sandwich/burger/hot dog restaurants Archives - Page 4 of 11

Yesterday’s at Willie’s Diner

December 31, 2015

Yesterday’s at Willie’s Diner serves good food at good prices in Cleveland, Tennessee, in the former location of Jenkin’s Deli.

Buying new furniture is kind of a drag, y’all. I mean. I like the idea of getting new furniture, I just want it to magically appear in my living room without me having to sit on fifty different sofas, measure, figure out how everything will fit in my house, and figure out what to do with the old furniture.

You may be wondering what furniture shopping has to do with a restaurant post. Well, we ended up at Scott’s Furniture in Cleveland (which was a good call…it’s looking like we’ll be purchasing our furniture from them). Since we rarely get up there and therefore rarely get a chance to eat at the many Cleveland restaurants we need to try (I have a pretty detailed list), we decided to have lunch while we were up there.

We basically decided to eat at the first place on the list that we saw while driving, since we’re pretty unfamiliar with the Cleveland area. The first place we saw? Yesterday’s at Willie’s Diner. Yesterday’s at Willie’s is located in the former Jenkins Deli location on Mouse Creek Road (just past the intersection at Keith Street). Jenkins has moved to a new location (well, not so new…it’s been a while) on Spring Creek Boulevard…I need to visit there sometime to check out their new location.

It wasn’t very crowded, as we went after the typical “lunch” time. We were quickly seated by a friendly server. One look at the menu clued us in to the nature of the restaurant. The front of the menu states that Yesterday’s at Willie’s is owned by a couple with the last name Jenkins…so I am pretty sure that the establishment did not change ownership. There were a handful of appetizers, soups, salads, some barbecue entrees, several sandwiches, and a few entrees. The menu is not the same as Jenkins’ menu-it is somewhat more limited-but I did see some Jenkins favorites, such as the chicken salad and the deli burger.

And…that’s exactly what we ordered. Honestly, if I’d remembered that when we went to Jenkins that I ordered exactly the same thing, I would have gotten something different, but I didn’t think to check (and I was almost certain that I had ordered the burger last time). I got the half chicken salad sandwich with the fresh, house made potato chips. The chicken sandwich is a good portion with one slice of grilled Texas toast and a generous (but not outrageous) portion of chicken salad. The chicken salad is made with shredded chicken, which is how I like it. It has some herbs, celery, and plenty of garlic, and, while I would not say it is dripping with mayo, it’s definitely not dry. The chips are pretty much amazing…thick but not too thick, very crispy, and sprinkled with a perfect portion of seasoned salt.

And Philip, well, he got the burger. We can be a little predictable at times. He decided to order the burger with cheddar cheese and steak fries on the side (you can order any side that you like, with an additional charge for onion rings or a baked potato). The burger here is very good…a decent size (not too big, not too small) and cooked very well. The bun is griddled so that it’s warm with very crispy edges, just how I like it. It was served with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, mayo, and mustard, and had just the right amount of everything. It held together well. The steak fries were just standard frozen steak fries.

At $5.99 for my half sandwich and chips, $9.45 for Philip’s burger and fries (that includes an additional $.50 for the cheese), and two waters, our total was just under $17 pre-tip…not a bad price, I’d say. Our server, Rachel, was very friendly and attentive. The atmosphere here is pretty standard “tavern” atmosphere…dark wood, lots of pictures and signs hanging on the wall, and lots of graffiti where patrons have signed the walls over the years. We would definitely go back.

Yesterday’s at Willie’s Diner is located at 88 Mouse Creek Road NW, Cleveland, TN 37312. They are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Friday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (closed Sunday). You can call them at (423) 790-5346. They do not have a website, but you can like Yesterday’s at Willie’s on Facebook.

Mike’s Hole in the Wall

August 24, 2015

Mike’s Hole in the Wall is a popular bar near Chattanooga’s North Shore that serves some of Chattanooga’s best burgers and fries!

So, after I posted “The Top Ten Burgers in Chattanooga (according to Chattavore)“, I learned that you guys like burgers a little bit. And you have pretty strong opinions about them, which I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing! I’ll be honest, I was a little concerned that some people might be rude if they disagreed with my rankings, but no one has-everyone has been respectful (with maybe a few good-natured digs, which I am so okay with). But one message was conveyed: while most of you were at least mostly in agreement with my list, I still have some places to try.

One of those places was Mike’s Hole in the Wall. I’d actually heard of it a while back, but because it is literally a hole in the wall it’s pretty easy to miss, or to not think about. Several people told me that I really did need to try it, so we decided to make that our burger destination for this weekend (I’m not going to lie, as much as I am obsessed with burgers, I think I need to take a burger break for the next week or so…next weekend’s review will not involve a burger).

We went to Mike’s at around 2 p.m. on Saturday, parking in the gravel lot next to the building (others were parked on the street, and we also saw people park in the paved lot of the business next door, which was not open…that may be a no-no during that business’s business hours). There was a server/bartender and a cook working. The server (whose name I completely forgot to ask for, which I hate because I really do like to mention my servers by name) told us to sit wherever we’d like (we sat on the deck) and brought us food menus. Philip was glad to see they had some craft beers on draft, though they only had standard domestics in bottles. He ordered a Goose Island IPA, which he declared “solid”.

Mike’s has a pretty impressive menu for a bar (by the way, it’s a non-smoking establishment and I assume all-ages…I don’t recall seeing any signs otherwise. Please correct me if I’m wrong!). They have quite a few appetizers, including some that aren’t standards-like Buffalo shrimp, Fritos chili pie (I was sooooo tempted), and Buffalo egg rolls. The burgers can also be made into chicken sandwiches, and they have 10 burgers to choose from, including the Classic, the Black & Blue (with blackening seasoning and blue cheese), and the Faith (with bacon, American cheese, honey mustard, Mike’s wing sauce, lettuce, and tomato). They also have deep fried hot dogs, several sandwiches, and a few salads.

We really didn’t need to think much about it, though, quickly settling on the Classic burger (I did consider the Faith, but decided to stick with simplicity for this visit). I ordered mine with American cheese and no onions, while Philip got his with cheddar, all the way. The burgers took a little longer to come out than I might have expected, but they were worth the wait. They are served on a Niedlov’s bun (5). The meat was well seasoned, thickly patted and cooked to a slight crust on the outside, but still juicy with the slightest bit of pink on the inside (3.5). The cheese was melted nicely on the burger, and you can choose your own (it’s $.50 extra on the Classic) (5). I didn’t find the condiments to be too heavy, and while the toppings were pretty standard (and I don’t usually put lettuce or tomato on my burgers), they have a great variety of ways to top your burger (4). For structural integrity, the burgers get a 3. Mine held together pretty well all the way to the end (getting a little messier on the last few bites) but Philip’s didn’t fare so well…I think the onion sent his over the edge. For size, it gets a 4…not too big, not too small, particularly considering the price ($5.99). The overall rating for this burger: 4.08. This puts them into the #9 spot on the list. So, thanks to all of you who told me to go to Mike’s!

The burgers and sandwiches don’t come with a side, so we ordered fries, which are listed on the appetizer menu ($1.99). There was a bit of a mix-up and we didn’t get our fries right when we got our burger, but they quickly came out after. They are described on the menu as “hand-cut, twice-cooked fries with a light seasoning”. They were absolutely delicious, some of the best fries I’ve had. They were cut thinner than most hand-cut fries, and the seasoning was perfect. It was a pretty gigantic bowl but we ate most of them…I just can’t resist good fries.

Our server was very friendly, and there were several people there while we were there who were obviously regulars. It’s a small place (though I’ve been in smaller), but the deck is great and there are quite a few tables. The prices are also very good, as our pre-tip total for 2 burgers, a gigantic order of fries, and a beer was $19.63. There are televisions and dartboards as well. So, if you’re on (or near) the North Shore and looking for a great burger, check out Mike’s Hole in the Wall!

Mike’s Hole in the Wall is located at 538 Cherokee Boulevard, Chattanooga, TN 37405. You can call them at 423-475-5259. They don’t have a website, but you can like Mike’s Hole in the Wall on Facebook. They are open 7 days a week for lunch, dinner, and “late night” though I forgot to check their hours and couldn’t find exact hour online, so if anyone knows them please let me know!

Mindy B’s Deli (Downtown Chattanooga)

August 10, 2015

Mindy B’s Deli is a downtown Chattanooga lunch hot spot that serves amazing sandwiches, homemade sides, and great desserts!

One of the downsides of my job is that I don’t get a whole lot of chances to go out to eat (many if not most of my meals are eaten in my car) and definitely not at any place that doesn’t have on-site parking. And with my job, I get a lot of days off, but certain excursions take some forethought and planning. Like visiting Mindy B’s Deli.

Mindy B’s, located in the Volunteer State Building on the corner of Georgia Avenue and MLK, is open from 10-3, Monday-Friday. There’s parking in Patten Parkway, but I never assume that in a spot with limited parking that a spot is going to be easy to come by. Plus, we like to park and walk. On one of my last days off (as you’re reading this, I went back to work last Thursday) we headed downtown and parked in one of the lots near Unum and walked over. It’s always nice when a lunch excursion helps me accumulate some steps on my Fitbit!

We got to Mindy B’s around 12:45 or 1, thinking that we would hit the end of the lunch crowd. As it turns out, there were several occupied tables, but there was only one lady in line ahead of us, but after we sat down, a pretty steady stream of people came in, resulting in a line that took a while to dissipate. We sat down and took in the atmosphere. There were about nine or ten tables (give or take) inside with a couple of bistro tables outside. The walls were painted in a bright green with tin panels along the bottom half. You walk up and grab a laminated menu from a basket on the counter to decide on your order; the front of the counter is painted with chalkboard paint and the daily special and desserts are listed on the chalkboard. A refrigerated deli case contained lots of salads, like potato salad, egg salad, broccoli salad, herbed tuna salad, and tarragon chicken salad.

Mindy B’s holds a contest every year where customers can submit a sandwich idea. Honestly, I can’t remember how the winners are chosen, but I assume that customers vote (someone tell me please!). The winning sandwich makes it onto the menu. I decided to order the 2012 winner: Chris’s Rockefeller. The Rockefeller was made on sourdough toast with corned beef, pastrami, roast beef, cheddar, pepper Jack, lettuce, and “rock” sauce. While the Thanksgiving (turkey, cream cheese, and cranberry sauce), the Big Cheese (pimento cheese on pumpernickel), and the Coop (tarragon chicken salad with lettuce, tomato, and onion on sourdough) all sounded tempting, I have a hard time passing up anything that contains corned beef or pastrami, so both? Count me in! The Rockefeller was delicious, with waaaaaaayyyyyy more meat on it that I should eat in a day (but: cured beef!). The cheese was not melted but the heat from the bread had softened it up a little bit. There wasn’t a cumbersome amount of lettuce on it, and the Rock sauce was a mayo-based sauce that was just a little sweet and a little spicy. On the side, I had the broccoli salad, which had everything that broccoli salad should have: broccoli (of course!), dried cranberries, red onions (which I could do without, but they were in fairly large pieces so I ate around them), and bacon, plus walnuts, lightly dressed with a mayo-based dressing.

Philip ordered the Pub, aka the Reuben, because he pretty much has a rule that he has to order the Reuben wherever he goes. I’m not going to lie, he still says that the Vine Street Market Reuben is the best he’s had, but he thought that this was a very good Reuben. It was a good-sized but not overwhelmingly large Reuben with a good balance between the meat, cheese, sauerkraut, and sauce. He really liked that they had actually put a thin slice of meat between the sauerkraut and the bread to keep the sauerkraut from making the bread soggy. He had a bag of cheddar jalapeño chips with his sandwich.

Mindy B’s has a build-your-own sandwich option, so you can have whatever you want. There are also several sandwiches that are part of a pick-two combo. Salads are also available-a “plain ol'” salad or a build-your-own, where you add a main (meat or pimento cheese), a cheese, vegetables, and a dressing to a bed of greens served with house crostini. You can also build a three-salad plate with salads from the deli case. Mindy B’s also serves a good selection of desserts, including brownies, cookies, and pies, which all looked amazing, but we have been on kind of a junk food bender the last few days and we needed to slow down so we abstained.

Mindy B’s is a friendly atmosphere with very nice people serving up quality deli food. It’s obvious that the downtown workday lunch crowd loves them! If you’re downtown and want a great salad or sandwich, Mindy B’s Deli is a great option! By the way, our total for our sandwiches, my broccoli salad ($3), and Philip’s chips ($1.50) was about $22 (we drank water).

Mindy B’s is located at 828 Georgia Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37402. They are open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. You can call them at (423) 521-7932. They do not have a website, but you can like Mindy B’s Deli on Facebook.

By the way, I just found out that Mindy B’s has partnered with The Hunter Museum to open the Hunter Museum Café by Mindy B’s Deli. Check it out Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Free First Sundays from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Innside Restaurant (Downtown Chattanooga)

August 3, 2015

The Innside restaurant in downtown Chattanooga is the best restaurant in Chattanooga you may have never heard of!

All right, guys…I am very close to being ready to write a follow-up of my post from a few years back, Chattanooga’s Top Five Burgers (According to Chattavore). I’m shakin’ things up, y’all, I can tell you that much. I’m not quite ready, though, so give me a couple of weeks. Part of the holdup is getting to a few places that I can’t easily visit during the school year when I’m working full-time. I knew that I needed to visit Zarzour’s and I’d had several people tell me that I needed to have a burger at the Innside Restaurant.

My reaction to that was, “What in the world is this Innside Restaurant of which you speak?” I’d never seen it or even heard of it. Except that I probably had and just didn’t realize what I was looking at. Turns out that the Innside Restaurant has been on Chestnut Street (in the Pioneer Building) for over 20 years. Apparently I don’t get to Chestnut Street much? It’s pretty much right across the street from Figgy’s Sandwich Shop, another spot that I need to visit.

We had been told to try to get there before the lunch crowd, so we arrived a few minutes before 11:00. There were still quite a few tables open, some people starting the lunch crowd and others finishing up breakfast. They stop serving breakfast at 10:30, which our server, Holly, made sure to let us know when she came to take our drink order. No matter…we were there for the burgers. Anyway, Holly was a very friendly and energetic girl who told us that the Innside opened before she was born. Shut your mouth, Holly. I was probably in high school (feeling old….I turn 37 in 3 weeks, y’all!). She brought us our waters then took our orders.

The menus are on the tables and the prices of each menu item include tax. We perused very briefly but honestly I didn’t notice much other than the burgers. I will have to make a trip back to try other items on the menu! I decided on a regular cheeseburger with no onions ($5.25), while Philip got a bacon cheeseburger all the way ($6.25). All the way means mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion. The burgers were gigantic, made with pretty standard meat on an also pretty standard sesame seed bun. The lettuce was iceberg. They were topped with American cheese. However, if you think that I am saying that the “pretty standard” part of this burger description means that I was unimpressed with the burger…that is not the case. It was delicious! The meat was well-seasoned and well cooked, and there was not an inordinate amount of mayonnaise or mustard. My only complaint was that there might have been a little too much lettuce; however, it didn’t interfere with the structural integrity of the burger too much, as it held together all the way to the last bite (and yes, I ate the whole thing!). So score: meat, 3; bread, 3; cheese, 4; toppings, 3; size, 4; structural integrity, 4.5. Overall burger rating: 3.58. That seems like a pretty low score considering how good this burger was. We really enjoyed it!

On the side, we got fries and tater tots. Again, pretty standard frozen fries and tots. However, the tater tots tasted like they were either fried in some interesting oil or had some sort of unusual seasoning on them, but Holly told us that they were just fried in peanut oil. They don’t have any special seasoning on them either. Maybe it’s the brand? Who knows? Anyway, you know I love skin-on fries, but I pretty much love all fried potato products as long as they are crisp rather than limp and soggy, so even a frozen fry or tot gets a “still pretty good” rating from me.

I am fairly certain this place has a lot of regulars. They seemed to know quite a few of the people that were dining with them. It’s not hard to understand why, because everyone that we encountered (which was several employees) was extremely nice. We were concerned prior to going about whether such a small spot would take credit cards, but they do (with the understanding that there is a $0.25 cent additional charge to pay with a card on orders under $5.00). The prices are pretty reasonable considering the amount of food you get…our order (2 waters, fries, tots, cheeseburger, and bacon cheeseburger) was $14.00 pre-tip. We really enjoyed the Innside Restaurant, and while their location/hours will prevent us from going back often, we will definitely go again, this time to try non-burger menu items or perhaps a special (they change their specials daily, and you can see each day’s specials on their Facebook page). I can’t speak to the other menu items, but the Innside Restaurant is definitely a great place to go for a tasty burger!

The Innside Restaurant is located at 800 Chestnut Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402 (in the Pioneer Building). You can call them at 266-7687. They are open 6:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Monday-Friday, serving breakfast until 10:30 daily. They do not have a website page, but you can like Innside Restaurant on Facebook.

Deli-Boys of Cleveland

July 13, 2015

It’s too bad it took me so long to get to Deli-Boys, because this was one of the best sandwiches I’ve had a in a while! It’s worth the drive to Cleveland, TN, for sure.

Deli-Boys is located in Cleveland, and I’ll admit, I don’t give Cleveland much love on here. I promise it isn’t intentional! It’s kind of far away (45 minutes to an hour depending on the route I take and how fast we drive) so it requires a little bit of planning ahead. Every time I think about it, it seems too late to try to venture in that direction.

I was telling Philip, though, I’m starting to run low on places to review in Chattanooga-I’ve pretty much exhausted Soddy-Daisy and Hixson, and there are a few places downtown but a lot of them are only open during the day on weekdays, making them a little more tricky. We’ve got to start visiting places a little more “off the beaten path”, so if you have suggestions for Brainerd, East Ridge, Harrison, Ooltewah, Collegedale, Cleveland, and North Georgia, please let me know!

So anyway….I started thinking this morning about where we should go and I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere in Chattanooga that I was itching to try today. We needed to go to my parents’ house in Soddy before we got moving, so I suggested to Philip that we just keep moving north through Dayton and take the back way to Cleveland. My brother had suggested that I review Deli-Boys ages ago, and since my brother and I have similar restaurant preferences, I knew I could trust his suggestion.

Deli-Boys is located in a strip mall on Keith Street, just past Smoothie King. It’s on the side of the building, so you need to know where you are going or look for the sign out front to be sure that you can find it. We got there at about 1:00 and it was pretty crowded, though we were able to walk right up and give our order. By the time we left, the tables were pretty much full. The lady at the counter was extremely friendly, as was the guy who brought our food to the table and bussed our trash while we ate.

Deli-Boys offers sandwiches that you can build yourself (ham, chicken, turkey, roast beef, corned beef, and pastrami), specialty sandwiches (Italian, club, Cajun, meatball, veggie, chicken farm, pizza sub, Reuben, Rachel, steak and cheese, chicken and cheese, French dip, grilled cheese, turkey fajita, Caribbean, and BBQ) and all sandwiches come in small (3″), medium (6″), and large (12″, I assume). They also serve salads (house, Greek, Italian, chef, chicken, or tuna) and baked potatoes (deli, chili, veggie, cheesy, and “just baked” with butter and sour cream) and soup of the day.

I considered ordering the Rachel. Different restaurants have different interpretations of the Rachel-some make it just like a Reuben expect with turkey instead of corned beef-but their Rachel is corned beef, pastrami, or turkey, 1000 Island dressing, melted Swiss, and hot slaw or coleslaw instead of the sauerkraut that is signature on a Reuben. However, I knew that Philip was planning to order a Reuben so I decided to order something else so that our orders wouldn’t be too similar. I decided instead to build my own-pastrami (I adore pastrami, which is basically just peppered corned beef) with Muenster cheese, steamed and topped with Boar’s Head horseradish mayo and Boar’s head spicy mustard, both recommended by the lady at the counter, lettuce, tomato, and pickle, on a whole wheat sub. I love that you can order a small sandwich. It was more than enough food for me and didn’t leave me feeling overly stuffed. It was a delicious sandwich. The meat, cheese, and bread were heated through (there is nothing I hate more than a sandwich that is supposed to be warm but turns out to be cold in the middle) and all the ingredients were very fresh, including the bread, which is baked there. The bread was soft and chewy, pretty much a perfect sub roll. The horseradish mayo and spicy mustard were a fantastic complement to the Boar’s Head pastrami. As a side I just had salt & vinegar chips, but there are other sides available, including slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, side salad, and mac & cheese.

As I mentioned before, Philip ordered the Reuben, which is pretty much his standard deli order, at least on the first visit to a new place. The Reuben was served on grilled marble rye with Boar’s Head corned beef, melted Swiss, 1000 island dressing, and sauerkraut. I assume that they grill their sandwiches on a panini press, because the bread was deeply ridged and Philip said that it was the crispiest Reuben he’d ever had, which he said was definitely a positive. While he said that Vine Street Market still stands as his #1 Reuben, the Reuben here was definitely one of the best that he’d had-very fresh, ingredients well balanced, and everything heated through just right.

Our total for two small sandwiches, two bags of chips, and two drinks was around $14. I noticed that they had cookies on the counter, but I didn’t notice until we were walking out that they had a cake stand with cupcakes, including homemade Hostess-style cupcakes, which I kind of wish I’d gotten (but I have crack pie in my freezer, so I am saving my sweet tooth for that). The people were very friendly, the service was quick and efficient, and this is obviously a popular place for the locals. They also offer catering.

If you have reason to head to Cleveland (or even if you don’t!) you should check out Deli-Boys!

Deli-Boys is located in the Colony Square Plaza in 2538 Keith Street, Cleveland, TN 37312. They are open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (closed Sunday). You can call them at 423-472-8868. You can visit their website, www.deliboysonline.com. You can also like Deli-Boys on Facebook and follow @deliboysonline on Twitter.

« Previous Page