lou nashville

The fine dining experience is like a dance. When everything comes together, from parking to service to food and even the restroom is lovely, it's a fun and satisfying dance. Sometimes one or two things are off, but the food comes and it's so delicious you forget about how hard it was to park. My husband and I live right down the street and went to Lou for the first time for brunch to celebrate my birthday, and unfortunately too many things were off and the dance didn't do it for me. It was a rainy day and people were double-parked in Lou's lot (which is tiny: be forewarned you need to show up early), so my husband had to circle the block and park down the street. Before he came in, two servers checked on me. After he came in, soaked to the bone, we sat and waited probably a good 5 minutes before the servers came back. Which wouldn't be so bad except we were sitting in the middle of the room, watching everyone else being served, and I'm looking at a soaked man who for some reason decided against grabbing an umbrella before we left the house, and it's already a bad start. Once the server came, I was like, Okay, now things will be better. But then the hits kept coming. They don't serve decaf coffee. Plenty of other dietary concessions like gluten-free and vegan, but no decaf. They didn't have the tartine, the one thing that appealed to me most on the menu. We did the sticky bun instead. It was dry and almost burned on the bottom. We ordered the crispy potatoes, but I didn't look up what "toum" is. Raw garlic whipped in oil. The potatoes were so strong I could only eat a few bites. But the pancake--it was magical. Definitely the brightest spot of the meal. It made staying in my seat doable. I know this sounds dramatic, maybe even like a large dose of "first-world problems." I realize I chose my dining companion and it's my problem when I can't detach from his bad attitude and have a good time in spite of things going wrong. But this is real life. These are the things restaurants are up against when trying to give patrons a good experience. And the overall combination of our individual experiences and choices and Lou's choices and circumstances on the day was less than desirable. We will probably give Lou another try because we could see their good intentions. And the pancake was out of this world. And the restrooms are truly lovely. But next time we'll bring lower expectations. And a second umbrella.

My wife and I visited Lou during our trip to Nashville and had pretty high expectations based on reviews we read. It didn't disappoint and we ended up coming back the next morning for brunch. Lilly our server was amazing. She was so helpful with helping my wife navigate through the menu since she is gluten free. She even brought us a menu she marked up to show us what items were gluten free naturally and what items were gluten friendly only. After we ordered rhey came back to ask if my wife had celiac and or if she was gluten free as a preference, which was really kind of her to check with us. They know that it can really make a difference with someone who has celiac. For brunch we sat at the bar because they were already booked up with reservations. So I recommend anyone coming without a reservation to arrive right when they open so you can get a seat at the bar (only 4 seats available). The menus here look to change every week so what we ordered may not be available when you come or check online, but when I emailed the restaurant a few days ahead of time and they were to send me an email with both of the brunch and lunch menus. Dinner: We ordered the crispy rice (GF) and golden beets & avocado (GF) for appetizers. Whole stuffed bucksnort farms trout (GF) and rack of lamb (GF) for our entrees. Chicory honey cake for myself (not GF) and hibiscus leaf sorbet (GF). Everything was delicious, creative, and we'll put together. I really felt like they were meals that top chefs put together on chopped. One recommendation is to get the chorizo on the crispy rice, it really added to the dish. Brunch: Japanese pumpkin & potato hash (GF), chocolate maple & buckwheat pancakes (GF), seasonal fruit, fennel rubbed bacon. Wow the potato hash was good. It had a whole layer of cheese melted and hardened over the hash and added a great texture and flavor to the whole dish. Also the pancakes... So fluffy and delicious it's no wonder they tell us it's a customer favorite here. We considered coming back one more time for breakfast before we left Nashville, but since it's our first time here we thought we would try some more restaurants out. However, next time we're back, we will definitely be coming to Lou's again