Ozzy's Gyros (Greek and Mediterranean Cuisine)
Kingsport Town Center (Ft. Henry Mall)
Kingsport, TN 37664
Phone 423-392-1170
Online Menu - http://www.kingsporttowncenter.com/pages/main/documents/OzzysMenuonly_000.pdf
Ah, the Ft. Henry Mall on a Saturday night. I've not been there for at least a year and still mostly tweens and teens in clusters everywhere. Still, it was worth visiting to experience Ozzy's. Ozzy's Gyros is a Greek and Mediterranean restaurant that opened in the Kingsport Town Center, which to everyone but it's owners' is the old Ft. Henry Mall in the split of the old Roller Woods between Memorial Blvd. and Ft. Henry Drive. The restaurant originally opened in the Johnson City Mall a few years ago in their food court area where I had my first encounter with them. From what I recall several years ago from a newspaper write up when they first opened in JC, the owner is an Israeli that somehow ended up in Northeast Tennessee. They had a pretty good product, as I love Greek-style gyros and about the only other place in the Tri-Cities that has them that I know of is the Mad Greek in Bristol not very far from BIR.
This restaurant is the second Ozzy's Gyros in the Tri-Cities. They have moved out of the JC Mall and very recently moved into a new location at 2203 Mckinley Rd. in JC which is just off State of Franklin Rd. near ETSU and the JC Medical Center. From what I overheard from one employee telling a customer, they moved out of the JC Mall because the rent had been bumped up to $5K a month! Considering they had just a typical mall's fairly narrow food court walk-up counter, I was amazed at that kind of rent money. Of course the JC Mall has probably four times the traffic at any given time compared to KTC, it would still require selling a huge amount of food just to cover the rent not counting the other overhead such as food costs, payroll, insurance & etc. No wonder they moved out of there. Johnson City Mall's loss is our gain. They moved last September into the old Chick fil-A location near Charlie's Steakery and Auntie Annes on the lower level and they also have inside seating which they didn't have in the JC Mall.
Greek as well as other Mediterranean cuisine is something that most in our area aren't familiar with unless they've either been to that region or bravely tried new foods in bigger cities. It's nothing like Italian and for the most part, it's a much healthier selection of foods compared to what we're used to. Ozzy's claim to fame is the Gyro, which is NOT pronounced "Gy-ro/Ji-Ro" nor "He-ro". It's pronounced "Ee-Ro". This is the original sandwich wrap that's common throughout Greece and the entire eastern Mediterranean area including the Middle East. In the UK it's known as a Doner Kebab and is a popular late night meal after pub crawling. It basically consists of a sizeable pita flatbread filled with a beef/lamb combination that in Ozzy's case has been vertically rotisseried on a real Kronos broiler and shaved off the loaf at the time you order. It usually has accompaniments of lettuce, tomato, onion and a wonderful dressing called Tzatziki sauce. Everything's wrapped up nicely in paper so that you can eat it without ruining your clothing. Tzatziki sauce is something that's a bit hard to describe but wonderful to savor. It's something like ranch dressing and yet so much more. It's made with garlic, diced cucumbers, yogurt and sour cream, olive oil, black pepper and a few other seasonings and is absolutely delicious. It also makes a wonderful salad dressing and there are many recipes on the internet if you'd like to try making it yourself. Greeks like to make it really heavy on the garlic, which I very much like but Ozzy's doesn't make it that intense so that you don't have to worry about offending your co-workers after lunching there!
Unlike many places (not around here) that serve gyros, Ozzy's puts a whole lot more meat on theirs than veg. I've had it other places where the veg was probably 75% and 25% meat. Not Ozzy's, they reverse it to about 75% (maybe more) kebab meat and 25% or less of veg. The way the meat is seasoned before it's rotisseried, the larger percentage of meat makes it wonderful. All of the small amount of grease/fat is drained off the meat during the cooking process so that it ends up being a quite lean meat product. The pita flatbread that they use is nothing like local grocers sell: it's thicker and of much better consistency and they have a panini-like press that lightly grills them before they assemble it. These are excellent gyros people!
Their prices are quite reasonable for what they serve. A beef/lamb or chicken gyro with fries and a large drink is only $6.24. The same choice of gyro with two sides and a large drink is only $6.74. They don't put the fries in to cook until you order, so they are about as fresh as you can get. My son ordered the lamb/beef gyro with the single side of fries and that was a lot of fries on his plate. The fries they serve are on the thin side, maybe slightly thinner than McDonald's. Sides are such diverse offerings as roasted garlic or roasted red pepper hummus with pita bread triangles, falafel, baba ganoush, dolma, fries and tzatziki sauce with pita bread triangles, tabouleh and Greek salad. Before I saw the chilled table that contained their cold sides, I had ordered the tabouleh but quickly changed it to the falafel. Their tabouleh looked to be at least 90% flat-leaf parsley with just a smidgen of bulgur wheat, which just isn't right. It should be at least half bulgur with parsley, onions, garlic, olive oil, mint & etc. The dolma looked good but were pretty small (finger-sized) and what can you say about hummus? You have to taste it to determine if it's good or not. My wife initially ordered the baba ganoush as one of her sides but they were out of it. Done right, baba ganoush is a wonderful seasoned eggplant spread. I was pleased to see that like the french fries, they also didn't put the falafel into the fryer until after I ordered and this side was of two pieces approximately two inches round, sort of like big hushpuppies. They had a noticeable amount of cumin in them, along with the foundation of fava and garbanzo beans and were quite tasty, if not tasting a bit more Indian than I expected. Even drinks are a bargain considering: $1.49 for a large drink, although they do charge for refills. Even their baklava was in a pan looking as if it was homemade instead something frozen, shipped in, thawed and put on a fancy plate as most places offer.
Overall, I'm quite happy with Ozzy's and so glad they are now a lot closer than JC or Bristol so that I can get a gyro fix satisfied without having to drive so far! The restaurant needs to spend some $$ to improve the ambiance of the place as it is a bit dreary with grey walls and bare concrete floors. It needs some posters, photos, paintings or something on the walls and some nice Greek or Middle Eastern music at a reasonable volume being played would also help out a lot. I have no complaints about the employees we encountered. They were quite friendly and even asked how our meal was as we left. All things considered, I'd give Ozzy's Gyros a strong 8 out of 10 rating based upon just the food. It wouldn't take much for them to bring it up to a solid nine if they made the investment. They're also on Facebook: just search for "Ozzy's Gyros" and give them a 'like'. I definitely liked them!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Restaurant Review: Saltwater Willy's Bayou Cafe
Saltwater Willy's Bayou Cafe
121 Jack White Drive
Kingsport, TN 37664
phone 423-765-1665
http://www.saltwaterwillysbayoucafe.com
Tonight my wife and I decided to get something out for dinner outside of the usual burger or pizza as she had worked quite late at her medical office. After picking her up, knowing that the usual wouldn't be very well received, I suggested we try Salt Water Willy's Bayou Cafe. It's located in the old Amato's building at the end of Jack White drive, which is directly behind Grand Furniture's building on E. Stone Drive.
This restaurant is owned by Wayne Michelli, who also owns Riverfront Seafood and is known to his fans as well as detractors as, "The Fish Nazi". He's a picky guy when it comes to seafood and you will pay for that quality.
When we arrived at the restaurant this evening at about 7:30PM, we had to search the parking lot over for a parking place, which we did find pretty fast. I thought this was a good sign as a busy place is normally doing something right as we're not in a tourist area. It also can mean that meat and seafood get a rapid turnover so you're less likely to get something less than reasonably fresh.
We entered the restaurant with some pleasant Zydeco music playing both outside near the door and inside the restaurant. The variety of Lousiana-flavored music at a reasonable volume level played throughout our meal was very pleasant and enjoyable. Our friendly hostess seated us quickly and didn't give me any crap for requesting a table. As some of you may know, I have mobility issues that causes me to avoid booths if possible. Unlike a previous trip to another nearby restaurant that was recently reviewed, she was quite accommodating. Surprisingly, there was almost no one in the restaurant that we could see. We found out that a local business was having a party in a private room and that explained most of the cars outside. We only
noticed one other couple in the main dining room with another that came in not long before we finished our meal.
Our cordial server, Brandy, quickly arrived at the table with our menus, took our drink order and asked us if we'd seen the appetizer listing posted on the board in the lobby. We had noticed one of them: fish tacos on special for $1. Being a fish taco lover, I asked her about them. She explained that they were pieces of fried tilapia with lettuce and pico de gallo on a soft taco and of a reasonable size. That sounded good to me and considering what some of the local Mexican places around here pass off as fish tacos, I was interested and later ordered one. I had a question about how the prices were listed on the menu. In the entrees, it would show something like: 9/13. She explained that the lower number was for a smaller portion and the larger price was for a serving that was twice the size. Fair enough.
http://www.saltwaterwillysbayoucafe.com/Menu.html
They've lately had an advertised special in the Thursday dining section of the Kingsport Times-News of "Two Can Dine For $20", and she explained it to us and gave us the special menu for it separate from the main one. Basically, you get an appetizer off the list, two house salads with choice of dressings and two entrees for $20. The selections of appetizers and entrees were reasonable compared to the regular menu offering. She neglected to tell us that the appetizer and entree portion size were on the modest size compared to the full price version.
They also had posted on the entry door another special running Monday-Thursday 5-8PM where if you bought two non-alcoholic drinks and an entree off the menu, the second entree would be free if equal or lesser in price to the first entree. A difficult choice between these two. After studying all this for a bit, we decided on the "2/$20" deal. We'd already ordered ice tea for drinks and selected the Calamari with Cajun Sauce for the appetizer. I went with bleu cheese for my salad and my wife chose the ranch dressing. I selected the Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya for my entree, which was supposed to come with a baguette. Sherri selected the Grilled Tilapia on Wild Rice with Broccoli. She chose the Cajun seasoning for the fish from a selection of plain, lemon & herb, cajun or you could have it blackened for $1 more.
The appetizer of calamari came out in a few minutes and I was quite impressed with the quality and taste of it, although not the portion size. It was barely enough for even what one person would normally expect for an appetizer and when I quizzed our server, she said the specials reduced the portion size. I told her I would've been quite upset to have been served such a small portion for $8, which was the price quoted on the menu. I wish I'd known about the reduced portion sizes of everything in advance of ordering. Still, the squid was cooked just right, not too done nor rubber band-like as most places manage to ruin it. Nicely breaded and quite tasty by itself, although a slice of lemon to go over it would've been a nice complement. The Cajun sauce served with it was a small ramekin of what looked and tasted like diced tomatoes with diced bell pepper that had been simmered together. Not what I was expecting at all for Cajun. It was okay in taste but not something I'd consider serving with a squid dish, mackerel maybe. Plain old cocktail sauce would probably have been a better choice, at least in my opinion.
The salads came in smaller salad bowls heaped up with the dressing on the side in little cups. The mixture of ingredients in the salads was nice but because of the small bowl sizes, it was difficult to mix the dressing in without flipping out salad onto the table. They would've been better to serve the same amount but in somewhat larger bowls. The bleu cheese dressing was very "bleu", which was a good thing as so many places bleu cheese dressing tastes mostly of ranch with a few crumbles of bleu cheese thrown in. The ranch dressing was deemed acceptable to my wife.
The entrees came out in a few minutes. My wife's Grilled Tilapia consisted of a good-sized and thick fillet of seasoned tilapia on a bed of mixed mostly white and a bit of wild rice barely bigger than the fillet. There was a number of good-sized florets of steamed broccoli accompanying it. My Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya came out on a plate layered only to the depth of the few small shrimp that were on it. I never did really notice the pieces of chicken that were supposed to be in it and can only assume they were there. The few pieces of Andouille sausage were thin slices that had been quartered. Possibly six small shrimp, neglible chicken and maybe three thin slices of andouille with rice, tomatoes and bell peppers. I guessed the actual serving size to be about two cups, maybe. It was pretty tasty though. The so-called baguette didn't arrive with the entree and I was almost finished with it before catching the server's attention to request it along with some butter. It wasn't a baguette at all that was brought out but a split-top hard roll with a chewy interior along with a small cup of margarine. Hmm.
Our server did come by with tea refills a couple of times without having to be asked which was nice. After finishing our entrees, she did tell us about the desserts and we chose the "Jimmy Lee Pie with Ice Cream", which was something one of the owners of the original Salt Water Willy's on New Beason Well Road of many years ago came up with. It was something like a chess bar in a 4" pie shell, drizzled with chocolate sauce and with a side dish of quality vanilla ice cream. While it was obvious that the pie had been microwaved (it was very hot inside), it was a nice dessert and the perfect size for us to split.
There was an abundance of staff on hand, along with the owner who did stop by to ask us about our meal and wishing to avoid a possible confrontation, I just said it was tasty. Considering the amount of customers, I'm sure most of the staff were on hand to deal with the private party. Our server was most congenial and among the best we've encountered lately. I guess I shouldn't have expected too much for our meal considering iced tea was like $2.29 per glass and if we'd ordered off the menu, we'd have spent close to $50 but had larger servings. As it was, our bill was $33.49 before adding a $6 tip. I would give this restaurant a 7/10 rating based upon my experience this evening.
I know that the owner has made it pretty clear to several I've spoken to over the years concerning Riverfront Seafood, that he doesn't really want, nor is looking to bring in the more budget-conscious customers that places like the new Fisherman's Dock in Colonial Heights, readily serves. I assume the same mindset also goes for Salt Water Willy's. However, I do know that every time I've been in Fisherman's Dock lately, the place has been full almost to capacity with customers lined up out the door for Sunday lunch. Several nearby restaurants employees, including a family member have told me that they've really taken a lot of their business since they've opened. I guess time will tell who has the better business concept.
121 Jack White Drive
Kingsport, TN 37664
phone 423-765-1665
http://www.saltwaterwillysbayoucafe.com
Tonight my wife and I decided to get something out for dinner outside of the usual burger or pizza as she had worked quite late at her medical office. After picking her up, knowing that the usual wouldn't be very well received, I suggested we try Salt Water Willy's Bayou Cafe. It's located in the old Amato's building at the end of Jack White drive, which is directly behind Grand Furniture's building on E. Stone Drive.
This restaurant is owned by Wayne Michelli, who also owns Riverfront Seafood and is known to his fans as well as detractors as, "The Fish Nazi". He's a picky guy when it comes to seafood and you will pay for that quality.
When we arrived at the restaurant this evening at about 7:30PM, we had to search the parking lot over for a parking place, which we did find pretty fast. I thought this was a good sign as a busy place is normally doing something right as we're not in a tourist area. It also can mean that meat and seafood get a rapid turnover so you're less likely to get something less than reasonably fresh.
We entered the restaurant with some pleasant Zydeco music playing both outside near the door and inside the restaurant. The variety of Lousiana-flavored music at a reasonable volume level played throughout our meal was very pleasant and enjoyable. Our friendly hostess seated us quickly and didn't give me any crap for requesting a table. As some of you may know, I have mobility issues that causes me to avoid booths if possible. Unlike a previous trip to another nearby restaurant that was recently reviewed, she was quite accommodating. Surprisingly, there was almost no one in the restaurant that we could see. We found out that a local business was having a party in a private room and that explained most of the cars outside. We only
noticed one other couple in the main dining room with another that came in not long before we finished our meal.
Our cordial server, Brandy, quickly arrived at the table with our menus, took our drink order and asked us if we'd seen the appetizer listing posted on the board in the lobby. We had noticed one of them: fish tacos on special for $1. Being a fish taco lover, I asked her about them. She explained that they were pieces of fried tilapia with lettuce and pico de gallo on a soft taco and of a reasonable size. That sounded good to me and considering what some of the local Mexican places around here pass off as fish tacos, I was interested and later ordered one. I had a question about how the prices were listed on the menu. In the entrees, it would show something like: 9/13. She explained that the lower number was for a smaller portion and the larger price was for a serving that was twice the size. Fair enough.
http://www.saltwaterwillysbayoucafe.com/Menu.html
They've lately had an advertised special in the Thursday dining section of the Kingsport Times-News of "Two Can Dine For $20", and she explained it to us and gave us the special menu for it separate from the main one. Basically, you get an appetizer off the list, two house salads with choice of dressings and two entrees for $20. The selections of appetizers and entrees were reasonable compared to the regular menu offering. She neglected to tell us that the appetizer and entree portion size were on the modest size compared to the full price version.
They also had posted on the entry door another special running Monday-Thursday 5-8PM where if you bought two non-alcoholic drinks and an entree off the menu, the second entree would be free if equal or lesser in price to the first entree. A difficult choice between these two. After studying all this for a bit, we decided on the "2/$20" deal. We'd already ordered ice tea for drinks and selected the Calamari with Cajun Sauce for the appetizer. I went with bleu cheese for my salad and my wife chose the ranch dressing. I selected the Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya for my entree, which was supposed to come with a baguette. Sherri selected the Grilled Tilapia on Wild Rice with Broccoli. She chose the Cajun seasoning for the fish from a selection of plain, lemon & herb, cajun or you could have it blackened for $1 more.
The appetizer of calamari came out in a few minutes and I was quite impressed with the quality and taste of it, although not the portion size. It was barely enough for even what one person would normally expect for an appetizer and when I quizzed our server, she said the specials reduced the portion size. I told her I would've been quite upset to have been served such a small portion for $8, which was the price quoted on the menu. I wish I'd known about the reduced portion sizes of everything in advance of ordering. Still, the squid was cooked just right, not too done nor rubber band-like as most places manage to ruin it. Nicely breaded and quite tasty by itself, although a slice of lemon to go over it would've been a nice complement. The Cajun sauce served with it was a small ramekin of what looked and tasted like diced tomatoes with diced bell pepper that had been simmered together. Not what I was expecting at all for Cajun. It was okay in taste but not something I'd consider serving with a squid dish, mackerel maybe. Plain old cocktail sauce would probably have been a better choice, at least in my opinion.
The salads came in smaller salad bowls heaped up with the dressing on the side in little cups. The mixture of ingredients in the salads was nice but because of the small bowl sizes, it was difficult to mix the dressing in without flipping out salad onto the table. They would've been better to serve the same amount but in somewhat larger bowls. The bleu cheese dressing was very "bleu", which was a good thing as so many places bleu cheese dressing tastes mostly of ranch with a few crumbles of bleu cheese thrown in. The ranch dressing was deemed acceptable to my wife.
The entrees came out in a few minutes. My wife's Grilled Tilapia consisted of a good-sized and thick fillet of seasoned tilapia on a bed of mixed mostly white and a bit of wild rice barely bigger than the fillet. There was a number of good-sized florets of steamed broccoli accompanying it. My Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya came out on a plate layered only to the depth of the few small shrimp that were on it. I never did really notice the pieces of chicken that were supposed to be in it and can only assume they were there. The few pieces of Andouille sausage were thin slices that had been quartered. Possibly six small shrimp, neglible chicken and maybe three thin slices of andouille with rice, tomatoes and bell peppers. I guessed the actual serving size to be about two cups, maybe. It was pretty tasty though. The so-called baguette didn't arrive with the entree and I was almost finished with it before catching the server's attention to request it along with some butter. It wasn't a baguette at all that was brought out but a split-top hard roll with a chewy interior along with a small cup of margarine. Hmm.
Our server did come by with tea refills a couple of times without having to be asked which was nice. After finishing our entrees, she did tell us about the desserts and we chose the "Jimmy Lee Pie with Ice Cream", which was something one of the owners of the original Salt Water Willy's on New Beason Well Road of many years ago came up with. It was something like a chess bar in a 4" pie shell, drizzled with chocolate sauce and with a side dish of quality vanilla ice cream. While it was obvious that the pie had been microwaved (it was very hot inside), it was a nice dessert and the perfect size for us to split.
There was an abundance of staff on hand, along with the owner who did stop by to ask us about our meal and wishing to avoid a possible confrontation, I just said it was tasty. Considering the amount of customers, I'm sure most of the staff were on hand to deal with the private party. Our server was most congenial and among the best we've encountered lately. I guess I shouldn't have expected too much for our meal considering iced tea was like $2.29 per glass and if we'd ordered off the menu, we'd have spent close to $50 but had larger servings. As it was, our bill was $33.49 before adding a $6 tip. I would give this restaurant a 7/10 rating based upon my experience this evening.
I know that the owner has made it pretty clear to several I've spoken to over the years concerning Riverfront Seafood, that he doesn't really want, nor is looking to bring in the more budget-conscious customers that places like the new Fisherman's Dock in Colonial Heights, readily serves. I assume the same mindset also goes for Salt Water Willy's. However, I do know that every time I've been in Fisherman's Dock lately, the place has been full almost to capacity with customers lined up out the door for Sunday lunch. Several nearby restaurants employees, including a family member have told me that they've really taken a lot of their business since they've opened. I guess time will tell who has the better business concept.
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