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Community Pie-February 23, 2013

February 24, 2013

Several months back, as I was driving from work to the farmers market by way of Market Street, I looked over and noticed a “coming soon” restaurant in the space that was the original Market Street Tavern: Community Pie.  How odd, I thought, that another pie place would come in across the street from Fork & Pie Bar…then I realized that the word “pie” was in reference to pizza pies.  Neapolitan pies, to be exact. And gelato.

And I swooned.  Because gelato is the stuff of my dreams.

I waited a good long while to hear that Community Pie had opened, then another drive-by had me thinking the whole thing had fallen through…but then Emily Rose, another Chattanooga blogger, wrote about them on her blog and a bunch of other people started mentioning them and then I realized I had totally missed something.

Don’t these restaurants know they’re supposed to alert me of their openings?

I’m totally kidding. Not really…okay, a little.

Anyway, I’ve been really dying to go there for at least two weeks now, so when we set out today with no real plan for lunch it seemed like a golden opportunity I would be a fool to pass up.  The weather was very nice, which helped because we like to park not too close and walk.  Walking between the buildings downtown is like walking in an Arctic wind tunnel on a cold day.  The place was crowded but we were still seated immediately.  We were struck by the decor….they opened up the space (which was sectioned into three or four rooms before) and really did it up, with gorgeous gray ceilings, painted brick walls (of which I completely forgot to take a photo) and cool light fixtures.  Even the restrooms were interesting (if a little different from the rest of the joint)  with graffiti painted on the walls.

The front side of the menu consists of appetizers (such as Kobe meatballs, fried cheese, and tomato soup & grilled cheese), toast (toasted open-faced Niedlov’s bread topped with homemade goodies & artisinal charcuterie), and salads.  Despite the fact that I had heard very flattering things about the kale salad, I figured I’d blogged enough about kale salad this week plus Philip likes arugula more than kale, so we decided on the arugula salad (with pine nuts, Pecorino Romano, cracked black pepper, and lemon vinaigrette).  We also decided on the truffled egg & speck toast (speck is an Italian ham).  We strongly considered the creamy mushroom toast but ultimately decided to order the one that was topped with the smoky pork product-big surprise, right?

The arugula salad was very fresh (no wilted pieces-rare indeed!).  The Romano cheese was shaved, not grated, on top and it was very strong….the perfect complement to the peppery greens.  I love love loved the lemon vinaigrette…very lemony indeed but not off-putting, seasoned perfectly.  The toast?  Wow.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I was not disappointed.  The toast was very crunchy and topped with a couple of slices of ham and a gigantic scoop of truffled egg salad on each half, garnished with chopped dill.  The only thing that was a little difficult was biting through the generous amount of ham with my teeth…but this is not a bad thing.  I must crack the code for the truffled egg salad (and perhaps the lemon vinaigrette too!).

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While many of the pizzas sounded amazing (pork confit? duck confit? roasted mushroom?), we zeroed in on three in particular: sweet fig (prosciutto, gorgonzola, kalamata olives, goat gouda, homemade fig preserves, arugula, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt); carbonara (pancetta, green onion, black pepper, mascarpone cream sauce, fresh mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and egg); and Nueske’s bacon (fingerling potatoes, thyme, caramelized onions, fontina, Tilamook sharp white cheddar, arugula, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt).  After a short deliberation, we settled on the Nueske’s bacon pizza.  The pizza arrived without the arugula, but Tripp, our server, was quick to bring out a plate of it for us to throw on the pizza.  It was good without the arugula, but there is just something about a pizza topped with arugula that is hard to beat.  The crust was charred from the pizza oven.  It was thin but chewy, which is a rare quality in a pizza and everything on it was perfectly cooked with the toppings proportioned just right.  Also, I’ve read a few Urbanspoon reviews complaining that the middle of the pizza was too soggy, but with some research found several websites that stated that Neapolitan pizza often does have this slight sog to the middle.  While it wasn’t super-crisp, I didn’t find it to be “soggy” or “soupy” but delicious!

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Of course, as I mentioned at the beginning, I am a gelato-phile so there was no question that I would be sampling some Milk & Honey gelato (Milk & Honey is owned by the same company that owns Community Pie-more on that in a minute).  Some of the offerings today (they change frequently) were the signature milk & honey, lavender & honey, chocolate macaroon, a vanilla with chocolate chunks (I can’t remember the name!), pear sorbet, and celery-ginger.  I decided on the lavender & honey (I have a weakness for lavender-flavored things) while Philip decided to get milk & honey and chocolate macaroon (you can get up to three flavors in one of the 4-ounce servings).  The milk & honey flavor was very simple and clean-tasting; the chocolate macaroon sweet but not cloying, chocolately but not bitter, and with just the right amount of coconut flavor.  The lavender & honey?  It made my eyes roll back into my head.  Perfect.  Just perfect….the lavender was strong and the texture and sweetness just right.  I practically licked the dish clean.  By the way, if you were wondering….gelato is a sort of Italian ice cream.  It has a lower butterfat content than ice cream because the proportion of milk to cream is higher, and it is denser because less air is whipped into it.

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Tripp, our server, was very attentive and friendly.  He checked back on us several times and was quick to take care of anything that we needed (e.g. the arugula!).  I asked him who owned the restaurant and he told me that it is owned by Taylor & Mike Monen, who also own Taco Mamacita and Urban Stack Burger Lounge.  They will be opening an official storefront for Milk & Honey soon, selling gelato, popsicles, and other confections.  Exciting!

I won’t lie, this was a little pricier than your typical pizza experience-our total was about $35 before tip.  I was very happy with the food, the service, and the atmosphere, though, and, as you well know, I don’t mind paying a little more for those things.  It’s not like we eat out every day!  I highly recommend Community Pie!

Community Pie is located at 850 Market Street #100, Chattanooga, TN 37402.  You can call them at 423-486-1pie.  Check out their website, http://communitypie.com, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter (though they haven’t really gotten into the tweeting game just yet!).

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Filed Under: By Location, By Type, Downtown Chattanooga, Italian & Pizza, Restaurants Tagged With: downtown Chattanooga restaurants, pizza restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 6 Comments

Sweet Basil Thai Cuisine-February 16, 2013

February 17, 2013

Philip and I have been eating at Sweet Basil for years.  Odd that I haven’t reviewed it yet, right?  Actually, we went to Sweet Basil shortly after the inception of Chattavore in May 2011 and I started writing a post, but it was the end of the school year and that just isn’t a good time for me to do much of anything.  The post never got finished and thus is now referred to as “the lost post”.  When I updated my tags and created my recipe and restaurant index last month, I finally deleted the poor, forlorn post.  Still, Sweet Basil deserves my love so finally we ended up back there yesterday.  There was no planning ahead on our part; we had no idea where we were going when we left our house but after a marathon shopping trip to the School Box to spend some of my classroom money, it was close and sounded good to both of us.

At three in the afternoon, you may have expected it to be dead but it wasn’t.  Not that it was packed out or anything, but there were several other tables occupied.  We were immediately seated, though, after taking quick note of the lunchbox special including soup, salad, a spring roll, and chicken Panang curry (there may have been some other things but I didn’t notice).  The tables were set with a plates, ornately folded napkins (which the server unfolded and placed in our laps), dinner menus, and a sushi menu.  This is a phenomena that I wish someone would explain to me.  Sweet Basil has not always served sushi and I am assuming that they started after Rain Thai Bistro opened and started serving sushi.  I’m sure the sushi is good and I’m sure these places serve it on popular demand, but these are Thai restaurants.  If I want sushi I’ll go to a Japanese restaurant.  Why does a Thai restaurant need to serve sushi?  So confusing.  But I digress.

Anyway, we’ve kind of fallen off the bandwagon of using our Adventures in Dining Guide for every blog post.  We did it last week but sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for the restaurants found there.  Lucky for us, though, there was a Kids First coupon for $5 of $25 here at Sweet Basil.  Yippee!  Usually we order some spring rolls (crispy fried spring rolls served with tamarind sauce) but Philip was drawn to the basil rolls today so we decided to order those.  The basil rolls are not fried.  They are made with rice paper wrappers filled with thin rice noodles, a thick stack of sweet basil leaves, lettuce, and a single piece of shrimp each.  They were served with a sweet and tangy plum sauce.  Fresh and delicious, these made me want to make some unfried spring rolls at home.  Look for a blog post soon(ish). We will order these again.  At some point we would like to try the golden basil cups, crispy basil leaves with a shrimp, chicken, and corn-based filling.

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This is one of those places that every time I go, I think “I need to branch out and order something other than the usual” but I just can’t bring myself to do it.  I always order the Pad Thai.  I think I ordered the lunchbox special once and, while I liked it, I found myself longing for my beloved Pad Thai, so I decided that branching out probably isn’t worth it.  When I ordered the Pad Thai, the server removed my plate because they serve their Pad Thai in a large dish that’s kind of like a plate/bowl hybrid.  The Pad Thai is typically served with shrimp, but the server asked me if I wanted shrimp so I assume that sometimes people order it with chicken, beef, or pork, or meatless.  I definitely wanted the shrimp.  Pad Thai is not spicy hot so it doesn’t have a chili pepper denoting the spiciness level, but you can request it with additional spice.  Of course, I did not.  The medium-wide rice noodles are stir-fried with a sweet & sour sauce with eggs, tofu, green onions, and shrimp, served with mung bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, and a lime slice for topping.  Perfection.  It’s unlikely I’m going to start ordering anything else here any time soon.

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Like me, Philip always orders the same thing: Panang curry.  Usually he orders pork, but today he decided to order beef.  Panang curry is a one-chili-pepper spicy dish but Philip decided to up the spice factor to two chili peppers (which harkens back to the time we ate at Thai Smile for lunch years ago and the guy behind us ordered his curry with four-chili-pepper spiciness.  Whoa, man.  Crazy.).  The time that I ordered the lunchbox special it came with chicken Panang curry and I found the standard one-chili-pepper spiciness to be too much for my wimpy taste buds, but Philip has a much higher heat tolerance than I do.  For someone with a high tolerance, this curry doesn’t really start out spicy but the spiciness builds as you eat it.  The server brought out a plate with the curry on it as well as a container of plain sticky white rice, which she scooped onto the plate that was preset onto the table.  Panang curry paste is made with chili peppers, cilantro, Kaffir lime rind, and a variety of other exotic and not-so-exotic spices and seasonings, then mixed into a coconut milk based sauce and served with stir-fried sliced meat and peppers (green and red bell peppers).  Philip ate most of it and declared at the end that he could finish it but he wouldn’t.

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I was terribly sad that I didn’t have room for dessert.  Perhaps next time I will go back on my word and have some soup and a Thai salad (with peanut dressing) so that I can have space for some sticky rice with mango or maybe some coconut or green tea ice cream.  Not this time, though. I also am dying to try Thai iced tea, which is sweet with condensed milk, but I’m thinking that maybe that’s one of those things I’m going to have to make at home because it’s unlikely I’ll ever pay to purchase it in a restaurant.  Anyway, before the coupon, our total was $31.  The server was quick to take our coupon when she cleared the table, bring back the check, and run our credit card.  They also kept our water glasses filled and they are always very, very friendly.  The ladies at the table behind us even got their picture taken with one of the servers!  We love Sweet Basil and so far it’s our favorite Thai food in Chattanooga (while we’ve only reviewed one other, we have tried other Thai restaurants prior to the existence of Chattavore), though we have heard great things about a couple we haven’t gotten around to yet.  Stay tuned.

Sweet Basil Thai Cuisine is located at 5845 Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, TN 37411 (across from the Wal-Mart complex).  You can call them at 423-485-8836.

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Filed Under: Asian, Brainerd/East Ridge, By Location, By Type, Restaurants Tagged With: Asian restaurants, Brainerd restaurants, Thai restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 12 Comments

India Mahal-February 9, 2013

February 10, 2013

Several months ago, I wrote about the BLT pizza that I ate at a restaurant named Kudzu Grille on Philip’s and my first date. Yesterday was the fourteenth anniversary of that day! While we don’t really “celebrate” the day (as all of the anniversary glory belongs, of course, to the anniversary of our wedding in July), we always remember it. Eating at a new restaurant, drinking coffee at Rembrandt’s, walking on the bridge, wondering what the coming days (months, years…) have in store. The excitement of a new relationship…which, in our case anyway, eventually gave way to the excitement of a longterm (i.e. lifelong) relationship, but the kind where holding hands and talking about when we first met (at Chuck E. Cheese’s, where I was convinced that he hated me for months before we eventually became friends-we didn’t date until much later) never gets old. Or just hanging out on the couch and pretending like the rest of the world doesn’t exist, which is what we do most nights.

Yesterday, though, we actually hung out with a friend, our old friend Rachel, who took the photo below. We had planned to have lunch with Rachel last Saturday but then the snow kind of threw off those plans so we ate at Subway with her after church on Sunday in about twenty minutes because I had a photo shoot to do. We had to have a real lunch with her! I can’t remember what, but something had gotten Philip thinking about saag paneer, which I made one time after seeing Aarti Sequiera make it on her Food Network show Aarti Party. This dish consisted of making my own cheese from whole milk & lemon juice, which you know I’m always game for, cutting it into cubes and frying it then combining it with a spicy, creamy spinach mixture. Only her spice measurements lit me on fire and I had no idea that was going to happen. I think I ended up having a grilled cheese while Philip happily ate the spinach bowl of death.

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Anyway, as I was saying….Philip wanted some saag paneer, so we had to decide where we were going to go for said dish. There are three restaurants in Chattanooga that we are aware of (perhaps there are more, please tell me if you know of any!) that serve Indian food, and they each serve a lunch buffet daily. This had us a little suspicious because we are not buffet lovers, but we eventually decided to give it a go. We decided on India Mahal because (a) to our knowledge it’s been around the longest; and (b) we had a buy one get one free coupon. We’d been seeing India Mahal for years (it’s been around since 1995) but I was always afraid to try it (truth be told, I’m not a super-adventurous eater. I was a junior in college before Philip and my roommate convinced me to try Chinese food.)…but we’d been talking about it for a long time.

The restaurant wasn’t super-crowded but it wasn’t dead either. The man who greeted us at the door, whom I assume was the owner, seated us in a booth and shook our hands (he shook Philip’s hand again as he was paying). One thing I read over and over about India Mahal is that the owners were extremely friendly and remember people from previous visits. As people came in, it seemed that the man knew several of them. They definitely have some regulars.

The buffet was a couple of tables set up with a cold unit and warming (chafing) pans. Each item was labeled with the name and a description. I was immediately disappointed by the fact that there were no samosas (Indian turnovers stuffed with spiced potatoes and peas) on the buffet….I had been hoping to try them for quite some time. I will have to make them at home….perhaps to share with you? Anyway, I was not disappointed by the naan bread, which is a traditional Indian flatbread cooked in a tandoor oven till it’s crispy and bubbly. Like the best pita bread you’ve ever eaten. I could have eaten nothing but this amazing bread, but I held myself to two pieces so I wouldn’t be miserable when I was done.

I had read up prior to venturing to India Mahal to find out what dishes were safe for someone with mild tastebuds like mine to eat in an Indian restaurant. I was happy to see chicken curry (according to their menu, boneless chicken cooked with onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, and fragrant spices) and chicken makhni (also known as butter chicken, described as boneless pieces of tandoori chicken cooked in Oriental spices with tomato gravy and butter). Neither dish was hot, but both were deliciously seasoned. I loved the flavor of the tomato gravy on the makhni but thought that the chicken in the curry tasted fresher than the butter chicken.

As far as vegetarian items, there were many options and I definitely could have easily made it out with a full stomach without eating a single bite of meat. I was frightened of the saag paneer since the menu describes it as “spicy spinach cooked with pieces of fresh homemade cheese” so I just put a tiny spoonful on my plate, but it was definitely within my heat range and was delicious. I ended up going back for a larger serving, along with more of the vegetable biryani, basmati rice cooked with vegetables, nuts, and spices….similar to fried rice but not. It was amazing and I didn’t even bother with the plain basmati rice (by the way, basmati rice is nuttier than plan old white rice). The channa masala-chickpeas cooked with tomatoes, onions, and spices-were quite tasty but I especially loved the eggplant and potatoes (I didn’t write down the name and it isn’t on the menu) cooked with tomatoes, onions, and spices. It sounds like an odd combination but it really works. There was also a vegetarian dish called dal makhni, made with black lentils, but I did not try this one.

India Mahal

Clockwise from top (starting with the bowl): raita (cooling yogurt sauce with cucumbers and mint), chicken makhni saag paneer, channa masala, potatoes & eggplant, vegetable biryani, naan bread, and curry chicken

Philip was extremely excited about the desserts: kulfi badam pista (basmati rice cooked in sweetened milk with raisins and almonds) and gulab jamun, deep-fried balls of dough soaked in syrup. He loved the rice dish, as he is a huge lover of rice pudding, but I wasn’t really a fan. I don’t know what it was….perhaps the fact that it was made with basmati rice which infiltrated the flavor, or maybe there was some rogue spice that I didn’t care for in a sweet dish. Philip described the gulab jamun as “like deep-fried Munchkins”, which was an apt description. He filled the bottom of his bowl with syrup that he then slurped from the bowl (I was having flashbacks to his Cracker Barrel maple syrup drinking days) and said it tasted like cotton candy. I was dying to have a mango lassi but decided to save my sweet tooth for some ice cream that we got at Bi-lo last night (I’ve had an ice cream craving since December and my beloved Nana’s is closed for the winter).

India Mahal

India Mahal

The only thing that might border on a complaint or suggestion that we had was that our friend pointed out that, while the food definitely wasn’t cold, it also wasn’t piping hot….the danger of sitting in a chafing dish, I suppose. I want to go here at night so we can order off of the dinner menu. The total for two lunch buffets plus a fountain drink was $23.09. If you like well-spiced food with a friendly atmosphere, I would definitely recommend India Mahal.

India Mahal is located at 5970 Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, TN 37421. You can call them at 423-510-9651. They serve a lunch buffet daily from 11:30-3:00 and a dinner menu from 5-10. You can like them on Facebook.

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Filed Under: Asian, Brainerd/East Ridge, By Location, By Type, Restaurants Tagged With: Brainerd restaurants, Indian restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 2 Comments

Champy’s-February 2, 2013

February 3, 2013

Groundhog Day brought snow to the Tennessee Valley!  Of course, for a teacher, snow on the weekend is a complete waste.  All it does is create roadway chaos and grocery store chaos, and, of course, since it was completely unexpected, I had practically nothing in the house to eat.  The snow covered the ground rapidly while we hung out on the couch after eating our breakfast, and momentarily we were unsure that we would be able to go anywhere.  Sometimes that gets a little dicey when you live at the bottom of a hill and both of your cars have manual transmissions.

Lucky for us, the temperature was in the upper twenties and the road never froze, at least not in our neighborhood.  We decided to head on out and started driving toward downtown, flipping through our Adventures in Dining coupon book to see if there was anywhere that caught our fancy.  There wasn’t, so no buy one get one free meals for us this week.  We decided instead to head to MLK for some Champy’s fried chicken.  My friend Matt, who started the Facebook Group Matt Eats Chatt a few years back, recommended Champy’s a while back, referencing their awesome fried chicken and the paper bag coozies for their beers. Hi-larious.  They actually have stickers that essentially say “chicken + 40 ouncers” = love.  I mean….that’s not what they say….but it is.  Oh, nevermind.  I should have taken a picture.  Anyway, there’s actually a Facebook group trying to get Guy Fieri to bring Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives to Chattanooga.  Does that show still come on?  I’m so out of the loop since we don’t have cable…

Driving across Veteran’s Bridge was a little sketchy…that is, it was completely frozen.  Luckily, the other motorists were equally as cautious as we were so we had no issues.  Champy’s was unexpectedly crowded for such a cold day with so much unexpected snow, but we were immediately seated in their covered and heated outdoor seating area (by the way, the place was pretty much packed out by the time we left).  Our server quickly took our drink order while we perused the appetizer menu and settled on pickled fried green tomatoes, which were delicious….lightly battered and sweet, salty, briny all at the same time.  They are served with Champy’s sauce, a slightly spicy horseradish and mayo sauce that was pretty benign at first but was burning just a little by the time our entrees came.  The tomatoes  were a little expensive-$8.75-but served in a very large portion.  I would definitely order them again.

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I have actually eaten at Champy’s before, but when I eat lunch with coworkers I generally don’t whip out my phone and start taking pictures….so I didn’t blog about them.  Anyway, I had fried chicken when I ate there before and decided to order a salad this time (my coworkers ordered salads last time and they looked delicious!).  I decided on the fried chicken salad with both honey mustard and ranch dressings (they also offer blue cheese and Champy’s sauce).  I don’t usually order entree salads but this is no pansy salad.  It’s crispy romaine lettuce topped with mounds of chopped chicken tenders, a sliced boiled egg, halved grape tomatoes, red onions, chopped pickles, and shredded cheddar.  The hearty romaine stood up perfectly to the hot and crispy chicken tenders, and I especially love the ideas of chopped pickles on a salad.  I don’t think the dressings were housemade…in fact, I am such a honey mustard expert (I used to have a bit of an obsession) that I am quite certain that the honey mustard was Naturally Fresh, but they were still quite tasty.

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Philip decided to get the two-piece dark meat plate, which comes with slaw, baked beans, and white bread to soak up the grease(!).  The chicken was perfectly hot, deliciously peppered and wonderfully crispy.  The beans were not overly mushy or overly sweet, seasoned just right.  Philip liked the slaw but (as usual) did not think that it was quite as good as Rib & Loin’s (no one’s ever is, Champy’s, so don’t feel bad!).

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Champy’s is one of those places that “does one thing and does it well”.  You know those are my favorites.  They don’t bother to venture too far out of the realm of fried chicken….they serve wings and lots of fried appetizers (but their Mississippi Delta homemade hot tamales are quite delicious….I tried them when I ate there before).  They also offer family meals and catering.  It’s quite a popular joint and with good reason.  We’ll definitely be back.  By the way, Champy’s is a chain of sorts but still qualifies for Chattavore blogability because they only have four locations (the other three are in Alabama) and from what I can tell they started in Chattanooga (in 2009).  Can anyone confirm or refute this for me?

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Champy’s wing sauce…not too hot but burns a little bit. I almost ordered the buffalo chicken salad but was afraid it might be a bit much….I was probably right!

Champy’s is located at 526 E. MLK Blvd., Chattanooga, TN 37402.  You can check out their website: http://champyschicken.com/locations/chattanooga-tn/, like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.  You can call them at (423) 752-9198.

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Filed Under: By Location, By Type, Downtown Chattanooga, Restaurants, Southern & Barbecue Tagged With: downtown Chattanooga restaurants, Southern cooking restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 4 Comments

Poblanos-January 26, 2013

January 27, 2013

Yesterday I had my first paid photography session!  Super exciting.  I did senior photos for a girl from my church.  Lots of fun, and I think the photos turned out great!

We met her and her mom at Coolidge Park, so I consulted my handy Adventures in Dining coupon book to decide where we should eat.  We settled on Poblanos, which I didn’t know existed until we got the coupon book.  Poblanos is located at the opposite end of River Street from Coolidge Park, in the location that was Pisa Pizza for a long time.  Turns out they really haven’t been around all that long, so I don’t feel too guilty for not realizing they were there.

The dining room at Poblanos is fairly small but it was surprisingly crowded for 2:00 on a Saturday.  We decided to sit in the screened in/covered porch area (they also have a second outdoor seating area that isn’t covered).  Our server brought us our menus and our waters and we decided to order some guacamole (instead of our usual queso) for $6.50.  The guacamole was just slightly chunky and garlicky, yet creamy.  I didn’t notice any tomatoes but there was cilantro.  It was very good, and I liked that the chips were very thick, hot, and not overly salty.

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I toyed with the idea of ordering the flautas but instead decided to get the tortas Milanesa, a Mexican sandwich with a breaded chicken breast, refried beans, lettuce, tomato, queso fresco, and avocado.  I asked our server for a her side dish recommendations.  She recommended the salad, which I ordered with the housemade mango vinaigrette, and the grilled Mexican vegetables (yellow squash and zucchini).  The salad was pretty good, with romaine lettuce, chopped tomatoes, julienned cucumber, sliced radishes, and white cheese.  It was fresh and cold, just like I like it.  The housemade dressing was sweet with a strong hit of vinegar.  I really liked it.  The vegetables were well seasoned and tender.  Unfortunately, I think our server got confused by my order and I ended up with what I’m pretty sure was a Torta Especial-the chicken wasn’t breaded.  I didn’t feel the need to send it back, though, so I ate it.  The chicken was well seasoned and I liked the crustiness of the torta roll.  A couple of times I got a little too close for comfort with seeds from the jalapeño, but nothing too major.  I would order this again.

Poblano a

Poblano a

Philip decided to get the flautas.  Three flautas were included with the dish so he ordered one with pulled pork, one with steak, and one with chorizo.  He decided on rice and refried beans for his sides.  He felt that the beans seemed like they had a more “homemade” texture than most Mexican restaurants (i.e. not über-smooth) and that the rice was pretty standard Mexican restaurant rice.  The flautas were fresh and hot, with sour cream drizzled over them and queso fresco crumbled on top.  The chorizo was not as spicy as most that he has had.  The pulled pork was tender with a few crispy edges.  He didn’t find the steak to be as tender as he would have liked it, though it did have a good flavor.

Poblano a

Overall, I thought that the food here was fresh and tasty.  The menu items were pretty standard, though the menu was not as huge and overwhelming as most Mexican restaurant menus.  I liked the selection of tortas, which many Mexican restaurants don’t have.  They do try to serve local ingredients, which of course I appreciate. Our total before our buy one get one free coupon was about $32….definitely a little more than we usually pay at El Metate or Delia’s.  Still, Poblanos is worth a try if you’re in that direction.

Poblanos is located at 551 River Street, Chattanooga, TN 37405.  You can call them at 423-490-7911.  They are open Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.  Check out their website at http://www.poblanosofchattanooga.com.  You can also “like” them on Facebook.

Poblano's Mexican Cuisine on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: By Location, By Type, Downtown Chattanooga, Restaurants, South of the Border (Mexican, South American, etc.) Tagged With: downtown Chattanooga restaurants, mexican restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 2 Comments

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About Chattavore

Hi, I'm Mary! Welcome to Chattavore, a destination for people who want to feed themselves and their families well every day! Life can be crazy, which means that getting dinner on the table can be a challenge (more often than not!) and my mission is to take all your favorite recipes and figure out how to serve them on a Tuesday.

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