Soddy-Daisy restaurants Archives - Page 2 of 3

Steve’s Landing (Soddy-Daisy)

September 29, 2013

Steve’s Landing is very popular with the locals in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee serving a variety of menu items, including ribs that are supposedly amazing.

I guess I knew that this time would come eventually. It’s time for restaurant reviews to become a biweekly feature of Chattavore, at least for the time being. While I am doing my restaurant reviewing on weeknights to preserve weekend daylight hours for photography, it isn’t really feasible to go somewhere new every week. The fact of the matter is, I am a homebody and getting out at night during the week is pretty stressful for me…going across the river on a weeknight requires some planning, and I’ve just about exhausted my options on this side of town….at least now that I’ve gone to Steve’s Landing. What’s more is that if we keep going at this rate I am eventually going to run out of new places to eat! So….at least until Spring, you probably won’t see more than two reviews a month.

It’s kind of funny that I haven’t written about Steve’s Landing until now…it’s less than ten minutes from my house. We ate there many, many years ago (ten, maybe?) and weren’t crazy about it then….but people I trust eat there often so we figured it was worth another try. The problem is that they don’t open until five during the week and we never think about them on the weekend. We finally made up our minds that we were going to go and figured we better get there early….Steve’s has a loyal following of diners that pack regularly pack the place out, so we wanted to beat the crowd. We got there at about 4:58, before the doors had been opened, and were greeted by another family-that had driven from Dayton for the ribs-and a cat who is obviously a regular. Once Steve opened the door at a minute or two after five, we requested a seat on the large deck.

Becky, our server, immediately took our drink and appetizer order. I had heard from more than one person that the spicy queso at Steve’s Landing was excellent, so we went with that. It is not a Mexican-style queso but rather a spicy, cheddar-based queso with spinach in it, but not so much spinach that you’d really call it a spinach dip. While it had a little kick (presumably from cayenne, since I didn’t detect any jalapeños or other chopped peppers) it was definitely a spicy dip that could be enjoyed by a lightweight like me. The chips were hot and crispy. I don’t think they were homemade….they weren’t Delia’s chips (my #1 pick) but they were pretty good.

I’d heard good things about several items on the menu at Steve’s Landing. The ribs are supposedly amazing but I don’t like to work that hard for my food (at least when someone else is cooking), which is the main reason I also rarely eat Buffalo wings even though I enjoy the flavors. I’d heard great things about the Kickin’ Chicken (basically Monterey chicken minus the bacon-chicken with barbecue sauce and cheddar and jack cheeses) as well as the Ragin’ Cajun pasta (fettucine Alfredo with Cajun-spiced chicken, diced red peppers, and chopped green onions). I decided on the pasta, which was a very large (as in I had enough left over for lunch on Friday) serving of pasta with chopped Cajun chicken on top and a piece of Texas toast on the side. I am not a fan of Texas toast-it’s just “meh” to me-so I took a couple of bites and tossed it aside. The pasta was pretty good, but I would have liked more creamy Alfredo sauce and a little less Cajun spice. Interestingly, I found the dish to be less spicy the next day, which is definitely a departure from the norm. I saw an order of the Kickin’ Chicken being delivered to a nearby table while we were there and kind of wished I had ordered that-it looked great.

Philip decided on the fried catfish, which was served with fries, slaw, and jalapeño hush puppies. He got two cornmeal-coated catfish fillets that were fried to a nice crisp and were surprisingly un-greasy. The flavor was great, a sentiment shared by the porch cat, Jake, with whom Philip shared a couple of bites of catfish. The fries were fine, no doubt frozen, nothing special. Philip liked the slaw, which was made with shredded (not chopped) cabbage and carrots and was not dripping with mayonnaise-y dressing. The jalapeño hush puppies were tasty, not really spicy but with a nice jalapeño flavor and, like the catfish, not greasy. It was a very large portion of food so we took the leftovers to my parents’ house for my uncle to have for dinner. We were way too stuffed for dessert. The dessert special was chocolate covered cherry pie, which sounded interesting, but their house specialty is bread pudding, which I have heard is fantastic. There are several other desserts on the menu, including a key lime pie and blackberry cobbler.

Steve’s Landing is in the price range of other similar restaurants…our total for two waters, an appetizer, and two entrees on the lower end of the price range was about $33 pre-tip. They have a large following because they fill a void in Soddy-Daisy. We just don’t have a ton of restaurants out this way other than your typical fast food offerings, and they offer tasty food that you would otherwise have to drive to Hixson or beyond to get, and the prices are not outrageous….they are within the same price range as other restaurants with similar offerings. The staff was extremely friendly.

While the crowds will definitely prevent this from being a regular place for us to visit, we’ll definitely go back to Steve’s Landing.

Steve’s Landing is located at 1145 Poling Circle, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. You can call them at 423-332-4098. They are open Wednesday and Thursday, 5-9 p.m., Friday 5-10 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can view their menu and find more information at their website, www.steveslandingsoddy.com. You can also like Steve’s Landing on Facebook.

Want another option near the water? How about Jacob Myers Restaurant on the River in Dayton?

Great American Burger Company (CLOSED)

September 22, 2013

Unfortunately closed now, Great American Burger Company was a neighborhood burger stand that was located near the lake in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee.

My hometown, Soddy-Daisy, has precious few restaurants. When Great American Burger Company opened in the neighborhood where I grew up and now teach (and where my parents still live) a couple of months back in the former location of another restaurant (whose name I’ve already forgotten) I’ll admit I kind of rolled my eyes. Truth be told, I’d never seen anyone at the former joint-though, to be fair, their hours were such that I really never drove by when they were open. Now I drive by every day on my way to and from work and have noticed quite a few people at this little road-side stand on the road adjacent to “Soddy Lake”(some eating at the picnic tables out front), so I decided that an afternoon when I was staying late for a training was a perfect excuse to give it a try.

It was just after five when I walked up to the window at Great American Burger Company. A very friendly guy opened the window and greeted me. I told him I needed a minute to look at the menu. There was a little chalkboard standing by the window with specials listed, including the Big Papa Burger (with smoked sausage on top), fish tacos, and a fish sandwich. The items on the regular menu board included burgers, a BLT, a fried bologna sandwich, barbecue pork and chicken sandwiches and tacos, deep-fried hot dogs (known as “rippers” because they burst open a little while cooking) with a variety of toppings, and a Philly cheesesteak. There were a few other items but I can’t remember them at the moment.

I decided on a regular cheeseburger (there was also a spicy cheeseburger listed on the menu) with no onions and, declaring that he would have a heart attack at age 40, Philip (on the phone) told me to order him a Big Papa burger. Our burgers were basically the same: large, irregularly shaped burgers (a good sign, showing that they are more than likely hand-patted rather than frozen patties) on store-bought buns with American cheese, mayo, mustard, shredded (not leaf) lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and in Philip’s case onions and a split piece of griddled smoked sausage. Because he has gotten spoiled by sausage from places like Link 41, he wasn’t super-thrilled that it was basically a piece of Hillshire Farms sausage (or something similar) but he said it tasted pretty good on the burger so he got over it. It was a well-seasoned, well-cooked burger that wasn’t overly drenched with condiments. It was a very good burger-not a gourmet burger, just a good old cheeseburger. Sometimes you just want a straight-up good burger. We both ate the whole thing. Don’t judge me. Teaching PreK is hard work, and I am pretty much always hungry.

We decided to try out both the fries and the onion rings. The fries were crinkle-cut, a gigantic bag of them to be exact. They were crispy and well-salted, not mouth-searingly salty but not unsalted like those that you get at some places (I will never for the life of me figure out why so many places are so afraid to salt their fries. I’m sorry, but fried food should be salted when it is fresh out of the oil or the salt will never stick. I understand that some people cannot eat salt, but can’t special orders of unsalted food be made for them????). The onion rings were battered, not breaded, with a slightly sweet taste to the batter. I like my onion rings a little thicker than these were with a more oniony flavor (because while I hate raw onions I do love cooked onions) but they weren’t bad. I’m pretty sure the fries and onion rings were frozen (I have yet to come across a restaurant that serves hand-cut crinkle cut fries) but they were pretty good and I have to admit that frozen crinkle cut fries are kind of a comfort food for me.

When I was growing up, JJ’s, which was on Dayton Pike in the location that is now Shuford’s BBQ, was a mainstay….a place to go for a gigantic burger or a huge bag of crinkle-cut fries so hot they’d burn the roof of your mouth. It wasn’t gourmet cuisine, but it was good. I loved that place. I don’t think I even realized how much until I became an adult. I remember a lot of weekends when I would come home from my college dorm that my mom would ask me what I wanted to eat and I would request JJ’s. When it became “Jan’s” sometime after I got married, I knew the end was near. It lasted a little while but eventually gave way to Shuford’s. I’d be exaggerating if I said I shed a tear, but I was a little sad. The food at Great American Burger Company reminded me a lot of JJ’s so I guess you could say it fills a bit of a void-that great little neighborhood burger stand. Since it’s on my way home from work it seems like a great solution for those nights that I end up working a little later than usual or I just don’t feel like cooking…or for in-service days when I just can’t bring myself to pack a lunch. I would like to give some of their non-burger menu items a try as well. By the way, our total was $14.37.

Great American Burger Company closed several months after this post was written. The owners went on to participate in Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race as Chatty Chicken.

Great American Burger Company was located at 202 Durham Street, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. They are open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with occasional Saturday hours for special events. You can call them at 423-618-3186. They do not have a website right now, but you can like Great American Burger Co. on Facebook. Soddy-Daisyans (or anyone else who is in the area and looking for a yummy burger!), support your local burger stand!

Also in this area: Shuford’s BBQ

Shuford’s BBQ (Soddy-Daisy Location)-September 13, 2012

September 16, 2012

Philip and I knew that this weekend we were planning to eat at a restaurant that I recently blogged since we were given a gift certificate for my birthday, so Thursday night we decided to go somewhere that we hadn’t been. I knew that I needed to cook, but unfortunately I’ve been sick and work is still really wearing me out. Plus, I guess I’ve been starving my husband of protein with all of my meatless cooking (I really do try to include adequate protein in each meal but sometimes it’s pretty difficult. If any of you hardcore vegetarians/vegans out there have any pointers, I’ll be glad to take them) and he was craving a burger. So, instead of cooking the potato-leek soup I had planned for dinner, we headed to Choo-Choo Barbecue. Only we passed the restaurant to go to the gas station about a minute away first. By the time we got back five minutes later the place was packed out. Plan B in action…except that there was no plan B. So we started thinking.

We were headed back toward home. We’ve tried just about every place that there is to try in Soddy-Daisy…not much remains. Steve’s Landing….but I knew that at 6:30 we might be dealing with a bigger crowd than we were willing to face on a Thursday evening (or any evening, really). Then, Shuford’s popped into my head.

The original Shuford’s Smokehouse is located on Signal Mountain Road in the Red Bank area. I’ve never eaten there, but it’s been around for more than twenty years, so clearly there are some folks that think they are doing barbecue right. Shuford’s Barbecue is a roadside stand by Soddy Lake that for my entire childhood was a drive-in known as JJ’s (man, I loved JJ’s) then later as Jan’s. It’s been Shuford’s for (I believe) a couple of years now, but I just never think of it when I’m trying to think of somewhere to eat. We sat in the car and contemplated our order, then walked up and placed our order with a very friendly lady running the front end. Our total for the meal was about $15. Since it was a nice, not-too-hot evening we decided to eat our dinner at one of the picnic tables next to the building.

Normally I would go for the “BBQ tater”, but for some reason I was in the mood for a sandwich instead. I ordered a regular (i.e. small) pulled pork sandwich with slaw on it and a side of onion rings (and a water, of course). The order took about 10 minutes to come out (she was on the phone taking a call-in order when we walked up and another lady ordered while we were waiting) and she gave us a couple of paper trays (I guess that’s what you’d call them?) to put our food in since we were eating there. I am assuming that the onion rings were probably frozen, but they were still pretty good, nice and hot and crispy. The meat was good with a mild smoky flavor. I believe Shuford’s makes their own sauce. It’s a little sweeter than most (I believe it has molasses in it) and is very thick (by the way, they have hot or mild sauce. Since I am a pansy I chose mild). My only wish is that I had gotten the slaw on the side and added it myself…it quickly made the sandwich a little cold and a little soggy (but it tasted good, and I don’t usually like slaw).

It took Philip a few minutes to decide whether to order the burger that he was craving or whether he should get his usual BBQ restaurant order, the pulled pork plate. In the end he decided to go with his gut and get the bacon cheeseburger that was advertised on Shuford’s roadside sign, along with crinkle-cut fries and a water. The burger was gigantic, with a patty that looked hand-formed, a couple of strips of bacon, lettuce, tomato, and a large amount of onion. If I ever order a burger there I will be ordering it without the onion, as the amount was so large I don’t think removing it at the table would do anything to rid the burger of the onion flavor-two entire slices (NOT two rings). Philip, however, was fine with this and happily ate the entire thing. He said it was a really great burger (I refrained from sampling it due to the onion, of course). The crinkle-cut fries were no doubt cooked from frozen, but I love crinkle-cut fries so much that I just can’t hate on them.

Shuford’s menu boasts some items that most other barbecue restaurants in the area do not serve, like ham, smoked turkey, Polish sausage, and chili dogs. They sell family packs of pulled pork or beef, chicken, or ribs that include two pint-sized sized and buns. The only dessert on the menu is banana pudding…but hey, this is the south. Banana pudding is an institution.

Restaurants don’t stick around for 20+ years for doing things the wrong way. Shuford’s is good eating and I hope the Soddy-Daisy location remains as well. Nice folks serving good food. We need places like that in these parts (as opposed to more fast food joints). Try it out!

Shuford’s Soddy-Daisy stand is located at 11320 Dayton Pike, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. They are open Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. You can call them at 423-451-7102. You can read more about them on their website, http://shufordsbbq.com. You can also “like” them on Facebook.

Nitty-Gritty Café-August 11, 2012 CLOSED

August 12, 2012

3/31/13 Nitty Gritty Café has closed.

Philip and I drive by this place every single Sunday as we go to and from my parents’ house….but since they’re closed on Sunday, we’ve never had occasion to stop in, and honestly, we forget about it most of the time. A lady at church went out of her way to mention it to me last week, though, so yesterday Philip and I purposed to try it out.

Let me say, this place is tiny. TINY. There is a handful of parking spaces (Nitty-Gritty diners may not park in front of the fruit stand next door) and I counted seven tables, a couple of them being two-person tables (which is what we chose). We were a little confused when we walked in because we weren’t sure where to sit (I guess the server/hostess was busy in the back and it took her a second to come out). I’m not trying to pick on Nitty-Gritty Café, because God knows this has happened more times than I can count….but I really just wish that all restaurants would put up a sign letting diners know whether they should seat themselves or wait to be seated. At least they had a hostess who came out after a couple of minutes and told us to sit wherever we wanted….we’ve eaten at restaurants where we had to seek out a staff member to ask them.

I didn’t catch the server/hostess’s name, but she was extremely friendly. She brought us our menu and told us the special (fried catfish). There were daily specials listed on a chalkboard-Tuscan chicken pasta, Fried Chicken, Catfish, and I think meatloaf might have been on there too. They are closed on Sunday and Monday and the special was the same for Friday and Saturday. The menu features the daily specials with country-style veggies (you can choose two or three vegetables with your meat) like mashed potatoes, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, corn, or beans, several sandwiches (chicken, BLT, fried pork tenderloin, grilled cheese), a handful of burgers, a house or Cobb salad, several topped hot dogs, and some entrées like shrimp & grits and chicken tenders. They also have a case of cakes for dessert (there’s also a “dessert of the day”, and I’ve heard that their banana pudding is great), which all looked delicious, though we did not have room for dessert on this day…..

I really wanted to try some of the vegetables but I wasn’t feeling up to it (something I ate for lunch on Friday was disagreeing with me) so I decided to try the Jack burger (I have really strange food preferences when I’m not feeling well…I like to eat things like tacos and Ruffles with sour cream & onion dip). The Jack burger is a hand-patted burger patty on a bun with melted white American cheese (I know, I thought it was a little strange that it wasn’t Monterey Jack cheese too….), a fried green tomato, lettuce, and mayonnaise, with French fries. For the record, the fries were just frozen fries. A little off-putting since hand-cutting the fries would really amp it up a bit, but not particularly surprising or unusual (don’t think too many restaurants are hand-cutting their fries). They were fine. The burger patty was obviously handmade, since the shape wasn’t perfectly circular….a quality that I appreciate. It was well seasoned. The lettuce was iceberg and the bun was just a bun out of a bag (so again, a homemade or bakery purchased bun would really amp this up). I liked the fried green tomato and the cheese was very melty, not just stuck on the burger. All in all, not a bad burger….I’d order it again, for sure.

Philip decided to get the shrimp & grits. If you’ll recall, I mentioned here and here that shrimp & grits is one of his favorite restaurant meals, but he is very picky about them. These shrimp & grits were very plain looking….seasoned shrimp, crumbled bacon, & grits. I didn’t see any cheese, onions, etc., which is highly unusual. He said that the grits themselves were a little bland (not a lot of salt) but once he really stirred the shrimp and bacon into the grits they added the seasoning that was necessary. He really liked the seasoning that was on the shrimp and felt that the shrimp was cooked well. He also had cornbread and liked it fine….but I’ll be honest, if you try my cornbread recipe you’ll find that most restaurant cornbread just doesn’t measure up. It’s not their fault, it just….is. Just as a side…I’d love to see them work on their presentation. The gigantic bowl that Philip’s shrimp & grits were in was overkill and I saw several items served on styrofoam trays (they also charge $0.25 for water to pay for the styrofoam cup). Just a note. Some people don’t care about presentation but it can make or break a dining experience for others. I’m somewhere in-between….

One more thing is that they offer complimentary pinto beans to each table. Since Philip loves pinto beans (I can take ’em or leave ’em) we tried them. Again, they were pretty good….cooked to a good texture, not too hard, not too soft….but needed a little more salt, which we just added at the table. Perhaps this is their angle-everyone likes a different amount of salt. We are not salt fiends but do like to be able to taste that our food has been salted (but this can be an issue with beans, and we often have to add salt to our beans at the table at home as well). I really do want to go back and try a vegetable plate and see how their execution is on home-style vegetables. I love a good veggie plate!

So, I’ll be honest, it isn’t Blue Ribbon Café. It’s not likely to overtake BRC as the “best restaurant in Soddy-Daisy” in my humble opinion….but it’s pretty good, and seeing as how there aren’t exactly non-chain restaurants on every corner there’s definitely room for some variety in the mix. The prices are decent (our total was about $17 before tip), the food is pretty good, and they offer some unique menu items. The staff is very friendly. Give it a try!

The Nitty-Gritty Café is located at 11210 Dayton Pike, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. You can call them at 423-531-4582. They do not currently have a website or Facebook page. I have included the menu below although there are several menu items on signs hanging at the counter and the menu that is given to you at the table is also slightly different from this (for example, you will not see the burger that I ordered on the menu below).

Delia’s Has a New Location!

August 1, 2012

Delia’s, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways….

Seriously. I couldn’t love this place any more if I tried. The taco trailer that was located in Daisy was first, then the Dayton location, then Taco Roc, which has the same owners and the same menu. Every time a hit. I make every excuse I can to get to Delia’s as often as I possibly can, and have stood crammed into the covered ordering area of their trailer with about eight other people (I am not even exaggerating!) on a rainy winter evening for at least twenty minutes.

The food is just THAT good.

When we first tried their Soddy-Daisy location, we couldn’t stop talking about how much we hoped that they would eventually move into a sit-down location. Back in June, we were driving by a building in Daisy that used to be Cheryl’s Diner (which, I can tell you now that it’s closed, was one of the restaurants that I chose not to write a review about) and there it was, on the sign: Delia’s COMING SOON. I almost peed myself, I tell you!

The new Delia’s location opened on Monday, July 9. My mom went by to pick up a carry-out order toward the end of that week and people were waiting outside for seating. Now, it’s a small place…but something tells me Delia’s is going to be successful. Like this:

Can someone please help me order something besides the taco platter when I go here? Okay, I have. I’ve had the quesadilla…I’ve had the nachos. One of these days I’m going to go rogue and order the torta (it’s a Mexican sandwich. Like, on a roll.). But most of the time, it’s the taco platter. It’s just. So. Good. Their rice and beans are perfect, and their tacos are so fresh. These are actually “Delia’s tacos”, not regular tacos. Where regular tacos come topped with pico, lettuce, and cheese, the Delia’s tacos have grilled vegetables and melted cheese (not to be confused with cheese sauce). I always order them on corn tortillas, though you can have flour….if you must. These were tacos al pastor. Al pastor is pork that is marinated and cooked in a marinade that contains chiles, vinegar, and pineapple. Don’t worry…this isn’t spicy. But it is delicious. The barbacoa (shredded beef), chicken, steak, and of course plain old ground beef are all wonderful. One of these days I’m gonna order cactus tacos. Anyway, I couldn’t choose between the Delia’s tacos (this is the first time I’ve had them) and the regular tacos.

Philip had the special of the day, which was the burrito plato, also known as the burrito platter. He, of course, had this with the chorizo (Mexican sausage), of which he cannot get enough. It really is delicious, and I do not usually care for sausage. Usually he orders the fiesta burrito, which comes stuffed with rice, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, beans, and pico. The burrito on the, er, plato only contained meat and cheese, with the rest of the fillings on the side. As you can see, there were also rice and beans. And he loved every bit of it.

One of the advantages of dining in here is complimentary chips and salsa…although theirs are so delicious that we really don’t mind paying for the (they don’t cost that much anyway). Considering the crowd that is usually here (we stopped in for lunch) we will probably continue to enjoy Delia’s mostly as a take-out treat. Their appeal, though, is understandable and undeniable. The staff is extremely friendly and attentive. They are willing to tailor your meal to suit your wants and needs. The menu contains items for the adventurous and non-adventurous eater. One of these days I’m just going to order something totally off the wall…and I’m willing to be I’ll love it. I haven’t had anything from here that I didn’t.

Delia’s new location can be found at 8363 Dayton Pike, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. You can still reach them at 423-521-7145. Sadly…they don’t have a website or even a Facebook page. I’m thinking that probably isn’t going to matter. Go see them anyway!

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