Miel Restaurant — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

ELEVATED DISHES, COMFORTABLE SETTING, SEAMLESS HOSPITALTY

I’ve been eating at Miel for several years now, at least a couple dozen times all-in-all. The vision and commitment of its creator/owner, Seema, at which she succeeds consistently, is to serve great food while seamlessly making customers comfortable. That’s not in any sense by just serving “comfort food;” instead, it’s a very carefully crafted approach to how each dish is constructed, with equal, dovetailed care given to the setting and to each customer’s experience of the food and service in the setting. Food, setting, service, and customer care come together to form an organic whole (and that’s “organic” in its other sense, not USDA Certified Organic.), a whole that is qualitatively more and better than the sum of each of its fine parts.

The menu changes a lot, I’m guessing because Miel starts from their opportunities to source the highest quality ingredients, which has some unpredictability. They seem to start with a star ingredient for each dish, but then also make sure that each supporting ingredient is also fresh and flavorful. The influences are clearly French, Italian and Northern California Nouvelle cuisines, but there are also dishes not cut from that cloth that surprise. The wine list is carefully curated by the owner (perhaps with help from the sommelier who told me about Miel, one of the best sommeliers in town). Nothing has disappointed over the years. Everything ranges from very good to died-and-went-to-heaven good. I've been known to order and eat two different desserts. And that’s just the beginning.

The commitment to customer comfort at Miel means that many dishes are structured so that they can be adjusted to accommodate dietary restrictions, and yet still work. My wife is vegan, and has been well-fed every time we go to Miel.

Still, that’s not the whole story. There are many places in town that will adapt to dietary restrictions, but that’s not front-and-center in other venues’ approach to customer comfort. At Miel, the servers know what all the kitchen can adjust in most instances, and will volunteer it matter-of-factly, without any, “Let me go ask,” and also without any fanfare or theatrics. Customers feel special in a valued way that blends in naturally, with no risk of standing out uncomfortably.

And then there’s the setting, done in warm yellows and browns with lower lighting, that puts you at ease without drawing special attention to itself. I looked closely only recently, and realized that this location may well have been a light industry machining shop in its last life. The walls are cinder block. The floors are that kind of sealed concrete that’s used in shops and in warehouses, the kind that can withstand heavy things being set or even dropped on them. Notwithstanding all those hard surfaces that reflect sound, there are other materials that absorb sound so that, even when packed, hearing each other at the table is not an effort. There are some rectangular patches on the floor where a mill or a bandsaw might have been; and there’s exposed plumbing, with the tables and banquettes cleverly positioned so that the pipes are now foot rests. It’s an artful recycling of an industrial space—and you have to look closely to see that—into a setting for a fine, relaxed dining experience.

In sum, Miel manages to be equally and strongly focused on elevated food and customer comfort, and combines these elements seamlessly, without ever crossing the line into being cloying in any way. They make it all seem very natural; and yet, when you take step back to think about it, there are so many ways restaurants can and do screw that up, as to make Miel, Seema's vision and the team's execution a rare gem. It’s not the kind of comfort where you can count on some favorite dish always to be on the menu. Instead, Miel starts from creating an exceptional, often unexpected pleasure in your mouth, a different one each time, and then works out to enfold the whole person in a delightful...

My girlfriend and I dined here for the first time over the weekend. We were truly blown away. The manager was very warm and welcoming, in a genuine way that I find to be rare. The wait staff was very friendly, maybe a little more timid and less informative than you'd typically appreciate at this level of dining, but no real complaints at all and I'm mostly just trying to come up with something negative to say about it and honestly grasping at straws because it was a near perfect dining experience. There were times when it felt like they sort of disappeared, but to be fair, there were only like 3 of them on and the place was pretty much full. The environment was great, it's kind of a unique little dining area. The lit fire outside is a nice touch of ambiance, especially in the cold weather.

The food was absolutely phenomenal. This probably sounds corny, but the cheese board honestly expanded my range of what I do an don't like and I feel like I gained a new perspective on the art of cheeseboards. The duck confit was by and large the best duck that I have ever eaten. The lobster ravioli was an interesting and delicious take on the dish. I was hesitant to write a review because I think it is a hidden gem in west, but it would've almost been immoral not to.

Perfect for a romantic date night. One last thing, if someone isn't a "foodie" or really into food, I could see them not appreciating it and possibly being upset or underwhelmed for the price point, but if you have an appreciation of the culinary arts, it is a must try. My thanks to the staff and we will...

We went to the crawfish boil over the weekend. Incl all you can eat crawfish, potatoes, corn and sausage. My husband asked for two more sausages and another bowl of crawfish. No problem. When he asked for two more sausages, we were told we could only get an individual item once after the first serving. She said since we'd only had one bowl of potatoes, corn and sausage, we could have another bowl and take home the leftovers, but couldn't have just the sausage. The server said that she knew that was counters intuitive but that was what she was told to do. We were pretty much done at that point anyway, so we asked for the check. Three different ppl came to talk to us after that...a woman i'm guessing was the mgr, a male server and our server. It was explained that they didn't want to run out so they limited the all you can eat. We were also told that "chef" wanted to make sure the ppl coming in later were assured food. But I guess since not as many ppl came as they hoped, now he could have his sausage. After refusing, we got our bill with 18% gratuity added on. I asked about that because it said for parties of six or more tip would be added. They said it was a special event, so it was automatically added to all bills. I wonder how many patrons tipped on top of the automatic tip. And the server had less to do. A regular menu was not available, so she didn't have to take much of an order. They eventually took it off and I thought the server was only doing what she was told, but watch out for this place. They don't mean what...