Hawkers Asian Street Food — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

I've passed this eye-catching building many times when visiting Nashville, and finally got to stop today. The food was exactly as fresh and wonderful as I imagined it to be. Our server, Mikel, was super sweet and helpful when I was having trouble deciding on what to get.

The Coconut Shrimp was really good and not as sweet as it is at other places, but still delicious since it comes with a nice curry dipping sauce. The C.K.T was really flavorful and Po Po Lo's Curry was super savory with a good kick of spice.

It seemed pretty busy, but I still got refills and the food came out piping hot and in a timely manner. Will definitely be back to try more next time.

Update As I stated I would, I have been back multiple times since my first review. Unfortunately, this update has brought the score down slightly - not for the food but service seems inconsistent most have been great, however, the last few visits were lacking with the last visit being disappointing.

The last visit in December, we sat at the bar for the first time because I guess it was in the middle of a shift change and it would be a bit before a table was available. No problem. I'm a bartender and in my experience most bartenders have worked in the restaurant longer than most servers and I thought it would get those Matcha Lychee Lemonade refills to me a bit quicker.

Not only did it take quite some time to receive the drinks between the swapping of bartenders and stocking the bar/prepping for the shift, but the lady we had seemed to have a hard time answering menu questions like if she thought the Curry Laksa Ramen was more spicy than Po Po Lo's Curry. She said the curry was more spicy so I went with the ramen (fun fact: the ramen was definitely more spicy, delicious still, but a bit much for a sugar-fiend as myself). She also removed appetizer dishes without asking before we were finished as there were several fries left in the Penang Poutine along with the plate that had the peanut dipping sauce for the Shrimp Summer Rolls we were also still eating. Quite a bit later another person asked if we needed anything and was able to replace the peanut sauce while we waited on the entrees.

After receiving the entrees, she never came back to the side of the bar we were on to check on the food or refill the glass of water that had been emptied since realizing my delicious ramen was a bit spicy for me while continuing my mission to finish it. Not even seeing me take over my boyfriend's water that, thankfully, wasn't being drank much could bother her to come over our way. Mind you, the music is a bit loud around the bar area so it was a bit hard to request assistance unless they were next to us. Along with no water refills, we also weren't given an opportunity to order a second lemonade or another beverage since she didn't come back over until we were ready for a check.

We were celebrating a birthday that night and though we are a bit introverted so don't mention celebrations often while dining, we had plans to get multiple drinks to try and dessert after our meal, but decided against ordering anything extra since we weren't having as enjoyable of a time as usual. It was mostly disappointing because we drove over 2 hours to eat here...

I came to Nashville for a bachelor party. We were some Asians who can jam out to some country music, haha. The whole trip for 4 days, we didn't have any Asian food.

On a Monday afternoon, right before my flight to the airport, I found this highly rated restaurant near my hotel, so I had to get some Asian in me 🙃. Came here by myself with luggage. They seated me in an area where I can comfortably put my luggage and have some space.

The decor and the food brought me here, but what was even better was my waitress. Anna was the sweetest and most adorable person. She was bubbly and very friendly.

Ambiance: The neon lights with the wall art gave the place a feel-good vibe. Feels like I'm transported to a different city.

Food: I went with some happy hour menu items and an entree.

Happy Hour is Mon to Thu 3pm to 6pm.

Roast Duck Baos (4/5) -$6.50 The baos were light and fluffy with enough bite to absorb the duck. The duck was good. I think it just needed a little extra flavor or seasoning to make Chinese grease taste, but I figure it was tailored to more a Western palate, which is understandable. I was in Nashville! Haha

Korean Chicken 5/5 - $5 The sauce and the taste were delicious. I had leftover chicken with the sauce. When I got home back in San Francisco, I made some white rice and heated the chicken with the sauce back up. Bomb! This does some heat to it. It is thighs tossed in garlic gochujang.

Pad Thai 4/5 - $16

The pad thai came with both shrimp and chicken by default. This had all the ingredients to make it a great dish to try. It was one of the popular dishes. If the noodles had a little more char and wok fried taste with some fish sauce, it would be 5 stars for sure.

Capri Fun Cooler Drink: 5/5 Light and refreshing drink on a hot 90 degree day. Good mix in a street style bag.

Jo-He Bag of Donuts 5/5 ($FREE)

Anna hooked me up with a sweet treat before my flight. These reminded me of beignets from New Orleans. She was so nice! I saw a couple taking a picture with Anna. They had some high remarks for her service. They had to get a picture with her, so I decide to do the same hahah!

I would come back here to try the curry, friend chicken and rice plates next time. I just found out they have quite a few locations around the US. I hope they can provide the same level of service like Anna, but she would be hard to duplicate. This place has a nice outdoor area with a lot of food options. I wish I was with more people, so I could've tried everything.

Thank you, chefs, and of course, the wonderful Anna! Cheers and I can't wait to be back to try...

Hawkers is one of my favorite spots no matter what location I visit.

I’ve been to Hawkers in St. Petersburg, Florida and in Orlando and every experience has always been great.

On this occasion we came in and sat at the bar, the host greeted us at the door and was super sweet.

After taking a seat at the bar we were greeted by Mekyla who was an absolutely awesome bartender. We felt taken care of every step of the way and they did an awesome job walking us through suggestions and making some recommendations. We were also informed that it was happy hour which was awesome.

Happy hour consisted of $5 small plates, $3 off cocktails and half priced bao buns. Pretty solid deals.

We started with an order of edamame tossed in chilli garlic and an order of Roti Canai which came with some warm curry. Both items were incredibly good. I could easily put down several orders of either. The curry with the roti is a little bit spicy but very mild if you actually like heat.

We followed this with an order of Soup Dumplings that were also delicious. The dumplings are on the smaller side so pretty easy to eat. You can easily do one in a single bite.

After the dumplings we ordered two orders of roast duck baos since we each wanted our own, Korean fried chicken, the curry puffs and the Hawkers Delight with rice.

The baos were delicious, the duck was shredded and served with pieces of cucumber and some hoisin. Korean fried chicken was also very good, and very crunchy. The curry puffs were served with the curry sauce that comes with the Roti, somewhere between an empanada and a Jamaican beef patty in style, I liked these but my partner wasn’t super big on them. The Hawkers Delight was a mixture of veggies and peppers with tofu, tossed in a wok with with sauce and served with a side of rice. I personally didn’t try it but my partner loved it.

My partner had the Thai Basil Paloma, it was light and refreshing, not very sweet with just a touch of agave.

To finish the meal we had the Jo-He Donuts with caramel dipping sauce. These were also to die for. They were served nice and hot, in a paper bag and covered with powdered sugar. One order is definitely enough for two people. They were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Pro tip: pour the caramel over the donuts because when you dip it’s hard to get it to stick to them due to the powdered sugar

The whole meal was great and I would highly recommend going to Hawkers anytime. There’s plenty on the menu, the atmosphere and decor is awesome and the service is...