Al Rasoul Market — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

Wow. First of all, there are a few bad reviews here on Google -- you can safely ignore those if you've eaten real ME/IQ/IR food in a real ME restaurant before. Even a cursory glance at the reviews shows them to be loaded - Hasan Ali and max millanov have exactly the same bad review, word for word, Doctor U and hasan Juboori are the same person, and Stitch Stitch Turn reviewed the wrong restaurant (Al Rasoul is not 'behind a strip mall). All of that aside, the food is very authentic, which means it's not what you're used to getting here in the states - it is, however, generally cooked on a wood-fired grill in view of the patrons, and it's served buffet style - you pick your rice, your meats, your veggies, soup, salad, etc. They have a bakery on premises that makes fantastic bread (you can walk through the on-prem butcher as well, right into the bakery where they'll be pulling it out of the ovens and the smell is heavenly), and the food is just fantastic. Braised shortribs (my favorite), lamb shanks, roasted chickens, all really good; potatoes, lentils, an assortment of soups, all really really good! Al Rasoul is the only place I've ever specifically ordered eggplant - theirs is fire roasted along with tomatoes and onions and Middle Eastern spices, and then all combined with olive oil - you can all that roasted goodness, tomato-y (it's a word) and spicy, and it's one of the best sides in town. I have no idea why anyone would complain about the speed - you walk up, and they start loading your food on a place as you point - I've never had it take more than 120 seconds between ordering and sitting down to eat. I have a feeling some of these reviewers went to some of the other nearby ME places, which are around the corner and down on the next block (where they are in a strip mall) - there are some interesting places there as well (Edessa springs to mind - excellent).

Don't be put off by this place from the outside - it's an old-school looking Middle-Eastern market and bakery that happens to also sell fire-grilled Win™ for lunch and dinner, and it's behind the U-Haul place on Nolensville (as opposed to a 'strip mall', lol). It's absolutely worth a stop for lunch, or to shop really authentic ME goods and...

Zero if it was a choice but giving a one star just to comment. My husband being middle eastern wanted to try this place. We almost didn’t find it because it’s on the backside of a strip mall. The parking was taken by the ones in attendance at the mosque a few feet away. Once we did find parking I almost didn’t find the door bc the facade was so overgrown with greenery and weeds, but once inside you stand around hoping someone will help you at the little buffet and have to ask them to give you a plate of food. Chicken or lamb with two kinds of rice, bread and some red sauce and beans. We opted for the lamb bc we could watch it being cooked. They also served some weird grilled ball which I discover as a whole entire tomato. A concoction of raw veggies in a bowl with lettuce and lime wedges was the salad (I assumed) but there was no salad dressing. We almost left but we were there from out of town and went by previous ratings on here ...and we were hungry and it was a holiday and no other places were open. It was so non sanitary..also was hot inside...Had a large fan but no a/c. Health dept would shut them down if they went inside. I wanted to get a bucket of bleach and a towel and start cleaning ...the woman that I assume was the owner’s wife was standing aimlessly in the kitchen doing nothing but watching him cook lamb skewers on the grill. I wanted to ask her why it was so nasty but refrained. The adjoining store was not much better. My husband wouldn’t even let me in the bathroom it was so disgusting I went to the truck stop a few miles down the interstate. One thing i must say to close is that it’s a total disrespect to the name of the prophet to call it Al Rasoul and be so unclean inside and to have the prayer rugs hanging in the windows as curtains....

I tasted their food in my friend’s wedding, food was delicious but everyone noticed that the food came to the reception VERY late, my wife and I asked where was the food from and decided to order food from them for our son’s birthday for 30 people so we called a week ahead to order the food and confirmed everything, then we called again the day before the birthday to confirm that they will make the food and what time it will be ready “they said 2pm” I arrived there at 2 pm asked for my food to pickup NO ONE knows about the order to the point I thought I was in the wrong place and asked “isn’t this Al Rasoul Restaurant”? They said “yes” and tried to sell me food for the 30 people with a totally different price and different food and I refused, and had to buy food from a different restaurant. That was very disappointing and unprofessional! To be honest their food is delicious, but catering is awful based on my two...