Peninsula

Incredible food and service. The food is so original and tasty- unbelievable really. And the family run business has unique charm and sophistication. Each dish was so unique and fresh- all the way to the mouthwatering dessert.

Still thinking about dinner here the next day -- and probably will be for a while, with hopes to return!

I imagine for some folks, the bare-bones menu or the more experimental combos of ingredients might be a turn-off. But if you're used to more adventurous/modern dishes, or want to be pushed out of your comfort zone, this is a great spot. (It reminded me in some ways of one of our favorite restaurants in the world, Berbena, in Barcelona.)

Our favorite dishes of the menu available in early August 2023:
Cucumber
Chewy rice (pictured)
Scallop
White chocolate dessert

My go-to cocktail is a gin & tonic, so I'm always pleased to see a place that goes deep with several flavor options/a whole G&T menu.

Service was warm and helpful, with Kelsey taking the lead and others pitching in. We didn't even feel too weird showing up at 5:00 for an early-bird dinner and being the only diners inside for a while. And, being a block off Gallatin, free parking was pretty easy to come by.

I'm giving Peninsula five stars because of the crazy amount of creativity. I went with my fiancée and we sat at the bar. I like the dim lighting and the chill atmosphere.

The "Gin & It" was super good and a super different cocktail. A sweet/salty flavor. The bartender was very nice & informative and he seemed to really love talking about the food and all of the dishes.

We started with the Cranberry broth and honestly, I think that's my favorite thing on the menu. I wanted eight cups of that delicious stuff and a much bigger bowl. We tried the Endive next and just couldn't help but laugh at the fun and creative presentation when it arrived (It almost looked like a creature lol) but it was actually really delicious, a must try! We then tried the smoked scallop & wasabi. I loved the wasabi sauce - I think they used olive oil and wasabi to create the sauce? ... Flavors that I've never really imagined together before but holy crap it worked and was so good. I wanted to lick that sauce off of the plate when I was done. The smoked scallop was super super tasty - i think our only thought was that we would have loved a little more texture in that dish but I'm not a chef... so I won't pretend I fully know what I'm talking about. My second drink was a Negroni and it was perfect, my bartender obviously loves Negronis as much as I do.

We tried the beet and while it had a lovely flavor, it wasn't our favorite. I think next time I come, I'll try the octopus, the Iberco Presa and the chewy rice. And obviously will be ordering the Cranberry Broth again and again. Overall, this is a fun, creative and delicious spot with a kind staff. I hope it sticks around!

I wanted to like this place because I always love to check out small plates / upscale places with good ambience on a regular basis. However, this place did not really stand out and the food missed the mark. It felt a little bit overhyped given that reservations were pretty hard to get, snagging a last minute reservation for 7pm on a Saturday.

My friend and I shared the mushroom broth, maitake with truffle and oregano, octopus with wasabi, and scallop with mustard oil and gooseberry (off menu item). I personally got the gin and tonic #8 which has citadelle, grapefruit, and vanilla, and it was decent for what it is worth ($12).

Mushroom broth - the broth is very rich and soothing, great for the weather and great for an "aperitif" of some sort. For $6 though, I found this a bit overpriced as you get only a few sips.

Maitake - although I am not a mushroom fan, I enjoyed this. The sauce is rich with Asian inspired ingredients, though I did not really taste much of the truffle. This is one of the heavier dishes and I'd recommend for the vegetable option.

Octopus with wasabi - the octopus is lightly fried so the batter gives a nice crunch. The octopus is extremely fresh. The wasabi sauce is aerated to give a nice foamy texture, making the sauce larger in quantity but the taste weakened, which is good as the focus of the dish is the octopus.

Scallops - this was not a memorable dish. While I liked the gooseberry, the fusion of the scallop with the mustard oil did not really work. What was worse was that this dish was $35 for 2 small pieces of scallops. If they are commanding such a high price, I expected a lot more sophistication and complexity in the preparation of this dish.

Service is overall decent, so the dining experience was positive on that note. However, they try to be pretentious and upscale in the food, but lacked the execution to really bring the dishes up to that standard. They are expensive just to pretend it is fancy food, but it really missed the mark.

This restaurant review is a little challenging. There's no easy path so let's jump in. The food is inspired by the food of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly Spain and Portugal. Generally I like food from this region because I been in Spain and Portugal a few times plus i like to try new takes on cuisines, but this take was not my favorite. I know people who highly recommend and there are a slew of glowing reviews. This won't be one of them, albeit it might be personal preference. Consider it a counter point.

The good: the mixology of the drinks. We asked them to get creative, and they did. They asked about some preferences, and voila, we had some delicious cocktails.

Desserts, we had a few, but again too many to mention. There were times when we knew, we bit off more than we can chew. But we enjoyed them all, our way.

As for the starters and mains, the descriptions were more interesting than the food itself, and there wasn't much to the description. The Spanish Tortilla lacked flavor. The seafood was okay. We were looking forward to the Iberian Presa, but sadly it was fashioned, as one our guests said, to look and taste like mom's meatloaf. The rest was simply not to our taste and important to mention the food was in the cold side and flavorless but the potato chips.

Some of the people in our party went and got pizza after because they were not satisfied.

Service and hospitality were on display. The staff was very attentive, and genuinely seemed to want to make the experience a great one. While enthusiastic, it was not a refined service with servers reaching over diners faces and being more intrusive than you would expect at the higher end of the dining spectrum.

There are a couple of additional items. This is one of those restaurants you don't know what you are going to get until you are there. They have a menu which changes frequently, and the chef does their own thing the day of regardless of what the menu promises. Some like this style, for others it's off putting. As an aside, we were told there was private parking, but the night we went there was plenty of street parking, and the neighborhood seemed safe.

Oh yea... cool bathroom decor.

Needless to say not coming back to this place.

When I tell you that this is probably the best food I've ever eaten, believe me!!!!
Every plate was astonishingly good and thoughtfully prepared. The atmosphere is both elegant and casual and the service is wonderfully personal. As a vegetarian, I had plenty of options with their current menu. I ended up with three separate plates and dessert and they were all splendid. Be prepared to shell out for this meal because you will want to try everything on the menu.
We will definitely be back

Really incredible dining experience! The dishes and menu are really unique. We ordered the mushroom soup, the kohlrabi dish, the charred onion octopus, shrimp with a leaf, hamachi w/ caviar, scallops, iberico dish, and spicy beet dish. All were incredible and extremely flavorful. My top 2 favorites were the hamachi and the kohlrabi - just out of this world.

Service was AMAZING!!! The owners were so friendly and attentive, meal flow was great! Ambiance was lively! We were lucky enough to get a reservation the same day - the restaurant was full when we arrived for our 9pm reservation.

I couldn't rave enough about our experience.

I love that they change their menu seasonally - will be back again!

We just had the most incredible dining experience at Peninsula. I highly recommend the dishes we had (some not pictured):

1) the beet dish (best beet I've ever eaten)
2) the kohlrabi dish
3) shrimp santa leaf
4) chewy rice with bone broth
5) scallop with cherry blossom
6) the octopus
7) bay leaf nougat, vanilla dessert

I wouldn't be able to describe these dishes well, they are truly just an experience. Thank you to Kelsey and team for the excellent service!

I'm pleased to report this is still one of the best places if not the coolest place in Nashville.
This chef reminds me of Sean Brock 15 years ago, only cooler.
The food is edgy and unapologetic.
The atmosphere and hospitality are thoughtful and attentive.
You come here and eat dishes you can't find on a menu anywhere in Tennessee.
Outstanding experience.
Craig is the man.

Peninsula
3/5

While some items here were delicious, I feel like the meal as a whole can be summed up in 1 word: forgettable.

The restaurant itself has a nice interior vibe and decoration. We were seated quickly and we were able to place an order.

The main issue is that this restaurant has such small quantities for a large price. Per person you won't even begin to be hungry if you eat 5 dishes yourself.

Our waitress didn't come to check on us besides to take our order and bring food out. It would have been nice for more attention in general.

We started with the strawberry broth served in a mug. It tasted exactly like warm bone broth that had strawberries in it and strained. Interesting, but I don't think that flavor profile really goes together. Would have been nice to have an aromatic in there.

We then got the chicken skins. These were pretty plain and dry. Usually the fresh chicken skins I have gotten elsewhere had more fat on them and were juicier. These were akin more to super dry pork rinds. The sauce they gave to dip it in was nice (a chicken fat aioli).

Next was smoked eggplant and salted cream. This was a really good dish albeit just 4 bites. The eggplant had a great grilled, Smokey flavor, and the salted cream was like a whipped ricotta.

Another good dish was the maitake mushrooms with white chocolate. As a huge mushroom fan, these were cooked really well. The white chocolate sauce was hard to really taste, but I loved the mushrooms.

We then got an off the menu trout dish cooked in chicken fat. While the fish was cooked well and was tender, this dish was just a little weird. The fish just tasted like chicken (since trout didn't have a strong flavor). Wasn't impressed.

The last 3 dishes were my favorites of the night.

The octopus dish was fried octopus served with a hot oil, a mayonnaise, and a mango purée. While the sauces weren't the best pairing choices for the octopus, the octopus was excellent. Really soft and tender, and breaded well. Tastes just like fried calamari but less chewy.

We did a late add on of a Spanish tortilla (just eggs and potato in a quiche format, no wheat-related items). It was served with a side of mayonnaise. As an egg and potato connoisseur, I loved the dish. Simple, good flavors, tasty. It was a great dish to end the meal before dessert.

Now for what was the best item of the whole meal - the dessert. This was a passion fruit semifreddo. It's essentially a passion fruit ice cream that was topped with mint leaves and then covered in a massive layer of buttercream frosting (much more butter to sugar ratio, so tasted very close to just actual butter). This dessert was excellent for those with a major sweet tooth. This is the item I would come back to eat.

Overall, just an average experience and I think the restaurant should work to bringing more flavors in the dish rather than leaving them all relatively bland and under seasoned.