Cam Ranh Bay — Restaurant in Banner Elk

Considering its location, I found this Japanese & Vietnamese restaurant to be alright. I would not quite consider the food to be mediocre, but it was far from exceptional. Having relocated to this area from a diverse capital city, I do acknowledge that my standards for East Asian cuisine are probably a bit on the higher side, and it is unrealistic to expect Cam Ranh Bay to meet those expectations.

A friend and I went here over the weekend for lunch. The venue was far from busy, yet we waited at an empty counter for nearly five minutes before someone told us we could go ahead and seat ourselves outside. We sat and waited close to another ten minutes before a waitress casually arrived to ask if we had been helped. We told her what happened, and she retorted that no one told her we were here, even though there was another party seated not far from us.

In spite of this rather questionable start to our eating experience, the food was OK; it certainly was not bad! However, our waitress was underwhelming and unceremoniously brought us menus, our food, etc. My friend enjoyed his sushi immensely, as well as his chicken dish. I ordered ginger tofu, and it was incredibly bland and poorly prepared compared to ginger tofu that I've consumed from other Asian restaurants in the past. It appeared as though the meat items were better here than the vegetarian/vegan options, which is disappointing.

Overall, I do not think this is a terrible restaurant, and I would be willing to try it one or two more times as a takeout option. However, I was frustrated by our poor/unwelcoming dining experience, and I will not likely sit in to eat here again. I would recommend this as a place to at least try, especially if you like sushi. The menu was rather vast, so you can't be mad at the abundance of options to be...

On our roadtrip, I was overjoyed to know there is a Vietnamese restaurant serving traditional home-style comfort food up in the midst of the mountainous area of Banner Elk. My friend and her family and my family came here for lunch. It was my treat to our group and I called minutes ahead upon our arrival time to make sure food would be ready without having to wait since we were on a schedule. I ordered the following: Vietnamese traditional seafood sweet and sour tamarind soup served as hot pot style (lầu canh chua hải sản). The soup flavoring has a balance savory, sweet, sour flavor with the aromatic rice paddy herb, with pineapple, tomatoes, onions, swai, shrimp, thick tender calamari rings, and thin sliced beef which kinda threw me off a bit. But it was all delicious. I highly recommend this to my Vietnamese foodies visiting this restaurant. Bún tôm thịt nướng / Charbroiled grilled sliced pork and shrimp served with thin vermicelli rice noodles, shredded lettuces and carrots, drizzled with a sweet and sour fish sauce was well liked my group. I recommend this dish as well. Stir fry spicy lemongrass chicken with vegetables served with steamed rice was liked by the American guy that came with the group. Charbroiled grilled pork chop with steamed rice, pickled carrots and daikons, fresh cucumbers and lettuce with sweet and sour fish sauce - that I do NOT recommend this if you prefer moist juicy tender flavorful lemongrass porkchops like I do. This place makes their porkchop so dry, lean, and very bland. Ginger tea was warm and satisfying to the chilly weather. Boba milk tea was liked by my...

We wanted to try something familiar while visiting Beech Mtn. A little hesitate to try it only because we didn't want to be disappointed, but from what we tried it is delicious and very close to authentic. Anne is very business oriented and focused on getting your entire order at 1 time (instead of appetizer 1st, then entree, and to go later) and moving on. She didn't appear to be patient and as we felt pressured to order fast and now. Nancy is very kind and welcoming and knows how to make sure everything on par as she continuously walks around checking on everyone. Pho was good, but the noodles are not like you're average pho noodles, more like pad thai? Com suong was excellent.. the green onion and oil topping on top of the pork chop was wonderful and I'm so they add that on there, adds to the authenticity of viet food. I would not recommend the hu tieu rau cay as it is not authentic hu tieu and the rau cay (vegetables) that they add ate just hibachi vegetables (broccoli, zucchini, carrots) and not yu choy, bok choy, or other vegetables that are usually used in this soup dish. We also had the sampler and would recommend the fried tofu, shrimp tempura, and dumplings, we could've done without the wonton or egg roll. We order the hibachi steak/chicken/shrimp combo.. do not get it it is honestly not worth it, lots to complain about. Shrimp was ok, steak tasted overcooked, chicken was obviously just dip fried in fryer, rice was white rice with a tiny bit of soy sauce?... it was definitely not brown or fried rice. We will probably stop by again on our way out when leaving...