Hand Cut Nashville — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

If I ever have a less than great experience my first attempt is to always send an email/feedback via the restaurants website before I post. I sent an email on 5-12-23 and have received no response so my alternative option is to post here. ————————————————————

I wanted to share our thoughts on our first visit to Hand Cut. My husband made a reservation on Tuesday 9th @6:15pm. When we arrived we opted to sit at the bar since it wasn’t busy. Overall the experience was good but, there are a few call outs that I wanted to share.

We were told there was live music all day-the main reason we decided to try the restaurant instead of going to one of our other places (Note: We live in Downtown-blocks away from the restaurant) We arrived at 6:05pm & there was no live music at that time until 7:20pn. In Nashville when you say live music all day there maybe is a break 15 min between bands but, this was at a min over 1 hour but, even possibly more since I don’t know what happened before 6pm.

We were aware that a beer convention was in town so when my husband ordered a craft beer he was told they were out which is understandable but, when he ordered a bourbon off the menu he was told they were out & this happened with two other bourbons. Totaling three bourbons off the menu and they were out of all three. He then asked the bartender (she was very nice) if he could walk behind the bar to see what was available. Yes, the restaurant is new but, 4 drinks (1 beer & 3 bourbons) to all be “out” was a bit of a damper on our experience. For myself, I would of like to have a more varietal of wine but, I can assume your catering to a more common wine drinker. All of the Chardonnay, Cabernet & Reds were Californian.

Our dishes were good (chopped meatball, harvest kale, onion rings) except for the smoked tartare which for us was ground so fine there was no texture left so it had the mouth feel of blob of paste.

The ambiance was quite nice & my best wishes for this location. I hope the kinks get worked out but, until then we will go back to some of our...

This restaurant was breathtaking, inside! The staff was amazing! And, the cocktails were beautiful as well! It's such a shame that the food wasn't good.

For drinks, we got the Waffle Cone Smoked Old Fashioned and the Tonica. Flavors for both were beautiful, and complex.

The Zucchini Fries were pretty good. They were crispy on the outside yet not overly breaded, or burnt. The only thing I didn't like about the Zucchini Fries is the sauce they were served with. It was too fatty and boring. Ask for a side of something else with more acidity, anything. You can thank me, later.

My boyfriend and I split the California burger which was overcooked and underwhelming. It took quite a while for the single burger to come out so we didn't have it re-made. The Honey Garlic Brussels with Bacon was good. That was probably my favorite dish, quite honestly.

They brought out a sparkling wine to toast and ice cream for my boyfriend's birthday. That was very thoughtful. The server even sang! It's a bummer that our server wasn't the one performing on stage. He has such a great voice and attitude! The live performers were so off-key that my ears felt like they were bleeding. That was honestly the worst rendition of Jolene I've ever heard (Sunday, July 9). I wanted to leave as soon as I heard them singing but we had already ordered. I guess the original performers cancelled and the slot went to the highest bidder. I still think that the performers need to be vetted if this is their process.

Overall, average food not worthy of the steep prices. Lovely cocktails. Great service--everyone from the host to the manager to the server was wonderful. I'm sure they would have been very accommodating had I wanted the burger re-made or a different sauce for the zucchini fries. I just like to try the food how it's meant by the chef to be served and unfortunately, it didn't hit all the marks. I'd only come back for drinks...

Hand Cut was overall a major disappointment. The food was mainly mediocre. The best thing we ordered was the wedge salad which was very good. The tomahawk steak was not good with little flavor and in about a third of the steak you could taste remnants of lighter fluid. The asparagus was not good and had a weird lemon sauce that didn’t complement it well. Brussels were average. I personally didn’t try the Mac and cheese but my dinner companions said it was pretty good but nothing extraordinary. The bread pudding was above average although the ice cream that topped it could’ve been better and higher quality. There was absolutely nothing that I tried that would warrant a return trip.

Now, the service was uncomfortable. One of the guys at the bar was really on top of things and super friendly. However, we kept having a weird bartender from the bar come to our table multiple times and try and have a conversation. It was clear he was trying to see if he could hit on our female friends. He even asked what our relationship was with each other. The conversation got pretty lewd and totally unacceptable for a nice upscale place. He then asked for her phone number. She said she’d leave it on the receipt so he would leave us alone (she didn’t do that obviously). It was just uncomfortable. I’m all for a server being friendly and making small talk, but we didn’t go to a nice place and drop hundreds of dollars to be bothered by a server trying to make his move on my friend.

The atmosphere was nice, and it is nice that they had someone playing a guitar and singing (at an appropriate noise level). Will not return ever. We have incredible places in town at similar price points (Harper’s, Gannon’s, Jeff Ruby’s, Hall’s, etc.). Unfortunately, Hand Cut falls very, very far behind these restaurants. There was absolutely nothing special, and the food...