"T. Ho Keeps Things Rolling"
2007
About a year ago, Knoxville almost lost one of its favorite restaurants- T. Ho Bistro. Owner Thanh Ho and his wife On Dang had decided to retire and close their 21-year-old business. But then, fate intervened, and the family decided to stay open.
Knoxvillians, no matter where they live, seem to rave about the Vietnamese restaurant, and especially about their spring rolls.
These famed spring rolls have put the Asian bistro on the map. For 11 years, the Ho family has been wholesaling bulk quantities of the vegetable and pork delicacies to other restaurants throughout the Southeast.
"When my parents came over to America, they worked at other jobs for a while. We didn't have a lot of money so my mom made spring rolls and gave them to our friends as Christmas presents. My dad's boss said "you should sell these," said Thoai Ho.
So the Hos started their family tradition at a small kiosk/deli on Broadway. "The spring rolls caught on immediately, and the family's business quickly grew.
"It just kind of picked up. Walter Lambert wrote an article about us, and that really helped," Ho said.
"We are really thankful for our great customers."
More recently, Ingles and Food City stores have decided to sell the spring rolls in smaller, family-sized packages in their frozen grocery sections.
"We are trying to get more stores to sell our spring rolls," Ho said.
Until last week, I had never experienced the great flavor of T. Ho's spring rolls. They are much different from eating most Asian restaurant's egg rolls. Sure they both contain vegetables (and sometimes meat), and they are both wrapped inside a shell. However, that is where the similarities end.
T. Ho's spring rolls have a much more delicate, think wrapper that allows you to enjoy the flavor of the filling, instead of the outer shell. And believe me, you will want to savor every single bite.
I am now one of the many T. Ho spring roll addicts, and despite the fact that I live on the opposite side of town from the bistro, I am sure that I will have to make frequent visits.
Once I tried the spring rolls, I was curious about the restaurant's other menu items, and how Vietnamese food varies from its other Asian counterparts.
"Vietnamese food has twice the flavor of Chinese food. Chinese food is more bland," Ho said.
"There's more soy sauce, lemon grass and flavor all the way around. Vietnamese food has more of a salty taste, while Chinese food has a sweeter flavor.
I had to see (other rather taste) it for myself.
My husband and I decided to dig into a variety of menu items so we could give a well-rounded review.
We started with the T. Ho's Sampler, which includes crab cakes, calamari and fried eggplant, served with a sweet chili sauce.
This was some of the best seafood either of us have eaten in Knoxville. The crab cake had fluffy, juicy consistency. It completely blew those served in East Tennessee's seafood restaurants out of the water, literally.
The same goes for the calamari and fried eggplant. They are extremely different from versions of these appetizer items served at Italian restaurants, but in a good way.
The appetizers gave us the courage to try the crab and asparagus soup, which had a delicate balance of crab meat and other ingredients.
Next, came the really astonishing items- the entrees.
I selected the Country Style Vietnamese Crepe, a large rice flour shell filled with delicious shrimp, chicken, bean sprouts and onions. All of this was served with the Nuoc Mam, a fish-flavored sauce, infused with fruit juices, among many other items.
My husband ordered the Charcoal Grilled Pork with Thin Noodles, strips of grilled pork, lettuce, pineapples, cucumbers and carrots wrapped inside thin rice paper.
For those who are a little skeptical, T. Ho features plenty of stir fry and fried rice dishes.
T. Ho is located at 815 Merchants Road.
For more information, call (865) 688-5815.
-Stephanie Edwards
The Knoxville Journal