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El Kyoto Mexican and Japanese Restaurant

November 24, 2013

El Kyoto, now closed, was a restaurant in Hixson, Tennessee (Lakesite) that served both Hibachi-style Japanese and Mexican food.

So, when I wrote some time back about Kyoto (then spelled Kioto) Japanese restaurant just down the street from my Lakesite-area home, I told you guys how I had to laugh just a little when I first saw it. I was apprehensive, needlessly so since it turned out to be quite good. So, I’ll admit that I laughed again when Philip and I were driving down Hixson Pike and saw the new sign hanging on the side of the building for El Kyoto Mexican and Japanese Restaurant. I’m really not sure why; the owners of the restaurant are of Mexican descent, and in my opinion-and many others of which I’m aware-our other nearby Mexican option is lacking these days (I won’t name names but if you are familiar with this area you know what I’m talking about….I haven’t written about them).

Philip and I decided to go over there Tuesday night of this past week when I wasn’t really in the mood to cook and we knew that we had to squeeze in a restaurant review at some point. It’s been a month, you guys! I’ll be playing catch-up in my time off from work for the upcoming holidays; I have some reviews planned. We have tended to avoid the restaurant because of the less than desirable parking right on Hixson Pike, but then we realized that they have spaces on the side of the building as well, so problem solved. There were several other people in the restaurant but it wasn’t crowded per se so we were seated immediately.

Our server, who was very friendly (but unfortunately, I didn’t catch his name) quickly took our drink order and brought us chips and salsa, which are complimentary upon request. The chips were good (not as good as Delia’s, though), fresh (not stale, which, unfortunately, seems to be a problem at some other establishments of late) and warm, and the salsa was fresh-tasting, not overly chunky, and a little spicier than what you typically get. We also ordered queso dip, which was a little thicker than that served at a lot of other Mexican restaurants, with just a tiny bit of spice.

The menu of Mexican items is a lot smaller than most other local Mexican restaurants, but that is fine with me. I got my standard-traditional Mexican tacos (known in some other restaurants as Mexico City tacos or street tacos), served on corn tortillas (doubled up!) with meat, chopped onions, and chopped cilantro. I got one tilapia (grilled, not fried), one steak, and one al pastor (pork)-they come in an order of three. All three were very good, though the al pastor was my favorite, just a little bit crispy, very well seasoned. The steak was a little bit tough compared to what I’ve had at Delia’s, but the flavor was good. The fish was nice with a light seasoning on it and cooked just right-not dried out as overcooked fish would be.

We got a laugh out of the “100% American Chimichanga” listed on the menu, which is what Philip decided to order since that is pretty much his standard Mexican restaurant order. He ordered it with chorizo (Mexican sausage) which he always orders it if it is available (at some restaurants it is not). There were two chimichangas that were a little bit smaller than the usual Mexican restaurant chimichanga, with grilled peppers and onions stuffed into the tortilla with the meat (this is not the standard) and queso sauce on top. There were refried beans on the side as well as lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. He was disappointed that there was no guacamole on the side, though I’m sure that they would have brought him some if he had asked. He liked the chimichanga a lot and thought that the chorizo was very good, though not the best he’d had, and not overly greasy. He was not, however, able to eat both of the chimichangas. It was definitely a very large portion!

So, I guess you have probably figured out my position on El Kyoto. Just like comparing it to Ichiban for Japanese….it’s not the best Mexican food around (in this area, Delia’s still takes that honor, and if I’m willing to drive downtown, of course, Taqueria Jalisco reigns supreme) but for a weeknight dinner when I just can’t even bring myself to think about leaving the Lakesite area, it’s definitely a worthy dinner option. The food was not fantastic, but it was good and the prices were decent (especially since we had a buy one get one free coupon!).

El Kyoto was located at 8719 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN 37343 (in the Lakesite/Dallas Bay area). You can call them at (423) 521-8444. They do not have a website or Facebook page.

More Mexican Food: Delia’s in Soddy-Daisy or Dayton, El Metate, Taqueria Jalisco, Taco Roc

Lupi’s Pizza Hixson

October 27, 2013

Lupi’s Pizza in Hixson, Tennessee uses as many local ingredients as possible in their delicious, fresh pizzas, salads, pastas, and breads.

I’ve written about the Lupi’s Pizza in Hixson location once before, at the very end of my 2012 summer break when I just couldn’t find the will to cook. Okay, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but after many years as a teacher I have learned a couple of things: (1) I don’t want to cook the night before I have to go back to work, even though there are no kids on that first day back; and (b) I don’t want to cook on the first day of school, though this year I sucked it up and did just that. Actually, I think I did both of those things. But anyway.

I decided that because I just wrote about a take-out pizza that I wasn’t really doing a review of Lupi’s justice. For some reason (maybe because I am so comfortable and happy making pizza in my own kitchen, so that’s where the majority of the pizza that I eat comes from), I rarely think of Lupi’s when trying to decide on a place to eat, even though it is easily the most local (in terms of the sources of their ingredients) restaurant in the Hixson area and I’ve always enjoyed their food. After a recent visit with a friend where I topped a couple of slices with weirdo combinations of ingredients (which are definitely my forté), I decided it was time for a return review.

Because Lupi’s Pizza definitely fills up on weekend evenings (really, every evening but especially weekends) we decided to go early, arriving about 5:30. There were only a handful of people in the dining room at the time and lots of empty spaces in the parking lot. By the time we left, the dining room was definitely filling up and parking was scarce. There was a lady ordering when we walked in, but we needed a minute to peruse the menu so it worked out pretty much perfectly. We quickly decided on our order and were helped by a friendly cashier. She gave us a table number (well, actually, it was a table word-Lupi’s) and sent us on our way. Drinks are self-service, so we filled up our water cups and moved along.

Our food took about ten minutes or so, so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the whimsical clouds hanging from the ceiling and the strange trees that for some reason make me think of the Wizard of Oz. If you sit in just the right spot (we didn’t, because we wanted to sit near the window) you can watch the kitchen staff tossing and working the pizza dough behind the counter, which is one of my favorite things in a pizza restaurant.

We decided to each order one slice. I got mine with the classic combo of spinach and artichoke hearts, and Philip decided on pepperoni and roasted garlic. The slices are large but if you are just having pizza you should definitely plan on at least two slices (the cashier has a handy wooden pizza slice that they can show you so that you can see the size of the slices). Slices can be topped however you’d like, but you cannot order special sauces (like white sauce) on the slices. The first time that I reviewed them and the last time I visited, I had the honey-wheat crust, so this time I got the regular (white) crust. I decided that, while the honey-wheat crust was perfectly tasty, I definitely prefer the regular crust, which is perfectly crispy, thin, and charred just a little, just the way I like my pizza. The toppings are fresh and evenly distributed (though I did cut my artichoke hearts into smaller pieces and sprinkle them over a greater area of the pizza), and the ratios of topping/cheese/sauce/crust are excellent (I despise an overtopped pizza). By the way, Philip’s pizza had whole cloves of well-roasted garlic (so they weren’t biting or overwhelming but just had a sweet garlic pungency).

Since a friend had told me that the lasagna was excellent, I really wanted to try it as well, so Philip and I decided to split an order of the vegetable lasagna in addition to our pizza. One thing that Philip observed was that there was a lot of liquid in the dish, but I have to say from experience that it is nearly impossible to heat up a pre made vegetable lasagna without some liquid leaching from it, and making lasagna is a lengthy process that would be next to impossible (if not entirely impossible) to do from scratch to order. The proof would definitely have to be in the pudding (or the pasta)…and it was. The vegetables-spinach, mushrooms, and zucchini-were nice and fresh, with no ingredient overwhelming the others. The sauce was a very fresh-tasting tomato sauce with a good hint of basil, and it was nice and cheesy without being too cheesy. There was no burnt lasagna noodle crust, which I consider to be quite an impressive feat. The house made roll served on the side was tasty, chewy (in a good way) instead of crusty, and hot but not “fresh out of the microwave” hot. I would love to eat this lasagna again.

The thing I love the most about Lupi’s Pizza is their commitment to serving local products as much as possible. I also appreciate their simple menu. While they have a great selection of pizza and calzone toppings/fillings, they don’t overwhelm you with a million separate menu items. When restaurants only make a few things, they are more likely to do them very well, and Lupi’s definitely does pizza very, very well. I would also love to try their salad sometime….maybe next time. I don’t remember the total for our meal, but it was around $20.

Lupi’s Pizza located at 5506 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN. You can call Lupi’s in Hixson at 423-847-3700. You can read more about them (including their other locations) on their website, http://www.lupi.com. You can like Lupi’s Pizza on Facebook

More pizza in Chattanooga: New York Pizza Department, Crust Pizza, The Pizza Place, Community Pie, Hill City Pizza

Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga

October 13, 2013

Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga is a trendy spot serving classic, fun Southern food in at Warehouse Row in Downtown Chattanooga.

Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga opened last month at Warehouse Row. It has been much hyped (at least in my Facebook feed!) and I was anxious to check it out. We ate at the original Tupelo Honey in Asheville, North Carolina a few years back and were pretty impressed by the BLT and the sweet potato pancakes. It’s now a chain, but since it’s still regional and small I decided that it still fit into the confines of Chattavore.

I was a little nervous about crowds since it’s downtown and still fairly new, so we decided to go early. We arrived at a few minutes after 5 p.m. on a Wednesday night and were immediately seated. Since the weather was perfect-o, we decided to sit outside. Our server, Leslie, greeted us quickly and took our drink order, suggesting fried green tomatoes (served with goat cheese and basil) or cheesy grit cakes as an appetizer, but we decided against ordering an app (besides, I probably would have gone for the pimento cheese and tortilla chips if I had wanted an appetizer). Every diner gets a biscuit with blueberry jam and honey (Tupelo honey, I presume). The biscuits were pretty good but the jam was great-not too sweet, not too gooey…just perfect.

Tupelo Honey serves breakfast all day. I really wanted the Eggs Betty-“two free-range, medium-poached eggs on a biscuit with all-natural city ham and homemade lemony hollandaise”-but that’s the one breakfast item that they don’t serve all day (they stop serving it at 2 p.m.). The fried egg BLT-“two fresh, free-range eggs prepared over hard, two strips of maple peppered bacon, lettuce, tomato and smoked jalapeno aioli on our exclusive sourdough wheat”-sounded pretty good too….but I decided I didn’t want breakfast. I flipped back to the entrées, where I seriously considered the vegetable plate (three of the veggie sides for $9.95 or four for $12.45)…but then I noticed Shoo Grill Cheese, Have Mercy Served with a Big Hearty Mug of Soup-“Havarti, pimento cheese, caramelized onions, maple peppered bacon, all natural city ham, fried green tomatoes and fresh basil served on our exclusive sourdough wheat bread”, served with tomato soup or cheesy onion bisque, which Leslie described as sort of like a creamy French onion soup. I decided on the bisque and also ordered a side of the brown butter Brussels sprouts. The sandwich was large and very, very messy. There was a lot going on so I couldn’t really tease out the flavor of the pimento cheese, but all of the flavors worked really well together. I really enjoyed the soup. The onions were perfectly soft and worked wonderfully with the creamy broth, which didn’t have the overly salty flavor that many restaurant soups have, and the croutons floating on top were crispy and delicious. The flavor of the Brussels sprouts was good, but I did feel that they needed a little salt….and, well, in my opinion, Brussels sprouts always benefit from the addition of bacon. Sue me. They’re not as good as mine (my husband said so!).

Philip though about ordering the sweet potato pancake-“one large buttermilk pancake flavored with cinnamon and sweet potatoes, topped with whipped peach butter and spiced pecans”-but, like me, decided against breakfast. Shrimp & grits is one of his restaurant go-to items, but the menu item he looked at-Shoo Mercy Shrimp & Grits-was $22.95. Upon perusing their menu, it appears that they have two versions of shrimp and grits-Brian’s Shrimp and Grits-seven large shrimp served over Goat Cheese Grits and anointed with a spicy roasted red pepper sauce ($15.95)-and Shoo Mercy-Chef Brian’s Shrimp and Grits – and then some. A dozen shrimp with bacon, carmelized onions, spinach and sautéed mushrooms over Goat Cheese Grits. Oh well-next time. He decided to get the Southern Fried Chicken Saltimbocca with Country Ham and Mushroom Marsala-“crispy fried natural, hormone-free chicken breast topped with country ham, melted Havarti cheese and basil. Served with a mushroom marsala sauce, cheesy smashed cauliflower and a fresh asparagus garnish” for $15.95. He loved the chicken, which was a boneless chicken breast, perfectly fried, with cheese melted on top, mushroom marsala gravy poured over, and bits of country ham sprinkled on top. The cheesy mashed cauliflower was really tasty, cooked till tender and combined with cheddar cheese, and I really liked the asparagus, which was very, very lightly steamed and just a little undercooked for Philip’s taste (he doesn’t like asparagus quite as much as I do!).

When Leslie mentioned dessert, we were all ready to decline until she mentioned brown butter pecan pie. Pecan pie is Philip’s second favorite dessert (after crème brûlée), and theirs is served with vanilla bean and caramel sauce, so we decided to get a slice to bring home and eat later that night. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture! It was tooth-achingly sweet but still quite good, with the brown butter adding a nice richness to the filling. Good but not the best I’ve had.

At around $40 pre-tip, this was definitely not an inexpensive dinner out. We liked it but it definitely won’t be a regular destination for us, especially since Southern cooking is one of my specialties so I could recreate the things that we ate there for a lot less than forty bucks (and perhaps I’ll check into the Tupelo Honey Café Cookbook to help me do just that).

Still, if you’ve been itching to check it out, Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga is definitely worth a try.

Tupelo Honey Café Chattanooga is located at 1110 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. You can call them at 423-779-0040 or email info@tupelohoneycafe.com. Check out their website, tupelohoneycafe.com. You can also like them on Facebook. I did not find Tupelo Honey Chattanooga on Twitter, but you can follow the original, @tupelohoneycafe.

More restaurants in this area: Southern Burger Company, Public House, Meeting Place

Steve’s Landing (Soddy-Daisy)

September 29, 2013

Steve’s Landing is very popular with the locals in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee serving a variety of menu items, including ribs that are supposedly amazing.

I guess I knew that this time would come eventually. It’s time for restaurant reviews to become a biweekly feature of Chattavore, at least for the time being. While I am doing my restaurant reviewing on weeknights to preserve weekend daylight hours for photography, it isn’t really feasible to go somewhere new every week. The fact of the matter is, I am a homebody and getting out at night during the week is pretty stressful for me…going across the river on a weeknight requires some planning, and I’ve just about exhausted my options on this side of town….at least now that I’ve gone to Steve’s Landing. What’s more is that if we keep going at this rate I am eventually going to run out of new places to eat! So….at least until Spring, you probably won’t see more than two reviews a month.

It’s kind of funny that I haven’t written about Steve’s Landing until now…it’s less than ten minutes from my house. We ate there many, many years ago (ten, maybe?) and weren’t crazy about it then….but people I trust eat there often so we figured it was worth another try. The problem is that they don’t open until five during the week and we never think about them on the weekend. We finally made up our minds that we were going to go and figured we better get there early….Steve’s has a loyal following of diners that pack regularly pack the place out, so we wanted to beat the crowd. We got there at about 4:58, before the doors had been opened, and were greeted by another family-that had driven from Dayton for the ribs-and a cat who is obviously a regular. Once Steve opened the door at a minute or two after five, we requested a seat on the large deck.

Becky, our server, immediately took our drink and appetizer order. I had heard from more than one person that the spicy queso at Steve’s Landing was excellent, so we went with that. It is not a Mexican-style queso but rather a spicy, cheddar-based queso with spinach in it, but not so much spinach that you’d really call it a spinach dip. While it had a little kick (presumably from cayenne, since I didn’t detect any jalapeños or other chopped peppers) it was definitely a spicy dip that could be enjoyed by a lightweight like me. The chips were hot and crispy. I don’t think they were homemade….they weren’t Delia’s chips (my #1 pick) but they were pretty good.

I’d heard good things about several items on the menu at Steve’s Landing. The ribs are supposedly amazing but I don’t like to work that hard for my food (at least when someone else is cooking), which is the main reason I also rarely eat Buffalo wings even though I enjoy the flavors. I’d heard great things about the Kickin’ Chicken (basically Monterey chicken minus the bacon-chicken with barbecue sauce and cheddar and jack cheeses) as well as the Ragin’ Cajun pasta (fettucine Alfredo with Cajun-spiced chicken, diced red peppers, and chopped green onions). I decided on the pasta, which was a very large (as in I had enough left over for lunch on Friday) serving of pasta with chopped Cajun chicken on top and a piece of Texas toast on the side. I am not a fan of Texas toast-it’s just “meh” to me-so I took a couple of bites and tossed it aside. The pasta was pretty good, but I would have liked more creamy Alfredo sauce and a little less Cajun spice. Interestingly, I found the dish to be less spicy the next day, which is definitely a departure from the norm. I saw an order of the Kickin’ Chicken being delivered to a nearby table while we were there and kind of wished I had ordered that-it looked great.

Philip decided on the fried catfish, which was served with fries, slaw, and jalapeño hush puppies. He got two cornmeal-coated catfish fillets that were fried to a nice crisp and were surprisingly un-greasy. The flavor was great, a sentiment shared by the porch cat, Jake, with whom Philip shared a couple of bites of catfish. The fries were fine, no doubt frozen, nothing special. Philip liked the slaw, which was made with shredded (not chopped) cabbage and carrots and was not dripping with mayonnaise-y dressing. The jalapeño hush puppies were tasty, not really spicy but with a nice jalapeño flavor and, like the catfish, not greasy. It was a very large portion of food so we took the leftovers to my parents’ house for my uncle to have for dinner. We were way too stuffed for dessert. The dessert special was chocolate covered cherry pie, which sounded interesting, but their house specialty is bread pudding, which I have heard is fantastic. There are several other desserts on the menu, including a key lime pie and blackberry cobbler.

Steve’s Landing is in the price range of other similar restaurants…our total for two waters, an appetizer, and two entrees on the lower end of the price range was about $33 pre-tip. They have a large following because they fill a void in Soddy-Daisy. We just don’t have a ton of restaurants out this way other than your typical fast food offerings, and they offer tasty food that you would otherwise have to drive to Hixson or beyond to get, and the prices are not outrageous….they are within the same price range as other restaurants with similar offerings. The staff was extremely friendly.

While the crowds will definitely prevent this from being a regular place for us to visit, we’ll definitely go back to Steve’s Landing.

Steve’s Landing is located at 1145 Poling Circle, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. You can call them at 423-332-4098. They are open Wednesday and Thursday, 5-9 p.m., Friday 5-10 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can view their menu and find more information at their website, www.steveslandingsoddy.com. You can also like Steve’s Landing on Facebook.

Want another option near the water? How about Jacob Myers Restaurant on the River in Dayton?

Great American Burger Company (CLOSED)

September 22, 2013

Unfortunately closed now, Great American Burger Company was a neighborhood burger stand that was located near the lake in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee.

My hometown, Soddy-Daisy, has precious few restaurants. When Great American Burger Company opened in the neighborhood where I grew up and now teach (and where my parents still live) a couple of months back in the former location of another restaurant (whose name I’ve already forgotten) I’ll admit I kind of rolled my eyes. Truth be told, I’d never seen anyone at the former joint-though, to be fair, their hours were such that I really never drove by when they were open. Now I drive by every day on my way to and from work and have noticed quite a few people at this little road-side stand on the road adjacent to “Soddy Lake”(some eating at the picnic tables out front), so I decided that an afternoon when I was staying late for a training was a perfect excuse to give it a try.

It was just after five when I walked up to the window at Great American Burger Company. A very friendly guy opened the window and greeted me. I told him I needed a minute to look at the menu. There was a little chalkboard standing by the window with specials listed, including the Big Papa Burger (with smoked sausage on top), fish tacos, and a fish sandwich. The items on the regular menu board included burgers, a BLT, a fried bologna sandwich, barbecue pork and chicken sandwiches and tacos, deep-fried hot dogs (known as “rippers” because they burst open a little while cooking) with a variety of toppings, and a Philly cheesesteak. There were a few other items but I can’t remember them at the moment.

I decided on a regular cheeseburger (there was also a spicy cheeseburger listed on the menu) with no onions and, declaring that he would have a heart attack at age 40, Philip (on the phone) told me to order him a Big Papa burger. Our burgers were basically the same: large, irregularly shaped burgers (a good sign, showing that they are more than likely hand-patted rather than frozen patties) on store-bought buns with American cheese, mayo, mustard, shredded (not leaf) lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and in Philip’s case onions and a split piece of griddled smoked sausage. Because he has gotten spoiled by sausage from places like Link 41, he wasn’t super-thrilled that it was basically a piece of Hillshire Farms sausage (or something similar) but he said it tasted pretty good on the burger so he got over it. It was a well-seasoned, well-cooked burger that wasn’t overly drenched with condiments. It was a very good burger-not a gourmet burger, just a good old cheeseburger. Sometimes you just want a straight-up good burger. We both ate the whole thing. Don’t judge me. Teaching PreK is hard work, and I am pretty much always hungry.

We decided to try out both the fries and the onion rings. The fries were crinkle-cut, a gigantic bag of them to be exact. They were crispy and well-salted, not mouth-searingly salty but not unsalted like those that you get at some places (I will never for the life of me figure out why so many places are so afraid to salt their fries. I’m sorry, but fried food should be salted when it is fresh out of the oil or the salt will never stick. I understand that some people cannot eat salt, but can’t special orders of unsalted food be made for them????). The onion rings were battered, not breaded, with a slightly sweet taste to the batter. I like my onion rings a little thicker than these were with a more oniony flavor (because while I hate raw onions I do love cooked onions) but they weren’t bad. I’m pretty sure the fries and onion rings were frozen (I have yet to come across a restaurant that serves hand-cut crinkle cut fries) but they were pretty good and I have to admit that frozen crinkle cut fries are kind of a comfort food for me.

When I was growing up, JJ’s, which was on Dayton Pike in the location that is now Shuford’s BBQ, was a mainstay….a place to go for a gigantic burger or a huge bag of crinkle-cut fries so hot they’d burn the roof of your mouth. It wasn’t gourmet cuisine, but it was good. I loved that place. I don’t think I even realized how much until I became an adult. I remember a lot of weekends when I would come home from my college dorm that my mom would ask me what I wanted to eat and I would request JJ’s. When it became “Jan’s” sometime after I got married, I knew the end was near. It lasted a little while but eventually gave way to Shuford’s. I’d be exaggerating if I said I shed a tear, but I was a little sad. The food at Great American Burger Company reminded me a lot of JJ’s so I guess you could say it fills a bit of a void-that great little neighborhood burger stand. Since it’s on my way home from work it seems like a great solution for those nights that I end up working a little later than usual or I just don’t feel like cooking…or for in-service days when I just can’t bring myself to pack a lunch. I would like to give some of their non-burger menu items a try as well. By the way, our total was $14.37.

Great American Burger Company closed several months after this post was written. The owners went on to participate in Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race as Chatty Chicken.

Great American Burger Company was located at 202 Durham Street, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. They are open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with occasional Saturday hours for special events. You can call them at 423-618-3186. They do not have a website right now, but you can like Great American Burger Co. on Facebook. Soddy-Daisyans (or anyone else who is in the area and looking for a yummy burger!), support your local burger stand!

Also in this area: Shuford’s BBQ

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