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Sunday, June 17, 2007
Koutneil Café
While taking a back road in Smyrna on my way home one day, I was startled to find that there was a small restaurant called Koutneil Café featuring Laotian/Thai/Chinese food hiding behind Kroger’s on Sam Ridley. Right there it had been 5 minutes from my home Of course being a sucker for Southeastern Asian cuisine, I made a point to try it out.
The restaurant dining area is very small and informal with a TV in the corner. I started off with a Thai Tea and Hot and Sour Soup. Thai tea is a black tea that is sweetened and topped off with a splash of milk or cream. I’ve been able to recreate something close with tea I have purchased from Teavana. The type served here was really delicious and the soup stood well above any hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant with great flavor and fresh ingredients, though it may be a bit spicy for some American palettes. My entree was a noodle dish that included wide noodles with sweet basil, bell peppers, onions, very fresh bamboo shoots, chili paste and some other truly aromatic ingredients that I am still learning to recognize.
Though the environment is very casual, the entrees certainly hold their own against the more stylized Jasmine of Franklin, my other favorite Thai restaurant in the area. My wife said her Pad Thai was as better than Basil, one of our favorites in Charleston, SC. She didn’t even use salt on it – a master chef must have prepared it!
The Koutneil is definitely a small diamond in the developing Sam Ridley area that is currently overrun with chains moving in to capitalize. There were some affordable lunch specials and I highly recommend stopping by if you work in the Smyrna area. There are some very traditional Thai recipes and more Chinese type dishes so it is all very approachable for the newbie. They have a variety of Asian beers that are normally only found in international markets like K&S to make the experience more authentic. We inquired about the chefs and found that they are in fact Laotian. There were some more native dishes available on the menu and I hope to return to sample some of these.
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Heather — June 17, 2007 @ 7:07 pm
This is interesting! We’ve noticed this place while taking out our recycling but haven’t been yet. We’ll have to go soon.
Megan — August 30, 2007 @ 4:48 pm
Thai cuisine does offer several vegetarian options, however one must be careful if they following strict vegetarianism because they often use fish sauces as bases (which can be decieving because the dish does not look to contain meet). However, the peanut sauces are usually good sources of protein and safe for vegetarians. One caution to the IBS stricken, many Thai dishes are very spicy, so be specific when ordering. Koutneil did very well at making accomodations for me!