Restaurants in Knoxville

A huge statue of Buddha watches over the dining room at Surin of Thailand, although his peaceful gaze is subverted by complex curries, spicy stir-fried noodle dishes, and flavorful barbecue-chicken entrees a day in the making. Half chickens are marinated in Thai barbecue sauce overnight before being slowly roasted and grilled, then they’re plated with scoops of shrimp fried rice and reminders to chew each bite thoroughly, not matter who’s threatening to steal the flavorful dark meat.

Surin measures its dishes' spiciness on a three-pepper scale, where one is "spicy" and three is "Thai hot." Though most dishes fall between nonspicy and hot, a few earn their trio of peppers, including a medley of mussels, scallops, and shrimp with spicy basil sauce.

Another Buddha—actually, just a head—guards the sushi bar, where nigiri, sashimi, and creative maki rolls are born. Under the two Buddhas' protection, diners settle into leather seats or tuck into booths backed by ferns and foliage. Outside the stone-walled eatery, a patio seasons dishes with sunlight and refreshing breezes.

Inside La Parilla, bright sunflower-colored walls stretch from the rustic tiled floor to the lofty ceiling and overlook a spread of hearty Mexican dishes and fruity, top-shelf margaritas. In this light and airy eatery, chefs spin out all the south-of-the-border favorites, from cacophonously sizzling fajitas and fish tacos to seven types of enchiladas teeming with liberally spiced meat and floods of melted cheese. At the full bar, mixologists update the classic margarita with mango and strawberry flavors, imbuing drinks with a tropical essence usually achieved only by puréeing a box of miniature umbrellas.

Nori Modern Noodle & Sushi's culinary innovators have scoured the eateries of Japan, Vietnam, and France to compile a menu of fresh fusion fare. In a lounge atmosphere, the restaurant pours out sake cocktails to accompany seared noodle entrees with made-from-scratch pasta and sushi or rice-paper rolls, including offerings that adhere to vegetarian diets. An outdoor patio welcomes diners on warmer days, and late-night sushi specials tantalize taste buds until 2 a.m., an hour that's well past the bedtime of most pumpkin carriages.

Pork loin, ham, turkey breasts, and certified Angus beef slow cook over plumes of piquant smoke at Clint's BBQ & Country Cookin', where plates of country-fried steak and deep-fried okra crown blue gingham tablecloths. Clint himself takes to the eatery's stage on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday nights, where he and a small band croon and pluck guitars, banjos, mandolins, fiddles, and an upright bass beneath an antique Texaco marquee. Retro ephemera plaster the walls in the slope-roofed dining room, where old license plates hang beside photographs and metal placards painted with classic advertisements for Beech-Nut, Coca-Cola, and Acme teleporters.

Led by the husband and wife team of James and Beverly Black, JB's Ribs & More's barbecue masters slow cook pork, ribs, and poultry before plating the meat with hearty sides of comfort fare. As described in a feature from the Daily Times, the Blacks' culinary career began in James' mother's backyard, where he learned to whip up succulent chicken and ribs by barbecuing on the weekends. The barbecue pros soon outgrew their home-based business' finite supply of wet wipes and opened a full-time restaurant that could sate Maryville's hunger for soul food such as five-cheese macaroni and pulled-pork slow cooked for 14 hours. Patrons can lick their fingers while browsing the eatery's free WiFi, or carry out one of JB's family-size meals and feed all their novelty cookie jars some much-needed protein.