• Recipes
  • Contact
  • Work with Us
  • Privacy

Chattavore

What I ate, plate by plate.

  • Start Here!
    • Contact
  • Easy Recipes
    • Air Fryer
    • Drinks
    • Easy Baking
    • For the Grill
    • Freezer Friendly
    • Instant Pot
    • No-Bake Desserts
    • One-Pot Recipes
    • Salads and Cold Dishes
    • Sheet Pan Recipes
    • Slow Cooker Recipes
  • Videos
    • From Scratch
    • Recipe Videos
    • Techniques
    • Tools
  • How-To
    • How to Cook From Scratch
    • How to Get Organized
    • How to Make Ahead and Meal Prep
    • How to Use Tools and Techniques

The Rice Boxx-June 9, 2012

June 12, 2012

As I mentioned in my Serendipity Cafe, we attempted to go to the Rice Boxx last month.  Unfortunately for us, we went on a Monday night, and they are closed on Mondays.  So, this past weekend we decided to go there for lunch on Saturday.  In case you didn’t know, The Rice Boxx is located in the Bi-Lo complex in the Lupton Drive/Rivermont area.  There were not very many people in the restaurant, so we were seated immediately.  Our server quickly took our drink order and left us to peruse the menu.

The menu is pretty large with a section for Chinese/Thai and a section for Japanese (including a section only for sushi).  I’m going to be honest, I am always a little bit suspicious of places that serve several different types of Asian cuisine under one roof….but I was a sport.  One thing that I noticed that I found interesting was that, while they had a kids’ menu, the items on the menu were not typical kids’ menu items…they were child-sized portions of some of the items off of the regular menu.

We ordered a Thai spring roll (vegetarian) and a pork egg roll to start our meal.  Turns out that Philip’s meal came with a spring roll, so we did not have to pay extra for that.  As we were eating the rolls, we simultaneously noticed that there was no pink meat in the egg roll.  I cannot stomach pink meat in egg rolls.  That just screams processed to me, and I assume that the pink hue comes from the “pink” curing salt (nitrites) that are used.  Anyway, this egg roll just had plain old ground pork.  The rolls were both very crispy but not mouth-searingly hot (hot enough to be well-cooked but not hot enough to remove the skin from the roof of your mouth).  My favorite was the spring roll, with its rice noodles and cabbage and flaky rice paper wrapper…but that’s just me.

Untitled

I decided to order off of the “Japanese” section of the menu so I ordered teriyaki chicken and shrimp (menu options are available as hibachi-with soy sauce-or teriyaki-obviously with teriyaki sauce) with fried rice and white sauce (ginger sauce is also available, but I’ve never been a fan….and I have openly declared my love for white sauce here before).  The server got mixed up and brought me chicken and steak, but the error was quickly corrected.  I probably won’t bother with the shrimp again….it was a little bit chewy.  The chicken was nicely done with no fatty or chewy pieces, and there were a lot of vegetables on the plate, which was nice.  The rice was cooked nicely, but it was bland…forcing me to douse it with copious amounts of soy sauce.  I can’t deal with underseasoned foods!  I did like the white sauce….actually, I liked it more than Ichiban’s or Kyoto’s, but not as much as Typhoon’s or the sauce I make myself.

Untitled

Philip decided to order General Tso’s chicken off of the Chinese/Thai menu.  He got this with fried rice, and it also came with broccoli and soup.  He decided on egg drop soup, which came with a bowl of fried wonton strips (which I happily helped him eat-I love those things!).  His comment about the soup was, “Tastes like egg drop soup.”  Thanks for the description.  Wow.  We cracked up at his plate when they brought our meals out….it was a gigantic pile of chicken, a mound of rice….and three broccoli florets.  I was concerned that he would gorge himself on broccoli.  But anyway….Philip too thought that the rice was bland, although he does not love soy sauce like I do and just ate it that way.  He said that the broccoli was underseasoned (unseasoned?) as well, and only ate one piece (I needn’t have been worried).  He did really like the chicken, which I tasted.  General Tso’s chicken (which is an Americanized Chinese dish that you would not find in China-but then, aren’t most of them?) is usually similar to sesame chicken but with a slightly spicier sauce.  I could taste the chilies in the sauce, but it was not overpoweringly spicy.  Philip’s favorite thing about it was that while it was sweet, it did not have the usually tooth-aching quality you find in most Chinese restaurants.

Untitled

Untitled

If you decide to visit the Rice Boxx, you should definitely visit the restroom.  The hallway leading to the restroom has a flashing light that changes colors…red, yellow, purple, orange, blue, green….very kitschy.  It made me feel like I was trapped in an eighties horror flick.  Too funny.

So, the verdict is that The Rice Boxx is not my favorite, but it definitely wasn’t bad.  The prices were decent, as was the amount of food that we got.  On this day, seasoning was a bit of an issue….and I wouldn’t bother with the shrimp if I were you.  We didn’t try the sushi, but if you were so inclined you could sit at the small sushi bar and watch him make your sushi, which always make me feel better about restaurants that serve sushi, and I read several positive comments about the sushi on Urbanspoon.  If you are in the area and you are craving some sort of Asian food, it’s worth a stop in.

The Rice Boxx is located at 3600 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga, TN 37415.  You can call them at 423-305-0855.  You can also visit their website at http://www.riceboxchattanooga.com.

Rice Boxx on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Asian, By Location, By Type, Hixson, Restaurants Tagged With: Asian restaurants, Hixson restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 2 Comments

Fresh on Fridays, 5/11/12-Taco Sherpa, Famous Nater’s, Pure Sodaworks, and Monkey Town Donuts

May 12, 2012

Did you know that Chattanooga has a street food scene? If you said no, you’re not alone. If you said yes, you are probably either (a) like me and unnaturally absorbed in the Chattanooga food scene; or (b) someone who works downtown. Food trucks in Chattanooga don’t do a lot of venturing out of downtown Chattanooga at this time, and why would they? Their bread is definitely getting buttered by the downtown crowd, as they sell out of product regularly and are definitely thriving. Right now, the food trucks in Chattanooga are Southern Burger Co. (aka the best burger in Chattanooga), Taco Sherpa (Korean tacos & rice bowls), Famous Nater’s (sandwiches), and A Taste of Argentina (duh, Argentinian food). Supplement that with Monkey Town Donut Company’s donut cart and Pure Sodaworks’ handmade soda cart, and you’ve got a true street food scene.

I’ve been wanting to try all of the above for some time now, but since I both live and work in Hixson and we are not big on crowds (i.e. we don’t care too much for the Chattanooga Market), this amazingness has eluded me to this point. I had a personal day that needed ot be used up before the end of the school year, so I took yesterday off from work and went to Fresh on Fridays, a gathering of all the food trucks and carts plus several other vendors at Miller Plaza. Once summer break hits, I am sure that I will attend many more of these plus some Food Truck Tuesdays at Warehouse Row. Both of these events begin at 11 and end at 2.

We arrived a few minutes early and the only vendor that was open was Monkey Town Donut Co., so we waited a few minutes. I had already decided to eat at Taco Sherpa. They opened promptly at 11 and I walked up and introduced myself as Chattavore (I’m a big dork like that). Whit, the chef, and I had conversed a little bit on Twitter, and he shook my hand….and he knew my first name. And that I’m a teacher. I was quite impressed. That, my friends, is connecting with your consumers. Whit’s wife, Lindsey, gave me a bite of dak galbi (spicy chicken) to taste so I could make sure that it wasn’t too spicy, since I’m a pansy. It wasn’t. I ordered one dak galbi taco and one galbi (pork marinated in sweet & spicy soy-based sauce) taco plus chips and salsa as a side. They also offer Korean banchan (pickled/fermented vegetables) but as I mentioned, I’m a pansy and I was afraid of the kimchi. I’ll wait for Philip to order it at some point, because if my food’s too spicy, I can’t eat it. And nothing is more depressing to me than ordering food and not being able to eat it.

My tacos came out quickly. They are served on double corn tortillas with cucumber, radish, cabbage, cilantro, sesame seeds, and sherpa sauce. The chicken is cut into large chunks and coated with the sherpa sauce, which is just a little spicy…you taste the chiles more than the heat. I liked it….but I liked the pork more. The pork was shredded/pulled pork and you could just taste the slow-roastedness of it. The sauce was perfect and all of the veggies really completed the flavor. I love corn tortillas and the tacos were great on them. The chips and salsa were….chips and salsa. I want to try the banchan…and I will, eventually. Taco Sherpa is a fantastic addition to Chattanooga’s street food scene. Try it. TRY IT! They just opened last month, and they’re sure to be around for a long time. You can learn more about Taco Sherpa at their website, http://tacosherpa.com, their Facebook page, or on Twitter (@tacosherpa).

****Sadly, the Sherpa closed in early 2013 when White and Lindsay decided to move back to South Korea.  I wish them well but they’ll be missed!

Untitled

Untitled

Taco Sherpa on Urbanspoon

While Philip liked the idea of Korean tacos, he was sucked in by the promise of the Famous Nater’s BBQ pork sandwich: 12-hour roasted pork with truckmade barbecue sauce, bacon, and cabbage slaw on a Niedlov’s bun. Yep. Pork on pork. Since Philip loves pulled pork and bacon about equally, he was pretty much fixated and couldn’t take his mind off that pork sandwich. Nater’s was a little late opening, so he had to wait a few minutes longer than I did. He got the BBQ sandwich and a bag of Route 44 salt & vinegar chips (we got our drinks from Pure Sodaworks-more on that in a minute). As you can see, there were a few lightly pickled vegetables also included with the sandwich, along with the huge stack of pulled pork in sweet sauce and a thick layer of red cabbage slaw. The roasted pork was perfectly tender and the sauce was just right, although Philip commented that he couldn’t really taste the bacon very much….I guess it was overpowered by the barbecue sauce. Oh well. The sandwich was still great and the Niedlov’s bun pulled it all together…quite literally. Famous Nater’s has been around since early 2011 and landed very close to the top in a national food truck competition…in their first year! You can find out more about Famous Nater’s on their website, http://famousnaters.com, their Facebook page, or on Twitter (@famousnaters). You can also call them at 423-596-5457.

Untitled

Untitled

Famous Nater's World Famous (Food Truck) on Urbanspoon

Like I said above, we got our drinks at Pure Sodaworks. I had no idea such a thing existed until last month when another local blog, Local Milk, started talking about it on the blog and on Twitter. Handmade soda? In Chattanooga? Yes please. Philip and I are soda lovers but soda is a treat for us, and we are always on the lookout for a great soda that doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup, and we’ve recently even tried our hand at making our own (good times!). Well, we have found the perfect one(s). Pure Sodaworks has a stationary location in Coolidge Park that just opened, and in addition to selling their drinks by the cup, they will start a bottling operation soon. They offer seasonal flavors-hooray-sweetened with natural cane sugar-hooray again! On this day, the offerings were root beer, ginger ale, hibiscus lemon, strawberry jalapeno, and lavender mint. I jumped at the lavender mint, and Philip decided on strawberry jalapeno. Both were heaven in a cup, a few squirts of syrup over pellet ice (rejoice!) and topped off with carbonated water. Mine was so fresh and herby tasting, not overwhelmingly minty or lavendery but a perfect balance of both. Philip’s was sweet and perfectly strawberry tasting with the peppery flavor of jalapeno and just a hint of spice…even my pansy tastebuds could handle it. He kept saying it was blowing his mind (in a good way) to taste sweet and jalapeno together. Perfection. Shawn, the soda jerk who was working the stand (I found out his name because I cyberstalked him on their website) carried our drinks to the table for me because I had my hands full of tacos and then he spent several minutes talking to us about their business before we left. I am so excited about Pure Sodaworks I can hardly take it! Get out of your Coca-Cola rut and give them a try! Pure Sodaworks is located at 181 River Street, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-299-3219. To learn more about them, check out their website, http://puresodaworks.com, their Facebook page, or Twitter (@puresodaworks).

Untitled

Untitled

Pure Sodaworks on Urbanspoon

Finally, as we left, we stopped by the Monkey Town Donut Company trailer. Monkey Town Donut Company is based in Dayton, Tennessee (get it? Monkey Town? As in the Scopes Monkey Trial?). Their donuts are tiny, one to two-bite donuts (one for Philip, two for me) coated with cinnamon and sugar. Oh, and they only have thirty calories each. Yep, 30 calories. Which means that a serving (six!) has less than 200 calories. Is that the perfect food or what? They were amazing hot, but we had a few left over (I think that he actually gave us a few more than a dozen-which only costs $4.00, by the way) which we ate cold with coffee after we got home, and they were pretty darn good too. I’m completely enamored and told Philip last night that I wished we had some more. I’ll definitely be getting them again! You can call Monkey Town Donuts at 423-902-6685 or check them out on Facebook.

Untitled

Untitled

Monkey Town Donut Company on Urbanspoon

Street food seems to be the new “thing” in the U.S. and I am glad that the trend has made it to Chattanooga. I hope that the trend will eventually bring our fantastic food trucks into Hixson from time to time, but lucky for me, I’m going to have a lot more free time over the next couple of months to support local street food. I’ve even kicked around the idea of starting my own food truck or cart one of these days-who knows? In the meantime, I’m happy to eat food from these amazing chefs, cooks, and creators who make this food fresh for us Chattanoogans. I encourage you to do the same!

Filed Under: By Location, By Type, Downtown Chattanooga, Food Trucks, Restaurants Tagged With: Asian restaurants, Bakeries, downtown Chattanooga restaurants, sandwich/burger/hot dog restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 6 Comments

Rain Thai Bistro-April 20, 2012

April 22, 2012

Dinner out on a Friday is such a rarity for us….we don’t do crowds or waiting very well, so the only way we will go to a “sit-down” place on a Friday or Saturday evening is usually if we have reservations.  I was planning on making one of my farmers market meals Friday night for dinner (roasted chicken, potatoes, and salad) but Philip needed to head over to the Bonny Oaks area to pick up his paycheck so we decided to go to Hamilton Place.  We were trying hard to think of somewhere local to eat in that area-there are not many places (I guess the rent’s outta control!).  I suggested Sweet Basil Thai, but Brainerd Road is not a fun place to drive on Friday or Saturday night (well, it’s never a fun place to drive, but especially not on a weekend night) so we decided to go to Rain instead.

The atmosphere at Rain is pretty fantastic.  It is beautifully decorated.  We were seated in the bar area at a table that we felt encouraged people to be that couple (that’s what we call couples who sit on the same side of the booth when dining out together-no offense if you are part of one of “those” couples!) because it was a large booth with a large table, made more for 3 or 4 people than 2.  We worked it out, though.  They have an area where the tables are sunk down into the floor…you sit on a cushion on the floor around the table but you put your legs down under the table.  I’ve sat in that section when I’ve gone to lunch with colleagues but Philip never has….we should have asked to be seated there.  There were not a lot of people there when we arrived, but our section filled up very quickly after we got there.  Good timing!

Our server, Angelia, took our drink orders (water, duh!) very quickly, and we also decided to order some spring rolls.  The funny thing is, I always think of spring rolls as soft (not fried) rolls wrapped in rice paper, but Sweet Basil and Rain both serve fried spring rolls.  The wrappers are not as thick as one would find encasing a traditional Chinese eggrolls, but rather thin and very flaky, and they are vegetarian, containing cabbage and carrots.  They are skinny and rolled up super tight and served with a slightly sweet and slightly spicy dipping sauce.  Very tasty, though I’ll have to try the unfried rice paper version some time.

Untitled

Here’s the problem I have when I go to Thai restaurants: I love pad Thai. I love it so much that I can’t seem to bring myself to order anything else. I just can’t do it! Well, I think I ordered fried rice at Rain once because I wanted to try Thai fried rice, but then I spent the whole meal wishing I had some pad Thai (even though I liked the fried rice). I looked over the menu about ten times trying to pick out something else to order, but I kept coming back to pad Thai. Of course, it also seemed like every time I found something that sounded interesting it would have the word “spicy” in the description. I know a person as obsessed with food as I am “should” be into spicy food, but I’m not. Weakness, I suppose. So, I broke down and ordered the usual. Interestingly, they ask here if you want the pad Thai “mild, medium, hot, or Thai hot”. I’ve never been asked what heat level I wanted my pad Thai at any other Thai restaurant. I justified my order by saying that “a lot of people order pad Thai….I should review a popular dish, right?????”

Pad Thai is basically medium-wide rice noodles with a sauce that is sweet, salty, and sour all at once. It has chicken, shrimp, tofu (in a very small dice and fried crisp), bean sprouts, scallions, and crushed peanuts. Lime wedges are included on the side for squeezing over the top. This is a huge plate of noodles (as you can see) so I probably only ate about half. Delicious and fresh. (On a side note, I love to make Thai-style rice noodles at home. I’ll have to post that recipe some time.)

Untitled

Philip usually orders pork Panang curry, which is pork and vegetables in a coconut and curry sauce (too spicy for me) and it took him a while to decide not to order it this time. He decided instead to get the sweet and sour chicken, after our server assured him that it wasn’t just like the usual sweet and sour chicken served at every Chinese hole-in-the-wall in America (not that there’s anything wrong with that). This dish definitely didn’t have the same “Thai” feel as the Panang curry, but it wasn’t the usual suspect either. It was a fried chicken breast, sliced into thin strips and served with onions, peppers, carrots, and pineapple in a red but not Technicolor sauce. The sauce was not the candy-ish sauce usually served alongside or poured over sweet and sour chicken…it was actually a ketchup or chili-sauce based sauce that was spicy but not too much so (I took a bite). Philip said that it didn’t get spicier as he was eating like the curry usually does….he has a pretty high tolerance for spicy but usually has to stop at some point because it just gets too hot to handle. He too got full well before the plate was empty.

Untitled

Angelia offered us dessert but we were definitely too stuffed for dessert. At some point I’m going to have to do a soup/salad combo so I can fit some sticky mango rice pudding or fried bananas in….we got a good laugh out of the “brownie and ice cream” on the dessert menu. Is that a Thai brownie? Ha. They also have a kid’s menu which includes chicken strips and cheesy noodles, which is always a little odd to see on an ethnic menu, but I guess they have to have something for everyone.

I’m not going to mince words here….Rain is not my favorite Thai restaurant. Sweet Basil is and probably always will be (although there are a couple of places I’ve yet to try). (Funny that I haven’t reviewed Sweet Basil yet, but we actually went there for a blog post almost a year ago and lots of factors resulted in me never writing the post.) Still, the food is tasty and the atmosphere is lovely. I hear their sushi is good as well (the idea of sushi at a Thai restaurant has always made me snicker a little) but I haven’t tried it myself yet. If you are in the area, skip the chain restaurants and give Rain a try!

Rain Thai Bistro is located at 6933 Lee Highway, Chattanooga, TN 37421 (in the Rush complex). You can call them at 423-386-5586. You can also visit their website, rainthaibistro.com.

Rain Thai Bistro on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Asian, Brainerd/East Ridge, By Location, By Type, East Brainerd, Restaurants Tagged With: Asian restaurants, East Brainerd restaurants, Thai restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 1 Comment

China King Hixson-February 4, 2012 (***CLOSED***)

February 5, 2012

Note: China King Hixson closed sometime in the later half of 2013.  Somehow I totally missed this until a reader pointed it out to me!  There’s now a Workout 24/7 there.  Shows you how much attention I pay, since I grocery shop in the Publix plaza at least once a week!

All right, I railed against going to this place for quite some time. Call me a snob, I don’t care. I just have this “thing” about hole-in-the-wall Chinese places….I’m suspicious. I can’t help it. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised, and sometimes I’m not. There’s one very close to my house that we went to once and my eggroll had some sort of mysterious fluorescent pink meat in it. Never again.

Anyway, Philip went to a different hole-in-the-wall Chinese place in East Brainerd with a friend last week and loved it, so he wanted to try this one. One of my friends and her husband really like it and go there frequently, so I figured it was worth a shot. When we were racking our brains trying to think of something to eat on Saturday night, Philip suggested we go. So we did.

It was around 7:30 when we got there. There was one couple that was actually eating in the restaurant, and 4 or 5 people waiting for orders (2 more came in to pick up while we were there). The decoration was sparse, as you would probably expect, and they did have the required slightly creepy looking photos of different meals that are available hanging about the counter, like a menu. The menu is huge, but that’s generally pretty standard at a Chinese restaurant…..122 menu items plus “Chef’s Specialties”, “Special Combination Plates”, and lunch specials. Since we are partial to fried rice, we went for the special combination plates, which included the meat, pork fried rice, and an eggroll for $6.95. Philip got sweet and sour chicken, and I got sesame chicken. I won’t go into too much detail about what is available…it’s again pretty much the standard Chinese restaurant menu…plus you can check out the menu at the bottom of the post.

Philip took the first bite of the eggrolls….he’s a little bit braver than I am. Okay, he’s a lot braver than I am. Anyway, there was no pink mystery meat in the center of the eggrolls, just cabbage. We were in business. Since we had about 15 minutes from the time we got our food to the time we were actually eating it, it wasn’t overwhelmingly hot….just perfect. I’d be willing to be you’d burn your mouth eating one in the restaurant, though!

Interestingly, the sesame chicken smelled super-garlicky. It didn’t taste super-garlicky, though, so that was good. It was sweet, not overly sticky, and not spicy like you occasionally find (General Tso’s would be considered the spicy version of sesame chicken). I had two random pieces of broccoli, which I got a good laugh from. Philip’s sweet & sour was pretty much the average sweet & sour….not too much breading and not too greasy; that was a plus. The rice was fine, maybe not as sticky as I really like my fried rice to be. That’s the problem with making things at home…you end up liking what you make more than what you get at restaurants. I guess that’s why so many restaurants are terribly disappointing to me. Still, I didn’t have to cook this, and it’s nice to have the night off from time to time. There were not a ton of veggies in the rice…a few carrots, onions, and peas-but interestingly there was actually a fair amount of diced pork, which tasted pretty good. Can someone explain to me why the rice at some Chinese restaurants is yellow? Some, not all. I would love to know.

chinaking2

chinaking1

In the end, we had enough left over to have it for lunch today as well. Again, that’s always nice, and it makes me feel less guilty about the amount that I spend when I go to a restaurant. Of course, there were the requisite fortune cookies at the end of the meal, and our fortunes were so boring that I don’t remotely remember what mine said. I think Philip’s said something about going fishing. I was more intrigued by the one that Philip picked up off of the table where we were waiting….it said something about modifying your plans. But I digress.

Okay, in the end….China King is not the ultimate be all and end all of Chinese restaurants. It was decent food, though, and inexpensive, at least when you consider that we got two meals from it. I doubt will eat there often, but I am sure we will eat there again. Perfectly acceptable for a no-cook Saturday night.

China King is located at 5922 Hixson Pike, Hixson, TN 37343 (in the Publix complex, between El Metate and BiBa’s). You can reach them at 423-842-0666.

China King on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Asian, By Location, By Type, Hixson, Restaurants Tagged With: Asian restaurants, Chinese restaurants, CLOSED restaurants, Hixson restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 6 Comments

Old Saigon Vietnamese-January 6, 2012

January 8, 2012

Have you ever eaten at Old Saigon Vietnamese restaurant? Were you even aware that there was a Vietnamese restaurant in Red Bank? If you said no, you’re probably part of the majority. Old Saigon is at the corner of Dayton Boulevard and Martin Road….it’s at a traffic light, in a building that used to be Esquire Cleaners. We had actually eaten at Old Saigon once before, several years ago, when it was in the Rush complex in Hixson. Oh, you didn’t know that there used to be a Vietnamese restaurant there? I didn’t think so. In fact, it was so, um, well-hidden that we ate there once and even though we really liked it, we never went back. Yesterday we were out looking for somewhere to eat, somewhere to blog about, and we passed Old Saigon…then promptly turned around and went back.

There was no one else in the restaurant when we went in at about 3:10 on a Saturday afternoon. Granted, that’s not really a busy time anywhere, but that was one tip that this is one of Chattanooga’s best-kept secrets. Anyway, we walked in and were quickly greeted by one of the owners, one of the sweetest and most friendly people I have encountered dining in a restaurant. The restaurant is clean and very simply decorated, unlike many local Asian restaurants that almost seem too ornately decorated, like they’re trying too hard. We ordered potstickers and water while we perused the menu. It took me forever to decide what I wanted to order. I started to order sesame chicken, but I kind of had a feeling that sesame chicken is not really a traditional Vietnamese dish, so instead I ordered bánh xèo, described as “a special crispy pancake filled with chicken, shrimp, cabbage, carrot, broccoli, and bean sprouts”. I wanted to order pho, a traditional Vietnamese soup, but I was pretty hungry and a little concerned that it may not be filling enough…Philip decide to have mi xao, described as “shrimp, chicken, beef, and steamed vegetables in a special sauce served on a bed of crispy fried egg noodles”.

The potstickers arrived very quickly. As you can see below, they didn’t look like much…but they were delicious. If you’ve never had a potsticker, they are wonton wrappers filled with ground pork, sliced scallions, and seasonings. They are seared on the bottom and them steamed to cook the whole thing. These were served with soy sauce. They were fantastic!

20120107-183019.jpg

Philip’s mi xao was a huge plate of fried egg noodles dripping in sauce, vegetables, and meat. The owner suggested that he try it with sriracha, telling him that it was delicious on the mi xao. He did try a bite, because usually he loves very spicy foods, but was unable to put it on the whole dish…he’s had a sore throat and just couldn’t go there. The noodles were very crunchy around the edges of the plate but soft where the sauce was. I tasted it, and it was delicious. I can’t even describe it. Honestly, it’s different from anything I’ve had at a Chinese or Thai restaurant, so I wouldn’t even know how to begin to compare it to anything….so you need to try it! Philip finished the whole thing. It was just too good to stop!

20120107-183054.jpg

All right, I feel bad even saying this…but I wasn’t crazy about my bánh xèo. It was very crunchy, and everything was obviously very fresh and well-cooked. It was fairly bland, but it did have a sauce that I was a little scared to use because it had something that looked like chili flakes floating in it. It wasn’t spicy, though, so I poured some over my bánh xèo. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t for me! It was huge, and I could only eat about half of it. I found myself wishing that I had gone ahead and ordered the pho (pronounced “fuh” if I’m not mistaken) or the fried rice, which I had the last time that we went there and loved. In fact, I would go so far as to say that, aside from Ichiban, it was the best fried rice I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant. I recall that it was delicious!

20120107-183116.jpg

20120107-183128.jpg

We were far too full when we were finished with our meal to order dessert, but their desserts sounded delicious. Fried banana-fresh banana wrapped in egg roll skin and fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar? Mango sticky rice-sticky rice topped with fresh mango, coconut milk, and peanuts? Yes, please! We’ll just have to eat the pho when we go back so we’re not so full and order one of these treat! We’ll definitely be back, and it won’t be another five years this time.

Old Saigon is located at 2601 Dayton Boulevard, Red Bank, TN 37415. You can reach them at 423-876-0322. They are open Wednesday-Saturday, 11:30-8, and Sunday, 11:30-2:30.

Old Saigon on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Asian, By Location, By Type, Red Bank, Restaurants Tagged With: Asian restaurants, Red Bank restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 3 Comments

« Previous Page
Next Page »

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.

Follow Chattavore!

  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Bloglovin
  • Instagram
  • Email
  • RSS

Categories


Copyright © 2025 | All content property of Chattavore and may not be reproduced without permission | Cha Creative Clique

Want recipes from scratch & restaurant reviews in your inbox weekly?
Subscribe below to get Chattavore's weekly newletter AND a free set of recipe cards to help you learn to cook from scratch!
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.
 

Loading Comments...