Virago — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

ChatGPT You said: Can you polish this online review up... I'd like the tone to be disappointed. My fiance and I made reservations stating we were coming to celebrate our engagement. We were greeted upon entering, asked for the name on the reservation, the asked if we were celebrating anything (although it was already on our reservation). We were sat and shortly after, greeted by our server.

We started with a few starters...The starters were better than the sushi. We started with the spicy edamame, the rock shrimp, a lobster nigiri, and the spicy tuna crispy rice. They were all good but nothing that just knocked our socks off.

The sushi was sub-par at best. The fish didn't seem fresh and the rolls were tiny. The price and quality of the rolls don't align at all. We ordered a Smokey Heat and Truffle Shrimp roll. The tuna in the smokey heat did not have a fresh or high quality sushi grade taste and they either forgot the cream cheese or barely put any in there.

The ambiance was beautiful. Our only issue, which is NO fault of the restaurant was the group sitting on the other end of the room from us had a cackler. This girl was so loud and never stopped talking we couldn't enjoy the company of each other. We heard her entire conversation the entire meal. Oddly enough after that group left another group came in and was sat right next to us... we barely heard them talking. Just starting this to give an idea of how loud the cackler that was across the room was talking.

Overall, we were underwhelmed by our experience and have much better sushi for a fraction of the cost elsewhere. We love to get out in Nashville often and splurge on a nice dinner, but when you splurge and the food quality doesn't match it's quite disappointing.

Also want to note, we found it odd that they asked online and in person if we were celebrating anything, i guess for informational purposes only!? ChatGPT said: Here’s a polished version of your review with a disappointed but fair tone:

My fiancé and I made reservations noting that we were celebrating our engagement. Upon arrival, we were asked for the name on the reservation and then asked again if we were celebrating anything—something we had already included online. It felt like a missed opportunity, as nothing about our evening reflected that celebration.

We started with several appetizers: the spicy edamame, rock shrimp, lobster nigiri, and spicy tuna crispy rice. They were decent, but nothing memorable. Unfortunately, the sushi was the biggest letdown. The fish didn’t seem fresh, and the rolls were noticeably small. For the price point, the quality was disappointing. We ordered the Smokey Heat and Truffle Shrimp rolls—the tuna in the Smokey Heat lacked the fresh, clean taste of quality sushi-grade fish, and the cream cheese was either forgotten or so minimal it was undetectable.

The ambiance itself was beautiful, but our experience was overshadowed by an extremely loud guest seated across the room. Her voice carried through the entire room to the point where we could barely enjoy a conversation of our own. Once her group left, the volume difference with the next table was night and day, which really highlighted how distracting it had been. Of course, this isn’t the restaurant’s fault, but it did affect the overall experience.

In the end, we left underwhelmed. We’ve had far better sushi elsewhere for a fraction of the cost. We enjoy splurging on nice dinners, but when the food doesn’t measure up to the price tag, it’s hard not to feel disappointed.

Lastly, it struck us as odd that the restaurant asks multiple times—online and in person—if a reservation is for a special occasion, yet does nothing to...

I really, really wanted to like this place. I truly did. The atmosphere is great, valet parking, and the place is supposed to be lively.

Even after hearing from others that the service was very slow and the food wasn’t fresh by the time it came out, I still had Virago saved on a list of potential “favorites” and we were excited to have dinner here.

But I cannot give this place anything more than 1 star. The drinks took absolutely forever to come out (on a Monday night with reservations). I mean, forever.

In fact, they took so long that two people actually got up and left to go to another restaurant’s bar nearby, had cocktails there, and still came back before our own were ever served.

Even if the food will be late, it feels very awkward and unwelcoming to just sit and sit and sit, all without a single beverage ever being served.

But it got worse.

The food took even longer! It must have been easily over an hour and some change from the time we ordered to our very first roll coming out.

And then it got even more worse.

The fish in our rolls was room-temperature-warm, indicating that not only was it late, but it was likely made shortly after we ordered and just sat in the kitchen for the entire length of delay we endured.

We felt like gas station sushi was more fresh than the rolls delivered to our table, they were not even close to being properly prepared for prompt consumption and simply stale by the time we got them.

The fish was not anywhere close to being fresh. I would have been embarrassed to even offer it.

There is no way that sushi should have been served to anyone after it sat out that long. Any other restaurant would have recognized that the rolls needed to be re-made, and offered some sympathy to their guests.

But not Virago. It felt like this was just business as usual. No one there acknowledged the obvious!

With that said, I never give one star reviews and I’ve even worked in a high-end Los Angeles sushi restaurant myself, so I understand the nuances.

It can be hard to pull off a good experience if your staff call out or you get surprised with a busy night, but this wasn’t that.

This was an utter and complete fail. It was such a fail that we went out to ANOTHER dinner after we left Virago. Yeah, two “dinners” on our night out.

I’m honestly bummed that the place had so much going for it and I thought I had found “my spot” but not only was it not up to standards, it was far below even the fundamentals.

I can’t explain it but wish I was five-starring this place instead today. What a shame to have wasted a...

Sushi was sub-par, but the steak was great. Service started off strong, then went to not really trying, then stopped checking on us and completely ignored the fact that I piled dishes into our tray and no one picked it up for about 15mins.

More detail: Service: Started off strong -- poured for my fiance first, was kindly and polite, seemed attentive, but wasn't knowledgeable about the sake off the bat. Fell off -- accidentally poured for me before my fiance, apologized for it, then continued to do it during consecutive visits without apologizing. Not a huge thing, but it annoyed us that she knew etiquette (since she apologized), but decided to ignore it. Started to get bad -- I started off as a bus boy with my first ever job, so I generally will stack plates to make them easier to take away. The stacked plates were totally ignored! So many people passed by looking at them and not doing anything. We must have had every waiter/busser in the place pass us and not a single one offered to take it or ask if we were done (if they were unsure). I honestly wouldn't have been that offended if they were slammed, but it was not busy, and it felt like we were being left alone. Neither of us enjoyed having a stacked tray of plates in-between us for 15-20mins.

Food: Just to be quick: the sushi was pretty sub-par. I travel all around the country and occasionally out of country for my job and I can understand sushi being not as fresh in central states, but it was over-seasoned and over-done (too much going on / non-traditional). The steak was great and I wish I had ordered 2 of those instead, for us, with some select sushi/sashimi on the side.

Note: I still tipped 25%, be kind to your staff folks, even if they are...