Audrey — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

This place has great potential. Big parking lot. Awesome decor. Neat dining area. Open view kitchen. Great waiter. The Lion's Mane mushroom was delicious, and the only redeeming dish that deserves praise for this outing. Now that i'm done with the Pros let's move on to the Cons. If there were a theme for this dinner it would have been "O' Flavor, Where Art Thou?" Let's talk portions. If your food has phenomenal flavor, and you give me a small portion I won't complain since my taste-buds will be savoring what I just ate, and contemplating if I should spend more to get another delicious bite. But if you give me a small portion, and there's no flavor then I feel that I've been taken advantage of, and mocked for making such obviously bad choice. So....My wife ordered the Audrey's Proxy which is a mocktail...and it was like drinking some herbal bath water that left a bitter and unpleasant after-taste. I tried the Sun-drenched tea, and it was a similar experience, albeit a little more sweetness, but still leaning towards bitter, with an odd after-taste. Those should have been our first clues. We started by ordering the Roasted Jimmy Nardello's that had AL peaches and VA peanuts in the description. When the plate arrived it was a thin outer ring of roasted red peppers, a puree of some type in the middle and a very light dusting of some crushed peanuts on top. I was still waiting for some peaches and peanuts to show up thinking that this was only part 1 of the dish. I was wrong. I'm guessing the puree was supposed to be the peaches, but it had no discernible flavor, not even salt or sweetness that I could detect. All of the flavors were...meh. Its as if they never considered adding any herbs or seasoning to the dish. Next dish, the Roasted Lion's Mane. It had great seasoning, decent portion, and a tablespoon of some bbq sauce that added to the dish. I liked it very much. Then we ordered the Shaved Ham and the Cornbread. The Shaved Ham was basically a tiny 6-inch round dish of prosciutto with maybe 6 paper-thin slices. The ham had some flavor, but it was basically the salt. Then came the largest dish of the evening the Cornbread in cast-iron skillet with a 2 oz cup of butter with corn bits. It was perfectly crisp and crunchy on the outside, and soft and fluffy in the middle, but there was no flavor. It was just bland. No salt or herbs or seasoning that tempted you to eat more. The butter itself was also bland, and just ended making the cornbread overly oily. Then the final dish, and the most expensive of the night, the Chicken and Dumplings. The server came to the table, and presented the dish. It was piping hot, and it at least looked like it was sprinkled in some herbs. There were 4 dumplings total with slivers of chicken hidden towards the bottom. My wife received 2 of them, and I received the other 2. The portion, or lack thereof, was maybe a little less than a cup and half for each of us. There it was again, the theme of the night, no flavor. Just bland dumplings, slivers of bland chicken, and bland gravy. The waiter asked about dessert, and we emphatically, politely said no more. Then came the bill, $140+. We paid, walked out, and sat in the parking lot for a bit, deflated about the food. Had the dishes contained some semblance of flavor maybe it would have been a vastly different dining experience. My recommendation to the staff: please taste-test the food and provide honest feedback...

It all started with an email alert that a reservation became available. At the time, I had no idea the extent of what was about to enter my mouth, but fate had more in store for me.

My date and I started with a few cocktails. The Honeysuckle resembled a Manhattan and the Jimmy Red was more similar to an alcoholic eggnog. They were good, but we decided to continue with the wine pairings as the dishes came out.

The first dish was great throughout. I’m not huge on beet flavor, but the beet was presented almost as a candy treat. Strong beet flavor, but could still pick up the cocoa and other ingredients. The chanterelle mushroom resembled perfectly rendered pork fat so it was amazing. That whole part of the dish (with truffle and tomme) was great. The sturgeon caviar on pine resin potato was salty and fishy so it was great. But my favorite part of that dish was the Bob Woods ham with apple molasses and hickory nut oil. If you like charcuterie style meat, it was very much like prosciutto, but better.

Second dish surprised me. One part of it was grits (which I usually don’t like) with what seemed to be a poached egg yolk (no white) on top. This yolk added a meaty taste that was delicious. I enjoyed the grits. The other half of the meal was a grilled sweet potato. Another thing I usually don’t like, but they did a great job.

Third dish was the Killed Lettuce and Onions. This got me curious. What is killed lettuce? Turns out the dish was a salad of deep green lettuce and onions with one delicious addition. It was a drizzle of liquid pork fat as the dressing. I couldn’t eat this amazing salad fast enough. My girlfriend told me to stop and breath. I’m going to have dreams about this salad for months if not years.

The salad was accompanied by a roll with tempered butter on the side. The butter resembled a white chocolate truffle, but it had secrets. Within its walls it held a parsnip jam. This pairing was so delicious that when the bread was gone, I just ate the butter by itself. Worth it.

For the protein of the meal we both chose the duo of bear creek beef. One piece was what seemed to be a cut of ribeye cooked rare-med rare. The second piece was some kind of sirloin cooked medium. The second piece tasted like it might have been organ meat (which I like), but I couldn’t place it. When I asked the server to remind me what the two pieces were, he said there were three and explained it, but I was still confused because the plate only had two pieces of meat and some squash with a whip made from a peach. So I’m still not 100% sure what I ate. Still it was good and the unidentifiable cut of meat I assumed was a sirloin was super tender and airy.

Dessert came with three plates. All were based on Tennessee apples. First was a pretzel bite filled with a cream. The sourdough of the pretzel was soaked with Juno gold apple prior to baking. Came with mustard. Second one resembled shaved ice. It was from Rome apple with a cream and what seemed like graham cracker bits in the bottom. Final one was a poached winesap apple slice with something I forgot to photo or write down. It was all good though.

All the wine pairings were great. Everything was well described and the service...

I feel scammed. I called and asked if there were any cancellations for June. Their “sister” restaurant, which is upstairs, had a listing for June with a telephone number when I looked it up on Google. Lo and behold, when you get there, they just seat you at Audrey. Even the waiters are in on it, as one of them proceeded to tell me that the menu, which was individually priced, was “their” tasting menu. When he asked me what I would like, I responded, “I have to choose?” He literally began to mutter something about how, with this tasting menu, you have to choose. At that point, I felt like I was being played, so I got up and went back to the host stand.

As I was explaining to the male host my exact language used when I called to make the reservation, he apologized and said, “It happens all the time.” He’s the reason they got two stars in this review. While we were speaking, another heavyset woman approached, interrupted us, and asked him, as if I wasn’t standing right there, “What’s the issue?” She put on a fake smile — which I knew was fake because she had no intention of helping me. She literally told me that I had two options: I could enjoy Audrey or go elsewhere. Rude as hell. I had canceled another long-awaited reservation to come to this place. Where else were we going to eat in Nashville on a Friday night at 9 PM? She knew we couldn’t go anywhere else, so that comment was completely unnecessary.

When I looked at her like she had two heads, she finally decided to check her tablet to see what could be done. My guess is she looked at my Resy profile and saw that I’ve dined at several tasting menu restaurants across the country—some of which I’ve even returned to two or three times. And let me be clear, those restaurants cost more than June, but they never pulled this kind of nonsense. Suddenly, as I’m back at my table reading reviews on Google, wondering, “What on Earth just happened?” I learned that this happens all the time. I was so embarrassed for my guest, who was visiting from out of town. Then, suddenly, someone from June appeared, saying they couldn’t squeeze us in, but could accommodate us on a Wednesday night. I explained that my guest was only in town until Sunday, hoping she’d make an exception, but she didn’t budge—like a Maytag refrigerator. She had this look on her face like, “We are soooooo booked.” Oh no, there’s no way they could seat us that night, but they could a few days later? That’s not really “booked,” so now I’m curious: why are they being so pretentious?

My date and I have been to restaurants where we specifically booked travel because we couldn’t get a reservation for nine months, and we ate when they said eat. We’ve done that before. Those restaurants are genuinely booked out and would never accommodate you three days later like these amateurs at June were trying to depict. It was obvious they were in over their heads, but why? She even offered me a discount for the inconvenience, which I declined. Ma’am, we’re not looking for a discount. Thank you, but just split the phone lines. With what you guys make, you could easily get a second line for the restaurant that’s...