Restaurants Archives - Page 42 of 49

Julie Darling Donuts-April 14, 2012

April 17, 2012

Boy, Saturday was a big day for us! After we finished our great lunch at Niko’s, we headed over to the North Shore to get some donuts from Julie Darling. I’m not sure why we hadn’t been yet…I saw an article about them when they opened in 2010 and immediately wanted to go. So….we finally made it.

We went on Saturday afternoon (around three p.m.) and they did not have the red velvet donut, which, according to the brochure we picked up, is their “signature”. I wanted to cry….I’m pretty much obsessed with all things red velvet (strange, I know, for someone who tries to avoid food dyes…but it’s not something I eat on a regular basis) and I knew when I read about it in the aforementioned article that I would be ordering that. So….I was completely thrown off by the fact that it wasn’t available. It took me a few minutes to make a decision…they had glazed (yeast-raised) doughnuts, cake donuts (iced/uniced), and a variety of filled donuts. We each chose two and brought them home (we were far too stuffed to eat them there).

After I dried my tears and pulled myself together, I decided to get a lemon-filled donut and a ‘nana pudding donut. Truth be told, I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for a really good filled donut (cake donuts are my favorite-not a huge fan of glazed). The lemon was lightly glazed and the ‘nana pudding had a little glaze and some powdered sugar icing with crushed vanilla wafers on top. I was concerned that the vanilla wafers would get soggy but needn’t have been concerned-I saved half of each donut until Sunday and the wafers were fine. Anyway, the ‘nana pudding was far and away my favorite from these two. There was no actually banana in the donut, but rather a creamy banana-flavored filled, like pudding or the filling from a cream pie. It was smooth and banana-y but not overly so. Not that the lemon wasn’t good….I just didn’t find it to be head and shoulders above other lemon-filled donuts I’ve had in my lifetime. The lemon flavor of the technicolor filling was very strong and bright….I think I would have liked it better if it had been a little milder, like a homemade lemon curd. Still, the doughnut was extremely fresh and no doubt had better ingredients than what you might find in your standard chain doughnut shop….

Unlike me, Philip is a fool for a glazed donut, and a day-old Krispy Kreme is pretty much his idea of heaven on earth…so, of course, he decided on a plain glazed donut. For his other donut he chose (surprise!) the pancakes and bacon donut, which is a yeast-raised donut with maple glaze and bacon topping. Philip liked both of his donuts, but did say that the bacon on the pancakes and bacon donut seemed a little “dry”…I’m wondering if it was from sitting in the case (according to a post I read on another blog, the bacon is cooked in the shop). There certainly was a lot of it….I’d like to know just how they crush it so finely! He preferred the glazed donut, because, like I said, he’s just a glazed donut kinda guy. He did say that he didn’t like it as much as Krispy Kreme. I would probably disagree with him if I were to compare the two, but he really, really loves Krispy Kreme. I don’t understand, but I guess it’s a nostalgia thing (also, he is not a “hot and fresh” Krispy Kreme guy….he likes them a day old and a little crusty. Weirdo.).

I haven’t been enamored with the national donut chain (that shall remain unnamed) that has recently reemerged in the Chattanooga area. It’s not that I have a problem with them or their donuts…I mean, I’ll eat them if they’re offered (and it’s a flavor I like)….but I guess it just annoys me that everyone makes such a big flipping deal about a huge chain that’s good but not stellar, when we have local gems like this we could support (I feel the same way about a very large coffee chain….sorry to offend anyone!). If we spend a little time rooting out local options, we might (ahem, probably would) realize that those options are the best options in every way. So, get some donuts from Julie Darling!

Julie Darling Donuts is located at 121 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-591-3737. They do not have a website, but you can “like” them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Niko’s Restaurant-April 14, 2012 CLOSED

April 16, 2012

****Note: Sadly, Niko’s Restaurant closed in December 2012****

God bless Groupon. I have mentioned Living Social before….we’ve gotten a couple of deals there before….and Saturday’s trip to Niko’s was thanks in part to a $30 deal that we purchased for $15 through Groupon.

We’ve been to Niko’s once before, probably around 2007 or 2008, when it was still called “Niko’s Southside Grille” (the location used to be just Southside Grille, before it was bought by Niko). We really liked it, so I am not really certain why it took us this long to go back, but Groupon led us back.

We arrived at Niko’s at some time around 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon and were seated immediately. The only other diners were a couple of ladies a few tables down who left soon after we got there and a sizeable group of boisterous older people in an adjacent room. I immediately took note of the decor….dark walls, dark draperies, dark wood, dark floors. My kind of place. I think Philip and I missed our calling to be Goth people…or Emo…whatev. Anyway, it was the dark, dramatic look that I would love to have more of in my home, and I was impressed.

Since we had a fair amount of money to spend, I knew that I wanted to get an appetizer. We considered the broiled feta with olive oil, thyme, honey, and crushed pecans served with crostinis (dear heavens, I’ll be making that at home ASAP); the fried green tomatoes topped with prosciutto, spinach, and herbed goat cheese and roasted tomato vinaigrette; and the risotto balls-mozzarella rolled in arborio rice and panko crumbs and fried, served with marinara (and also known as arancini) before we settled on the spinach and cheese pies (spanakopita) with feta, romano, and kasseri cheeses wrapped in filo (phyllo) pastry. Now, these were amazingly delicious but not exactly what I was expecting…I was actually expecting the cheese and spinach to be together in the pastries, but two of the pastries were spinach and two were filled with cheese (which I’ve always known as tiropitakia….my friend Kathy, who is Greek, used to bring them to us at work from her parents’ restaurant). Truth be told, I think they should serve just the tiropitakia as an appetizer item! I could eat my weight in them. Amazing.

We both decided on house salads, which is a pretty big deal because, while I am usually a house salad (if it’s a good house salad) kinda girl, Philip is definitely a Caesar kinda guy….but it’s hard to turn down sugared pecans, dried cranberries, and gorgonzola on mixed greens. Very, very hard. The only thing missing from this luscious salad was bacon. Oh well, you can’t have it all. I’ll tell you a secret, though. I ate my portion of the appetizer and every bite of this salad. Every bite. It had the perfect proportion of sweet cranberries, crunchy pecans, and pungent cheese with a perfect vinaigrette. We were also served a plate of warm focaccia “sticks” with a light dipping oil-light olive oil perhaps? Not positive. It had a very light flavor, so it could have been a combination of light olive oil and another vegetable oil.

Now, I love pretty much anything served on a pita, and I contemplated the chicken souvlaki….I wanted to try the Greek fries (seasoned with oregano, cracked pepper, and sea salt and served with lemon and tzatziki-man, I love tzatziki). However, the porcini mushroom ravioli with red peppers, spinach, and a roasted red pepper-garlic cream sauce kept calling my name. I asked my server for a recommendation and didn’t even get my sentence all the way out before he told me I should definitely get the ravioli. Good call, sir, good call. The dark, rich mushroom filling of the ravioli played perfectly with the red pepper bite of the sauce, and the veggies were cooked perfectly, not too crispy but not soggy either. I’ll have to order the souvlaki at some point, but this was definitely the right decision.

Philip decided on the chicken piccata, a grilled chicken breast with a light lemon butter and caper sauce, served on a bed of Riverview Farm grits with a side of sauteed spinach. I thought that grits were an interesting (in a good way!) choice instead of the “usual” rice, and these grits were creamy and delicious (and local!). The chicken had a nice grilled flavor, but perhaps crossed a tiny bit over the line between “perfectly cooked” and “slightly dry”. Not too much so-it was still very tasty-but a little bit. That’s a fine line, my friends. The lemony sauce was perfectly done. Philip said the spinach was, well…spinach. Here we go, people….I make a mean sauteed spinach, and he just didn’t think it was quite as well seasoned or as flavorful as mine. Not bad, though.

Niko’s is one of the Chattanooga area restaurants that is really making an effort to feature locally grown/raised food. I applaud them for that, and hope that many others will follow suit. The food is delicious and fresh, and if you don’t care for Greek food, I assure you that you will find something on their menu that suits you. If you haven’t been, I encourage you to give Niko’s a chance!

Niko’s is located at 1400 Cowart Street, Chattanooga, TN 37408. You can call them at 423-266-6511. Visit their website, eatatnikos.com (but be aware that only their dinner menu is featured on the website) or “like” them on Facebook.

Jacob Myers Restaurant on the River (Dayton, TN)-April 6, 2012

April 7, 2012

We visited Jacob Myers based on recommendations from several people. Honestly, I hadn’t even heard of it until a few weeks ago when a friend posted on Facebook that she was going there for her birthday! Suddenly, I had people recommending it left and right. Jacob Myers is located in Dayton, Tennessee just off of Dayton Pike/Highway 27. I mean, you hang a right and it’s pretty much right there. It’s by a camping/picnic area and right across the street from a body of water that apparently is a river…although I’m not sure which one. Is this a branch of the Tennessee River? I’m feeling kind of dumb, but I couldn’t find this info on a map. Someone help me out!

We were fairly hungry fairly early, so we decided to head up to Dayton before the dinner rush hit. Jacob Myers serves lunch from 11-4 and dinner from 4-close, except for Sunday, when I am assuming that they serve from the dinner menu all day (11-6). We arrived at about 4:50 and were seated immediately. It was a beautiful breezy day, so we decided to sit on the deck. Our server, Kevin, came to take our drink orders when we’d had just enough time to peruse the menu and decide on an appetizer-fried pickles, which came with something called “spicy boom boom sauce”. The fried pickles were spears, which is my preference, and they were breaded, not battered. They were hot but not so hot that we burned our mouths, which is a good thing. The sauce was a mayo based sauce with something spicy, presumably some sort of pepper or buffalo sauce, mixed in. It was spicy but not overly so. The pickles were good, but still not the best I’ve had (alas, Durty Nelly’s, long since closed, will probably always hold that honor).

On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to get the dreamy mushroom chicken, which the menu describes as “a delectable blend of crème, button mushrooms and diced Tomatoes with a hint of
cayenne and garlic atop a whole grilled boneless chicken breast.” I decided on a loaded baked potato and side salad with tarragon vinegar dressing as my sides. The salad came out first, and it was pretty blah (see the picture below). Iceberg lettuce, carrot shreds, and a few cucumbers and tomatoes. I’ll be honest, it takes a lot to wow me with a house salad, and this one just wasn’t doing it. The dressing was okay, but the tarragon flavor was pretty strong and I’m not a gigantictarragon fan (I know, why’d I get it? I just wanted to try something a little different). The entree was huge with a lot of sauce. The first thing that I noticed was the gigantic slices of green onion. I like green onions, but I prefer them finely chopped. The next thing I noticed was that the “butter” on the baked potato was actually, um, buttery spread. A huge scoop of it. I promptly removed most of it. You know I don’t do margarine. So, there are my recommendations: use real butter and chop the scallions a little more! But I digress…now that I have the constructive criticism out of the way, let me tell you what I did like.

The sauce was nice, not overly salty, just enough so. The garlic flavor was not overpowering and there was just a tiny heat at the “back” of the bite from the cayenne. The mushrooms were very tender and flavorful. There was parmesan cheese grated on top, which I am sure I would have done if I was making this dish at my house. Honestly, I was a little unsure of how I would like the diced tomatoes on top of the chicken…it seemed like an odd addition to me. I really liked it! The tomatoes tasted very fresh and were nice and cool compared to the warm sauce. The chicken was nicely grilled and seasoned under the sauce. I would order this again. The baked potato was huge, and aside from the buttery spread, it was very tasty and fresh, unlike the baked potatoes you sometimes get that taste like they have been sitting around under a warmer all day.

Philip had a little trouble decided what to order. He (jokingly) considered the 16 oz. ribeye, then a burger, then the Reuben. On Kevin’s recommendation, he decided to go with the Jacob Myers burger, “a half pound angus burger topped with cheese, bacon, egg and crowned w/ a huge homemade onion ring.” Now, if you read my 60/40 burger post, you know we are not strangers to the idea of an egg on a burger. It’s a perfect combo! The presentation is meant to be pretty awe-inspiring with the big knife stuck through the thick onion ring. The onion ring had a nice tempura batter on it that was just a little sweet. The burger had a grilled taste and had lettuce, tomato, and onion on it. It was a tasty burger, not over-the-top good, but definitely good. The fries were just regular old frozen fries (I think) but tasted fine.

One of my friends had also told me that you can’t go to Jacob Myers without eating dessert. We were way too full to eat dessert there, but we ordered it to go. Kevin rattled off a list of about five cheesecakes (the only one I remember was pineapple upside-down….I pretty much tuned those out because Philip hates cheesecake), the chocolate thing (chocolate pudding and Cool Whip and some other stuff), coconut praline pie, buckeyes, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal creme pies, and brownies. We decided on the buckeyes, which are peanut butter fudge balls dipped in chocolate candy coating. I was expecting something small (truffle-sized) but these were huge! If you’ve ever eaten peanut butter fudge, imagine eating it with a chocolate coating on it. Sweet and rich-we had to drink glasses of milk to tamp down the sweetness! Still, good.

I am not saying this was an out-of-this-world dining experience….but the ambiance is nice, especially with the outdoors dining…the staff was friendly, and Kevin was a great server. The food was definitely good. I’ve been told that I need to go for lunch as well, so I will be visiting them during lunch hours at some point in the future. If you are ever in Dayton and need a dining spot, this is a great place to go!

Jacob Myers Restaurant on the River is located at 185 Chickamauga Drive, Dayton, TN 37321. You can call them at 423-570-0023. They serve lunch from 11-4, Tuesday-Saturday, and dinner from 4-9 Tuesday-Thursday, 4-10 Friday and Saturday, and 11-6 on Sunday. Visit their website, www.jacobmyersrestaurant.com, and find them on Facebook. By the way, to avoid any confusion, the restaurant is also known as Jacob Myers Deli.

Blue Ribbon Cafe, Revisited-March 27, 2012

March 29, 2012

Would I totally destroy my credibility as a reviewer if I write a review about Blue Ribbon Cafe every single time I go there? Man, I love that place. I feel like it’s my “hometown restaurant”. I guess it is, really….it has a true smalltown feel and I see someone I know almost every time I go there. I might…in fact probably would….even go so far as to say that it’s my favorite restaurant.

This visit I was with my mom and my cousin, as Philip was working out of town on Tuesday. I met them there around 6:45. There weren’t a ton of people there, but it wasn’t close to empty either. We sat down and Dianne, the owner, quickly took our drink order. It took me forever to decide what to order. The special of the day was chicken and dressing with corn and okra, and they also had chicken carbonara and a few other dishes featured on their blackboard. I also contemplated “Forrest Gump’s Favorite” (shrimp & grits) or chicken or shrimp alfredo.

In the end, though, I decided I wanted some fries and decided to go with “The Hippie”. The Hippie is shaved ribeye with grilled onions and red and green peppers and tzatziki sauce on warm pita bread. I love all of the above, and this is one of my go-to meals at BRC. It’s huge, and I always eat the whole thing. And I never feel bad about it…because it’s worth it. The meat is shaved so thinly, seasoned and cooked perfectly. The tzatziki doesn’t have a really strong garlicky or cucumbery flavor but works really well with the meat and the charred veggies. The pocketless, soft pita bread is one of my favorite things, and if anyone knows where I can purchase some, please let me know. I haven’t found anything comparable and haven’t found a recipe I like. Of course, I can’t get enough of their handcut fries….this is one of my favorite places to eat fries!

My mom and cousin both went for the ribeye wrap, which is, as you might assume from the name, shaved ribeye with cheese, lettuce, and cusabi (cucumber and wasabi) dressing. I think there might have been some onion on there, too. Anyway, it’s all wrapped up in a tortilla and served with a side (I didn’t mention this before, but all of the sandwiches come with fries, sweet potato fries, housemade chips, potato salad, or okra. Maybe slaw, too….I don’t remember. I always order fries!). I tasted my mom’s and it was really delicious, with the perfect meat just like on my sandwich. The dressing had a very faint spicy, wasabi flavor…definitely not overpowering. I should have opened the wrap up to take the picture, but completely forgot!

On the dessert menu that night, they had Coca-Cola cake, carrot cake, and carmalicious brownies. Dianne recommended the carrot cake, but I wanted some Coca-Cola cake to share with Philip (with some of the homemade coffee ice cream I made Saturday!). Dianne slipped a small piece of carrot cake in my bag too, though. Both were delicious. Coca-Cola cake is one of my favorites….so chocolately and sweet. However, if I had to choose between these two desserts, I would choose the carrot cake. It had pineapples and nuts (walnuts or pecans? I couldn’t decide which.) and a perfect cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese frosting makes anything better! Well, almost. Today Blue Ribbon posted a picture of a pink lemonade cake on Facebook. I’m gonna have to try that one out!

Maybe one of these days Pioneer Woman will post her coffee ice cream recipe on her blog and I can link you to it! It's better than store-bought!

If you haven’t been to Blue Ribbon Cafe, I’m not sure what you are waiting for! They are located at 9705 Dayton Pike, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. They can be reached at 423-332-5005. You can find them on Facebook. They are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday-Friday. That’s the only thing I don’t like about them-I wish they were open on weekends (or at least Saturdays)!

Taco Roc-March 24, 2012

March 26, 2012

Last week, I asked for suggestions for some places we could go to eat for this review, and, while there were many great suggestions, I ended up going somewhere that wasn’t suggested. We needed to go to a few places in the Hamilton Place area, so we decided to go to Taco Roc…we’d been wanting to go there for a while. We’ve heard many wonderful things about Taco Roc for several years, but after we heard that they were owned by the same people who own Delia’s, we knew we had to go!

When we arrived, there were only a couple of other tables filled…but, hey, it was not even 11:30 in the morning, so no surprise there! Sure enough, the menu was the same menu from both Delia’s locations. Unlike the sit-down Delia’s in Dayton, you don’t place your order at your table…you walk up to the counter and order, then they give you a number and bring the food to your table. There is a drink fountain (we got water, of course) and you can also order beer, a bottled Mexican soda (those things are GOOOOD if you’ve never had one!), and there were a couple of homemade-looking beverages in large beverage dispensers behind the counter. One was white, one was orange, and I wish that I had asked what they were…but I didn’t. There is also a little condiment bar with a few types of salsa (salsa verde, some sort of roasted tomato salsa, and a red, presumably hot sauce), shredded cheese, sliced jalapenos, some sort of whole pepper, cilantro, and a few other things.

I decided to order the flautas. I’ve seen them on the menu at Delia’s and wanted to try them, but since we always have to bring it home and flautas are deep-fried, I wasn’t too sure they would taste great once I got them home. I decided to have mine with steak (the other options were chicken or a mix with steak, chicken, and shrimp). Anyway, flautas are meat and cheese rolled into a flour tortilla and deep fried, then halved and topped with pico de gallo and queso fresco. The flautas were served on a bed of lettuce with a chipotle cream sauce. The steak at Taco Roc is seasoned and grilled perfectly. The cheese fried in the flautas was nice and melty, gooey, and stringy. I love queso fresco, which is very similar to feta. The chipotle cream sauce was quite delish, but a little spicy for my wimpy taste buds, so I didn’t eat a lot of it. I really liked the pico de gallo. It’s interesting, I hate raw onions but they don’t bother me in pico! This was a great dish, and I ate 3 of the 4 pieces of it!

Philip decided to order the tacos platter with Mexican sausage (chorizo). The menu says that the tacos platter comes with ground beef or chicken, but the cashier told Philip that he could choose any meat that he wanted. He has tried the steak and the barbacoa (shredded beef) and liked both of them, but he loves their chorizo. He decided to have them with flour tortillas. The tacos were what I would almost call overstuffed. Philip couldn’t finish them because they were so full of chorizo! He loved the beans, which, as I have mentioned before, are very fresh with no nasty skin on top. The rice was good too, but unlike Delia’s rice it had peas in it. I guess each location has its own approach! Anyway, we were both completely stuffed once we were finished.

The only (sort of) negative thing I can say about Taco Roc is that their chips were not quite as fresh as the ones we’ve had at Delia’s. They definitely weren’t bad, but at Delia’s they always taste like they were just fried. These tasted like they had been fried, I don’t know, maybe the day before or first thing in the morning. Oh well….we still ate them all!

So, we have completed the trifecta. Delia’s Soddy-Daisy, Delia’s Dayton, and Taco Roc. So far, the three best Mexican restaurants we’ve been to! I strongly urge you to try them-all of them!

Taco Roc is located at 6960 Lee Highway, Chattanooga, TN 37421. You can reach them at 423-653-1001. You can find them online at http://eltacoroc.com or on Facebook. They are open from 10-9 Monday through Saturday and 10-8 Sunday.

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