"What Does the Dietitian Order?" @ Stir Fry Café

Reviewed March by Anna Gewecke, MS, RD, LDN

4 out of 5 Forks

St Patrick’s Day was a beautiful day, and I didn’t feel like cooking dinner, so my husband and I decided to eat dinner on the patio of the Knoxville Stir Fry Café.  We both thoroughly enjoyed our meals!  It had been a while since we’d eaten there, so we took some time to peruse the menu.  I hadn’t thought about or noticed before, but they have several healthy looking appetizers, unlike so many of our other Knoxville area restaurants.  That being said, most restaurants, Stir Fry Café included, give such large portions of their regular meals, that you really don’t need an appetizer.

So what did I order? I was able to make a special “mix and match” type order, with no trouble from our waitress. I wanted red curry sauce with lots of veggies and tofu, and didn’t see anything like that on the menu, so I ordered the Mixed Vegetables from the vegetarian menu with the red curry sauce and brown rice (of course! I am a dietitian after all), and added tofu. The tofu cost me extra, because neither Mixed Vegetables nor Racha Vegetables have tofu included. (As an aside, I think that’s really silly. If you’re going to label something as “vegetarian” don’t just make it without meat! Put some other protein source in it! Vegetarians and flexitarians need protein too.) I’m sure the red curry sauce had a ton of fat in it because it was made with coconut milk, but it sure was delicious! It probably would have been wise to order it light on the sauce.  

My husband ordered the Chicken Broccoli stir fry with the house brown sauce, and also really enjoyed his meal.  I liked that he got plenty of broccoli with his order.  Something we both enjoyed was the left-overs.  One thing that Stir Fry Café does right is serve your meals in a serving dish, so you can scoop it onto your own plate.  I like this, because I was able to scoop less than half the rice I was served, and top it with less than half the stir fry I was served, as opposed to feeling like I had to stop myself from eating all the food on my plate. It just wasn’t there to begin with, so it was easier to pay attention to how full I was, and easier to take it home to enjoy later. And enjoy it I did! 

Stir Fry Café has a lot of menu items with a lot of vegetables- a definite plus.  They also make it easy to get in your whole grains by offering the option of brown rice. A lot of their menu items you get to choose the protein you want: chicken, tofu, beef, pork or shrimp.  I like that you can design your own meal this way - by specifying the rice you want as well as the protein you want. The only thing I saw on the menu that might be a whole grain noodle was the wild rice noodles, but I have never heard of those before, so I’m not sure if they’re a whole grain.  I’m also not sure if you can order the sushi to be made with brown rice. In my experience, sushi made with brown rice tends to fall apart, since it isn’t as sticky, so I rarely get brown rice sushi anyway.

Most meals cost $11 plus, and most sushi costs $6 plus per order.  Stir Fry Café’s menu is available on line, but there is no calorie information available.  I would definitely eat at Stir Fry Café again, because it was a pleasant environment, delicious and pretty healthy. I might even split a meal, but I doubt it.  Hubby and I enjoyed our left-overs too much for that.

Submitted by: 

Anna Gewecke, MS, RD, LDN

(865) 305-8099

agewecke@utmck.edu

Stir Fry Café has one location in Knoxville and two other locations in East Tennessee: Kingsport and Johnson City. Because nutrition information is not available, Stir Fry Café received 4 out of 5 forks.