My wife and I have been eating at Tycoon for year’s. Just recently we visited for the first time in a long while. It was a Sunday afternoon and we were headed to the Winchester’s Farmer’s Market. We were starved and everyone knows it’s bad to grocery shop when you are hungry. It was a no brainer.

Typically when we go to a place like this that we like a lot we order too much food. Always makes great leftovers the next day. They weren’t terribly busy so the service was outstanding. I kept it simple and ordered the beef noodle soup or “pho.’ It was great. It’s not on par with Saigon Le or Pho Vietnam but it was still great.

Of course I dumped cilantro in it. I also added hoisin sauce and sriracha. Just cuz u gotta… There is no other way. Needless to say I finished it to the last drop.

My wife ordered the Thai chicken coconut curry. (it may be in the wrong order but it did have all those words in it.) Since I can’t eat coconut I just took her word for it. Since there weren’t any leftovers I think it’s safe to say it was a hit. It certainly looked good!

Plus it comes served in a little boat shaped dish… I mean how can you go wrong with that??

As kind of an extra “bonus” dish we got the combo fried rice. (It tastes just as great the next day.)

The second part of this post is about the great lunch I had there just this past week. It was overcast out and there was a slight chill in the air. (Well for Memphis anyway.) I wanted some soup and I automatically knew I wanted their Tom Yum Soup. They also call it Thai Gumbo. Either way, it’s fun to say! (I didn’t mean to rhyme there.) It was around noon during the week and they were absolutely slammed. I looked around and most of the tables had large soup bowls. The Tom Yum Soup was fantastic. It had just the right amount of spice and flavor to cure all that ails you. A perfect soup for a miserable look day.

As you can see I also made sure to add cilantro promptly. Beyond that it needed nothing else. It was perfect. The chicken and shrimp were awesome.

If you are in the area or even if you aren’t I strongly suggest you stop and eat here. They have a wide variety of dishes from many different Asian cuisines. They are on Kirby Pkwy just past Knight Arnold on your right! The people are great there too!

Sweden Kream is one of those places that you might pass right by if you didn’t know anything about it. I know I did a few times. It basically sits right on the corner of Jackson Ave. and National. It’s a tiny little building with tons of small signs. When you walk in there are only a couple of places to sit. You can also walk up to their window and order as well. Everything here is cooked to order so you will have to chill out a few minutes before you get your food.

I can also vouch that they have basically the best malts and shakes in town. Surprisingly they have some pretty darn good tamales and wings as well. The item I wanted to highlight in this post is their unbelievably good burger. Its also surprisingly cheap. The whole combo only cost me $6.75 and trust me when I say it blows all other burgers out of the water. It doesn’t seem to fancy. It’s just well prepared and carefully “crafted” if you will. It really is an experience.

If you’re like me you probably appreciate all of toppings. I love my burgers with cheese (obviously), tomatoes, lettuce, onions and pickles. Just looking at the picture makes me want to visit again. If you live here in Memphis you’ve probably heard of this place. If not, then here you go. Check them out for some great food or just some good ol malts and shakes.

Writing about this place makes me all happy inside. To me there is nothing quite like having some great sushi and drinks with friends. When my wife’s cousin and his friend came into town we decided to head to SPR. It had actually been a while since I had been. I didn’t know what I was missing.

My wife’s brother actually works here we know one of the sushi chef’s so we all sat in front of their station. We were all starved and we pretty much went crazy with the menu. Every time I eat sushi I must have Kirin Ichiban. It’s a requirement. So we ordered a large bottle and some of us split it. My wife on the other hand ordered a pretty, girly drink.

We all ordered several things to eat with the intent of sharing off of each other’s plates. I started off with what I thought was a typical ginger soy dressing salad.

I was so wrong. This was bar none the best “ginger soy” type salad I’ve ever had. I can’t really describe it exactly, but all I can say is that I could have eaten a trough of this stuff. My wife got the seaweed salad and finally convinced me to try that too. I’m really glad she did because now I’m a fan! It was light and crunchy. Very good.

When I saw the raw oysters I thought, “sushi place be damned I’m getting oysters too!” I ordered a dozen and was even nice enough to share 2 or 3. The rest were all mine baby!

Of course we had to order sushi. I got a spicy crawfish roll, and we also ordered an eel roll. All of which were excellent.

The thing I was most excited about was seeing Yellowfin Tuna Cheeks on the menu. I LOVE these. LOVE. My wife saw it and ordered it first. Then I ordered their only other one they had. If you have ever seen it on the menu somewhere and skipped over it you are crazy. If you like fish….or even if you don’t, you will love this. It is very flavorful, moist, and delicious. It is awesome especially when you dip it in the ponzu soy sauce. Just incredible.

If you go on a Friday or Saturday night expect it to be crowded. Get some sake or some Kirin Ichiban, some sushi, and tuna cheeks and you will be in heaven.

I went to Sharky’s with my wife and son for my birthday. I had wanted to go since they first opened. The sign advertising their oysters also made this place very appealing. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t read some reviews before we went. I saw some mixed user reviews and some fairly positive reviews from the Commercial Appeal. Either way, I always like to form my own opinion so I remained very excited to eat here….. and I’m glad I did.

It was a Tuesday night when we went and they weren’t too busy at all. The atmosphere was very nice. The bar area has a few tv’s so that you could watch the playoffs if you chose to. They also have a fish and lobster tank which kept my son fairly occupied for a while. For our appetizers we chose the half dozen oysters on the half shell, fried calamari, and the fried green tomatoes.

The oysters were very fresh and very very good. I chose to eat mine on a cracker with a little cocktail sauce and some fresh horseradish. I could literally live off of those things. The fried green tomatoes and calamari were also very good. The calamari came with a sweet chile sauce.

For our entrees we got the mac and cheese for my son. (which I stole a bite from and wow it was great!) My wife ordered the fried scallops, and I got the grilled lobster tail. Both came with two sides. I chose the seasonal vegetables (awesome green beans), and smashed potatoes. My wife chose fries with the green beans.

My lobster tail was perfect. It was cooked just like i would have made it. It was very fresh and a pretty good sized one too. The green beans and potatoes were also surprisingly really good. All too often vegetable sides are very bland and almost seem like a waste of space on the plate. These were seasoned perfectly and had a nice crispness to them.

The fried scallops were very creamy and cooked perfectly. I tasted them with tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, and plain. They were great however you prefer to eat them. (I cut a piece up in case you were thinking I ate all of my wife’s food.) We were all very pleased with Sharky’s and we all plan to go back again. The sign that advertises the 50 cent oysters out front more than guarantees it!

This is a true story where the saying “Third times a charm” really had meaning for me. On a recent trip to East Memphis with the family we found ourselves, as we often do, hungry for some good Asian food. Our first stop was at Benihana. They told me it would be an hour and a half wait…..with a feisty three year old…..no thanks! So we journeyed across Poplar to PF Chang’s. The line was literally out the door so I didn’t bother going in. Then my wife suggested we got to Wang’s since it was just right there.

We walked in and we were seated immediately. We opted for a booth because it’s a lot easier as my son often likes to play musical seats throughout the meal. They had Alex Ortega playing the piano which contributed to the restaurant’s relaxing atmosphere.

As we reviewed the menu we all made our selections pretty quickly. For an appetizer we chose the Pu-Pu Platter. (My son got a nice little giggle from the name.) For our entrees we order chicken fried rice, the Crisp Red Snapper, and the Sha Cha Shrimp.

When they brought out the Pu-Pu Platter I was very glad we ordered it. #1. For entertainment value (There is a little “chimney” in the center for placing your skewers of mean on.) #2. Variety of items. It comes with 2 of each of the following: shrimp, spring roll, crab wonton, chicken wings, and chicken teriyaki on a bamboo skewer. We all found this really fun. Especially my three year old who wanted us to place everything over the chimney before he would eat it.

When our entrees came out the star was my wife’s Crisp Red Snapper. It was literally a whole fried fish. She was thrilled. She chose the sweet and sour sauce to go with it, but you can also have a hot and spicy sauce. It was actually very very good. They meat was very flaky and had great flavor. My son chowed down on his fried rice, and I had my Sha Cha Shrimp which has jumbo shrimp with lots of vegetables in a spicy (actually semi-spicy) Sha Cha sauce. It was also very good. The jumbo shrimp were cooked perfectly, and with the Sha Cha sauce it was even better.

The restaurant is also very kid friendly as you can see from their Urban Spoon page. There is a nice little aquarium at the entrance which can serve to cure boredom temporarily. They were very nice and were very understanding when we asked for both a booster seat and a high chair. (Remember musical seats) The bathrooms were very clean which is always a plus. The atmosphere was very inviting and relaxed. As we left my son wanted us to make sure we tipped Alex Ortega on piano because he saw several other people doing it. We were happy to do so and my wife handed him the money so he could give it to him personally. (Which he got excited about.)

The Wang family has been in business in Memphis for quarter of a century which means they definitely know what they are doing. We very much enjoyed our experience here, and I am also very confident that we had the best possible meal we could have had that night. Next time we will most definitely bypass those other two options, mentioned earlier, and go strait to Wang’s Mandarin House.