New Vietnamese and Alfresco Pasta

Nashville Restaurants and Food
New Vietnamese on Charlotte

There's a new contestant in the Charlotte Pike Vietnamese restaurant competition. Ben Thanh opened two months ago at 6317 Charlotte. A first visit shows a restaurant still waiting to happen. There is virtually no decorating and a huge, nearly empty room. Everyone is quite nice. It seems like mom may be cooking in the kitchen while the kids wait tables. We explained the vegetarian situation and the waitress came right back to the table to report that the dumplings we had ordered came with chicken. We always appreciate that level of attention and honesty. They have a menu of about 60 items. We found care in the cooking process and some reasonably tasty food. There are many other issues though, and we will need another visit in a few weeks to see how they are doing. We can't really recommend this one quite yet. We'll report back soon.

Alfresco Pasta

Many folks are familiar with Alfresco Pasta. The Nashville company services restaurants all over the area and have begun to sell at farmers markets. We picked up some frozen pappardelle and enjoyed the creamy, wide strips with a spicy puttanesca sauce that the Veggie Eater threw together. It's a pretty good deal at $2 a serving. We bought five and stored the rest in the freezer. The pasta list is extensive, covering many types of ravioli, agnolotti, cappalletti tortellini and tortelloni, and potato gnocchi. Among a few that jumped out at us: Fettuccine with Spanish Saffron, Benton’s Smokey Mountain Bacon and Onion Ravioli with Tennessee White Cheddar in Fresh Basil Pasta, Ashley Farms Rotisserie Chicken Ravioli with Sun dried Tomatoes, Feta Cheese and Fresh Basil in Herb Infused Pasta, Ravioli with Andouille Sausage, Fresh Vegetables, Crayfish Tails and Pepper Jack Cheese in Roasted Red Pepper Pasta.

Next time we'll go more exotic in our selection.

They have been set up at the West Nashville Farmers Market on Saturdays. Check out the website for the complete list of offerings: http://www.alfrescopasta.com/