Noko — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

AN EASY 5 AND THEN SOME

To put it directly, the food here is stupid good. It took me completely by surprise, is very different from anything I’ve had here in Nashville. The ingredients are all very fresh, and the combination of Asian influences very deft. Two of us took our time and ordered nine different dishes, and all were amazing. Noko is a clear example of how much richer and more expansive the food scene is now than when I moved here over 15 years ago.

It would be easy to point to the big, open fire place, which adds both to the ambience and to the flavor profiles in several dishes, both of which I love in a restaurant. But that would miss what I think makes the food here really special, namely, the respect and careful treatment given to the vegetables.

My wife is vegan, and while many of the preparations are not, Noko gladly left off ingredients or sauces that are not vegan. Well, left off isn’t quite accurate; they served those elements on the side, so that I could, with a little dipping, have the full experience, while my wife had the vegan one. What was really striking is that, without those sauces, I found the vegan dish every bit as good … a different dish to be sure, but every bit as good, as able to stand on its own, as the intended non-vegan version. The only sort-of exception was the crispy potatoes where, as good as the potatoes were on their own, the honey butter elevated them further. (I say this not only as someone who is not vegan and has never aspired to be vegan, but also as someone who generally does not like vegan cuisine, finds it too self-congratulatingly “healthy” tasting.)

That the vegetables work well two ways, vegan and non, not only reflects a respect for vegetables—and vegans—that, while more common in Asian cuisines, is too often an afterthought in many western preparations and restaurants; it also speaks to the care with which the flavor profiles at Noko are constructed and layered.

That’s not to take anything away from the non-vegan dishes. I had both the tuna crudo and the half-chicken, very different dishes and both excellent. Also, the sake list is quite varied and well-described—I had a fine one. The only thing missing pretty much every place in town are sake choices from Nigata prefecture (Hakkaisan, Koshi No Kanbai, Setchubai would all be great additions).

You’ll eat and drink very well here, and if you let yourself, as we did, you’ll eat a lot.

And then there’s the service.

Our server was friendly without being intrusive, and kept our meal flowing smoothly. We indicated what kind of pacing we wanted, and our server set the right cadence. He made it easy for my wife to be vegan, went and checked-the full list of dishes that could be adjusted, which came to more choices than she could eat at a sitting, even with me sharing most of them.

As importantly, the manager was on the floor, not just chatting customers up but also working right alongside everyone else. No task was below him; he bussed and reset tables, answered questions, ran a few dishes, in addition to making folks feel welcome. That kind of servant-leadership makes for a very good vibe. Similarly, the head chef responsible for creating all the dishes was working the wood-fire grill in the open part of the kitchen.

We’ll be...

This restaurant came highly recommended from friends and we also saw a great write up in Eater. The menu also looked very promising but after actually going, I’m left confused as to how this restaurant is so highly reviewed. Service overall was fast but the downside to that is while fast is good feeling rushed isn’t and that’s kind of how it felt. One truly weird thing that happened to us was our server spilled water on our table and just kind of left it there for the entire meal. I can say I have never seen this done at any restaurant I have ever been to before, so that was truly strange but also our server did have a busy section, so I can rationalize why she never came back to clean up the spill. However, we also had several food runners drop off food and none of them bothered to wipe the table down - even with them switching out our plates. Again, just kind of odd from a service perspective as this meant our food was served on a wet table the entire meal. This wasn’t world ending but also did not make for a great dining experience.

For our meal, we had the lobster bao buns, blue fin crudo,wagyu tartare, lettuce wrap, crab fried rice, and Korean bacon. The food itself was pretty lackluster with no real standouts. Execution on some of the dishes also really missed the mark.

The tartare was the best of the bunch and it was definitely solid. The nori wrap was a nice twist on the tartare but the Korean bacon was painfully dry and was served with these two sauces that didn’t really seem to go with the dish and also didn’t really add anything to it either. If anything those two sauces hurt the dish and made it less enjoyable. I won’t say it was horrible because we did eat it all but it was also objectively not great. The lobster bao was also a bit strange. Flavor wise it was fine but it isn’t really what I would consider a bao bun. It was more like a brioche bun, which isn’t bad but again not really a bao bun as one would expect. The burnt ends were served in a sauce that overpowered the meat and became harder and harder to stomach as you got through the lettuce wraps. It just kind of became clawing and a struggle to finish. The crab fried rice had next to no crab. Calling it crab fried rice is definitely a stretch as I’m guessing it came with less than an ounce of crab. If you’re going to call it crab fried rice, I’m of the mindset you should have more crab than egg in the dish. The lack of crab was a disappointment but it was also soggy and didn’t feel as though the rice was ever actually fried. The redeeming aspect of Noko was the cocktails. All of our cocktails were truly delicious but the meal itself wasn’t great. However, it also could have been much worse.

Overall, the hype doesn’t match execution for Noko and we probably won’t be coming back anytime soon but I’m still glad we tried it once and maybe if they tighten up on execution for the BOH and FOH as well as switch up some menu items, we’d be happy to give them a second chance but for now...

I typically don’t leave reviews for restaurants unless it is truly heinous or somewhere everyone should experience. If you are in Nashville; Noko is a place that you should make a reservation for to experience. (Definitely make a reservation it is hard to get a table for 4 on a Saturday last minute there.)

My husband & I were lucky enough to join our daughter & her husband for dinner at Noko this past Saturday (12/14/2024). From the moment we opened the doors & were greeted until we left Noko with full bellies, our experience was amazing. We haven’t stopped talking about the food, the establishment or our experience since then.

Each member of Noko staff, who stopped by our table to serve us or we encountered during our evening there, took the time to introduce themselves & ensured we had everything we needed. I am very horrible with names - I truly apologize in advance to the woman who truly helped make our evening so memorable - our server was a very tall woman with longer medium reddish brown hair, pale skin and a very kind engaging smile. She was wonderful. Explained the menu to us, encouraged questions so that she could clarify anything before we took our time looking at the menu for our choices. I am sure she didn’t expect us to order as much as we did…but we enjoyed every bite. Looking around as other servers conversed with their patrons, this is typical service at Noko not a unique one time event. When you dine there the staff go out of their way to ensure you are enjoying yourself, understand how the menu works & how the plating will arrive to you.

While we didn’t meet any of the Chef’s at Noko - our gratitude goes out to them for making a truly memorable meal. While I don’t eat fish or seafood; my daughter, Son in law & husband haven’t stopped talking about the triple crudo & how it was so interesting to try each fish like that. Being from CA & AK, having eaten a lot of fish they were very impressed with the dishes. But for me…I would fly back to Nashville for those Burnt End Wraps. Easily a perfect bite (without the Thai basil) each time. The Szechuan Green Beans, Burrata, Bone Marrow, Duck Bao, Dumplings, Crab Fried Rice, Tuna Crispy Rice & Wagyu Tartare were all amazing.

But the dish we all had the most fun together on was the A5 Wagyu Teppanyaki. It was expensive as we splurged & got enough for everyone to have an ounce. The only suggested improvement I could possibly offer is this: maybe when your staff does the mid meal clean up of customer’s table. When bringing out new plates & chopsticks - if a table has ordered the Teppanyaki add the pink & black salt to those plates too. This way they won’t be sitting on the struggle bus we were in trying to add it to our A5 constantly having to turn that stone from 1 side to another.

I can’t wait to return to Nashville to try more of Noko’s menu & another round of those Burnt End...