Earnest Bar & Hideaway — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

My girlfriend recommended we go here for a romantic Friday night dinner, and we were not disappointed! She made a reservation which was a good idea since they were very busy. Also, they are known for their cocktails and we highly recommend ordering a couple, they're spectacular!

THE ATMOSPHERE: The restaurant itself is a very cool, romantic space. It's in an old warehouse and they have some of the original brick structure, and everything looks a little antiqued, but the space doesn't feel old by any means. It's dim lighting but not too dim that you cannot see anything. It almost has a bit of a speakeasy vibe as well.

The ambiance was slightly louder than I was expecting, but there was also a huge office Christmas party dinner and I know they were making the majority of the noise. I would expect normal, non-event hours to be a lot less noisy.

THE FOOD: The food here is good home cookin', with an upscale feel without being overly priced. We ordered the Fried Chicken Poutine and Crispy Brussels (pictured) for appetizers. I personally am not a fan of brussels, but let me say that these were very tasty and I would definitely order them again. They are covered in a tangy sauce and even had peanuts mixed in which gave it a unique nutty flavor. The poutine was my favorite out of the appetizers as it had deconstructed cheese curds (aka cheese curd sauce) and the fried chicken remained crispy even in the sauce, which had a wonderful hearty flavor.

For the main course, I ordered the KFC (Korean Fried Chicken - pictured) and she ordered Nicoletto's Potato Gnocchi, which were both absolutely delicious and plated beautifully. If you're wanting a fancy fried chicken dish, then the KFC is the way to go. The scallion pancake base soaked up all the wonderful gochujang honey sauce, and the spicy slaw had a nice kick without being overpowering. The chicken breasts (2 of them) themselves were very juicy and had a wonderful crunch on the outside. I would definitely order this again next time I go, and the portion is large enough to have leftovers.

THE SERVICE: The service we experienced is right up there with a 5* restaurant. Our waiter was very attentive without being overbearing, he knew the ins and outs of the menu and offered great recommendations based on our questions, and his cocktail recommendations were spot on. The cocktails themselves are pretty non-descript as they want it to be a bit of an adventure and mystery, and after telling him what we liked and didn't like he was able to recommend the perfect cocktails for our evening.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Hemingway's Bar and Hideaway is an absolutely terrific place to go if you're wanting to have an upscale place, wonderful service, and deliciously and beautifully plated food without having to pay an arm and a leg. This is a great place for a romantic dinner or a nice dinner with friends and family. We will...

I want so badly to give this place a great review and parts of it will be great. But, due to pricing and the okay food, I can only give it a 3. I have a couple of girlfriends that I have dinner with twice a year. We go to various places with various pricing. One of the ladies requested Hemingway's due to her office being in close proximity and tired of my normal "go-to" restaurants, we gave it a try.

First, the atmosphere. Fantastic. Really lovely and what I expected and hoped for. Second, the service. Again. Really great. As a native to Middle Tennessee and having lived in Nashville for over 20 years, I have seen all sorts of level of service. Our waiter was top-notch.

I cannot speak to what the others ordered, they liked it, but at least of of my dinner partners did not finish her meal. What I wanted did not come together as a meal. I ordered the Poutine first. I asked for the gravy on the side, but the waiter really recommended it come on top. I was afraid it would really be a gravy dish with a few fries. We all agreed the gravy was over the top when it came.

Crab cakes are all all time fave, so I ordered crab cakes (an appetizer) with a lettuce wedge (also an appetizer). I received 3 of the tiniest crab cakes I have ever seen ($15) that were overwhelmed by a lemon sauce (ask for it sans the sauce). A little lemon sauce is fine, but due to the amount of what I think was lemon oil in the sauce, it overpowered the delicate crab cakes. The lettuce wedge ($10) was tasty, but let's be honest, it was a wedge of lettuce with blue cheese dressing.

We all ordered drinks. I had a red wine sangria, nothing special at maybe $8 and we each ordered dessert. Mine was a strawberry shortcake. Meh.

With tip, I was somehow in for $70 and walked away feeling as if my family of 4 could have eaten somewhere really great for that price.

The following evening I had a dinner party and we discussed the restaurant scene with our guests, including a prominent real estate agent. His response was, "people really only go there for the cocktails" With that said, their lunch menu looks great and offers...

I am writing this in hopes that management sees it and can address the service issues because the food and vibe are still great. I made a reservation for brunch for two people on Friday at 11:30. I had been to this establishment previously for a bachelorette party and had an awesome time and enjoyed the food as well, so I was excited to come back. My experience this time was a complete 180. The restaurant was short-staffed, and I always tend to be forgiving of that because I have worked in the restaurant industry myself, but we were blatantly ignored by our waitress, while she tended to the larger parties much more quickly. She got my sisters drink order wrong twice, and we were as nice as possible about it knowing that she was overwhelmed. She barely tended to us and finally came back to check in when our food arrived (which was about 1.5 hours into our visit). At that point my sister asked for a different drink (screwdriver) to avoid further confusion, and the waitress took the incorrect drink away (which tasted like an irish coffee, but my sister had simply wanted coffee with baileys). We received our drinks THIRTY minutes later (the waitress had walked by us more than once and did not check in, even though we were clearly done eating). Once the check was brought to us, she had kept the incorrect drink on the bill. We were a party of 2, we were there for 2 hours, and my sister had one drink. Again, I understand that they were busier than anticipated, but in that case it may make sense to put walk-ins on a wait so the people who actually made reservations to be there could have a good experience. Hope this helps. On a happier note, the poutine benedict was...