Restaurants Archives - Page 29 of 49

Food Love from Scratch at Dish T’Pass

June 11, 2013

Dish T’Pass is a cooking school and catering company located in downtown Chattanooga and serving up “Food Love From Scratch”.

Back in November I got a new follower on Twitter who piqued my interest. Her name was Amanda Varnell and her website was http://dishtpass.com. I was intrigued by the domain name and decided to do a little investigation…and discovered that Dish T’Pass was the name of a catering company and soon-to-be-cooking-school in Chattanooga. How had I not heard of this before? I sent Amanda a direct message and we decided that it was imperative that we get together for a chat. I headed down to their location on 6th Street that weekend (Small Business Saturday, to be exact) with my camera in tow.

Sarah Hooper, Amanda’s business partner, was not there when I was visiting, but Amanda was kind enough to give me the rundown of exactly what it was they were trying to do. Dish T’Pass began as CookingLIVE, a catering & cooking instruction operation that Amanda started in 2006 and Sarah joined a little later down the road. After several doors of opportunity shut, it became apparent that the proverbial window had been opened at the former location of the St. Barnabas nursing home, which was being turned into the Chattanooga WorkSpace-a space for local artists. Food is art, of course, and Amanda and Sarah immediately fell in love with the well-worn kitchen, seeing beyond the ceiling caked with grease from years of use and the industrial-sized fryer to see the potential of a space that, it turns out, was perfect for their dream to become a reality (I took “before” pictures but they did not turn out well).

Dish T’Pass opened for business in this location in December 2012. Because of all the construction in the WorkSpace, they couldn’t immediately begin offering cooking classes…but this provided the perfect opportunity for them to really begin expanding their catering business. They have built up a sizable clientele among the downtown lunch crowd, with several offices coming to them again and again for their fabulous boxed lunches, which include amazing sandwiches (made on Bread Basket bread), chips, fruit, a scratch-made cookie, and a drink.

Eventually they were able to open their space up to begin serving lunch from each day, including sandwiches, salads, and a hot option. They do their best to accommodate their customers special requests, something that they are, as moms, used to doing. The food that they serve is made from scratch, with love, and Amanda and Sarah are determined that while they want their business to grow, they never want to get to the point where the quantity affects the quality of the food they are able to provide.

A very attractive feature of Dish T’Pass is their FoodLove case. Teeming with small, single-serving items like Coke products, fruit, and Greek yogurt as well as family-sized servings of stuffed peppers, “Olive You” bread, baked potato halves, and take & bake cookie dough (made in-house, of course), the FoodLove case was a study in resistance for me. I already had dinner planned but so badly wanted to bring home some of their smoky chicken salad or maybe some of their bacony pimento cheese for dinner. I did not do so that day, but I plan on going back for lunch very soon and will probably be bringing home a few things from the case when I do.

Since construction has slowed on their building and they have firmly established their catering business, lunch service, and grab-and-go case, Amanda and Sarah started in May focusing on building their cooking school. They have a variety of classes on the schedule, including a grilling workshop, a kids’ camp series, and several teen classes. Their classes geared toward kids and teens are meant to be fun but also provide real, functional skills that can be applied to getting an actual meal on the table. And guess what!?! Yours truly may be teaching a food photography class soon!

Dish T’Pass has been a true labor of love for these ladies and when you talk to them about it you can sense that this place is a part of them.

It’s truly the fulfillment of their dream. From their beautiful logo and the handwritten chalkboard calendar in the kitchen to the floral table runners and the scratch-made items in the FoodLove case, Amanda and Sarah have thought out every detail of this space, this menu, this business…and it shows.

Dish T’Pass is located at 302 W. 6th Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402 (in the Chattanooga WorkSpace building and former location of St. Barnabas). They are located toward the back of the building on the side and have their own separate entrance as well as some parking spaces allotted for them. You can call them at 423-309-5353 or email for more info at Foodlove@dishtpass.com. You can read more about Amanda and Sarah, check out their class schedule, and find out details about their catering services, menu, and boxed lunches at their website, http://www.dishtpass.com. You can “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter and Pinterest.

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!

Chattanooga’s Top Five Burgers (According to Chattavore)

June 7, 2013

While I’ve updated the list (see my new Top Ten), this is my original list of Chattanooga’s Top FIVE burgers – according to Chattavore, anyway!

*****Please note that this post has been edited since the original publishing. Based on the fact that Tremont Tavern started grinding their own beef for burgers after I ate there, I decided that I had not really tried one of their burgers. See below for details!*****

*****Also, while I couldn’t find a link, Tubby’s failed a restaurant inspection in late 2013 or early 2014. Again, I couldn’t find the link but apparently they passed a re-inspection with an 89? I told you it was a dive. Anyway, just didn’t want to catch any flak about this. UPDATE: Tubby’s closed in 2014 or 2015.*****

I’m not sure when it happened.

When I was younger, sure….I liked burgers. They weren’t something that made me want to turn cartwheels, though. At some point in my adult life, though…something changed.

If I had to choose my “top” food, burgers would definitely be in the running…along with popcorn. And maybe pasta with alfredo sauce (have I really not written about that yet?).

Anyway, last week’s jaunt to Sofa King Juicy Burger really got my readers talking about Chattanooga burgers. The consensus is definitely this: a good burger is not about hype. As Ron Swanson of Parks and Recreation said, “It’s a hamburger made out of meat on a bun with nothing. Add ketchup if you want, I couldn’t care less.” A good burger doesn’t need a lot of frufru-ness. It just needs to be good. And here are my top five “goooooood” burgers (my requirements, by the way, were that (a) the burger must be beef; (b) the restaurant must be local; and (c) the burger must be on the menu every day, not a special).

5. Tubby’s Real Burgers

My husband likes to say that when you walk into Tubby’s you’re initially afraid that you’re going to get hepatitis. It might not be as bad as all that, but it’s definitely a dive, pretty run down, which is funny since this location was built to replace the tiny hole in the wall location where Tubby’s was when I first started eating at Tubby’s while working at Monkey Business on the North Shore in 1999.

I used to order the chicken fingers when I went there because Tubby’s honey mustard is awesome, but after Philip had their burger on our review visit, I started ordering either the cheeseburger or the bacon cheeseburger. This is a ten-napkin cheeseburger. It’s (a) gigantic; and (b) super, super drippy. No frills, just burger goodness. And since Philip and I can eat there for less that $15, it’s definitely a bargain.

Tubby’s Real Burgers is located at 710 Cherokee Boulevard, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-265-0069.

4. Southern Burger Company

I’m not sure if Southern Burger was the first food truck in Chattanooga or if Famous Nater’s was….but Southern Burger was the first one that I heard about. Because I’d been hearing about the food truck trend for a while on some Food Network and Cooking Channel shows, I remember jumping up and down with excitement (well, at least inside my head) when I heard about it. You know what, though? I’ve never, never had a burger from the Southern Burger truck. I never went there until they opened their Warehouse Row food court location.

Southern Burger offers several specialty burgers or a build-your-own option. The burgers consist of a thin patty, cooked perfectly to obtain crispy edges but retaining just a slight bit of pinkness in the middle. Now that’s talent. They’re served on a slightly sweet Bread Basket bun, which I love because it seems like everyone else uses Niedlov’s (not that there’s anything wrong with that-I love Niedlov’s!). Philip likes to order the Jalapeño burger, with bacon jam and jalapeño slices, and I like the classic burger with cheddar subbed for American cheese and their stellar bacon jam added to it. Yum. This makes me want to go to Southern Burger right now and have a burger with bacon jam.

Southern Burger has two locations: Warehouse Row, 111o Market Street, FC-5, Chattanooga, TN 37402 (423-825-4919) and their new Ooltewah location at 9453 Bradmore Lane, Ooltewah, TN 37363. Follow the truck on Facebook and Twitter. You can also find their website at http://www.southernburgerco.com.

3. Merv’s

I first heard of Merv’s (review coming Sunday!) when I was student-teaching and my cooperating teacher told me that the best burger around was at Merv’s on Mountain Creek Road. Back then, it was a bar and I heard that it was a little bit shady. In fact, one of our friends told us that while he liked their burgers, he wouldn’t want his wife to go there without him. Philip and I lived on Mountain Creek Road for our first year of marriage and we never even considered going in there. We’d been thinking about it a lot lately but thought it was still a bar and thus we would have to dodge cigarette smoke…but it turns out that Merv’s has a kids’ menu so no cigarette smoke (you must be 21 or older to go to Merv’s after 9 p.m., though). We had to go to Merv’s before I could write this list since about a thousand people had told us they had the best burgers in town.

We went with a friend and each of us ordered a bacon cheeseburger (with American cheese). We shared a gigantic basket of fries, but you’ll get to hear more about that on Sunday. The burgers were large and, like the Tubby’s burger, very drippy, served on just a basic sesame seed bun. The bacon was crisp and everything was perfectly cooked. Obviously you can see by their spot on this list that Merv’s did not qualify as my top burger….but as soon as I took the first bite I knew they belonged somewhere on my top five list. It’s a great burger, and if it’s been a while since you’ve been in, the atmosphere is definitely not a scary bar atmosphere (though I’ve heard some say that they liked it better back then!).

Merv’s is located at 713 Mountain Creek Road, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-877-0221. Check out their website: http://www.mervsofchatt.com/Mervs_Restaurant_Chattanooga_TN.html.

2. The Terminal

I don’t think that it’s any secret that Terminal BrewHouse is probably my favorite restaurant. I love their pot roast nachos and their West by God salad with sliced steak and French fries….but my favorite is their burger. (A few commentors on Facebook have gotten a little torn up about me choosing the Terminal when I made the statement that they were my favorite restaurant….feeling like I was playing favorites. Let me clarify: the burger was definitely the menu item that solidified their status as my favorite…before Chattavore ever existed.)

The Terminal serves a bison burger, a black bean burger, and a “Philosopher’s burger” with ground lamb. Philip loves the bison burger, but I can’t bring myself to order anything but the plain old beef burger. Not that it’s plain old anything. I like mine with Gouda cheese and bacon, a half-pound of beef that I ask them to cook medium-well, served on a Niedlov’s bun with lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion (that I have removed, of course), mayo, and mustard. Perfection. Drippy but not too much so, with a delicious grilled flavor. Love it love it love it.

The Terminal BrewHouse is located at No.6 14th Street, Chattanooga, TN 37408 (right next door to the Chattanooga Choo Choo). They can be contacted at 423-752-8090. Check out their website and their Facebook page.

1. Tremont Tavern

I knew that I had to try Tremont Tavern after a friend whose burger opinion I trust very much told me that they had one of his favorite burgers. While burgers are not the only item on the menu at Tremont, they are definitely the “specialty” of this tiny neighborhood haunt in North Chattanooga.

After considering a Chuck Fisher burger (with guacamole), I decided that my obsession with pimento cheese warranted a pimento burger, with homemade pimento cheese (one of my favorite things) and bread and butter pickles on a Niedlov’s bun. Philip decided on a jalapeno jack burger, with fresh jalapeno, bacon, ancho cilantro dressing, pepperjack cheese, green leaf lettuce, sliced tomato, and red onion. The ingredients were very fresh, the pimento cheese homemade, and the meat perfectly caramelized on the outside while not too done in the center (perfect temperature). The meat was juicy enough to make the bun bottom a little soggy, which is a very good thing. Since my review of Tremont, they have started cutting and grinding their own meat and hand-pattying their burgers fresh every morning. You had me at grinding your own meat, Tremont Tavern. I wonder if they would be number one on my list now, and I will be in very soon to check it out. I promise.

I returned to Tremont on 6/20/13. I was not disappointed. I will post a full rundown of this visit as my regular Sunday review (Tremont, you are one of the few restaurants that has gotten a “revisit review”!) but just to give you some detail, I tried the Gouda burger (on a friend’s recommendation), Philip got the Dirty Gomez (50% beef, 50% housemade chorizo), and our friend Brian (who also accompanied us to Merv’s) had the jalapeño Jack. We were all raving over our burgers and I had to go wash my hands when I finished my Gouda burger. That’s a sign of a good burger, folks. And yes, I ate the whole thing. I think it is disrespectful to a great burger to leave any on the plate….thank God I still have a quick metabolism! We talked to the owner, Dustin, for several minutes about the meat-grinding process. Basically they use a whole shoulder clod, cut away the nasty stuff that people don’t want to eat (which is one of the little details that really sets their meat apart….factory ground meat just has that stuff ground right on into it), grind the meat and the fat separately, and then weigh the meat and fat and make an 80/20 mix (80/20 is widely accepted as the best ratio for burgers). I think this really sets their burgers apart. The meat is so much fresher than most places, and it gives them a claim to fame that most other restaurants don’t have. I, for one, am sold.

Tremont Tavern is located at 1203 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can contact them at 423-266-1996. You can “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Some honorable mentions include the “This Bacon is the Jam Burger” from The Honest Pint, which I would love more if it was made with cheddar rather than blue cheese, and the Blue Ribbon Café burger, which was not eligible for the list because it’s a special, only available on Friday, and Dub’s Place in Red Bank. It should also be noted that I didn’t include Southern Star’s burger, which used to be a special but is now on the regular menu. I had it years ago and loved it….but I’ll have to try it again to make sure my feelings are still the same. I have also been told that a burger list from someone who has not tried a Zarzour’s burger is basically not valid. Perhaps I’ll have to do a “Top Ten” burgers list eventually!

In preparation for this list, I decided to poll Chattavore’s Twitter and Facebook followers on their favorites. Urban Stack won by one vote, with Tremont Tavern coming in second, and Terminal and Merv’s one vote behind Tremont for third. Also garnering multiple votes were Tubby’s, Blacksmith’s Bistro, and Kevin Brown’s Burgers in Ooltewah, which apparently I must try very soon.

I have to know, Chattanooga. What do you think are Chattanooga’s Top Five burgers?

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.

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