E3 Chophouse — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

SUMMARY. This place is considered one of the best chop houses in Nashville, but I was unimpressed. While the food was good, and the ambience was cool and inviting, I do not think the experience rose to the level of being justified by the price.

AMBIENCE. The ambience was awesome. It had an open, upscale chic feel with high ceilings yet still managed to feel cozy and inviting. The building is relatively uninviting from the outside, which I like—especially considering once you enter and ascend the staircase you feel you're about to partake in a memorable dining experience.

VENUE. The venue is right on 21st in Hillsboro Village. Originally, I thought parking would surely be a pain; however, E3 offers complementary parking in the rear off the building off Wedgewood, which was incredibly easy.

QUALITY. The quality of the food was mixed. We had some Shishito peppers for an appetizer, which were very good. Additionally, the bacon-wrapped dates starter was absolutely delectable. For my entree, I got the surf and turf: 6oz filiet w/ lobster tail. The filet was perfect, but the lobster was definitely steamed too long and started to take on that extra chewy texture common with overcooked shellfish. The desserts were also underwhelimg, two of which (out of three) actually remained unfinished—a rarity for those in this particular party.

SERVICE. The service was mediocre. The waiter was polite, jovial, and informative, but there were several times throughout the meal when he was nowhere to be found. It's possible that, like most places currently, E3 is simply understaffed. Still, my expectations rise correspondingly with the price of the meal, and E3 under-delivered in the timeliness of its service.

VALUE. Given the tremendous expense was unaccompanied by an equivalent augmentation in food quality, I did not feel the value was good. We went to another restaurant the following evening that was half the price, and the whole party agreed the food was better at the less expensive venue. Another thing that really bothered me was the waiter presented the surf and turf option as a "special." However, when I looked at the price, the price of the "special" was identical to simply ordering the filet and lobster tail separately. I felt this was incredibly deceptive and beneath a restaurant of this stature.

TAKEAWAYS. The food is good, but not good enough to justify the high expense. If money is no object, and you haven't crossed E3 off your list, it may be worth your while. Otherwise, my recommendation would be to look...

I would like start by saying, we LOVED your food! However, the service we received was abhorrent! We arrived to your establishment and were greeted by a gracious hostess who informed us our table was ready. So far, we were off to an excellent start. We were seated and the atmosphere was excellent. The manager lowered the blinds for us so that the sun was not in our eyes. Adam, introduced himself as our service. From that point on there were service failures throughout the dinner. He took our drink order and said he would return with them. Eventually, he returned with water, but we were still waiting on cocktails. We asked for bread and he said it would be right out. Again, we had to ask a second time. By the time we received the bread, we were already finished with our cocktails. We then ordered another round of cocktails and he took our dinner order at that time. My sister and I ordered the filet with mashed potatoes and a broccoli/cauliflower dish. The other guests ordered the seafood tower, caviar, broccoli, mashed potatoes and a wedge salad. About 20 to 30 minutes later the caviar was delivered to the table, but still no drinks. We asked again about the drink order and he said, “oh, I forgot! I’ll put the order in now.” Then the seafood tower was delivered, but no plates. Adam finally delivered the cocktails and we reminded him that we needed plates. It took about 15 minutes for Adam to deliver the plates so that we could all eat at the same time. It is also important to note that the entrees were not brought out together. They were at least 10 to 15 minutes apart. Those of us that had our entrees did not want to eat until everyone was served. By that time, some of us had cold dishes. We then received our checks and noted multiple errors and that a 20% gratuity was added. I advised him of the errors and he said “I will correct them and see what I can do for you.” We were happy with that until he returned with the check. All he did was correct the error, but he did not try to recover the poor service. We did not expect the meal to be comped, but we did expect something! I advised him that I did not feel the service was worth a 20% tip given all of the service failures that occurred. Again, he did nothing. I eventually spoke with the manager and he comped one of the cocktails, but this was after waiting for Adam to do something. I had to seek out the manager myself. For this reason, I highly doubt myself or any of the other guests...

Okay... E3... They've been on my list since they opened but we just haven't made time to go. I'm glad we finally did and can confidently say that, based on my experience last night, this is one of the best steakhouses in Nashville.

They have been open since November 2019, just before you-know-what, and had all the same struggles as everyone else in the service industry, but over the last six months or so they've been able to make an incredible come back. A couple different GMs, a couple different chefs, etc, etc. That said, the team that is there last night absolutely seems to have their stuff together. We were able to meet several members of the staff and every single one of them was extremely friendly, accommodating, and helpful. Service is obviously the driving factor here and it was, in every way possible, top notch.

This is a high-end restaurant and the experience, obviously, comes with a higher price tag. That said, there were several things I noticed during service that absolutely elevated the experience and made the cost worth it for us. One was the interaction of the staff with their guests. The section of the restaurant in which we were seated was basically in the middle of the room giving us rhe opportunity to see most of what was going on and from what I could tell everyone was well taken care of. For us personally, our server (Sofia) and server assistant (Maria) were both engaging and knowledgeable, table-side exchanges with both Chef Steven and the sommelier (Dino) were professional but friendly, and we also had an opportunity to meet the new GM (Michael) who was beyond generous with his time and gave us a quick tour of the restaurant after dinner.

There were a few other things - like Sofia sharpening our steak knives at the table before presentation and Maria bringing a trolley to the table to box our leftovers - that were just nice little "extra touches" that made the experience better and I personally enjoyed the entire evening. We will definitely return. (Oh... Complimentary valet parking is also available. Not having been, I was a little confused on how to get there, but trust your GPS. It was right and I didn't listen. 🤦🏻‍♂️)...