ATHENS PHO (1860 Barnett Shoals Road, 706-850-0153): When the Crab Hut closed its last remaining location in the Athens area (the one on Broad Street became Juicy Crab, doing very similar things), on the Eastside, I was a little bummed. The fried fish wasn’t that great, but the restaurant had struck out on its own, adding a few good Vietnamese items to its menu. Fortunately, it’s been replaced by Athens Pho, owned by different folks, which has an entire menu of Vietnamese food. At the moment, the website (athenspho.com) isn’t up and running yet, but if you cruise by you can scan the big QR codes on the windows to get an idea of the multi-page menu.
The new place is clean and simple, but offers a lot of options. Its goi cuon are huge, tightly wrapping rice noodles, shrimp and crunchy green veggies in rice paper. Too hot to eat? These might work for you. Banh mi are listed among the appetizers and available as “special” (pork, pâté, ham, butter), char-grilled pork and egg, all with pickled vegetables. They could be a little punchier in their flavors, but it’s rare to get a bad banh mi. Cơm Chiên Gà Xối Mỡ (fried chicken with fried rice) doesn’t sound hugely promising, but it’s beautifully done, with gorgeous crisp skin encasing a superlatively tender interior. There’s also a large section of vermicelli dishes. I thought the combination crispy noodles (Mì Xào Giòn Thập Cẩm) sounded exciting, a combination of fried egg noodles served as a large thick disc in a plate of sauce that slowly softens the noodles, topped with beef, shrimp, fish balls and vegetables, but it turned out to be fairly bland. If it’s going to be difficult to eat—and it requires some skill to pick off a few strands of noodle without sending the whole cake off your plate—it should taste like more than a less exciting lo mein. Maybe I just picked poorly. There are many other things in that part of the menu that are likely better: a stir-fried pho, noodles with chargrilled shrimp, bun bo hue (a sort of spicier pho).
How’s the titular dish? It’s pretty good, available in a reasonable number of varieties and in two different sections of the menu, so keep flipping pages: filet mignon, flank steak, fatty brisket, beef tendon, shrimp, seafood, chicken, beef ribs, oxtail. It’s good without doctoring to your taste with the usual packet of jalapenos, bean sprouts and herbs, but probably better with said customization. There’s also a nice section of other soups among the side dishes, including an oxtail soup (Chén Đuôi Bò) that makes great use of hunks of meat that are mostly bone. You can pick one up and gnaw on it, or you can savor the lovely broth.
There’s a bar at the back of the room, but the restaurant doesn’t serve booze currently. Instead, it makes a variety of juices (kumquat-coconut, passion fruit lemonade), Vietnamese coffees and a few boba teas. Athens Pho is open every day from 11 a.m. until 9 or 10 p.m.
WILLIE B’S CHICKEN COUPE (3465 Jefferson Road, 762-315-6005, williebschicken.com): Once promised to be a Guthrie’s, this locally-owned drive-through/walk-in chicken restaurant has a comparably simple menu: tenders, fries, toast, sauce, slaw. The biggest decisions you have to make are what to drink and how many tendies you think you can eat. OK, so you can put them in a sandwich instead of just dunking them in sauce, but is there really a huge difference?
Willie B’s may not be Guthrie’s, but it is, essentially, Guthrie’s. As a person who has often said she really does not care about chicken fingers, I’m not sure I’m the right connoisseur here to assess the product. The distinctions among Raising Cane’s (no flavor sans sauce, annoying traffic), Zaxby’s (gigantic menu), etc. exist, but they’re a bit like debating American political diversity relative to any country with a parliamentary system: The window of possibilities isn’t that wide. Willie B’s makes your chicken tenders when you order them, and they don’t require sauce, although I suppose they do benefit from it, and there are several options. The fries aren’t crisp. The toast is far from the best I’ve had. The coleslaw is OK. The faster you eat this stuff, the better, because it tends to steam in its little waxed cardboard box, getting less accomplished by the minute. But the people are nice, the food is ready relatively quickly, you can get gas at the same time, and it’s certainly an improvement over a Subway.
Willie B’s is open 10 a.m.–9 p.m., and although it used to make breakfast, that meal is currently on hold.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
