Yolan — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

Overly impressed with the service and attentiveness. The sommelier, Thomas, was perfect! and there was not one wine my wife and I did not enjoy. However the rest of the experience was very UNPLEASANT.

My wife and I were enjoying our 6th anniversary and both had the 8 course tasting menu. While we have had many tasting menus in the past all over the country this experience did not live up to the hype.

First off, the reservation process ONLY ALLOWED us to make a reservation for the tasting menu and specifically said that the A La Carte menu was SOLD OUT. In addition, in order to make the reservation we had to give a 50 dollar deposit to hold it. What I did NOT realize was that it also prepaid the entire cost of the tasting menu.

I found it odd that we had to prepay for a meal before we even had the chance to sit down at the restaurant. Once we got there we asked if we could switch to A La Carte for my wife, which they agreed with a stipulation, but by this time we already felt extremely pressured into having the tasting menu. I am not sure why a place with the reputation such as the chefs at Yolan's needs to pressure their guests and prepay for meals. RED FLAG.

However, being in a celebratory mood we went ahead with the tasting menu despite our best judgment. BIG MISTAKE.

For being the first day of spring, the menu felt very fall. The first FOUR courses were root vegetables, TWO root salads, a beet risotto and a pumpkin pasta. The risotto and pumpkin pasta were very delicious (albeit out of season) but the portion was adequate for the value. The salads left a lot to be desired, nothing special or award winning. Why was there no protein, like prosciutto, in the first two courses?

And after 4 courses we were craving protein and still extremely underwhelmed plus very hungry. Not to mention the time between each meal felt like at least 15 mins or more. But again it's worth mentioning that each wine pairing was spot on and perfect. You get a full glass of each wine so the value of wine is great, but again the value of food is mediocre.

Our first protein was the lamb ragu pasta! The star of the night also paired perfectly with our favorite wine of the night. The plate was again very small and really just a spoon full of pasta albeit the lamb was extremely favorable. Upon finishing we immediately craved more. It was at this point when it was clear we had made a mistake, and would have been better off going a la carte. However, see above as to how we felt pressured and overwhelmed to go through with this average experience.

Next up was the trout. Again a very fall/winter protein which felt out of season. There was a fishiness to the taste and the both of us did not finish it. Still feeling hungry we were hoping the wild boar would be the GRAND FINALE we deserved. However, it was more like rain on our celebratory parade featuring the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile.

Having had boar in many places around the world I was excited to experience it again, unfortunately this was prepared more like a chewy pork chop, and the presentation looked more like my mom's bologna and eggs (that I ate when I was 4 and never after).

Also to top it off we even added to the menu by trying their wagyu beef cruda, which was unmemorable and flavorless. Sad, sad.

Very tipsy we were in high spirits leaving having our exquisite dark chocolate, espresso dessert, something again we would have gotten had we just ordered a la carte. But other than the lamb ragu I would not recommend one thing from the tasting menu to my friends.

Wishing we would have gotten to try the truffle gnocchi or the veal chop, but instead we left the experienced feeling underwhelmed, ripped off (IT WAS OVER $600 BUCKS!!!!!), and hungry.

ALSO, I find it extremely distasteful for the chef de cuisine, Joey Fecci, to prance around shaving black truffles on patrons gnocchi while we spent over 600 bucks eating a bologna sandwich with a side of root vegetables and he didn't even stop over to ask how our meal was? Maybe he...

AMAZING FOOD, DISQUIETING HOSPITAL-ICU PACING

From 5 (great) down to 1 (awful), from best to worst

FOOD – 6

The food at Yolan is fantastic. The truffle gnocchi made us weepy with deep pleasure, perfectly balanced flavors and meticulous execution, topped with a very generous portion of black summer truffle, shaved table-side. Everything else was excellent; there wasn’t a single off note food-wise, all evening. Buon apetito!

THE ROOM – 3 or 4, depending on your preferred noise and activity level.

The space is large and attractive. The booth stayed comfortable for over 3 hours. Sound-wise, all the surfaces are very reflective, so at 25% of capacity it’s already pretty loud. The management then enhances the optics that this is a busy happening place by putting everyone close together, while leaving the other half of the room empty. Lots of staff constantly going back and forth.

SERVERS – 3’s and 4’s, depending on the person

At least 7 different people were doing something at our table on and off all evening. Each of them was over-trained to be “attentive,” but in a performative way with a forward, frenetic edge that constantly drew attention to its own “attentiveness.” Worse, the staff were attentive only to features of our table, not to us and our experience: The water isn’t filled to standard, there are crumbs on the tabletop, etc. Staff acted with no pause or concern that they might be interrupting, which they did constantly. Not at all their fault, the uniformity of demeanor across so many different staff says that this is what management entrains and demands.

PRETENTIOUS WINE LIST – 2

Maybe 10-15% of what’s listed is priced at under $100. There many places in town with equally fine food with much, much better wines in the $60 - $120 price range. The wines under $100 were chosen to be mediocre in a way that sends the message, If you’re selecting one of these, we don't want you here, please don’t come back.

THE SERVICE MODEL – 2

Over 3 hours, we never went more than 5 minutes without someone showing up at our table, interrupting without pausing to do something performative. It became our running joke of the evening, that this felt just like being in a hospital, someone doing something intrusive every time we were just getting comfortable … Guess our blood-pressure needed to be taken, Guess our IV needed checking, Guess our catheter needed changing... Ever few minutes, something mechanically done AT us, but not attending to us and as such not at all organically flowing with us.

THERE WAS NO SINGLE POINT OF OWNERSHIP OF OUR EXPERIENCE, no one coordinating the too many folks doing too many things at our table too often. Too much exacting training for how to carry out every service action and with what demeanor, yet nothing about how to read a table.

THE GUY AT THE FRONT – 0.5

The person who greeted me (dark brown hair and full beard) clearly takes it on himself to decide who does and doesn’t belong. (Albeit a bit shaggy, still I was wearing about $1.5K of casual clothes.) Although Yolan’s system had texted, I’d confirmed and the system texted back, this guy pretended not to find my reservation. He then tried to seat us in the bar, even though it was early and the dining room was empty. When I asked for a table in the main dining room, he acted put out as though he was doing me a special favor.

BOTTOM LINE

If you can shut out the room and focus entirely on what’s happening in your eyes, nose and mouth, Yolan offers one of the finest culinary experiences in town. Alternatively, if you’re a self-important executive who no one likes working for, who cares only that restaurant staff are demanded to behave exactingly like subordinates and you don’t mind that it’s mechanical and without authentic regard for your experience, Yolan is for you.

As for us, it was amazing food in a relentlessly disquieting setting. The talents who create this fine food deserve much better for their creations than the dining room into which...

It pains me to write this review. My husband and I attended Yolan last night for his birthday after several recommendations from friends.

Atmosphere: The restaurant was located on the first floor of the Joseph hotel, just on the other side of the lobby. It was a very large and open room. The atmosphere is the opposite of cozy or intimate. It feels like it is just a lobby of a hotel that cold be in any city and how to say... BASIC

Service: I loved our waiter William, he was very attentive and helpful! He recommended a wine from the information I gave him and it was PERFECT, we purchased the bottle and our glasses stayed full all night. I will say that as the night went on, it did get very busy and there began to feel like larger and larger gaps in the times that we saw him. Which is not his fault at all. But to be honest, I was just kind of bored while waiting in between courses bc the gaps of times were so large. He personally deserves 5 stars, if was able to spend more time with us I know he would have, but he was very busy.

Food: First they bring out bread with salted butter and olive oil. I loved the bread, definitely don't sleep on the bread if at all possible. Then we had ordered the "caviar no caviar". This was excellent. The prosciutto is amazing, but to get the caviar it is an extra $195. (Sheesh). Then our pastas came, we ordered the gnocchi with black truffle and the spaghetti with sea urchin, caviar and chives. The gnocchi was just ok, definitely had better, honestly could probably make it better... the spaghetti was great but neither items seemed hot. The gnocchi is $65 and the chef comes to shave the black truffle on the pasta at your table, but unfortunately even with all of the black truffle, the gnocchi was just ok. Then what seemed like several hours after the pasta, we received the bistecca (steak), which we were very excited about. However, we were immediately disappointed when it arrived cold. This dish is $160, and even though it looked beautiful, it was cold. I know that steak needs a good rest before slicing it, but it seemed like it has rested for awhile post slicing. The piece that I tried, had a ton of gristle and fat. I didn't finish eating the one tiny slice. My husband also ate one slice, and he normally has a very large appetite, so to me, this was a tall tail sign something was up. The whipped potatoes that come with the steak also came with shaved black truffle. It seemed like the black truffle is used as a disguise for the actual taste and texture of the food. The potatoes had a weird gummy texture that you get when potatoes are blended. (To be fair, my husband disagreed with me on this)

When we alerted our server to the issue about the steak, our server was super kind and understanding. They did give us 25% discount on the steak and comped our dessert, but unfortunately, it was all still a big let down.

It was only he and I dining and our bill was over $400 with the discount and the comped desert.

All in all: great service, disappointing atmosphere, even more disappointing food. The quality definitely does NOT match the cost. Just my humble opinion... Hope this helps...