The Charlottesville 29

Where to eat in Charlottesville

Category: The 29

04/21/2014

Pad Thai

Pad Thai
156 Carlton Rd. #202 . Charlottesville, VA . (434) 293-4302
http://padthaicville.com/index.html


Why Pad Thai?

While many “Thai” restaurants alter recipes to suit American tastes, Pad Thai offers real Thai home cooking — literally. Utaiwan Ouypron and her husband Santi make the same food they once served at an eatery they ran out of their home in Thailand, before coming to the United States in 2005. You can taste the difference. It’s no wonder so many top chefs are regulars. Among many excellent Thai restaurants in the area, Pad Thai remains a fixture in The Charlottesville 29.

What to Order

While the menu is stellar, we always like to ask the Ouyprons which of the daily specials they recommend. Below is a list of our recommendations, along with the Ouyprons’ favorites, as well as Pad Thai’s appearances in Five Finds on Friday, where area chefs and personalities have named a Pad Thai dish as one of their favorite in town.

Our Picks

  • Grandpa’s Favorite
  • Drunken Noodles
  • Beef Tongue Pad Kapao (special)
  • Swai Pad Numprikpao (special)
  • Thai Beef Consomme Noodle Bowl
  • Stir Fried Cabbage

Chefs’ Picks

  • Bar Snacks
  • Red Curry
  • Clear Broth Noodle Bowl
  • Chinese Broccoli with Pork Belly

Five Finds on Friday Picks

  • Thai Beef Consomme Noodle Bowl — Andrew Silver (formerly, Zocalo), Josh Lowry (formerly, Zocalo), John Shanesy (formerly, Parallel 38)
  • Clear Broth Noodle Bowl (fka Wonton Noodle Soup) — Vu Nguyen (formerly, Brazos)
  • Tom Yum Noodle Bowl with Beef Tongue — Brian Ashworth (formerly, Ace Biscuit & Barbecue)
  • Spicy Noodle Bowl — Phillip Gerringer (formerly, South Fork)
  • Roast pork with shrimp wonton and wonton noodles — Ivan Rekosh (formerly, Zocalo)
  • Drunken Noodles with Chicken, Spicy — Melissa Close-Hart (formerly, Palladio)
  • Drunken Noodles, “Thai hot” — Ian Redshaw (formerly, Lampo)
  • Drunken Noodles with Beef — Rachel Willis (Cakes by Rachel)
  • Drunken Noodles with Tofu and Vegetables — Rebecca Edwards (formerly, Tavola Cicchetti Bar)
  • Drunken Noodles — Lee O’Neill (Radical Roots Farm)
  • Grandpa’s Favorite — Ben Jordan (formerly, Michael Shaps Wineworks)
  • Grandma’s Favorite — Frank Paris (formerly, Miso Sweet)
  • Tom Kha Soup — Jin Bang (Mochiko)
  • Tongue, Tendon, and Trip Pho — John Meiklejohn (formerly, Yearbook Taco)
  • Stir Fried Cabbage — Nina Promisel (Greenwood Gourmet Grocery)
  • Som Tum — Brooke Ray (International Rescue Committee)

padthaibowl

 

 

03/22/2014

El Tepeyac

El Tepeyac380 Greenbrier Drive . Charlottesville, VA . (434) 964-1231
http://eltepeyaccville.com/

[UPDATE: El Tepeyac closed on May 24, 2015.]

Why El Tepeyac?

Even when it was a mere food counter in the back of a tienda, we were regulars at El Tepeyac, the Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant off Route 29 North owned by the Solorzano family.  After it converted to a full service restaurant in October 2012, it became one of our favorite spots in town.  For the transformation, Adolfo and Bertha Solorzano recruited their daughter Maria, a savvy management consultant from Chicago, who helped her mother enhance the decor, service, and cocktail list, which now includes fresh margaritas, and even Horchata con un Toque—rum with house-made spiced rice milk.   Adolfo is in charge of the food, using his own recipes to create pupusas, tacos, gorditas, and full platters.  It’s no wonder top chefs from all over Charlottesville love it so much.

What to Order

One of our favorite dishes in all of Charlottesville is El Tepeyac’s Pupusa de Queso con Loroco, a thick, handmade, corn tortilla filled with cheese and loroco, an edible flower with a floral, truffly flavor.  Solorzano’s family ran a pupuseria in El Salvador, and it shows. All the pupusas are excellent, served with the traditional vinegary slaw, curtido.  Below are our other favorites, as well as picks from Solorzano, and appearances in Five Finds on Friday, where chefs and personalities have named an El Tepeyac dish one of the best in town.  It seems that fried yucca is a hit:

Our Picks

  • Yucca Frita con Chicharron
  • Tacos (Pastor, Lengua, and, on weekends, Carnitas)
  • Gorditas (Pastor, Lengua)
  • Torta de Milanesa

Chef’s Picks

  • Yucca Frita con Chicharron
  • Pupusas (Queso con Loroco, Revueltas) 
  • Sope de Carne Asada

Five Finds on Friday Picks

03/13/2014

Maya

Maya

633 W. Main Street . Charlottesville, VA. (434) 979-6292
http://www.maya-restaurant.com/

Why Maya?

Food fusing French and Southern traditions may be Charlottesville’s signature cuisine. While many area restaurants serve it, though, none does it better than Maya, the two-story Midtown restaurant whose consistency few can match. Chef Christian Kelly once helped Clifton Inn become one of the few restaurants in the country to achieve Relais & Chateaux status. In 2006, restaurateur Peter Castiglione lured Kelly away from fine dining to return to the accessible, ingredient-driven cooking that inspired Kelly as a child on the farm where he was raised. Ever since, Maya has been Charlottesville’s top destination for Southern/French food.

A team-driven approach focused on retaining both staff and customers makes Maya one of the most reliable restaurant experiences in town. Whether you’re in the mood for unfussy dishes like baby back ribs and fried catfish, or something more sophisticated like daily specials, Maya always satisfies.

What to Order

After more than fifteen years at the helm of Maya’s kitchen, Kelly has nailed just about everything on the menu, where diners may choose two sides to go with any entrée.  That said, here are a few standouts we love, picks from Kelly and Castiglione, as well as appearances in Five Finds on Friday, where other chefs and personalities have named a Maya dish as one of the best in town.

Our Picks

  • Local Trout with caper brown butter
  • Cornmeal-Crusted Catfish
  • Golden Beets
  • Specials

Chef/Owner Picks

Castiglione:

  • Soup of the Day  
  • New York Strip with red wine sauce
  • Macaroni and Cheese
  • Specials

Kelly:

  • Cornmeal-crusted Fried Oysters with sides of Collard Greens and Stone-Ground Grits

Five Finds on Friday Picks

Maya