Jeff's Family Friendly Restaurant

Yesterday, at the recommendation of our friend and celebrity guest Cory, Boro Bites got our soul food fix at Jeff's Family Friendly Restaurant. Tucked back in a residential neighborhood at 467 Hancock Street, this cafeteria-style meat & two (or three) restaurant provides a 26-item food bar with meats including smothered pork chops, hickory-smoked ribs, fried chicken, meat loaf, and sides-a-plenty with mac & cheese, white beans, green beans, mashed potatoes, and many more. Did I mention the restaurant offers different types of cornbread to satisfy one's texture preference? Well it does!

If you've never been to a cafeteria-style restaurant such as this, the first thing you do is walk directly up to the food bar and take in the sights and smells. At this point, the future is undecided and your meal contains all the possibilities that sit in front of you. My eyes fixated on the smothered pork chops, battered and fried golden brown and "smothered" in brown gravy. Being the obvious health nut that I am, I asked the friendly employee to slap one on my plate. For accompaniments, I went with white beans and turnip greens. Cornbread does not count as a side and you have hot water, flapjack, corn muffin, and cracklin bread to choose from. I'd never had hot water cornbread before, so I went for it. With a sweet tea to drink, my total came to eight dollars and change and it was a lot of food.

Once you pay for your food, you seat yourself. The dining area is an open room with tables and booths. The wall decor is simple and yet provides the diner a glimpse into the personalities and lifestyles of owner Jeff Sowell and his family, including their faith in Jesus Christ and support for the United States president. People of all types were sitting around us enjoying their hearty Saturday lunches. Cory, having been a patron of Jeff's restaurant for a few years, provided us with some background stories on the place.

While chowing down on BBQ chicken and smothered pork chop, Cory humors
Ryan with an historic tale of Jeff's Family Friendly Restaurant.

My pork chop was so tender and delicious. I can't help but love fried meats. If you like fried chicken, just picture that type of texture but with a pork chop! I could tell the white beans were originally dried and not from a can. Canned beans are always mushier and these had a slightly firm texture about them and were seasoned well. I enjoyed my greens, but typically prefer less vinegar. I can't fault the place as the greens were pretty traditional in their vinegar content, but it's just a preference of mine. Regarding the cornbread, I realize now that I prefer cake style or flapjacks. The hot water cornbread is much too dense for my liking, but I ate it all nonetheless.

Smothered pork chop with turnip greens, white beans,
hot water cornbread, and a sweet tea.

Cory ordered the BBQ half chicken which looked perfect on the plate and Jesse had the fried catfish sandwich which was a rather large fillet. Nikki let me sample her spare ribs and they were tender and juicy with a mild hickory smoke flavor. It seemed that everyone enjoyed their meal and we were quite full upon leaving the joint.

BBQ half chicken with mac & cheese, white beans and a corn cake.

Fried catfish sandwich.

BBQ spare ribs with turnip greens, yellow squash, mac & cheese, and a flapjack.

If you like southern-style, home-cooked, stick-to-your-ribs food for a fair price, hit up Jeff's Family Friendly Restaurant. I intend to return soon. Check 'em out online at jeffsowellsrestaurant.com.

Thai Pattaya

For dinner tonight, the Boro Bites crew and our special celebrity guest Mike went to what has quickly become one of my favorite restaurants in Murfreesboro, Thai Pattaya. Located at 833 Memorial Blvd, Thai Pattaya’s dining area is not large but is open and welcoming. A television set on the back wall provides the music for the room, accompanied by music videos which are always enjoyable to watch.


Tonight we were entertained by a video of a live concert, complete with innumerous dancers, a crazy stage set up, and audience participation like we’ve never seen before. But this isn’t a music blog, so I’ll get on to the good stuff.

This is Ryan saying "cilantro" and enjoying his soup.

I am a huge fan of soup, so to start my dining experience tonight I had a cup of the Tom Yum with tofu. This soup is absolutely amazing; the broth is tangy but slightly sweet with a hint of spice and there are mushrooms and cilantro in the soup. I really enjoy the Tom Yum with tofu, but it is available with vegetables, chicken, or shrimp instead; all of the options are delicious. I could be content to eat bowl after bowl of it, however this time I decided to save some room for some other food. Our chicken egg rolls were quite tasty, perfectly crisp, and the sauce they are served with is not too sweet or overpowering. For my entrée I chose to get something I had never had before, Pad Kra Prao, a stir fry dish consisting of bamboo shoots, onions, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, baby corn, green beans, and Thai basil .

Pad Kra Prao

One of the great things about Thai Pattaya is that most of the entrees can be prepared with your choice of vegetables, tofu, or a meat (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, scallop, or squid). I’m not a vegetarian, but I always seem to get the tofu at Thai Pattaya because, simply put, it’s awesome. Tofu can be a tricky thing to get right, and I have had my fair share of poorly prepared tofu in my time; this is not the case at Thai Pattaya. Their tofu is always perfectly cooked, and tonight was no exception. It was delicious with the Pad Kra Prao. The sauce was delightful, with flavors of basil and garlic and a hint of sweetness that I didn’t expect but thoroughly enjoyed. The vegetables were fresh as always and not overcooked, retaining a little bit of the crispness that I like in a stir-fried veggie. In addition to being able to choose your meats/not meats at Thai Pattaya, you are also able to choose what amount of spice/heat you would like in your dish: mild, medium, hot, very hot, or native Thai. I’m a fan of spicy food so I usually go with the very hot, occasionally dabbling in the native Thai. Tonight’s choice of very hot complimented the Pad Kra Prao perfectly.

Clockwise from top left: Pho ingredients, Drunken Noodles, Pad Phet, Pad Kra Prao.

Ryan chose to have my favorite dish (so far) at Thai Pattaya, the Drunken Noodles; stir-fried rice noodles, tomatoes, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, garlic, egg, and basil in a delicious sauce. Mike had the Pho with chicken, a lovely Vietnamese-style soup with noodles and vegetables served with bean sprouts, Thai basil, lettuce, and lime wedges on the side for you to add to the broth as well as a caddie containing hot peppers and hot sauces to mix in to your personal preference. Jesse’s Pad Phet looked great and judging by the speed at which he devoured it (before I could even steal a bite for myself) it seemed to be pretty delicious.

Drunken Noodles.

Thai Pattaya’s prices are reasonable, many of the dishes being priced according to your choice of meat/not meat. A very affordable lunch special is offered during weekdays that I take advantage of quite frequently, which includes some of the best soup I‘ve ever had (ever), an egg roll, and a choice of lunch entree. I have tried many of the dishes at Thai Pattaya and have never been disappointed. We didn't order them tonight, but I can't help but mention that the Spring Rolls are fantastic. The service is always great at Thai Pattaya and everyone there is always super friendly. I'm sure I'll be back there in a few days, maybe I'll see you there!

Blue Agave

Alright, my first post and a great restaurant to speak of. Yesterday was hot and beautiful and with my co-authors Nikki and Jesse and our friend Greg, I visited Blue Agave for the first time.

This restaurant is located in the former Parthenon (restaurant) building on S. Church St. The thing I immediately liked about the place is the feeling of openness. The sizable lobby area is centrally located between multiple dining areas, each with large openings so I didn't necessarily feel disconnected from other parts of the restaurant. I wasn't trying to have a private experience with my hot dates, so I liked that I could pretty much take in the whole place from my seat.

Having come off a heavy cultural experience at Borostock the night before, I gulped down a few sweet teas. We ordered a large bowl of cheese dip, which Greg referred to as cheese soup due to the rather large size of the bowl. This is now my favorite cheese dip in town! I could tell they use real cheese, perhaps queso fresco or chihuahua, not white American like most Mexican places. This added a nice sharp zing to the flavor and I loved it. One tip, save some money and order the smaller bowl for a table of four.

Everybody's lunch plates were presented nicely, some with separate bowls for components like pico de gallo and other condiments. I say separate bowls, but each component was all on top of one plate for a nice collective presentation. To me, this is a factor that enables a Mexican restaurant to stand out from the next. If you haven't noticed, Mexican restaurants are a dime a dozen in middle TN and many are content with just filling up the majority of your plate with sloppy rice and beans. Blue Agave apparently takes pride in its presentation.

I was feeling saucy and ordered the Chili Verde. This consisted of super tender pork bites simmered in a green chili broth. It was a tremendous blend of savory and spice, not too hot and not too salty, with a nice green color to the sauce. This came with rice, beans, and tortillas and was really satisfying. I definitely finished all of the pork and may have finished the leftover sauce with the help of my fork and some chips.

The service was great and the cost was on par with other Mexican restaurants. These factors considered along with the restaurant taking extra steps to make it nicer than other places, I recommend Blue Agave to you for a tasty experience!