Hook Line & BBQ

Another Bella Vista restaurant, of the BBQ variety.  It's not bad.  You walk in, past the food prep area with its tin "paneling" and order at the cash register, and then go sit in the restaurant section.  They have BBQ and Catfish, which I haven't tried yet.  We got ours to go.

I had the Pulled Pork Sandwich with Cole Slaw and Frank had the Pulled Pork Platter with Brown Beans and Potato Salad.  And of course I got an ice tea to go.  The tea was fine.  The pulled pork was actually good.  Not great, but perfectly decent BBQ with a good sauce.  The cole slaw was a bit sweet, but it grew on me more and more as I ate it.  The potato salad was mayonnaise-based, and a bit bland.  The beans were really good.  They seemed to be mostly pinto beans with some red beans thrown in and they tasted great.

Overall, 3-1/2 stars.  Like I said, not great, but perfectly decent BBQ and I would eat there again.

Dairy Queen

This is the Dairy Queen in Bella Vista.  We were passing through and stopped by a few times on our journeys back and forth.  This is one of the only drive-thrus in Bella Vista.

Chicken Strip Basket
I remembered them from my youth and thought, why not?  The basket comes with 4 chicken strips (tenders), french fries, Texas toast, and warm white gravy (country gravy) for dipping the strips.  It was good.  I mean, yeah, it's a bit generic, but it is fast food.  The gravy was peppery and warm and went well with the strips.  And I'm a sucker for Texas Toast!

Cheeseburger
I got it the way it comes, with the cheese melted and ketchup and pickles and lettuce.  And I think it had onions.  The fries are okay, nothing special.  But the burger is flame-cooked!  You can taste the smoke.  I remember when Burger King had "flame-broiled" burgers, but I haven't seen those ads in a while.  Is DQ the home of the flame now?

Overall, it's fast food, but it's edible fast food:  3 to 3-1/2 stars.

Casey's General Store

Normally I don't rate convenience stores, but in this case I'm making an exception.  We were wandering around Bella Vista over the weekend and a new store had popped up at the corner of Lancashire and Forest Hills.  We stopped for gas and then Frank ran in for some coffee.  There was a huge line inside buying donuts, so Frank bought some.  Let me say right now, that Casey's has the best cake donuts in Northwest Arkansas!

I was amazed!  The regular donuts were very good too - they were moist and yummy.  But the cake donuts were fabulous!  The plain cake donuts were moist and tasty, with a hint of nutmeg.  Or, as Frank says, "that's how they're supposed to taste."  I usually don't eat cake donuts because they're so dry, but I loved these.  I also had a chocolate covered regular donut.  It sat around till late afternoon, and when I finally ate it, it was still moist too.  The donuts from Harp's and Royal are usually dried out by then.

We also tried the apple fritters.  I haven't had a good one in years - usually they're too sweet or too glazed.  The ones at Casey's were pretty good.  You can actually see apple chunks in the fritter, and it's not too sweet.  We were pleasantly surprised by that.  Overall, I'd have to rate Casey's as one of the best donut shops in the area.  Four stars.

Edit:
We finally ate something besides doughnuts.  Cookies:  I thought they were a bit generic, but the icing is good.  Brownies:  Fairly generic.  Subs:  Not bad.  At least as good as Subway/Quizno's if not better.  And the pricing is similar - $5 for regular 12" subs, $3.79 for regular 6" subs.  And they seem concerned about the quality.  The last time I ate at Quizno's I got sick, and ditto Frank for Subway.  I still say 4 to 4-1/2 stars for doughnuts, but 3-1/2 for food.

Pho Saigon

It's been so long since I've eaten here that the last time I did it was called Red Palace.  At that time it claimed to be a Chinese and Vietnamese restaurant.  I guess the opening of the pho shop across from the University changed all that.  Anyway, I had a coupon, which is always a good excuse to eat out.

Pho Saigon has a drive-thru window, and I had an old menu, so I placed my order and drove through to pick it up.  I had the Vermicelli Noodles with Char Broiled Sliced Pork and Shrimp and the Vietnamese Fresh Spring Roll.

In general, it was okay.  The Vermicelli dish was noodles with pork and shrimp, some bean sprouts and cucumber, and nuoc mam (fish sauce).  It was a bit different than the last time I had it!  Originally, the noodles were different.  In other places I've seen them referred to as patter, but I'm not sure if that's the real name.  Those noodles were like a woven noodle mat and the dish came with lettuce and you could make a kind of wrap out of everything.  The new dish is still good, but I liked making wraps (I guess part of me still enjoys playing with my food!).  At least they use real rice noodles, not spaghetti noodles, so that was fine.

The spring rolls contained lettuce, cilantro, sliced pork and shrimp and came with a peanut-style sauce.  I prefer the fish sauce so I dipped my spring rolls in that instead.  They were okay too.

Overall, I guess that's the main thing I can say:  They are okay.  I used to live in Albuquerque, which has excellent Vietnamese food.  I had no idea there were that many Vietnamese people there until I worked for the Department of Labor and the public library in the Vietnamese part of town asked if we could translate some of our brochures into Vietnamese.  So if you open up a Vietnamese restaurant in Albuquerque, it has to be good enough to stay in business.  Pho Saigon isn't bad, but they're just okay.  Three stars.

Ice Cream Delights

This is an ice cream parlor/sandwich joint in Eureka Springs, out near the Railway Station.  And they don't take plastic; cash or checks only.  They're a small place, with small tables and small chairs, and a bit of a Coca-Cola theme.  I had the Chopped BBQ Brisket Sandwich and Frank had the Reuben.  They each came with a pickle wedge and a small package of Lay's Potato Chips.

The Reuben was on a pumpernickel-rye swirl bread, about normal sandwich size.  Frank liked it, but said it had more Thousand Island dressing than he prefers.  My BBQ sandwich was pretty good.  Not a huge amount of meat, but enough, and an okay sauce.  It was on a large hamburger bun.

Overall, not bad.  The sandwiches were about $6 a piece, which isn't too bad for Eureka Springs.  The owners were nice and kept filling up my ice tea.  Say 3 to 3-1/2 stars.

Bubba's Barbecue

We were exhausted after spending all day hiking up the hills, so Frank got the BBQ to-go.  We both had Pulled Pork Sandwiches, I had the Potato Salad, he had Baked Beans, and he got an order of Chili.  The sandwiches came with a container of Sauce and a container of Coleslaw (to put on the sandwich).  There were also Rippled Potato Chips and a Garlic Pickle.

The Sauce was pretty generic, and so was the Coleslaw.  The Pork itself was good, but the big burger bun it was on started to break apart as I ate it.  Frank liked the Beans; he said they were spicy and had flavor.  The Chili was mild but good.  I didn't like the Potato Salad, it was kind of odd.  Not a mustard or a mayonnaise potato salad.  Frank said he didn't dislike it.

Overall, it was kind of generic.  Frank said the service was very good, but the food was only okay.  So 3 stars.

Main Street Cafe

Another Eureka Springs restaurant, and this one does take plastic.  We were walking there anyway and ran into a guy handing out 10% off coupons.  We always eat breakfast there because they have some good ones.  This time I had the 3-Egg Denver Omelet, without cheese, with Wheat Toast.  Frank had the Main Street Favorite: Pit Ham with Biscuits and Gravy.

There's nothing fancy about this place.  It's mostly booths, with a few tables, and an antique radiator in the back by the bathrooms.  The food is just plain food, but there's plenty of it and it's good and reliable.  Good hearty breakfast food, just what you need for tanking up before a day walking the hills in Eureka.  3-1/2 stars.