Thistle and Rye — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

Update 6/5/25: I wanted to share that after my original experience, the management team at Thistle & Rye reached out personally and invited us back for dinner at their sister restaurant, Blue Aster. Our dinner at Blue Aster was absolutely wonderful—both the food and the service were excellent, and they truly went out of their way to make things right. I really appreciate their responsiveness and the effort to turn the experience around. Thank you again to the team! I recently hosted a small work happy hour at Thistle and Rye, and unfortunately, my experience was deeply disappointing — enough so that I won’t be returning.

The day before the event, I stopped by in person to confirm that it would be okay to bring a slightly larger group for a casual, come-and-go style happy hour. A server assured me that seating shouldn’t be an issue around 5:30 p.m., and while a reservation was an option, it would require a $25 per person charge — which felt excessive for an informal gathering with an uncertain headcount. I opted to just arrive early and secure a table.

When I arrived the next day (Thursday), the restaurant was nearly empty, and I found a table that could accommodate our group. A server named Maree approached me immediately with a noticeably rude tone, asking if I had a reservation. When I said no and asked if that was okay, she replied “sure” in a way that made it very clear it wasn’t — then walked away without offering further help.

Despite there being very few guests in the restaurant, our group (starting with just three people, including my manager) was ignored for over 25 minutes. We watched Maree promptly take care of other tables who arrived after us while continuing to overlook ours. I eventually had to go up to the bar to ask if we could place drink orders — something I’ve never had to do at a full-service restaurant. Only once our CEO arrived and we had more people at the table did Maree finally return to take our orders — nearly 40 minutes into being seated.

The experience didn’t improve from there. At the end of the night, I noticed we were charged top-shelf prices for every cocktail, including mine — despite clearly requesting house tequila in my margarita. Instead, I was charged $25 per drink for Casamigos Blanco. A large automatic gratuity was also added (about $120), which I understand is standard for larger groups, but in this case felt undeserved. We were polite and respectful the entire time and received the worst service I’ve experienced in recent memory.

What’s most frustrating is that this event was meant to be casual and enjoyable, and I spent much of it feeling stressed and embarrassed in front of my colleagues. I’ve worked in hospitality myself and fully understand how challenging service can be — but this felt personal and dismissive, and I can’t justify returning or recommending this place after being...

This looked like a lovely place to eat and drink. We were unfortunately quite disappointed. Let me be clear that I used to work at a hotel with similar menu and atmosphere and I do understand how it can go but the restaurant was practically empty, yet it took forever just to put our drink order in. Online it looked like a much more extensive menu than the one we were presented with, so our dinner options were quite limited. Our waitress got my sister’s drink incorrect, and the only reason she didn’t ask for what she ordered was because it would have taken another 15 min just for her to get it. She was still charged for it though which is unacceptable. If you get the order wrong, you comp the drink, that’s just a basic understanding. Everyone in our party has worked in the restaurant business and some of us still do, from bartending and serving to management. I live in Philadelphia and I have never had such a poor dining experience from anywhere there. Yall can do better, a little more attention to detail would be paramount in giving your guests a lovely experience.

The sweet potato puffs were...

I have mixed reviews on the positive side the food was really good we got the spicy chicken lo mein and the pork belly boa bun and both were delicious!

The restaurant was pretty inside and out was a chill atmosphere!

What I didn’t like was that when we first arrived the hostess seemed very confused where to sit is and sat us without menus. When we did get them we were told they were the old ones.

Next I wanted on specific drink I had seen online that was flower infused/smoked at the table and I was told they didn’t have the flower so they just brought me the drink - it tasted good but I was looking for that experience.

Unfortunately also it wasn’t that busy and our serve although very nice and proper the food came out slowly there was another table with more people that got lots more food before we got our two small plates. Not sure if I’ll give them a try on the dirties I was very excited to come here and was left feeling just an...