Restaurants Archives - Page 6 of 49

Kabob-Ster

February 8, 2017

Kabob-ster is a quick service Middle Eastern/Mediterranean restaurant in East Brainerd, Tennessee, near Hamilton Place Mall.

Sometimes Sundays can be a little bit of a wash for me as far as cooking goes. Hey, it’s the weekend. All I want to do is park myself on the couch and read cookbooks and have food delivered to my house. Alas, my delivery options are pizza (good, but I don’t want pizza all the time) or Dinner Delivered, and I can’t hang with those delivery charges.

Anyway, last Sunday I didn’t plan lunch. I knew what we were having for dinner (this soup from The Cookie Rookie but lunch hadn’t even crossed my mind. We wanted to head to McKay’s to look at books, so since we were going to be on that side of town we decided to check out Kabob-Ster. Kabob-Ster has been on my list for a while, but their location is a little bit prohibitive because we despise Gunbarrel traffic.

Sunday afternoon turned out to be a pretty good time to head out there. It was about 1:30 by the time we got there, which meant that any threat of a “church crowd” had passed. There were several tables occupied but no one in line to order food, so we headed up to place our order. I think they may have been playing catch-up from a little bit of a lunch rush because it did take a bit for our food to come out, but not an annoyingly long time. They also have call-ahead ordering and a drive-thru if you aren’t feeling a wait.

I am a bit of a falafel fanatic, so I decided to go for the falafel plate, with five pieces of falafel and tahini dipping sauce, hummus and pita wedges, and tabbouleh salad. I thought that the falafel was delicious – very crunchy, well-seasoned, and flavorful, and the sauce was a nice cool, creamy foil to the crispy, hot falafel. The hummus was smooth and creamy as well…so much more creamy than I can ever coax my hummus into being. I must work on this. The tabbouleh was good, with a great balance between the vegetable and herbal elements and the bulgur – too often tabbouleh is too much bulgur and not enough of the other stuff. My only complaint was that the pita was a little bit dry, but it got the job (of shoveling hummus into my face) done.

Philip decided to go for the beef shawarma wrap, and honestly, even though my falafel was delicious, I was feeling a little bit jelly of that wrap. It had thinly shaved beef cooked shawarma style with tahini sauce, onions, tomatoes, and pickles. The wrap was grilled and a little bit crispy, and everything was extremely flavorful.

We decided to get some baklava to take home – traditional baklava with walnuts, pistachio baklava, and cashew baklava. I didn’t remember to take pictures of them, but they were relatively inexpensive – about $1.50 apiece. They were all tasty but the traditional walnut baklava was our favorite.

Location notwithstanding, Kabob-ster was a great place for lunch (and if you make a right turn out of the parking lot, then the location really isn’t a big deal). We enjoyed the food and couldn’t complain about the price of $16.28 (8.95 for the falafel plate and $5.95 for Philip’s wrap with no side, plus water to drink).

If you like Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food, give Kabob-ster a try!

Kabob-ster is located at 1408 Gunbarrel Road, Suite 111, Chattanooga, TN 37421. They are open Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can call Kabob-ster at (423) 475-5370. For more information, you can check out Kabob-ster’s website, kabob-ster.com or find Kabob-ster on Facebook.

Beast + Barrel

January 18, 2017

Beast + Barrel is a gastro smokehouse and bar located on Chattanooga’s North Shore serving creative drinks and a simple, elevated menu in a cozy atmosphere.

It’s been almost three years since Beast + Barrel opened on Chattanooga’s North Shore, in the former location of North Shore Grill. I wrote about their soft opening, which my brother took me to (he works at The Honest Pint, which is owned by the same group that owns Beast + Barrel). However, though I’ve been back many times since the opening, I haven’t written about a normal service at Beast + Barrel…so I thought I’d fix that.

Philip and I arrived around 4:00 on Saturday afternoon. The bar area of the restaurant was teeming with diners, so we were seated in a booth in the back section of the restaurant. We’d never been back there, and it offered a birds-eye view of the kitchen, which I found interesting. We were given several menus – the regular menu, a happy hour menu, a specials menu, and a libations menu. Sara, our server, quickly came to fill our water glasses and take our drink orders. Philip ordered a beer cocktail, of which I can’t remember the name. He liked it but said he probably wouldn’t order it again – he’s a beer “beer” guy, not a beer “cocktail” guy. I stuck with water.

A couple of appetizers were discounted for happy hour, including the single wide – beast (shoestring) fries, pulled pork, cheddar bisque, cherry Coke BBQ sauce, and mustard slaw – which was $4 (they’re $8 regular price). I’ve had these as an entree before, so we decided to order them. It’s a generous serving, particularly if you’re having them as your meal. The pulled pork is smoky and perfectly tender, and the cherry Coke BBQ sauce is just a little sweet, a little spicy, and a little tangy. The cheddar bisque was, well, a perfect cheese sauce, and the mustard slaw was a nice tangy topping to offset all the other flavors in the fries.

I’ve had several meals that I loved at Beast + Barrel, including the Big Katz (reuben) and the Executive Chef Salad. For this meal, I decided to go for the Crescent City Chicken dinner – Cajun fried chicken, maple gravy, goat cheese whipped potatoes, and vinegar greens ($18). I decided to sub the special side – broccoli and bacon salad – for the vinegar greens. The chicken was fried perfectly crisp and was ever so slightly spiced with Cajun seasonings. The sawmill gravy with maple sausage was the perfect complement to the chicken, and while I’m just developing a taste for goat cheese, I really enjoyed the perfectly creamy goat cheese whipped potatoes. The broccoli and bacon salad was like a slaw, finely shredded, with carrots, red onion, and a little bit of cheddar in a light dressing (it was not creamy, so I don’t think it was mayo-based like my broccoli salad). It was tasty but I would have liked for it to have more bacon.

Philip went for the burger special, a PB (yes, peanut butter) burger – basically a basic burger (called a “Braveheart Burger” on the menu) but with only peanut butter, bacon, and red onions for topping, on a Niedlov’s bun ($14.50). They forgot the bacon, but Sara let the kitchen know and they got a couple of strips out in just a matter of minutes. Now, I know that peanut butter on a burger sounds a little strange, but it really works. The burger was cooked well and the flavor from the peanut butter and the bacon was fantastic.

Our server, Sara, was very helpful and attentive. The atmosphere at Beast + Barrel is cozy, intimate, and casual. I’ve heard mixed reviews from some, but I’ve never had a bad experience here. It’s a little more pricey than the restaurants we usually visit (our total was $43 pre-tip) but not terribly so. The atmosphere is great for a date night. The menu is simple but creative and the drink options are limitless.

We really enjoy Beast + Barrel and will definitely return.

Beast + Barrel is located at 16 Frazier Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37405. They are open Monday – Thursday, 3 – 10 p.m., Friday 3 p.m. to 12 a.m., and Saturday – Sunday 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. You can call them at (423) 805-4599. For more information, check out their website, beastandbarrel.com or the Beast + Barrel Facebook page. You can also follow Beast + Barrel on Instagram.

Fiesta Mexicana (Hixson, Tennessee)

January 11, 2017

Fiesta Mexicana is a Mexican restaurant located in Hixson, Tennessee. They offer standard Mexican fare in a nice, spacious environment.

So, Chattanooga had a mini snowpocalypse last weekend. Okay, not really. Did we even get an inch? I’m not sure…pretty sure not. What I do know is that by the time I got out of the house to meet my friend Becky for coffee that the roads were completely fine. You won’t hear me complain about the snow day I got on Friday, though. I❤️snow days.

It was brutally cold in Chattanooga, though. The temps were in the twenties during the day, and the wind chill even lower. Us southerners are not build for cold weather, so we decided to avoid any restaurants that required much walking. Instead, we headed to Hixson for Mexican food at Fiesta Mexicana.

I am not certain, but I think that Fiesta Mexicana may be related in some way to El Sol, which was formerly located in a building near where Fiesta Mexicana (which used to be a bar/tavern type restaurant) is currently located. Fiesta Mexicana is in a much bigger space – it’s quite a large space with two separate dining areas and a bar. We arrived around 4:00 on Saturday afternoon and were seated quickly. There were several tables occupied but it was not crowded. The chips and salsa were quickly delivered to our table, with a bowl of salsa for each of us.

Unfortunately, I did not get our server’s name. Usually, it’s printed on the receipt, so if I forget to ask, I have a fallback, but in this case it was not. Sorry about that. She was very nice, though, and quickly stopped by our table to get our drink order. When she returned with our waters, we asked for some cheese dip. Apparently, she felt that she took too long to get the cheese dip to us, because she apologized for not bringing it sooner and comped it on our bill. We didn’t think anything about it, but we were certainly appreciative.

The chips and salsa were pretty standard Mexican restaurant chips and salsa – thin and crispy chips and just slightly spicy red salsa. The salsa was a little bit less chunky than what I typically expect in a Mexican restaurant, but I like my salsa pretty chunk-less so I was okay with that! I didn’t take a picture of the cheese dip, but it was also pretty standard – thin, white cheese dip with jalapeños. It satisfied my cheese dip craving.

Lunch specials are available until 3:00, so we were not able to get any of those. I was torn between the taquitos dinner special and the flautas dinner special. Taquitos and flautas are very similar, but taquitos are made with corn tortillas and flautas are made with flour tortillas. I decided on the flautas luxe, since (1) I was getting crispy corn tortillas in the chips; and (2) the flautas luxe provided a variety of fillings: ground beef, steak, and chicken. They were served with lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. The tortillas were fried until lightly crispy (more so around the edges, which are my favorite part) and stuffed with seasoned meat. The steak was my favorite, though the chicken and ground beef were good as well. The steak and ground beef tasted like they had similar seasoning. I would order this again.

Philip went for his standard Mexican order: a ground beef chimichanga. His chimichanga was topped with cheese sauce and served with beans and rice, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo. He said that the beans and rice were good but not his favorite (I would still say that Delia’s has the best Mexican rice and refried beans are our favorite). The chimichanga was very large. He said it was well-cooked and he liked the ground beef seasoning. He stopped about 2/3 of the way though so that he wouldn’t get overstuffed.

If our server had not taken off the cheese dip, our meal would have been around $24 pre-tip. Not a bad price for such a large meal. The atmosphere at Fiesta Mexicana is nice – everything is nicely decorated in a pretty traditional Mexican restaurant type decor. The food was good as well, pretty much standard Americanized Mexican fare. I’m not complaining about that – it tastes good and I would go back.

Fiesta Mexicana is located at 4021 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37415. They are open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. You can call them at (423) 877-2879. They do not have a website, but you can find more information on the Fiesta Mexicana Hixson Facebook page. You can find photos that a Yelp user shared of the Fiesta Mexicana menu here.

Wine Down Ooltewah

December 27, 2016

Wine Down is a wine bar in Ooltewah, Tennessee that also has a great beer list and fantastic lunch, dinner, and brunch menus!

I’ve been meaning to go to Wine Down for a while now. Actually, for the longest time I assumed that they didn’t really serve food, aside from some appetizers/finger food type things. I was wrong. Then, I was concerned because I, well, don’t really like wine. That was silly, because it’s totally okay to go to a wine bar and not drink wine. But…you can also ask your server to make a recommendation for something that you might like.

We decided to go to Wine Down for lunch during the week before Christmas. We were the first diners in the place, arriving a little after noon. Our server, Molly, told us to sit wherever we liked, then she filled our water glasses and reviewed the specials with us. We decided to order the deviled egg of the day – bacon and feta. Philip ordered a Dogfish Head Midas Touch for $5 (Wine Down has a pretty impressive beer list), and, on Molly’s recommendation, I ordered a glass of Caposaldo sparkling peach moscato ($8.50). And guess what? I liked it!

We were served 4 deviled egg halves ($7). They were stuffed with a filling that, in addition to the traditional mayo/mustard included feta cheese. They were topped with large chunks of thick, chewy bacon. The salty bacon and feta was the perfect foil for the creamy filling. They were delicious!

I wanted to order something fairly light and the soup and sandwich combination ($9) seemed perfect. The soup of the day was mushroom bisque, which sounded delicious. While the French dip sandwich sounded amazing, I was torn between the sun dried tomato sandwich (burrata mozzarella, spinach, and pesto on Niedlov’s ciabatta) and the grown-up grilled cheese (4 cheeses – local smoked cheddar, Irish porter, midnight moon cheese, and creamy montchevre, bacon jam, and green tomato on Texas toast. The soup was creamy but still had a little texture to it from the pureed mushrooms. The mushroom flavor was strong and satisfying, and I was surprised at the little bit of spiciness in the soup. The sandwich was buttery and crunchy, the cheeses melted perfectly. The bacon jam lent a little sweetness, and while I don’t typically like goat cheese very much, I liked the tangy pungency of the montchevre on this sandwich.

Philip decided to go for the WDO burger ($11) with Wagyu beef, Red Dragon dijon cheese, bacon jam, and caramelized onion aioli on a Niedlov’s bun. Philip chose the fries as his side (the other option was a mixed greens salad). The burger was pretty much gigantic and it was cooked perfectly. All of the flavors worked well together and Philip commented several times about how tasty the burger was. The fries were hot, crispy, and peppery.

There were a few other tables occupied by the time that we left. I have a feeling that nights and weekends are their busy time. The atmosphere at Wine Down Ooltewah was casual and relaxing and Molly was an excellent and attentive server. I was very happy with the variety of foods available (the dinner menu is different from the lunch menu) and with the quality and flavor of the food. And I found a wine that I like (baby steps)!

Wine Down Ooltewah is a great place to go for a relaxed but slightly upscale lunch or dinner, especially if you want a great glass of wine!

Wine Down Ooltewah is located at 9431 Bradmore Lane Suite 109, Ooltewah, TN, 37363 (in Cambridge Square). They are open Monday, 4-10 p.m., Tuesday – Thursday 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. – 11 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. for brunch. You can call them at 423-531-WINE(9463). You can find out more about Wine Down Ooltewah on their website, or their Facebook page. You can also follow Wine Down on Instagram.

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