Category Archives: Outer East End

$$ Modest ($30-$50), A RESTAURANT LISTING..., Hurstbourne, Middletown, Jeffersontown, Outer East End, Pacific Rim, Thai

Don’t miss the boat (noodles) at Amazing Thai

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Hey, everyone! I’ve got to tell you about this really good new Thai place. Open only since early in August, Amazing Thai is living up to its name with fare that’s earning rave reviews from happy diners.

But wait, you say: Didn’t you just review a new Thai eatery last time? Well, yeah! Take Thai on Factory Lane deserved some props too.  

But I’ll tell you now what I told you then: Thai cuisine is really good. I’ll dig into a plate full of that any chance I get, and if a third new one opens before the next issue, I’ll probably go there too.

Continue reading Don’t miss the boat (noodles) at Amazing Thai →
$$ Modest ($30-$50), A RESTAURANT LISTING..., Outer East End, Pacific Rim, Thai

Take Thai’s fine fare lands in the East End

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

I love food from around the world, and I intend to try as much it as I can, within reason. With a possible exception for aged, fermented Greenlandic shark. But ask me to name a favorite, and I’d be hard-pressed to single out just one.

That being said, Thai cuisine clicks off quite a few boxes for me. It’s colorful, aromatic, full of flavors that sing together in at least four-part harmony. Specifically, I’m thinking about the four flavors that Thai cooks seek to hold in balance in every dish: salty, sweet, sour and spicy. 

Continue reading Take Thai’s fine fare lands in the East End →
$$ Modest ($30-$50), Italian (and Pizza), Northeast Metro, Outer East End

We pick a plate of pickle pizza at Craft House

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

I’m sure I’ve confessed this before: I’m a pizza snob. I learned pizza in New. York City, with graduate studies in Italy, and I want my pizza authentic, artisanal, and made according to tradition. Pineapple pizza? Harrumph! I’m not even comfortable with jalapeños or broccoli on my pie.

But then I spotted a pickle pizza with Pop’s Pepper Patch Spicy Habagardil pickles on top. Hey, now! A strange yet irresistible call lured me out to Craft House Pizza’s new shop on Hurstbourne Parkway. I need this in my life! Continue reading We pick a plate of pickle pizza at Craft House →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Hurstbourne, Middletown, Jeffersontown, Mexican, Cuban, Caribbean, Outer East End

We anticipate Taco Week at Gustavo’s

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

I hope everyone enjoyed Louisville Taco Week last week and ate your fill. There’s a lot to like about a promotion that brings you tacos for $2.50 a plate at close to 20 local Mexican-style eateries!

I had big plans, but peaked too soon. All the advance advertising gave me such a powerful taco crave that I rushed out to Gustavo’s Mexican Grill and ate my fill a week before the event.

It was worth it.
Continue reading We anticipate Taco Week at Gustavo’s →

$ Budget (under $30), Mexican, Cuban, Caribbean, Northeast Metro, Outer East End, Taquerias

El Mariachi, a favorite, moves and grows

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

If I’m going to go out for Mexican food, I’d really rather find my way to a taqueria or other small eatery run by immigrant neighbors. Someplace where the food is the real thing, where I need to be prepared to order in my awkward Spanish or by pointing at an item in the menu with a smile.

Someplace, in other words, like El Mariachi Restaurante Mexicano. This East End eatery, more than just a taqueria, has long been one of my favorite local spots for Mexican fare thanks to the quality of its food, the breadth of its menu, and its colorful, happy-making decor.

Not long ago, running an errand out Lagrange Road, I noticed to my surprise that things have changed. Continue reading El Mariachi, a favorite, moves and grows →

$$$$ Luxury ($80 and up), Farm-to-table, Northeast Metro, Outer East End, Outside the city

Barn 8 delivers culinary treats in a delightful farm setting

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

If you haven’t made your way out to Barn 8 Restaurant at Hermitage Farm in Goshen, take my advice: You ought to give it a try soon. You’ll be glad you did.

Walk in the front door of the black, red-trimmed former horse barn on U.S. 42, and one of the first things you see will be a small painting of local art enthusiast and 21c hotel founder Steve Wilson, showing a big smile and his trademark red glasses.

Yep, Barn 8 is related by family to Proof on Main, 21c’s much-lauded downtown eatery. I might not call Barn 8 “Proof East” or “Proof in the countryside,” but it’s fair to point out the similarities, and there are plenty of them. Continue reading Barn 8 delivers culinary treats in a delightful farm setting →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Indian, Northeast Metro, Outer East End

Tandoori Fusion offers artistic Indian creations

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Thoughts inspired by a recent meal at Louisville’s Tandoori Fusion restaurant: Fusion cuisine has been around for centuries, going back as far as Chinese restaurateurs coming up with chop suey to please western consumers in 1850s California, and maybe even to Marco Polo and his noodles.

But the concept didn’t get a name until the 1980s, when chefs like Roy Yamaguchi and Wolfgang Puck began to intentionally combine flavors from different cultures. Before long, just about everyone was chowing down on Pacific Rim cuisine and Thai pizza, and calling it “fusion.” Continue reading Tandoori Fusion offers artistic Indian creations →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Chinese, Hurstbourne, Middletown, Jeffersontown, Outer East End

For a top-notch Sichuanese meal, call J-a-s-m-i-n-e

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

China’s $1.4 billion population in 2022 is roughly four times the size of our 335 million people, and all those hungry Chinese enjoy, depending on where they live, at least eight major regional cuisines dating back thousands of years.

So why is it, if we don’t think twice about enjoying the varieties of American fare – Southern chow, Cajun cuisine, Texas barbecue and so many more of our own regional cuisines – that most Americans for many years assumed that all Chinese food was summed up in the menu at the local chop suey house? Continue reading For a top-notch Sichuanese meal, call J-a-s-m-i-n-e →

$$ Modest ($30-$50), Indian, Northeast Metro, Outer East End, World Food

Sonal masters Indian vegetarian cuisine

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Louisville has three all-vegetarian Indian restaurants, and to tell you the truth, the question isn’t why there are so many, but why it took them so long to arrive.

We have about 15 Indian restaurants now, and I’m happy to pull up to a table at every single one.

But all-vegetarian Indian? That’s new. Shreeji Indian Vegetarian Street Food opened in November 2018. Honest Indian Restaurant opened just about a year later, at the end of 2019. And somewhere in that same brief window of time – “three years ago,” the guy behind the counter told me – Sonals Kitchen Homemade Authentic Indian Vegetarian Restaurant popped up in a former Moby Dick shop on Chamberlain just north of Westport Road. Continue reading Sonal masters Indian vegetarian cuisine →

$ Budget (under $30), Commentary, Mexican, Cuban, Caribbean, Northeast Metro, Outer East End, Taquerias

A happy return to El Mariachi, a favorite taqueria

By Robin Garr
LouisvilleHotBytes.com

Hola! I finally got back to a favorite taqueria, El Mariachi, last week, and oh, did it make me happy.

Now I wish it hadn’t taken me so long, but I felt uneasy about the idea before I finally got fully vaccinated. There’s typically some language barrier for me at the storefront places I love best – I can read Spanish fairly well, but I’m not good with conversations en español – so I couldn’t gear up to investigate a favorite spot’s takeout and curbside delivery options.

Now that’s over, and I hope it’s over to stay. Continue reading A happy return to El Mariachi, a favorite taqueria →