The Alley on Main — Restaurant in Murfreesboro

February 2024: Sometimes restaurants make life difficult, especially when they post pictures of dishes I’ve never had or heard of. The Alley on Main is guilty, and I was there early to be sure I was able to try the new offerings.

Sat at the bar and Kailee got me set up with a water and an Einstok Icelandic White Ale…this is an exceptional beer and goes well with most any dish. I went for the new appetizer…Crab Coquille - Lump Crab. If you are a fan of crab cakes, this will BLOW YOU AWAY!!! This dish is loaded with tender crab meat, a creamy bechamel sauce, and topped with Panko bread crumbs. Just take your fork and dig in…you don’t need anything else.

The Shrimp Bucco Pasta arrived and the initial smell was incredible. The components of this dish…perfectly al dente pasta, sweet red bell peppers, small asparagus sprouts, and a light wine/butter/lemon sauce merged a lot of different flavors together but adding the breaded shrimp was the crown jewel to this dish. The seasoning/coating on the shrimp really pulled together the combination of pasta, sauce, and shrimp causing one of those “OMG” moments on my palate. This pasta dish would rank in the top three pasta dishes I have enjoyed…ever. They say it took them awhile to get these dishes ready for the menu, all I can say is “well done Chef”! The service here is always exceptional and Kailee took marvelous care of me.

Bottom line…this is the BEST meal I have enjoyed here at The Alley!!!

Updated to 5-Stars

August 1, 2018: I am a huge fan of raw oysters…LOVE EM!!! Now don’t for a minute believe that all oysters are the same…au contraire!!! While Gulf oysters are good there is a plethora of oysters out there to tempt and challenge your palate. One of my favorite restaurants…The Alley on Main has been touting some oyster offerings lately and I couldn’t resist. Sampled a half-dozen Rainier oysters and they were delicious. These are the type of oyster that go extremely well with a cocktail sauce heavy on the horseradish (here you add your own). To get the full flavor of these oysters putting a dollop of sauce on the oyster in the shell and slurping it all up… liquor and all…YUM!!! Honestly…a half-dozen wasn’t enough but these aren’t cheap…LOL

The many times I have dined at this place I have never tried the pasta, so I rectified that today. Went with the “The Meatball” which is a HUGE meatball that is a mixture of beef, pork, garlic, and cheese. The sauce has a solid tomato “bite” but still smooth and slightly sweet, with some chunks of tomatoes throughout the dish. What really impressed me was the pasta…perfectly “al dente” and no puddle of pasta water in the bottom of the dish. For a restaurant that touts their steaks and grill items, the pasta is a hidden gem in their menu.

January 2017: Arrived at 8pm for a late night dinner and they were still pretty busy. Had a very nice dinner here and was very impressed with the food and service. You can enjoy quality food and drink in a casual atmosphere here. When the weather is warmer they have outside seating along with music. The place can get a bit loud based on the configuration of the restaurant and can be difficult to hear at times. Enjoyed an appetizer of Shrimp Cocktail – six very large shrimp with a good cocktail sauce with a nice horseradish kick. For dinner we ordered two T-Bone and one Bone-In Ribeye steaks. They were cooked to order and were very flavorful. The sides ordered were Cabernet Mushrooms, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and Steamed Broccoli. Have to say all of the sides, ESPECIALLY the Broccoli was sharing size. You could have served four-people on one Broccoli side…LOL They had some good cocktail choices and the beer options were varied.

I will come back…they have a varied menu and want to try some of their...

We had family in for the weekend and talked about going to a wonderful restaurant we had been to before. It was Friday night early around 5:45 our group of four walked in with a wait time of 30-45 minutes per hostess. We decided to have a drink at the bar which was wonderful and the bartender as well. We asked if we could sit outside and one of the staff on duty said that would be find while waiting for a table. About 45 minutes later I walked up to the hostess stand to see where we were on the list. She said we are next to seat. We ask the waitress that was Outside if we could stay outside to eat and she said yes as long as the hostess calls your name completely understandable. Our name was called the waitress outside gave us menus and we ordered fried green tomatoes and shrimp cocktail. About 15-20 minutes our party placed our dinner selection. My husband order fish n chips and was told the restaurant was out. He then ordered fried shrimp. There was some sort of confusion when the waitress left our table to the placement of our meal choices to the kitchen. While enjoying our appetizers my husband’s fried shrimp can out no salad’s before this and not even the rest of our dinner. Yes my husband was upset so he said to take his meal back and off his bill. The owner (Christy) came to our table to let us know that we needed to leave. We tried to explain in detail about what had happened but she had already made her mind up. Alley on the Main was definitely one of our favorite restaurants But not any more. My husband is an owner/operator for two companies and has Never experience a situation like this before. We will not be back and if we are asked where to dine at it will not this place. Poor people and communication skills goes to the owner. I gave four stars for the appetizers we had four stars for the waitress and zero stars for the owner of...

We stopped here with friends while traveling through Tennessee, and had one of the best restaurant experiences ever. This restaurant qualifies as a "trifecta" in my book - Great Service, Great Food and Great Atmosphere. We started with appetizers, and they were super good. The Fried Green Tomatoes were plump and juicy and the Comeback sauce gave them a nice zing. The Shrimp Wontons were also a definite hit with our group....Shrimp, bacon, cheese, jalapenos....and a Cherry Mustard that was so good we literally asked for the recipe. Our steaks all came out cooked perfectly....juicy, flavorful and they were huge.....more than enough to bring home some leftovers. The crispy Brussel Sprouts (a house signature item) were ridiculously good. Two of us mentioned that we would literally sit and eat them like potato chips all night long. LOL The atmosphere is a casual, family owned place with a great menu offering steaks, seafood, pasta, salads, etc. They also have desserts, but we were so stuffed, we didn't order any this time. By far, the best thing about this place was our server, Hannah. She is an absolute treasure. She kept us laughing and joking (and well served) thoughout the entire meal. We will definitely request her when we go back again. We are happy that we have friends in the Murfreesboro area, because that gives us an excuse to drive two hours to go back to this amazing downtown gem! Definitely in our Top 5 best restaurant experiences...and we eat out A LOT, so that is...