which Philip gave to me), bean sprouts, and shredded carrots on the side and a little bowl of spicy dipping sauce. It was thinly sliced, braised pork that was then caramelized and sauced with, well, a condensed fish sauce. Fish sauce is interesting stuff, very salty and stinky but delicious. The meat was indeed pretty salty and definitely had that fish sauce flavor but was tender and delicious. The rice was pretty plain (which is how Philip likes it) and the sauce on the side was spicy but not overwhelming.

A little piece of paper under the glass on the table said “desserts available, please ask your server” so we did. If there was anything disappointing about this restaurant, the dessert menu was it. I was hoping for a dessert menu like that at Old Saigon, which includes fried bananas, rice pudding, and mango sticky rice. Our server told us that sometimes they have two or three items available, but all they had that day were mung bean wontons. At $0.50 each, it was hard to pass up at least trying them, so we each ordered one. They were filled with a creamy batter made from mung bean puree and fried crisp. I was a little concerned about how the beany batter would taste, but I needn’t have been. It was just a sweet, custardy, vanilla-y paste in a perfectly crispy fried wonton. Pretty tasty and a nice sweet end to the meal.

Our total was about $24 before tip. Like I said, the atmosphere is lacking, but who cares? The food was fresh and delicious. They’ve been there for about five years and to last that long in a small town like Dayton speaks volumes about the quality.

I highly recommend that you check out Vietnamese Bistro!

Vietnamese Bistro is located at 200 Able Drive, Suite 11, Dayton, TN 37321. You can call them at 423-570-0100 or 423-285-7106. They are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Since they are located in a larger shopping complex, there are curb cuts that allow for wheelchair accessibility, but the very cramped quarters would keep this from being an easy/comfortable place for a diner who uses a wheelchair.