Photo by author.
Although Nashville has some amazing food gems, there are some hyped-up places that you would be better off skipping, in my opinion. Think of this as a Yelp review.
That said, I urge you to make your own decisions. Some of these places are decent – they just weren’t what we had in mind. Most of them had some enjoyable options and we ordered poorly.
They may very well be up your alley, so don’t discount them completely. I think you’ll see why.
3. Legendairy Milkshake Bar (4 out of 5 stars)
Photo by author.
This place has all the makings of a trendy stop. Apparently, it was featured on The Cooking Channel’s The Best Thing I Ever Ate show. It was very popular, with a line out the door when we went.
We ended up picking one of their featured milkshakes, a chocolate chip cookie dough shake with large chunks of homemade cookie dough and a chocolate chip cookie on top. The cookie dough and cookie were amazing.
However, the milkshake itself was very disappointing in my and my partner’s eyes. It was sugary milk. There was no thickness present in the milkshake at all. It felt like drinking a pint of milk, not ice cream. Don’t get me wrong – it was very yummy, but the texture was all wrong. It wasn’t a real milkshake and we were left disappointed.
That said, if you’re going for a refreshing, lightweight drink or thin milkshake, this is a great option for you.
2. Biscuit Love (3 out of 5 stars)
Photo by author.
This is going to be hugely controversial. Biscuit Love is incredibly popular, and I’m not disagreeing it’s good. This list is for food that didn’t live up to our expectations – it may very well live up to yours.
The line was out the door when we arrived. We stood in this 40+ person line for 25 minutes and ordered online, getting to skip the line once our order was ready. If we hadn’t ordered mid-line wait, we would’ve been waiting another 20 minutes at least.
We ended up getting the “East Nasty” and “Princess” chicken biscuit sandwiches. Here’s the controversial bit: they were amazing. They really were quite good. The gravy on the “East Nasty” is to die for. However, the disappointing part for us was how fatty the chicken was. We had to pick it apart in order to find pieces to eat or we’d get a glob of fat in each bite. The chicken was not of great quality. It tasted amazing when you got a good bite, but that wasn’t often.
The biscuits were heavenly. If you go, I suggest getting the biscuit box with jam. I would personally avoid anything with chicken in it. After all, they are known for their biscuits, and they do them extremely well.
1. Caney Fork River Valley Grille (2 out of 5 stars)
No photo since I wasn't planning on writing this article and the food was not photogenic {at all}.
We wanted to avoid eating all the touristy food at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and instead decided to venture across the street to this place. Mistakes were made. We ordered their pulled pork platter and mac & cheese bites, and the “platter” was minuscule. We couldn’t see the pulled pork – it looked like mush. Granted it tasted alright, but it wasn’t anything special. The bites looked and tasted as they had just come out of the freezer.
A disgruntled family walked out as we were coming in, complaining about the impossibly long wait time, but we didn’t wait too long for our takeout – maybe 25 minutes.
Overall it was very pricey for what we thought was the worst food of the trip. It wasn’t terrible food, but for the price, it was bad quality. That said, you’ll probably still want to go there if you’re into exotic food. They are known for their crazy dishes with kangaroo, alligator, catfish, etc., and we didn’t try those. I have a feeling those are their main sellers, so don’t completely discount them. If you want an exotic food experience, they are a good option (probably).
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If you’ve had similar (or different) experiences with these restaurants, please let people know in the comments. All the locations on this list are promising but just didn’t live up to our expectations. If you want to see our favorite foods we tried in Nashville, see my article on the Best Tourist Food Experiences in Nashville, Tennessee.
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