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Chaiyo’s is a new Thai and sushi restaurant that’s a couple of blocks off Cumberland Avenue, in the building once occupied by Falafel Hut. The Grub Spouse and I arrived for a recent weekend lunch only to find the doors locked during normal business hours. Turns out the staff had forgotten to unlock the front door, which would explain why we were the only customers at that hour.

The V-shaped space still congregates diners into booths and tables along the left side of the V, although a bluish color scheme and sparse Asian décor now distinguish Chaiyo’s (the name is based on the owner’s name) from its Middle Eastern predecessor.

The laminated menu reveals a limited selection, with a half-dozen or so Thai entrees complemented by about a dozen sushi creations. The Thai dishes, which include traditional pad Thai and sweet-and-sour meals, all come with a choice of beef, pork, chicken or shrimp as the meat base. Meatless options are available as well.

The Spouse tried the cashew nut Thai meal with chicken, while I went for the basil leaves with pepper, deciding on pork as my meat option. With that particular meal, I was given a choice of spiciness ranging from one to five, and I went with four, just to play it safe. Both entrees are served with white rice.

The sushi lineup features shrimp tempura and salmon tempura, spider roll (crab, avocado, asparagus and roe), an appropriately orange-colored UT roll (ingredients not mentioned on menu) and the Super Crunch roll with eel, salmon, crab, scallions, cream cheese and roe, fried tempura style.

Several sushi combo plates are available, and I got the sushi and sashimi combo featuring four pieces of California roll, three pieces of sashimi and two pieces of nagiri. I ordered those to go for sampling later in the day.

The Thai dishes, while edible, didn’t really distinguish themselves in flavor or presentation, although my meal was indeed spicy enough to clear my sinuses out nicely. Later, I formed a similarly underwhelmed opinion of the sushi and sashimi array, which includes shrimp, salmon and tuna.

While we were out, however, The Spouse and I decided to sweeten our day at The Cupcakery, further out on Kingston Pike in Bearden. We had heard positive reports from friends who had tried out the freshly baked goodies.

The Cupcakery offers six or seven classic flavors each day, including double chocolate, peanut butter cup and cinnamon streusel. The Spouse and I both stuck with classics by trying the tuxedo cupcake — vanilla icing on a chocolate cupcake — and the red velvet cupcake. Cupcakes cost $2.75 each or $31 per dozen.

Weekly featured flavors (grasshopper, strawberries and cream, lemon drop, Italian cream and others) as well as seasonal flavors (raspberry beret, key lime, carrot top, pumpkin harvest, big orange, to name a few) are also presented on a rotating basis.

Treats in hand, The Spouse and I sat at one of a handful of small tables in the fancifully modern shop (stuffed seating was available across the room). The cakes lived up to their hype thanks to moist, fresh cakes topped with creamy, rich icings that were full of flavor.

So although our Asian-food experience wasn’t bad, our stopover at The Cupcakery was really the icing on the cake.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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