Knoxville Area Dining Experiences – Spring 2016

During April and May we re-visited a couple of restaurants that we’d enjoyed previously… In both cases, we tried some food items that we had never eaten in these dining spots before.

Our friends George and Lynn like to try new places and they do appreciate good food.  They had never been to Surin of Thailand but they liked the look of the menu and they wanted to give it a try.

For once I didn’t hassle our fellow diners to take pictures of their food!  We started out with an order of Crab Angels…$4.50.  These fried crab and cream cheese seasoned wontons are similar to Crab Rangoon and they were excellent!

Laurie and I also shared an order of Basil Rolls…$5.00.  They are one of her favorites!  These rice paper rolls are filled with leaf lettuce, fresh basil, bean sprouts, rice noodles, pork and fresh shrimp and they’re accompanied by Surin’s lightly spiced plum-peanut sauce.

I decided to try the Broccoli and Beef. ($12.00) This entrée is referred to as the “Garlic Lover’s Favorite”, garlic-pepper with fresh broccoli and carrots in Surin’s mild brown sauce.  Mild isn’t my thing me so I asked the waiter to have the chef kick up the heat.  It was very good although I would have liked a bit more garlic.  There was some spice/heat…but I still needed pepper sauce to get the burn up to my desired level.

I’d had the Masaman Beef before but Laurie hadn’t so she decided to give it a try. ($15.00)  This dish is traditionally served in Thailand to celebrate one’s entry into ‘Monk hood’.  Chunks of beef are simmered in a red curry               masaman sauce along with potatoes, onions, carrots, and peanuts.  She liked this entrée and she said that she’d order it again!

The good news for us was that both Lynn and George also enjoyed their meal.  The only downside was a little uneven service from our overloaded waiter.  In addition to the Knoxville restaurant, Surin of Thailand has 9 other locations in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Alabama.  Three of them operate under different names but they all serve Thai cuisine.  The Knoxville restaurant is located at 6213 Kingston Pike.  Phone: 865-330-0007.  The Website for the Knoxville location can be found at: http://www.surinofthailand.com/knoxville/index.htm.

The next dining venue was decidedly more casual and laid back…

This is Wild Wings Café near the Turkey Creek Shopping area that straddles both Knoxville and Farragut Tennessee.  Wild Wings Café is another growing chain of restaurants with 40 locations in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Florida and Texas.

We’ve eaten here many times.  We really like their burgers, wings and salads.  It is a very casual restaurant with frequent live entertainment, specials on beer and wings and lots of TV screens in all directions for viewing sports.

We had never tried this appetizer… It’s the Drunken Shrimp. ($7.99) The shrimp bathed in Wild Wing’s beer Marinade and then they’re broiled.  They’re served with bread for sopping up the marinade.  We enjoyed the shrimp but the real ‘bomb’ was the bread soaked in the marinade!  Yum!

They had a special on their wings.  It was 2 orders of 10 wings each for $5.99 per order.  I was going to order 16 wings for my dinner but as the waiter explained ordering this special was less expensive and I’d be able to take some wings home for lunch leftovers!

Wild Wings Café offers 33 different made from scratch wing sauces.  They range from “Virgin - The perfect choice for kids, rookies and wimpy wing eaters” all the way to ‘six hot peppers’, “Braveheart’ - So hot you can lose your head over it!”  I went for my favorite sauce, “The Slayer”, for one order and I decided to try “Honey Lime Sriracha” for the other one.  I liked the sriracha just fine but I still prefer ‘The Slayer’!  

Instead of the usual but tasty hamburger or a buffalo chicken salad, Laurie decided to try something new and different.  This was her “Wilder Willy” sandwich. ($8.99) For her side, she chose the homemade ‘house chips’ which are very nice indeed.

The “Wilder Willie” sandwich consists of shaved ham topped with mushrooms, Monterey jack cheese, whole grain mustard, pickles, lettuce and tomato all piled on a toasted bun.  As a kicker, “Wilder Willie” is served with a nice beer cheese dipping sauce.

This is a huge restaurant and you can almost always get a table.  The food is good, the service is decent and the prices are very reasonable.  FYI, in addition to my ‘wing deal’, my draft Miller Lite beer was only $2.00.  This location for Wild Wing Café is located at 11335 Campbell Lakes Drive in Farragut Tennessee.  Phone: 865-777-9464.  Website: http://www.wildwingcafe.com/locations/knoxville-tn.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave