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Greg’s Sandwich Works

February 27, 2017

Greg's Sandwich Works is a great restaurant in the Brainerd/East Brainerd area serving sandwiches, hot dogs, salads, baked potatoes, and more! | restaurant review from Chattavore.com

Greg’s Sandwich Works is a great restaurant in the Brainerd/East Brainerd area serving sandwiches, hot dogs, salads, baked potatoes, and more!

Sometimes finding a place to go on Saturday afternoons gets taxing. Philip usually doesn’t get home from work until around 3:30 and I never knew how many things close at 4 p.m. on Saturdays! I’m sure I have complained about this before. Have I complained about this before? He loves his job and for that I am happy, but I miss the old days when he didn’t work on Saturdays and we could go wherever, whenever we wanted.

Anyway…last weekend I really wanted to go to Greg’s Sandwich Works, which is located in the location formerly known as GollyWhoppers. I was honestly shocked when GollyWhoppers closed…it seemed like a pretty popular place and it had been around for a long time. Not too long after, though, the former manager (Greg, in case you were wondering?) decided to open his own sandwich shop there.

It wasn’t in the cards for us to go Saturday, because (you guessed it) they close at 4 every day (except Sundays, when they are closed). It’s definitely more of a lunch-type place, so I get it. Luckily for us, it was a long weekend, so we decided to wait until Monday to head over there. We had a late lunch, around 1:30. There were several tables occupied but it wasn’t super-crowded, which I attributed to the fact that (a) it was past “lunch hour”; and (b) it was a holiday.

The menu here is very similar to the menu from GollyWhoppers – Greg clearly knows that there is no point in messing with what has proven to work. A popular item on the GollyWhoppers menu was the taco salad, and Greg has recreated it as the “Fiesta Salad”. Shredded lettuce gets topped with seasoned ground beef, salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream, red onions, pickled jalapeños, and black olives, served with a side of tortilla chips ($6.99). If you like, you can ask them to crush the chips up for you so that you can scoop the chips up with your fork. I, however, like to use my chips to scoop up my salad. I asked for my salad without jalapeños, and if I had not skipped right over the mention of onions I would have nixed those too, but that’s okay – they were chopped pretty large so they were easy to pick out. The salad was very tasty, with a great taco flavor to the meat and a nice contrast between the warm meat and the cold salads and toppings.

Philip decided to go with the Italian sandwich – ham, salami, provolone cheese, tomato, onion, Italian dressing, salt, pepper, oregano, and Parmesan cheese ($6.49). The sandwich is served warm on your choice of bread. Philip is a sucker for a good Italian sandwich (surprisingly, one of his favorites is at – are you sitting down? Chuck E. Cheese’s. He grew to love them when we worked there, and we still go there from time to time so he can order them even though we know that the kitchen staff hates making sandwiches. Sorry, guys.) and this was a great Italian sandwich. The flavors just work together so well, and the bread was just fantastic. I loved that it was served warm so the cheese got a little melty and the flavors a little more pronounced (cold dulls flavors a little bit).

While we were eating, Greg made the rounds bussing tables and talking to customers. He stopped to talk to me about the whole chips versus crushed chips approach on the taco salad. He obviously enjoys interacting with the customers and he and his staff are doing a great job serving delicious sandwiches, salads, etc. My only disappointment was that they did not have the selection of cookies and bars that GollyWhoppers had (Greg’s does have cookies and bars, just not as many varieties as GollyWhoppers always had available to tempt me).

If you’re looking for a great lunch spot in East Brainerd, you have to give Greg’s Sandwich Works a try!

Greg’s Sandwich Works is located at 6336 East Brainerd Road, Chattanooga, TN 37411. They are open Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can call Greg’s Sandwich Works at (423) 551-8634. For more information, you can check out Greg’s Sandwich Works’ website and menu as well as their Facebook page.

Filed Under: Brainerd/East Ridge, By Location, By Type, Delis, Sandwiches, Burgers, & Hot Dogs, East Brainerd, Restaurants Tagged With: Brainerd restaurants, East Brainerd restaurants, sandwich/burger/hot dog restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 2 Comments

Toscano Italian Grill

August 10, 2016

Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com

Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food.
Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com
It has been a while – probably a couple of years – but I posted on Facebook asking readers about their favorite pizza in Chattanooga and was surprised by one of the answers: Toscano Italian Grill. I actually had to ask where it was located, because I had never heard of it. As soon as I was told that it was located in the strip mall on Lee Highway, I knew exactly where it was, but I’m rarely in that area so it took me ages to get out there.

Philip and I arrived at Toscano Italian Grill at around 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon and the place was empty. We were greeted by Haili as soon as we walked in the door and she led us to the seating area and let us choose our own table. Toscano looked basically like every strip mall restaurant I’ve ever been in: clean but basic. I will be honest, I didn’t expect much because I have had very bad experiences with trip mall Italian restaurants, pre-blog (those places are long defunct).

Haili filled our waters while we perused the menu. I had read several Yelp reviews that mentioned the Italian nachos at Toscano Italian Grill, so we decided to order those for $7.99. They were made from pita chips topped with Alfredo sauce, mozzarella cheese, chunks of grilled chicken, and pickled jalapeño slices. They were pretty tasty, though honestly, if I were making them at home I would probably leave off the chicken or cut it into smaller chunks. I loved the concept and may have to recreate it for the blog. Haili told us that the Toscano twisters (pizza rolls stuffed with mozzarella and a topping of your choice for $6.99) and the garlic knots ($5.99) are also fantastic.
Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com
Our entrees came with a Toscano salad (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and shredded carrots) or Caesar salad and garlic bread. We both decided on the Caesar salad, which was pretty basic: chopped romaine, shredded Parmesan, pre-fab croutons, and Caesar dressing on the side. It was good but there was nothing spectacular or “special” about it. The garlic bread was pretty much along the same lines: buttery crusty bread with garlic seasoning.
Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com
Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com
I was torn between the New York style pizza (a small – 10 inch – pizza starts at $7.99) and the baked penne. I ultimately decided that I was in the mood for pasta, so I decided on the baked penne with a creamy pink sauce, meat sauce, meatballs, or sausage, and cheese for $10.99 (I ordered mine with meatballs). I actually thought it was very, very good. The sauce was a nice balance between creamy and tomato-y, the pasta cooked to al dente, and the blanket of mozzarella….well, I love mozzarella, and there was plenty in every bite. The meatballs were good too, tender and well cooked, but honestly, I would have been just as happy with this as a meatless dish. This portion was large enough for a whole family and we brought home enough leftovers to feed both of us for lunch the next day.
Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com
Philip decided to go way out of his comfort zone and order the fruit de mari ($13.99): shrimp, calamari, chopped clams, and baby scallops cooked in a spicy marinara sauce served on top of spaghetti noodles. He typically doesn’t care for calamari and is sort of indifferent about clams, but he wanted to try something different. He said that on its own, the calamari was chewy and not great (because it’s calamari) but when he ate it with the pasta and sauce that it all paired together really well and he actually enjoyed it. One note: there was a ton of oil in this, which made it a little heavier than you might expect a seafood and marinara based dish to be.
Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com
It was before dinner time when we were there, but while we were dining a few more tables filled up and we heard Haili taking multiple orders on the phone as well. Toscano Italian Grill seems to be doing well. Like I said, I wasn’t expecting much, and I was pleasantly surprised. Was it Alleia or even Tony’s? Of course not. Was it perfectly tasty Italian food? Sure. I’m going to have to run by here on a work day and grab a small pizza for lunch so I can try it out (if I do, I’ll be sure to post an update).

If you’re in the Lee Highway area and looking for somewhere to eat, Toscano Italian Grill is worth a try!

Toscano Italian Grill is located at 6219 Lee Highway, Suite 8, Chattanooga, TN. They are open daily 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. You can call them at (423) 805-3888. You can find Toscano Italian Grill on Facebook and check out their website to find their menu and coupons.
Toscano Italian Grill is an unassuming Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Chattanooga, TN with huge portions and surprisingly tasty food. | restaurant review from Chattavore.com
Toscano Italian Grill Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Filed Under: Brainerd/East Ridge, By Location, By Type, East Brainerd, Italian & Pizza, Restaurants Tagged With: Brainerd restaurants, East Brainerd restaurants, Italian restaurants By Mary // Chattavore 2 Comments

Molcajete Mexican Restaurant

December 25, 2015

Molcajete is a great Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee! #CHA #CHAeats | chattavore.com

Molcajete Mexican Restaurant is a beautiful restaurant on Lee Highway in Chattanooga, Tennessee that serves delicious Mexican food!
A couple of months ago, I posted on my Facebook page asking what everyone’s favorite Mexican restaurant in the Chattanooga area was. I got a ton of responses-several of which corresponded to my personal favorite (Delia’s, DUH) but lots of which I had never heard of. You’ll forgive me if there’s a disproportionate number of Mexican restaurant reviews for the next few months, right??? I’ve got a lot of work to do!
Molcajete is a great Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee! #CHA #CHAeats | chattavore.com
One restaurant that several people mentioned was Molcajete. Philip actually ended up eating there a couple of weeks ago and really liked it, so we decided to go back last weekend. We went at about 1:30 or 2:00 on Saturday afternoon, and while there were quite a few people in the restaurant, we were seated immediately. Our chips and salsa were delivered quickly and our server, Grace, took our drink orders. We also ordered a small bowl of queso because why not??? I will tell you that one of my readers highly recommended the choriqueso (queso with chorizo) but I didn’t want to go that heavy plus we typically order regular queso so I wanted a point of reference.
Molcajete is a great Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee! #CHA #CHAeats | chattavore.com
The chips, salsa, and queso were all pretty standard Mexican restaurant versions. The chips were thin, very crispy, and not too greasy. The salsa was just slightly spicy and pretty smooth (which is how I like it-I don’t care for chunky salsa) with a decent amount of cilantro. The queso was very thin and not very spicy. ⬅️I feel like these are very bland descriptions. Everything was good, but like I said, pretty standard…so I just don’t have much to say!
Molcajete is a great Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee! #CHA #CHAeats | chattavore.com
I decided to order the taquitos with ground beef. Taquitos are rolled corn tortillas stuffed with meat and fried (flautas are the flour tortilla version). Their taquitos are served with guacamole salad (basically just guacamole and shredded lettuce), shredded cheese, rice, and beans. I have to admit, the taquitos were delicious. The tortillas were very crispy-impressively so-and the meat was very well seasoned. On its own, I found the guacamole to be a little too spicy (it had chunks of jalapeño in it), but scooped onto the taquitos it worked perfectly. The beans were, again, pretty standard. Not bad but not earth-shattering. The rice was well seasoned and well-cooked.
Molcajete is a great Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee! #CHA #CHAeats | chattavore.com
Philip decided quickly on a chimichanga (pretty much his standard order) but then noticed the chimiRica-a chimichanga filled with grilled chicken or steak, onions, chorizo, and special sauce, topped with queso sauce. He ordered the small with beef, and I’m pretty sure that if he had ordered the large we would have been in bad shape. In fact, he didn’t even finish the small! It was pretty gigantic. The meat and onions were well-cooked and the cheese sauce made it super-gooey. He didn’t really notice the special sauce, though. His one complaint was that it didn’t come with rice and beans and that, a la carte, they would have cost $4 ($1.99 each) extra. I had plenty, though, so I shared with him.
Molcajete is a great Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee! #CHA #CHAeats | chattavore.com
The decor at Molcajete is very nice. The servers and other staff were very friendly and the food was tasty and fresh. The menu is extensive. It’s definitely (at least mostly) Americanized Mexican food, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t taste good. They have a full bar as well. The prices were on par with other similar restaurants-our total for the queso and two entrees (we drank water) was $18.00 pre-tip. If you are in the Brainerd/Lee Highway area, give Molcajete Mexican restaurant a try!

Molcajete Mexican restaurant is located at 6231 Perimeter Drive, Suite 127, Chattanooga, Tennessee (in the same complex as Sportsman’s Warehouse and Pin Strikes). They are open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. You can call them at 423-760-8200. You can like Molcajete on Facebook.

Molcajete Mexican Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato
Molcajete is a great Mexican restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee! #CHA #CHAeats | chattavore.com

Filed Under: Restaurants Tagged With: Brainerd restaurants, Chattanooga restaurants, East Brainerd restaurants, mexican restaurants By Mary // Chattavore Leave a Comment

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.

Sweet Basil Thai Cuisine on Urbanspoon

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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.

india mahal

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.

India Mahal Restaurant on Urbanspoon

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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

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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