Flavors Indian Cuisine

If you liked the old Taj Mahal restaurant on Walton (which is now Miss Pho Saigon) then you're in luck!  They're still here.  They had to move and are now called Flavors Indian Cuisine. 


We went there on a Saturday, about 5pm.  They had just opened and were a bit slow.  There was a jug of water on the table, labeled as Culligan.  The menu is gigantic!  It takes a long time to go through it all.  And there is a huge vegetarian section, too.  I recommend viewing it ahead of time.

There are booths on the outside of the room and tables on the inside.  It connects to an area next door, which is their party room. I think the lunch buffet is there, too.  There was Indian MTV of some variety playing on the TVs. 

We ordered Vegetable Samosas, Lamb Curry (a la carte), Naan, and Goat Saag (thali).  You have the option of ordering A La Carte, which is your curry and a bowl of rice, or Thali, which comes with rice, naan, soup, dessert and some other stuff.  You'll have to see the pictures below.

The Vegetable Samosas were great!  They were actually kind of spicy, which I'm not used to.  They came with tamarind and mint sauce.  Well, they called them chutneys, but they were more like a sauce.

The Lamb Curry was really good. I ordered it Medium, which was just right for me.  I could taste the heat, but it wasn't so hot that I couldn't eat it.  The lamb was "diced" into small pieces, kind of like small stew meat size.  My basket of Naan had 4 pieces (a full round naan).

Frank had the Goat Saag.  It was also in small pieces, but his had some bone in it, too.  He figured that wasn't unusual if you were hacking up a goat joint.  Also, check out all the stuff in the Thali selection below!  There's rice, naan, some kind of soup - maybe lentil, some yogurti thing, and fried okra.

The okra was sliced up and fried in a skillet, not deep fried.  And it was really good.  It looked kind of weird, like it might be burnt, but it was delicious.  No slime!  Frank put some yogurt stuff on it and that was good too.

Frank got his goat Hot, and the waiter warned us it was Indian Hot.  We found it amusing, because we're used to spicy foods, but if you're from this area or the Midwest, please be careful how hot you order your food.  The Hot was very hot, because Frank had a good burn and his nose was running.

The food was really good and the ambiance is fine.  The old building was orange on the outside and this one is orange on the inside.  The service was a bit slow, but they had just opened for supper, so I don't hold it against them.  They don't currently have a takeout menu, so use the website for any To Go orders.  Overall, I'm giving them 4 to 4-1/2 stars.

Quality Update:  https://laurenseatingout.blogspot.com/2016/09/flavors-update.html

Miss Pho Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant

This place just opened up in Bentonville and we've been itching to try it!  We went there about 5pm on a Sunday.  They're open 7 days a week, from 10:30 am - 9:00 pm.  The place is so new I had to add them to Urban Spoon, and their website doesn't appear to quite be up yet. 

This used to be an Indian restaurant, I think it was Taj Mahal.  It was orange.  The outside has been repainted and the inside has been redone, but no extensive changes have been made.  There is a large, brightly lit sign advertising them and a drive-thru window.

There are booths around the outside walls and tables in the center.  Vietnamese music plays in the background, and there's a large flat screen TV behind the register, which was showing some kind of Asian show.

The wait staff was very friendly and many of them had English as a second language.  There were also a lot of Asians getting to-go orders.  We ordered hot tea.  They were out of Jasmine so we had green instead.

Frank got the H4 which is Egg Noodle with Wonton Soup.  The soup is described as "Clear or egg noodles with BBQ pork, shrimp, squid, crab meat in chicken broth, served with bean sprout, lime, jalapeno, cilantro."  He really liked it!  The crab was Krab, which is fairly typical.  And he said the wontons were sort of like shumai; they were twisted up, not how he was expecting them.  There were 4 shrimps, 3 pieces of squid, 3 Krab, 2 quail eggs and a buttload of pork!  The quail eggs were soft boiled and tasty!   

I got the B5 Grilled Pork and Grilled Shrimp.  It's described as "Vermicelli noodle with lettuce, mint, cucumber, carrot, daikon pickle served with homemade fish sauce."  It was also tasty!  There where 4 shrimp.  These weren't the tiny shrimps either, they were a bit larger.  I did have to peel the tails off.  The shrimp and pork were grilled very nicely.  The homemade fish sauce was rather mild, and there seemed to be more noodles and less veggies than I'm used too.  I still haven't decided if that's good or bad.

We were so excited to be eating Vietnamese that I almost forgot to order Spring Rolls!  I had to call waitress over again and order some.  And the food came out really fast.  I got my Bun before the Spring Rolls came out.  We were so stuffed from eating our food that we got Spring Rolls to go.  And Frank got his broth to go too!  I haven't eaten the Spring Rolls yet but they look really good.  We got the A1.

They did have a vial of regular fish sauce at the table, but I forgot to try it.  Frank put some in his broth and it tasted yummy!  Also, they give you real wooden chopsticks, not the cheesy break-apart kind.

Overall, we really liked the place.  I'm giving it 4 stars.  I believe I gave other Vietnamese place in Bentonville 4 stars as well (it's just a few doors down from this one).  I will say, the quality seemed better at Miss Saigon Pho.  It was very clean and crisp looking.  We will be going back soon!


 

Long Hiatus

Okay....it's really been a while since I posted. I have been going out and eating, I just haven't been updating the blog.  Partly it was because of the photos.  I've gotten used to showing photos of my food, and I really enjoyed it.  Then I got a new phone in 2012 and it was such a pain in the butt to get the pictures off of it!

My old phone, I just plugged it in and it worked like a hard drive.  My new phone required much more effort. I had to plug it in to my computer, then tell the phone that I had plugged it in.  Then tell the phone I wanted to use it as a device.  That took a LOT longer than it sounds like it should.  Or maybe I had to tell the phone first, then plug it in.  All I know is that I kept doing it the wrong way.  And once it was done the wrong way I had to reboot the phone before I could do it the right way.  And even if I did it the right way, sometimes it didn't work.

Anyway, now I have another phone and I can transfer my pictures over WiFi.  So hopefully I'll be blogging more!