Asian Archives - Chattavore

Thai Esan

March 17, 2017

Thai Esan is a small and unassuming (and easy to miss) Thai restaurant located in a strip mall on Ringgold Road in East Ridge, Tennessee.

I still have plenty of places that I need to try, but after almost 6 (SIX!!!!!) years of writing about Chattanooga restaurants there are times that I feel like I’ve been everywhere and pretty soon I’m going to run out of new places to try. Totally irrational, I know, but the truth is that I can’t be everywhere and there are always new places opening that I don’t know about (not to mention long-standing secrets that I need to be told about).

I posted on my Facebook page recently asking for my readers to tell me some new places that I needed to try. Multiple Thai spots were mentioned, which caused me and Philip to develop a craving for some noodles. It is not difficult to make us crave Thai food (by the way, will someone please open a Thai restaurant in Hixson? Please and thank you.). One of the places that was mentioned was Thai Esan, which is located on Ringgold Road near the Food Lion complex (in the strip mall where Cakemakers, Etc. is located).

Thai Esan is located in the former home of Mom’s Thai Kitchen, another spot that I was told by multiple people that I needed to try and never got around to before they closed up shop. I have no idea if there is any common thread (other than Thai food, obvi) between Mom’s and Thai Esan, but I did not want to make the same mistake twice.

We headed out to Thai Esan around 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon. There was only one other couple in the restaurant dining and several to-go orders were picked up while we were there. It’s a pretty bare-bones place…not a lot of decor, and the booths need to be reupholstered or at least patched. It was clean, though, so it was all good.

A server quickly greeted us, brought us menus, and took our drink orders. We both decided to get a Thai tea because it is just so good, and we also got an order of spring rolls (4 spring rolls per order). The spring rolls were hot and fresh and the dipping sauce sweet and just a little spicy. The Thai tea did not disappoint, with the sweet black tea spice that you expect from Thai tea and a generous splash of half-and-half.

Chattavore followers, you know that I love my pad Thai. I just can’t order anything else when I visit a Thai restaurant. I know that I should, but I like to use the excuse that if I always order pad Thai that I can be consistent with giving a review. So….I went with the pad Thai with chicken. I was not disappointed. It was a generous portion – I only ate about a third, then had more for dinner the following Monday, and Philip had the rest for lunch one day. This is a lot of food. The noodles were sweet and a little bit spicier than most pad Thai that I’ve had (though I ordered it without spice). The chicken was very thinly sliced and cooked well, but I would have liked to have had a little bit more chicken just for a balance of protein and carbs.

Like me, Philip has his usual these days, ever since discovering pad see ew at Thai Chili. Unlike me, he is a little bit braver with the spice and went for “medium”. He ordered tofu as his protein, as his visits to Hong Kong Chinese restaurant have helped him discover a love for tofu. Everything was well cooked (the tofu was a gorgeous golden brown and it did have a great flavor from the sauce). He did end up regretting the medium spice, though. Apparently Thai cooks have a little bit of a different definition of “medium” than he does, and he ended up spending much of the meal picking out little pieces of fresh red chili from the dish in order to avoid breathing fire. He did say that aside from the heat, the food was delicious.

Thai Esan is relatively quick and very casual. The food is very tasty, but be careful with the spice levels unless you know that you can handle it. The prices are pretty much on par with other Thai restaurants in the area and the portions are huge so you are likely going to get more than one meal from it.

If you’re looking for some tasty Thai food in East Ridge, give Thai Esan a try!

Thai Esan is located at 4330 Ringgold Road, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 37412. They are open Monday – Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday – Sunday, 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. You can call them at (423) 668-8924. They do not have a website, but you can like Thai Esan on Facebook.

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.

Teriyaki House (East Ridge)

October 26, 2016

Teriyaki House in East Ridge, Tennessee, serves quick and inexpensive hibachi-style food in a friendly and casual atmosphere.

Our dinner out plans got messed up last weekend. We had planned to go back to Bones Smokehouse, since they just recently reopened in a new location after a long vacation. However, the Tennesee-Alabama game was starting right around the time that we would be arriving, so we decided to go somewhere where there would be a little less raucous football-watching.

We ended up at Teriyaki House on Ringgold Road in East Ridge. It’s been on my list forever, but we so rarely go to East Ridge that it never really lands on our radar. When I started trying to think of restaurants that would not be full of football fans, Teriyaki House came to mind. We arrived at around 4 p.m., and while there was a television showing the game, there were no fans watching, unless you count the two employees who were rolling silverware. There was only one other table occupied (though a few other people did come in while we were there and several came in to order or pick up takeout.

We have eaten at Teriyaki House before, though it has been a very long time – long before the Chattavore days. When I worked in Brainerd I liked to get takeout from there from time to time because it is very similar to Typhoon of Tokyo – so similar that I think that they must be connected in some way. Unlike Typhoon, where you order at the counter, you are seated at the table at Teriyaki House and the server takes your order.

I decided to go classic and order the chicken and steak combo. Since I went with a “large” plate, it was served with fried rice, zucchini, mushrooms, onions, and broccoli, as well as two (TWO!) little bowls of white sauce. The “regular” plate is not served with broccoli – and only a few options are available in both regular and large (mine was only available in large). This is your classic quick service hibachi style chicken – no frills, just chunks of chicken and steak browned and tossed in a light brown sauce, fried rice, and vegetables. The rice was not quite as good as Typhoon of Tokyo, but it was still pretty good. The sauce was delicious, the vegetables cooked well, and the chicken tender. The steak was tasty but cooked just slightly past the doneness that I prefer.

Philip decided to go with the garlic steak. We were a little concerned when we could smell the garlic cooking from where we were sitting (far from the kitchen!) that it would be too garlicky. It was indeed very garlicky, but not in an overwhelming way – just in a flavorful way. His plate was identical to mine otherwise. The steak was delicious and his was a little more tender than mine.

The total for our meal (steak & chicken combo, garlic steak, and two waters) was $18.68 – definitely an affordable dinner. Our server was very friendly and attentive, though sadly, I did not get her name (this was the second week in a row!). The restaurant is clean, and while not really super-modern in their decor, it’s not your standard outdated Asian restaurant decor either. By the way, the building quite obviously used to be a Pizza Hut (prior to that, it was located in a former Kay’s Kastle, complete with the giant ice cream cone outside – and, to top it off, they actually do have several ice cream desserts on their menu).

Teriyaki House is a great place for a quick, tasty, and not too pricey meal in East Ridge.

Teriyaki House is located at 5908 Ringgold Road, Chattanooga, TN 37412. They are open Monday – Friday, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday, 4-9 p.m. They are closed on Sunday. You can call Teriyaki House at (423) 892-8483. You can find more information about Teriyaki House on their Facebook page (the website linked on there is not their website).

Formosa Chinese Restaurant

October 5, 2015

Formosa Chinese restaurant is a dining-out institution in Hixson, Tennessee. They serve delicious Chinese food with great, friendly service.

How have I not written about Formosa Chinese restaurant? That’s a rhetorical question, I suppose, but Formosa is one of Hixson’s longest-standing restaurant and (since Mandarin Garden closed) the place that we generally go to get Chinese food close to home. However, every time that we’ve gone I, for one reason or another, haven’t been in a blog post mood (it was never because I didn’t like the food, but, for example, I remember that we went there one time the night before I had surgery).

It was raining cats and dogs Saturday and I was definitely not feeling going out of the Hixson area, particularly not to any spot where we would have to do a lot of walking (i.e. downtown). We considered the tiny handful of Hixson places that we still have yet to visit and Philip pointed out that we really should go to Formosa, considering how long it’s been around. It’s really a Hixson institution. Please excuse the awful photos in this post….it’s very dark in the restaurant.

We were seated immediately and given lunch menus, since it was only around 1 p.m. The lunch menu is considerably smaller than the dinner menu, with a few specials (mostly chow meins and egg foo young plus few other standards like sweet and sour chicken) listed on one side that included either an egg roll or soup and then another list of entrees on the other side. My favorite thing about Formosa (I’m just being honest here) is that they bring you a bowl of fried wonton strips (which I call Chinese potato chips). Those things are just addictive. They also bring sweet and sour sauce to dip them into, but I really am indifferent to that.

We ordered our meals off the specials menu. We both wanted soup and and egg roll so we ordered egg rolls separately. I like that their egg rolls don’t have any weird pink meat (the meat is pink because of curing salt, but that doesn’t make it any less bizarre in my opinion). They are filled with ground pork, baby shrimp, and cabbage. They were brought out immediately, which might make you worry that they wouldn’t be fresh, but they were fresh, crispy, and hot. The server brought us some hot mustard too, but aside from a tiny fingertip dab that I tasted it was too hot for me. I ordered egg drop soup, which was hot, well seasoned, and had lots of egg and green onion in it. Philip had wonton soup. He said that the wontons seemed housemade and that the soup was also tasty and well-seasoned.

I decided to get the chicken with mushrooms, which is described in their dinner menu as “sliced chicken breast sautéed with mushrooms, water chestnuts, and snow peas in a light sauce”. There were also carrots and pieces of cabbage in the sauté, and it was served with fried rice. Their fried rice is more basic than most, basically just seasoned and fried and not mixed with carrots, peas, and eggs, but still quite good. The portion of sauté was fairly large, large enough for me to bring home probably more than half of it to have for lunch the next day. Everything was well cooked, the vegetables just crisp tender (besides the mushrooms, which were very tender) and the chicken very thinly sliced and very tender considering that it’s chicken breast, which tends to be dry. The sauce was indeed light and not overly salted. The thing I like about Formosa is that I don’t feel bloated and icky like I do after eating at some Chinese restaurants (I think it’s MSG that makes me feel that way, though I know a lot of people dispute the whole MSG negative effects theory).

Philip had the beef chow mein, which is very thin slices of beef sautéed with Napa cabbage, onion, zucchini, and carrots and is also served with fried rice. The meat was incredibly tender and the sauce light and nicely seasoned. The vegetables were nicely cooked, crisp-tender just like mine were, and Philip also had enough to bring home for lunch. My friends, it is never sad to have leftovers to throw in the microwave when you arrive home starving after church.

Like I said, the dinner menu is much larger than the lunch menu, with soups, appetizers (including chicken fingers and fries, which always makes me laugh), family dinners (for families of 2, 4, 5, or 6), vegetable dishes, Chef’s Specialties (including sesame chicken and General Tsao’s-their spelling-which is different from what is served at most Chinese restaurants, as it is thinly sliced instead of just spicier sesame chicken). They have sections of seafood, chicken, beef, pork, duck, plus chow meins, lo meins, chop suey, fried rice, and egg foo young.

The decor in Formosa Chinese restaurant, I’m not going to lie, is a little dated. Honestly, I don’t think it’s changed one iota since I was a kid in the eighties and would go in with my parents to get take-out (not that I ever ate it, I wouldn’t have touched that stuff with a twenty-foot pole as a child). I don’t really care too much about decor, though. I mean, if a place has great decor, I’ll notice, but I’m more concerned about the food and service. Our service was quick and friendly (if very business-like) and the food is consistent and always good. I know it’s “American Chinese”, but where do you find anything but around here? Formosa Chinese restaurant is a great place…it’s not going anywhere any time soon.

Formosa Chinese restaurant is located at 5425 Highway 153, Hixson, Tennessee, 37343. They are open daily from 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. You can call them at 423-875-6953. You can view their menu on their website, formosa-restaurant.com. You can also like Formosa on Facebook.

Hong Kong Chinese (East Brainerd)

February 23, 2015

Hong Kong Chinese restaurant is a great Chinese restaurant with delicious food and great service on East Brainerd Road in Chattanooga.
I didn’t start eating Chinese food until I was a junior in college. Actually, it was probably more to impress a guy than anything else…but he married me so I guess it all turned out okay. Plus, it turned out that I actually liked Chinese food…I have no idea why I was always so convinced that I wouldn’t. I guess it’s too late to wonder, though. Anyway, when we were dating and early in our marriage, Philip and I used to frequent China Inn, a Chinese buffet in the TJ Maxx complex at Northgate. Friendly staff, good prices, and great food-we loved that place! We were crushed when it closed, though we shifted our affections toward Mandarin Garden…which then closed. And Philip doesn’t like Formosa (for the record, I do). In fact, we have found the Chinese options in our area to be rather disappointing overall.

However, Philip has a friend who lives in East Brainerd and they frequently visit Hong Kong Chinese, which is in the complex where the East Brainerd Publix is. I know when they’ve been because Philip comes home with a box of cereal, a telltale sign that he had to buy something in order to get cash back at checkout-Hong Kong only accepts cash or checks. He has sworn to me for a couple of years now that the food at Hong Kong is delicious, but it’s a little bit of a trek especially when you never carry cash, so it’s taken us a little time to get out there.

It’s been quite a week here in Chattanooga, what with ice and snow and temperatures nearing zero. Us Southerners aren’t built for that type of weather and neither are our Public Works departments…I mean, it really doesn’t make financial sense to spend a lot of money to purchase a lot of equipment meant to deal with weather events that may happen once or twice a year if that. So…I was off work all week (and I might add…Tennessee schools tack a little time on to the end of each day so that snow days are built in, so it’s not like we just get free days-I’ve seen a little complaining about that this week) and feeling just a little stir crazy after being in the house 95% of the week. We ventured out in still a little bit of slush so Philip could check out the craft beer selection at Sigler’s, then we headed to the Kitchen Spice Indian store next the to East Brainerd Goodwill…then we went to Publix and bought cereal so we could eat at Hong Kong.

There were no other customers eating in the restaurant, which looks pretty much like your stereotypical mom and pop Chinese restaurant-a few basic tables, some floral border on the walls, and pictures of menu items above the counters. The people in the back were very busy preparing to-go orders and the phone rang frequently (not to mention the steady stream of people picking up their orders). The lady who took our order recognized Philip and told him that they were out of tofu, because apparently he likes to order tofu. Anyway….

We got there at 3:01 so we were just a little too late to order off of the lunch specials menu, which includes entree, chicken fried rice, an egg roll, and soup or a soda. Instead, for $15 and some change (plus a little that Philip dropped in the tip jar), we ordered the combination plates. When I asked Philip what was good off of their very large (as Chinese menus tend to be) menu, he assured me that everything he’d had was good (by the way, I’ve included the menu at the bottom of the post). In the end I got an order of sesame chicken and he decided on chicken with cashew nuts. Each order came with chicken fried rice and an egg roll, and we drank water.

Sesame chicken is my favorite Chinese menu item but I often find that the sauce is so thick and sweet that it becomes cloying. I did not find this to be an issue with this chicken, which was sweet but not tooth-aching, crunchy, and not too sticky. There was a little broccoli, though I would have liked to have had more. The rice was well-cooked and peppered with peas and carrots. My only real complaint is that the egg roll had a little bit of weird pink pork in it…which always freaks me out a little bit. The pink color just comes from the salt used to cure it, but the neon hue is just a little unnerving. Still, the egg rolls were delicious.

Philip’s chicken with cashew nuts was far more vegetable-laden than my sesame chicken, with lots of carrots, celery, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and cashews. Rather than being breaded like the sesame chicken, the cashew chicken was simply velveted (coated in cornstarch before being sautéed) and had a light, slightly sweet sauce. The portions were decent sized but not overly gigantic…we both ate most but not all of our meals and didn’t feel stuffed after.

For the price and the friendly service (I saw some reviewers on Urbanspoon refer to the service as rude and state that they’ll walk away if you aren’t ready, but they’re BUSY. While we decided on our order, the lady taking the orders walked away to work in the kitchen, then she came back after a couple of minutes to take our order), I think that Hong Kong Chinese is a great option. It was definitely the best Chinese food that I’ve had around Chattanooga in quite a while, and it didn’t leave me with an MSG aftertaste or a telltale MSG bloat after (too much MSG makes me feel puffy and swollen). Obviously, the location will prevent us from going on those work nights when I just don’t feel like cooking…

…but when I have a Chinese craving that I can’t shake Hong Kong Chinese will be my go-to. Judging from the number of people picking up takeout, it seems that quite a few people in the area agree.

Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant is located at 8644 East Brainerd Road, Suite C2, Chattanooga, TN 37421. They are open daily, 11 a.m.-10 p.m., except Sundays when they are open 12 p.m.-9:30 p.m. You can call them at 423-899-4878.

Also in this area: Bones Smokehouse