Alebrije — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

If you're on the hunt for the best carnitas of your life—yes, life—drop whatever you're doing and get to Alebrije in Nashville. I'm not throwing that around lightly. I’ve been to Mexico for tacos, and I grew up in Los Angeles, the undisputed taco capital of the USA. I’ve had street tacos at midnight in East LA, backyard birria in Jalisco, and al pastor sliced off the spit in Mexico. But nothing—and I mean nothing—prepared me for the carnitas at Alebrije.

These aren’t just carnitas. They’re slow-cooked magic: melt/fall apart tender, juicy, perfectly, slowly cooked in lard/fat which makes the meat explode with deep, rich flavor. It’s the kind of dish that makes you pause mid-bite, reevaluate your life choices, and wonder why you’ve accepted anything less until now.

Also the Un-sung hero of the taco the thing literally holding it all together? The tortilla. It's a fresh, made to order corn tortilla made with real corn from Mexican corn farmers and it's a corn you never have had I your life. The tortilla is just important as the meat or salsa verde. The flavor adds to the flavor - doesn't overpower the other bits and holds up to the insane amount of juice and fat that will seep from the meat as you eat.

The vibe? Electric. The space is vibrant, modern, and industrial. You don't need to dress up for this place - you're coming for the food.

The service? On point. The team behind Alebrije knows exactly what they’re doing. They're passionate, fast, and genuinely proud of what they’re serving—which they should be.

Listen, Nashville has no shortage of amazing food, fantasticbrije is in a class of its own. This isn’t just a must-visit—it’s a must-return-as-soon-as-possible.

Rating: 6/5 (Yes, I’m breaking the scale—just like they broke my expectations) Pro tip: Go for the carnitas, stay for everything else.

We spent time speaking to the owner and this is a message to him keep doing things like this, and you will smash the competition. Seriously. Make a new location in Daas. Specifically in Little Elm or Frisco, TX. That way we can get our taco fix from you every week or 3x a week if...

Food was just alright, but disappointing because I heard of the restaurant from NY Times best restaurant list for Nashville.

We got the carnitas tacos, al pastor tacos, and shrimp sope. Each dish was $14.

The carnitas were fine, but the meat was a little crispier (thus harder) than I would've liked. I wish the al pastor tacos had more sweet or sour to cut the fattiness of the meat. Maybe a heavier topping of pickled onions would help. I would also suggest providing more than a quarter lime for every 3 tacos. The shrimp sope was okay. I liked that the lettuce gave the dish texture, but the overall dish tasted bland to me, mostly due to the lack of seasoning in the blue tortilla bottom (I don't think it was salted or seasoned).

The service was also lackluster. The server was originally very friendly when seating is and taking our order, but never checked in on us. I wanted to ask for more water. We waited a long time to pay after receiving our check, and when she picked up our credit card she seemed surprised. After she had already swiped our card, she told us that we would've gotten a discount if we had paid using the QR code on the receipt. She did not mention this when she gave us the check or when she picked up our credit card. Overall, the service felt unwelcoming.

They do validate parking. Make sure to use their QR code to pay for parking.

I was hoping to find a Mexican taco place similar to the style of LosTacos No. 1 in NYC, but the food just didn't have the flavors I was looking for. I'm glad others enjoy the food, but I probably won't come back since there are a lot of options in...

We stopped while traveling. We definitely didn't have the same experience as others in the reviews. We came at about 9:25 and asked if they were still open and serving food. One of the servers said yes, come in we're open until 10:00. After a few minutes, another server came to the table and we began ordering. He says, we're out of everything, we were busy earlier. Now, I should've followed my 1st mind and left to go to the taco truck across the street but noooooo we had ordered a juice and stayed. The only thing he could offer was El Pastor tacos and birria tacos. That's it. For 6 tacos and a cucumber lime drink our bill was 38.00. I wouldn't be chapped about this if I had experienced a 38.00 taco visit but we didn't. They were in there cleaning and closing up banging pots and running around to leave. Which I get; if you're closed and out of everything on your menu, just say that. I get paying for good food, good service, a nice environment and this was not that vibe, at all. We felt uncomfortable and unwelcomed after we sat down. So, if you go late, ask if they're out of their listed menu items, if they're running around cleaning and washing the pots, go across the street. We walked over there afterwards and they had a similar menu and people were picking up take aways and eating outside. I was sad we didn't go to the truck after I saw...