Rolf and Daughters — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

I hate giving one star reviews, especially when I really want to like a place. So I'm giving three stars for the service and atmosphere. But I have to say, the food I ordered was bad. I would say that maybe my taste was off because I was catching a cold, but food I had a little earlier tasted pretty darn good, so I doubt that was the issue. Then the people at the table next to us had similar complaints, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't just me.

I'll start with the good. Our server was very attentive and was constantly coming back to refill our glasses. I had mentioned that I was dehydrated, and she was on it. My glass was always full. The atmosphere was nice. It's a warm and comfortable dining experience. It's a relaxing place to enjoy a meal and the people you're dining with.

Vegetarian options - there were 4 appetizers and two mains. We opted for two appetizers: (1) sourdough bread with seaweed butter and (2) Stracciatella, potato, black garlic, meyer lemon. The sourdough was quite sour and the butter tasted like regular butter. Neither of us tasted any hint of seaweed in the butter. The stracciatella is a stretchy cheese served on top of the potatoes, with garlic and lemon. The lemon was overpowering. I think if they dialed that back and opted for a more subtle lemon, it would've been enjoyable.

For the main, I ordered Mafaldine, nettle, pine nut, pecorino. (The other option was Cecamariti, black pepper, cultured butter, which I imagine is just butter noodles. I wanted something different, which is why I opted for the dish I chose). My first bite was like a punch to the face. It was so bad I could hardly swallow it. To me, it tasted like someone spilled a shaker of salt on my pasta. I thought maybe that's was happened, so I tried from a different area on the plate. It was just as bad. I asked my husband to try it. He said he tasted an overpowering lemon, not salt. I don't know what the flavor was, but it was not edible. Two bites, that's all I could handle. Shortly after, the table next to us was complaining that their food was too salty and lemony, so I felt like it wasn't just me.

For dessert, I tasted a bite of this chocolate blackberry tart. The blackberries were somehow part of the chocolate. It was unique. Not bad. (More acidic food..). My husband said the salt on top was too much. He would've liked it better without salt. Luckily my bite didn't contain salt!

In summary, I had the really sour sourdough, followed by the too lemony cheese potatoes, topped off with the too salty/lemony pasta, and a bite of acidic chocolate-blackberry tart. This acidic combo made my stomach start to hurt. On the drive back, we got caught in traffic from the game, and I wasn't sure if we'd make it back in time. I thought I might be sick in the car. The symptoms passed within a half hour and I felt okay once I got into bed. I honestly think it was too much acidic food. A quick Google search shows that acidic food can irritate the stomach lining, causing digestive problems and upset stomach. I'm thinking that's what happened to me! It definitely wasn't food poisoning, so no need to worry about that. But I do think the food affected my stomach in a bad way. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, but then again I normally don't eat acidic like that either.

I know this restaurant has great reviews, and I will be willing to try them again next time I'm in Nashville. Like I said, I really want to like them. I wonder if it was just a bad night for the kitchen. (I say that because the table next to me was also complaining). I'm looking forward to trying...

My experience was back in October and I struggled with whether or not to leave a review but I figure better late than never because this was the single worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had.

We took the last reservation they had available on a busy Thursday night which was a 9PM but we arrived at 8-something with our fingers crossed and they were able to seat us early which we greatly appreciated. All was going well at first, our server was very knowledgeable. Between the two of us we ordered three rounds of drinks, two appetizers, and their sourdough bread. I should note that we are vegans, and to be honest their options for us were very limited. We had to omit at least one thing from every item we ordered but the food still tasted good.

For our entree, we planned on splitting their spaghetti. In hindsight I wish we had asked if it was big enough to split because when it arrived we were gobsmacked at how small it was. Before even taking a bite of it, we decided that we did not feel comfortable paying $25 for such a tiny serving (the GM later informed us that the serving size is 4oz cooked). We brought our concern to our server’s attention who then immediately alerted a manager. For the record, we did not want it outright comped but rather to exchange it for something else. The manager came and told us she would not be taking it off our bill because “our pasta is hand made in house and we’re very proud of what we do here. The price point is because you’re paying for the labor. There’s nothing wrong with the dish, it’s been prepared correctly and there’s not a quality issue so there’s no reason for me to take it off your bill.” Mind you we hadn’t even taken a bite of it. We reached a stalemate with her, so she left to give us a few minutes to “think about it” and when she returned we still hadn’t taken a bite of it so she gingerly dropped off a to-go box, our check, and a dessert menu “just in case.” What followed was 20 minutes of us awkwardly sitting there with the cold still-uneaten pasta and untouched check, while the manager and our server continuously came out to serve/check on the surrounding patio tables while purposely avoiding us. Our server never spoke to us again by the way, and we believe that the manager (who previously hadn’t been coming out to the patio at all) suddenly started to “help” him with his patio tables to keep a watchful eye on us and prevent us from walking out on our check. My boyfriend got fed up with this and asked for the GM, who FINALLY took the freaking spaghetti off our bill (but not in time for us to ever consider returning).

Conclusion: this place is overhyped, overpriced, and very self-important. I’m sure we would’ve had a lovely and unremarkable evening had it not been for the spaghetti incident, but I think a mark of a restaurant’s character is how they handle service issues. It doesn’t matter if the pasta was hand made on Mt. Everest by Tibetan monks if the guest doesn’t like it. Our bill was already over $200 without the pasta, was it really worth tanking our entire experience? That is a rhetorical question because clearly to...

The atmosphere of the restaurant is really nice once you are able to locate it. It may have been the direction from which I approached (just Taylor Street), but I was unsure if I was entering the correct place. With plenty of trees covering most of the building, I was left to assume the illuminated elbow of macaroni was leading me in the right direction.

Once inside it was easy to retrieve my reservation and be seated. We were seated at an individual table for two. We were immediately brought menus and water, and the server explained some of the dishes to us.

We ordered some drinks and food, which all came out quickly.

Louisa's Diamond (cocktail): This was like the baby between a whiskey sour and a mai tai, with less of the tart citrus from either. Very light cocktail, great use of Chattanooga 91.

Tan Linen Suit (cocktail): Very interesting take on a summer Manhattan. The nose of the drink was very light, but the palate was overpowered by passion fruit. It wasn't a bad thing. You learned to like it as you got to know the drink.

Cucumbers: This dish contained a variety of cucumbers. Some seemingly standard cucumbers and something I didn't know existed, lemon cucumbers. Personally, I despise cucumbers, but my partner likes them so we tried it. I still don't like cucumbers, but I enjoyed the scapes, pine nuts and fennel. The lemon cucumbers weren't so bad.

Squid: The dish contained mostly squid rings and a lot of morels. There was one baby squid in the dish, but I feel like it should have been two so both people could have some. You don't expect to eat the baby and suddenly realize it was the only one. The morels tasted like they were marinated for days. Way too much salt, completely overpowering them and making them almost inedible. There was a surprise addition to this dish, ice cabbage. It was a succulent that melted in your mouth. I would eat a bowl of just those.

Beef Tartare: The topping of smoked roe was a great touch to this dish. I think the portions of beef, roe and cheese all worked well together. The thickness of the danish rye was just right. This dish gave me one of my rare moments where I just stop chewing because I don't want the taste to leave me. This dish was the best of the night.

Fusili: This dish was supposed to have asparagus and egg yolk, but I was unable to find them The pancetta and pecorino were great and I enjoyed the green fusilli, but still felt like it was missing some of the promised items. The egg yolk may have been mixed into the sauce, but I can't be sure based on color and taste.

Ravioli: One giant ravioli with an egg yolk in the center. When you cut it in half, the egg yolk pours out into the bowl, giving you a chance to mix it into the sugar snap peas and sauce. It was an interesting and tasty dish.

Side note: You might get family style seated at the long table in the center, but it didn't look nearly as bad as Steve from Trip Advisor's excuse to whine painted it to be. You aren't that much closer to people than when at a...