Guido's Pizza - Springdale

Frank and I were in Springdale over the weekend and decided to check out the Guido's Pizza located there.  It's on Business 71/Thompson, a few miles north of the NWA mall, in a red brick strip mall on the east side of the road.

We walked in, and the smell was good, so I was very hopeful.  The sign said Seat Yourself, so we sat and a waitress came over and took our order.  There were 2 servers and they were both really really friendly, and chatty.  Frank wanted a pepperoni pizza, but I wanted an Uncle Tanoose, so the woman suggested we get half on each side of our pizza.  Now, Frank has worked in pizza before, and he said that's a pain in the butt, but since they actually suggested it to us, we did it.

The pizza was good!  There were tons of toppings.  The pepperoni was the good, flavorful pepperoni and there was a lot of it.  I had a huge amount of green peppers on my side, and tons of everything.  The crust was a bit different from what we're used to; I think it was thicker.  And the cheese wasn't straight mozzarella, there were yellow pieces of cheese too.  The ice tea was good as well.

The restaurant has booths by the windows and side, tables in the middle, and a bar.  The bar is separated from the rest by some booths and a divider.  And, of course, there's a small game room.  Overall, they were pretty good.  Not as good as the Guido's in Tontitown, but better than Bariola's.  Four stars.

Ozark BBQ and Smokehouse

I couldn't find this one listed on UrbanSpoon, and I couldn't add it, because I'm not sure what city it's in.  If you take Hwy 71 past Bella Vista, this place is past the Missouri line.  It's at the red light, across from Macadoodle's, and next to the Jug Store. [Edit] It's now at the red light south of Macadoodle's, next to the gas station. 


This is a small place, and they start smoking early in the morning.  There are about 6 picnic tables inside and about the same amount outside, and a drive-thru.  When we went there I had the Small BBQ Chicken Sandwich with 1 side (Potato Salad) and that was like $4.25 or something.  Frank had the Large Pulled Pork Sandwich with 2 sides (Beans and Potato Salad).

Let me say, their BBQ is pretty good.  It's real smoked meat.  The chicken was all white meat and I had mild sauce which almost had a little heat to it.  The pork looked like it was pulled after we ordered, and the hot sauce had a little heat to it.  I was disappointed by the potato salad though.  It looked like it might be homemade, because it had a few big hunks of red potato here and there, but it was salty (like maybe they salted the potatoes when they boiled them).  Unfortunately, it was so salty that I couldn't eat it.  (I do have a strong ability to taste salt though, so most people may not notice it at all.)  The beans were pretty good though, and a little sweet.

Overall, I'll say 3-1/2 to 4 stars.  The sides were a bit generic, but the meat is really good.  Like I said, they start smoking early in the morning, and you can taste difference.

India Mart

I wanted to throw this in here because I have been desperate to get Indian food for a while now.  There is a market on the back side of the same strip mall as India Orchard, which, of course, is affiliated with said restaurant.  They have lots of rice, mostly basmati, and tons of beans and lentils.  They have those "instant" packets of Indian food that are either already mixed or you just add water to them.  They have a few teas like PG Tips and Lipton Yellow Label Tea. 

[Side Note:  If you travel in the Middle East, a lot of the tea is Lipton Yellow Label, which should not be confused with the crap that Lipton and other companies sell in America.  Most real tea companies seem to sell the good stuff elsewhere and the crap in the US, because most Americans don't know the difference.  So I highly recommend trying the Yellow Label.]

There's a frozen section with fish and samosas, and a fresh vegetables section.  They have a small variety of McVitie's biscuits, and they even have Bounty bars!  (Now if they'll only get Lion bars!)  There's also some sodas from India.

Their website isn't up yet, but it's myindia-mart.com.  So shop there so that they'll stay in business!

India Orchard

This restaurant is in Bentonville, in a fancy strip mall.  If you take Exit 85 West, it's in the big curve by the road to the airport.  I'm kind of ambivalent about this place.  Mom and I had lunch here, and it was $12 with a drink, which I find a little pricey for a lunch buffet, even in someplace like Houston.  But we were hopeful, because there were a lot of Indians eating there.

The buffet wasn't that big.  There were 2 sections of Indian food and one that had American stuff and fruits, etc.  There were 4 - 6 dishes in each section, and soup.  Our waitress brought out some naan for us.

Okay, the food.  I didn't like the Saag Paneer; it had kind of a sour taste to it.  Maybe it's the type of spinach or maybe it's the region of India this style comes from, but I didn't care for it.

I tried the Dal Tadka, which appears to be yellow lentils, and it just tasted blah to me.  I mean, no real taste to it at all.  I've had some very good yellow daal before so I know it can taste good.

I tried to get some Chicken Biriyani, but there wasn't much left so it was hard to judge.

The Chicken Curry, however, was fabulous!  According to their menu, it's a tomato and onion based curry, which may be why it was not a familiar brown color.  But it tasted excellent and I got a really good burn going in my mouth.  The chicken was hunks of white meat and the sauce was great!

Like I said, I'm a bit ambivalent about this place.  I loved the Chicken Curry and Naan, but the rest of it I wasn't that fond of.  And I thought the price was high for a lunch buffet.  Now, they do have an extensive menu, so I would suggest ordering off the menu instead of getting the buffet.  I'll say 3-1/2 stars.

Top China

This place is in a strip mall on Highway 71 in Bella Vista, near Allen's grocery.

The restaurant itself is basically a hole in the wall.  There is NO buffet (I consider that a good thing!).  There are 2 booths and I think there were 6 tables, mostly for 2 people.  If you eat in, you'll get your food on a styrofoam plate or in a to-go container and they have plastic forks for you to use.  I definitely got the impression that it's mostly a to-go kind of place.  Also, the people upfront were Chinese, but so were the people in back, in the kitchen!

Okay, so my mom and I ate there and I have to admit I have been back a few times, because they're fast and easy to get to in Bella Vista.  Here's what we've tried so far:

Combination Plate: Pork Fried Rice with Sesame Chicken and Eggroll:  The rice was good, but I didn't notice too much about it.  Dishes here come with White Rice unless you get some kind of combo plate.  The chicken was a bit sweet and covered in sesame seeds.  I liked it.  The eggroll was actually fried, but somewhat generic.  I don't think it's homemade.

Chicken with Garlic Sauce:  It's listed as a Hot dish, but I found it semi-mild.  I mean, I could taste a little heat, but not that much.  I did find a little round pepper in it though.  There are a ton of vegetables in this dish, especially broccoli, and I really liked it.  Had a sweet undertone.

Mongolian Beef:  Also listed as Hot, and this time I could tell, but it wasn't overly hot.  Lots of regular onions and green onions, which I love.  Also had a sweet undertone.

Spring Roll: My mom ate this, so all I can say is that it looked like a Chinese spring roll.

Overall, I liked it.  The 3 dishes I've tried so far all had a sweet undertone to them, but that's fine with me.  I also like the fact that they can make it hot; too many places nowadays have Americanized the crap out of their food.  I'm provisionally giving them 4 stars because the food is good and fast, but I haven't tried their noodles yet.  Also, they have stuff on their menu that I've never heard of, so I'm looking forward to experimenting!