Dayton restaurants Archives

Carrabelle’s Casual Cafe – Dayton, Tennessee

March 29, 2017

Carrabelle’s Casual Café is a casual dining restaurant located in Dayton, Tennessee, that serves low country and Southern-style food.

Have you tried any new restaurants off the beaten path lately? I don’t know if Dayton is really off the beaten path, but it’s definitely a little bit out of the way, at least the way we usually go. It’s nice to see new restaurants popping up in that area. Carrabelle’s opened up several months back, in the fall of 2016. I like to wait until restaurants have been open for a few months before I check them out, so a few few weeks ago we finally ventured north to check it out.

The full name for Carrabelle’s is Carrabelle’s Casual Café. Their website describes their cuisine as “low country Southern”. We arrived at about 4 p.m. to a fairly empty restaurant – several tables were occupied but there was no wait and our food came quickly. The building is new and the decor was pretty standard for a casual dining style restaurant.

While we checked out the menu, our server, Morgan, took our drink orders and brought our waters and Philip’s beer, from a Tennessee brewery that we had not heard of before (this doesn’t happen often – remember, he works in a bottle shop). We decided to order some fried green tomatoes ($6.99), battered and rolled in bacon and fried, served on top of grits with pimento cheese on top and a cup of Cajun mayonnaise. There was a lot going on there, but everything was very good. The grits were different from any grits I’ve ever had – they were dry, but somehow that wasn’t a bad thing. The tomatoes were crunchy and well-seasoned and the pimento cheese was melty. I liked the Cajun mayo a lot.

I was in the mood for chicken and biscuits, so it really didn’t take me any thought to choose my entree. I ordered the chicken and biscuits with a side of Cajun mashed potatoes ($10.99) but there is a “biscuit” section of the menu so I am not sure if this got rang up as “chicken and biscuits” or “chicken biscuits plus a side” because the chicken & biscuits were listed on my receipt separate from the side and the total cost was $10.49. Long story short, I don’t know if the entree version is served this way (chicken on the biscuits) or not, but that’s how I was planning to eat it so I was okay with it. The chicken was crispy and seemed freshly breaded, and the cheddar biscuits were tender and tasty. The gravy made a great dipping sauce. I liked the mashed potatoes, which were just a little bit spicy, but I will try a different side next time I go back.

Philip decided to go for the shrimp and grits ($14.99). These were not prepared in the style that he likes the best (grits cake and creamy sauce) but he said that they were very good. The grits were the same cheesy grits that were served with the fried green tomatoes. There was a reasonable amount of shrimp, bacon, and sausage, and it was served with a cheddar biscuit.

There were quite a few specials, most of them seafood dishes (most of the seafood dishes were listed on the specials menu). The menu was pretty standard for a southern style restaurant – fried chicken, shrimp & grits, chicken & waffles, several sandwiches and pasta dishes, etc. The prices were on par with other restaurants of similar quality. Our total for fried green tomatoes, chicken & biscuits plus a side, shrimp & grits, and one beer was $41.62 pre-tip). Our server, Morgan, was very friendly and attentive. The atmosphere was low-key and great for an early evening dinner date.

If you’re looking for a nice dinner in the Dayton, Tennessee area, check out Carrabelle’s Casual Café!

Carrabelle’s Casual Café is located at 4370 Rhea County Highway, Dayton, Tennessee, 37321. They are open Sunday – Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. You can call them at 423-428-9441. For more information, you can check out their website or like Carrabelle’s on Facebook.

Vietnamese Bistro (Dayton)-May 18, 2013

May 18, 2013

Vietnamese Bistro is a tiny and quaint Vietnamese restaurant in Dayton, Tennessee with delicious food and friendly service.

Vietnamese food is not exactly easy to come by in this area, and I’m not going to lie….the first time that I noticed a “Vietnamese Bistro” in Dayton, I was a little suspicious. Dayton is pretty much a hole in the wall sort of city, a “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” sort of place (just like my hometown of Soddy-Daisy, so I’m really not making fun) and I just had to wonder how well they could really do Vietnamese food. Which was a dumb thing to wonder because of course Vietnamese people know how to make Vietnamese food, and several months back I got an email from a reader who was raving about the Vietnamese Bistro in Dayton, telling me that it was better than Old Saigon. Well, ma’am, you have my attention, because I freaking love Old Saigon, so….

Somehow it still took us a while to get down there. I don’t really know why. I guess it’s because there’s really not a lot to do in Dayton, so the typical Saturday doesn’t really see us driving thirty minutes just to eat Vietnamese food. This week, though, I was off on Friday so we’d gotten our typical running around out of the way. We stopped at the antiques store in Sale Creek for a fruitless Fiesta ware search (lots of pieces but not a single one in a color that I want) then headed down to the Bistro.

There were a couple of tables occupied in the tiny restaurant, which was truly a blink and you’ll miss it sort of place; in fact, I had to point out the Philip exactly where it was in the former Wal-Mart complex as we drove by to park. There were probably not more than ten tables. A friendly young man told us to sit wherever we wanted then brought us menus and took our drink orders. The place is definitely about food, not atmosphere….several large photographs of Vietnamese scenes on the wall and photos of menu items under the glass on the tables is pretty much all the decoration you’ll find. I didn’t go there for atmosphere, though, so no big.

The menu is large and a little confusing to read; I actually found the to-go menu a little easier to follow for whatever reason. The regular menu begins with vegetarian selections then moves into the regular (carnivorous) selections. We decided on a couple of appetizers: 2 pork & shrimp spring rolls for $3.50 and an order of fish ball dumplings (which I never would have ordered on my own but Philip wanted to try them) for $1.99. The appetizers came out quickly, the dumplings on a skewer and drizzled with sriracha and some other sauce (hoisin, perhaps?). They tasted like…fish. The texture wasn’t weird and the flavor was fine, but I don’t know that I would order them again. But that’s just me. The spring rolls were amazing, stuffed with shrimps, a thin slice of pork, rice noodles, lettuce, and mint leaves. The mint really set off the flavor. I’ve got to make these things at home. I’m not positive what the sauce was….I want to say that the menu said it was ginger sauce, and it had fried shallots and some chili oil in it as well. It was pretty tasty and just a little spicy.

I pretty much knew before I went here that I wanted to order the phở bò (beef rice noodle soup), which is the Vietnamese national dish (by the way, that is pronounced fuh bah). I waffled briefly, though, when I saw a rice noodle salad on the menu…but in the end the regular-sized bowl of phở bò ($6.99) won out (by the way, chicken phở is called phở gà). What came to me was a gigantic bowl of broth, strips of beef, meatballs, rice noodles, onions, scallions, and cilantro, with a side dish of bean sprouts, basil, and lime, and bottles of sriracha and hoisin. I pulled the cilantro off the sprigs and dropped it in, tore up several basil leaves and dropped them in, put in a couple of handfuls of bean sprouts, and doused it with a little sriracha. This stuff was not easy to eat, because (a) it was so hot! and (b) how do you eat the noodles? Fork? Spoon? I ended up doing both, and once the soup cooled down enough I pretty much put my face in the bowl and shoveled it in (as evidenced by the photo below). The meatballs had some oddly textured little pieces in them but tasted good; the strips of beef were perfectly textured and delicious, and the broth was flavorful and perfectly seasoned. I would order this again…and again….and again.

Philip got much deeper into the entrée portion of the menu than I did, eventually settling on the thit kho (which I believe was pronounced “teet kuh”-no comments from the peanut gallery, please!) for $7.99, which was described as caramelized pork in condensed fish sauce (most of the descriptions that I found online called it caramelized pork belly, which this was not). All of the plates were served with either steamed rice or a choice of rice or egg noodles. Philip asked our server what he would recommend and he said that he usually eats it with steamed rice, so that’s what Philip ordered. It came with cucumbers (which Philip gave to me), bean sprouts, and shredded carrots on the side and a little bowl of spicy dipping sauce. It was thinly sliced, braised pork that was then caramelized and sauced with, well, a condensed fish sauce. Fish sauce is interesting stuff, very salty and stinky but delicious. The meat was indeed pretty salty and definitely had that fish sauce flavor but was tender and delicious. The rice was pretty plain (which is how Philip likes it) and the sauce on the side was spicy but not overwhelming.

A little piece of paper under the glass on the table said “desserts available, please ask your server” so we did. If there was anything disappointing about this restaurant, the dessert menu was it. I was hoping for a dessert menu like that at Old Saigon, which includes fried bananas, rice pudding, and mango sticky rice. Our server told us that sometimes they have two or three items available, but all they had that day were mung bean wontons. At $0.50 each, it was hard to pass up at least trying them, so we each ordered one. They were filled with a creamy batter made from mung bean puree and fried crisp. I was a little concerned about how the beany batter would taste, but I needn’t have been. It was just a sweet, custardy, vanilla-y paste in a perfectly crispy fried wonton. Pretty tasty and a nice sweet end to the meal.

Our total was about $24 before tip. Like I said, the atmosphere is lacking, but who cares? The food was fresh and delicious. They’ve been there for about five years and to last that long in a small town like Dayton speaks volumes about the quality.

I highly recommend that you check out Vietnamese Bistro!

Vietnamese Bistro is located at 200 Able Drive, Suite 11, Dayton, TN 37321. You can call them at 423-570-0100 or 423-285-7106. They are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Since they are located in a larger shopping complex, there are curb cuts that allow for wheelchair accessibility, but the very cramped quarters would keep this from being an easy/comfortable place for a diner who uses a wheelchair.

Jacob Myers Restaurant on the River (Dayton, TN)-April 6, 2012

April 7, 2012

We visited Jacob Myers based on recommendations from several people. Honestly, I hadn’t even heard of it until a few weeks ago when a friend posted on Facebook that she was going there for her birthday! Suddenly, I had people recommending it left and right. Jacob Myers is located in Dayton, Tennessee just off of Dayton Pike/Highway 27. I mean, you hang a right and it’s pretty much right there. It’s by a camping/picnic area and right across the street from a body of water that apparently is a river…although I’m not sure which one. Is this a branch of the Tennessee River? I’m feeling kind of dumb, but I couldn’t find this info on a map. Someone help me out!

We were fairly hungry fairly early, so we decided to head up to Dayton before the dinner rush hit. Jacob Myers serves lunch from 11-4 and dinner from 4-close, except for Sunday, when I am assuming that they serve from the dinner menu all day (11-6). We arrived at about 4:50 and were seated immediately. It was a beautiful breezy day, so we decided to sit on the deck. Our server, Kevin, came to take our drink orders when we’d had just enough time to peruse the menu and decide on an appetizer-fried pickles, which came with something called “spicy boom boom sauce”. The fried pickles were spears, which is my preference, and they were breaded, not battered. They were hot but not so hot that we burned our mouths, which is a good thing. The sauce was a mayo based sauce with something spicy, presumably some sort of pepper or buffalo sauce, mixed in. It was spicy but not overly so. The pickles were good, but still not the best I’ve had (alas, Durty Nelly’s, long since closed, will probably always hold that honor).

On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to get the dreamy mushroom chicken, which the menu describes as “a delectable blend of crème, button mushrooms and diced Tomatoes with a hint of
cayenne and garlic atop a whole grilled boneless chicken breast.” I decided on a loaded baked potato and side salad with tarragon vinegar dressing as my sides. The salad came out first, and it was pretty blah (see the picture below). Iceberg lettuce, carrot shreds, and a few cucumbers and tomatoes. I’ll be honest, it takes a lot to wow me with a house salad, and this one just wasn’t doing it. The dressing was okay, but the tarragon flavor was pretty strong and I’m not a gigantictarragon fan (I know, why’d I get it? I just wanted to try something a little different). The entree was huge with a lot of sauce. The first thing that I noticed was the gigantic slices of green onion. I like green onions, but I prefer them finely chopped. The next thing I noticed was that the “butter” on the baked potato was actually, um, buttery spread. A huge scoop of it. I promptly removed most of it. You know I don’t do margarine. So, there are my recommendations: use real butter and chop the scallions a little more! But I digress…now that I have the constructive criticism out of the way, let me tell you what I did like.

The sauce was nice, not overly salty, just enough so. The garlic flavor was not overpowering and there was just a tiny heat at the “back” of the bite from the cayenne. The mushrooms were very tender and flavorful. There was parmesan cheese grated on top, which I am sure I would have done if I was making this dish at my house. Honestly, I was a little unsure of how I would like the diced tomatoes on top of the chicken…it seemed like an odd addition to me. I really liked it! The tomatoes tasted very fresh and were nice and cool compared to the warm sauce. The chicken was nicely grilled and seasoned under the sauce. I would order this again. The baked potato was huge, and aside from the buttery spread, it was very tasty and fresh, unlike the baked potatoes you sometimes get that taste like they have been sitting around under a warmer all day.

Philip had a little trouble decided what to order. He (jokingly) considered the 16 oz. ribeye, then a burger, then the Reuben. On Kevin’s recommendation, he decided to go with the Jacob Myers burger, “a half pound angus burger topped with cheese, bacon, egg and crowned w/ a huge homemade onion ring.” Now, if you read my 60/40 burger post, you know we are not strangers to the idea of an egg on a burger. It’s a perfect combo! The presentation is meant to be pretty awe-inspiring with the big knife stuck through the thick onion ring. The onion ring had a nice tempura batter on it that was just a little sweet. The burger had a grilled taste and had lettuce, tomato, and onion on it. It was a tasty burger, not over-the-top good, but definitely good. The fries were just regular old frozen fries (I think) but tasted fine.

One of my friends had also told me that you can’t go to Jacob Myers without eating dessert. We were way too full to eat dessert there, but we ordered it to go. Kevin rattled off a list of about five cheesecakes (the only one I remember was pineapple upside-down….I pretty much tuned those out because Philip hates cheesecake), the chocolate thing (chocolate pudding and Cool Whip and some other stuff), coconut praline pie, buckeyes, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal creme pies, and brownies. We decided on the buckeyes, which are peanut butter fudge balls dipped in chocolate candy coating. I was expecting something small (truffle-sized) but these were huge! If you’ve ever eaten peanut butter fudge, imagine eating it with a chocolate coating on it. Sweet and rich-we had to drink glasses of milk to tamp down the sweetness! Still, good.

I am not saying this was an out-of-this-world dining experience….but the ambiance is nice, especially with the outdoors dining…the staff was friendly, and Kevin was a great server. The food was definitely good. I’ve been told that I need to go for lunch as well, so I will be visiting them during lunch hours at some point in the future. If you are ever in Dayton and need a dining spot, this is a great place to go!

Jacob Myers Restaurant on the River is located at 185 Chickamauga Drive, Dayton, TN 37321. You can call them at 423-570-0023. They serve lunch from 11-4, Tuesday-Saturday, and dinner from 4-9 Tuesday-Thursday, 4-10 Friday and Saturday, and 11-6 on Sunday. Visit their website, www.jacobmyersrestaurant.com, and find them on Facebook. By the way, to avoid any confusion, the restaurant is also known as Jacob Myers Deli.

Delia’s Dayton-February 8, 2012

February 8, 2012

You may have read my glowing review of Delia’s Taqueria right here in good ol’ S-D back in December. I pretty much declared that Delia’s is the best Mexican food I have ever eaten, and I pretty much swore off all other Mexican restaurants at which I have eaten to date. Remember that? Well, I found out that Delia’s has a sit-down location in Dayton, TN, and I knew I had to go ASAP. A much-needed personal day from work provided the opportunity to go with Philip, my mom, and my sister for lunch. I was not disappointed!

Delia’s in Dayton is just past the “town” part of Dayton…you might think you’ve gone too far, until you see the bright orange double wide on the left. It’s a dine-in/take-out, with a window outside for those who are taking out. There were not many people dining in when we got there, so we were seated immediately, and baskets of free and unlimited chips and salsa were quickly delivered to our table. That’s one of the advantages to dining in, obviously! The chips were the delicious homemade chips that are served at Delia’s in Soddy-Daisy, but Philip thought that the salsa seemed a little different-less chunky, but still delicious. I liked that the salsa was served in these little mini-carafes with an individual bowl for each person. Double-dip away! (By the way, what do you think of the pics? I got a new phone and the camera is vastly better than the camera in my ipod.)

The menu at Delia’s Dayton is identical to the menu at Delia’s Soddy-Daisy, with the obvious difference in address and phone number. It took me ages to decide what to eat because so many menu items sounded so appealing, but I finally decided on the quesadilla Taco Roc (have you heard of Taco Roc? It’s on Lee Highway. Yep, apparently they own that too. It’s on the list!). Pretty much just meat and cheese on a flour tortilla with guacamole, lettuce, pico de gallo, and sour cream. I ordered mine with steak. Everything about it was delicious, and I ate the whole gigantic thing. The steak had a great grilled flavor and was very tender and sliced very thin. I’ve only recently started eating guacamole, and I thought that theirs was great-not super-chunky, which I appreciated. I also greatly appreciated that the pico did not have huge chunks of onion in it-they were small enough for me to tolerate (I have issues with raw onions, in case you didn’t know). It was also slightly spicy but not overly so. Thank goodness. I’m a huge wuss. I would definitely order this again!

My mom decided on the tacos platter with ground beef on flour tortillas. I’ve had this twice, except on corn tortillas, which I prefer for tacos. As has been my experience in the past, everything was pretty much perfect with this meal-perfectly seasoned meat, great rice, and skin-less refried beans. She really enjoyed it (also, I might mention that the day after Philip and I first tried Delia’s my parents tried it, and they’ve gone there about 100 times since. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. But not much of one.).

My sister decided to just have the chicken with cheese sauce, which she ate with chips. As you see below, it was basically just a bowl of chicken, chopped up into tiny bits and sauteed, then mixed with cheese sauce (which, interestingly, is absent from the menu as an “appetizer”-come to think of it, there is no appetizer menu). The chicken was nice and brown and very fresh-tasting, and the cheese sauce tasted great and was very thin, which is how I like it.

Philip had been chomping at the bit to go to the sit-down location so that he could try the chimichanga, which is generally his go-to menu item at a Mexican restaurant. He hadn’t tried the chimichanga at the Soddy-Daisy location because he was afraid that it would get soggy by the time he got it home. He kept it simple and ordered ground beef as his meat. He was not disappointed. He loved that this chimichanga contained sauteed vegetables (green and red peppers and onions) and not just meat like the chimichangas at most Mexican restaurants. He was truly raving about this meal. I tasted it as well and found it to be delicious. Another win for Delia’s!

Delia’s in Dayton is a bit of a drive if you live in Chattanooga or even Soddy-Daisy, but if you happen to be in the Dayton area and you are looking for fantastic, fresh food, go there. It’s fantastic!

Delia’s is located at 8795 Rhea County Highway, Dayton, TN 37321. You can reach them at 423-570-1813. I am including the menu for Delia’s Soddy-Daisy below for reference; prices may differ somewhat.