My Commons Life

News & features about the Vanderbilt Commons from the students who live here

Alice Huh

MCL Top 5: Restaurants I’ve Been to in Nashville

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What joy is a college student to (legally) find in life except eating good food? Kidding. But in all seriousness, I quite enjoy going out to find yummy things to eat, and I’m sure you do too! (At least, I’d assume so since you’re reading this feature.) To celebrate this commonality, I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 favorite restaurants in town so that you can also enjoy some great meals!

Note: I did my best to make sure that all of these restaurants would be accessible to most people. Some of the places are a bit far, but they’re all either bus-able or walkable locations. Additionally, in case you’re concerned that you might’ve searched the wrong place, I’ve linked the Google Maps URLs to the headings. No need to worry about any transportation expenses or location mix-ups!

Now without further ado, here are the top five restaurants I’ve been to around Nashville!

5. Black Dynasty Secret Ramen House

They were not lying about it being a secret ramen house. I actually ran into another group of people who were looking for the place in the middle of my search. Turns out the big secret is that it’s located inside the Bearded Iris brewery—now that you know, you hopefully won’t suffer in the cold as I did! Once I finally got inside, though, I had a pretty good experience. I got the miso tonkatsu ramen, which you can see pictured above. The broth was flavorful, albeit a bit salty for my taste (nothing a cup of hot water can’t fix), and the noodles had a pleasantly chewy texture to them. As for the miso caramel banana pudding, it reminded me a bit of crème brûlée! No funky miso flavor. On top of all that, the interior is really interesting, and has a nice ambience. My only gripe with the restaurant is that everything is definitely on the pricier side, but it’s a great place to visit occasionally when you’re craving a good bowl of ramen. (Advice for easing the burden on your wallet: 20% gratuity is automatically included when you order, so don’t feel pressured to tip again!)

4. Meet Noodles

Can you tell I really like noodles? Well, I do. I promise the rest of this list won’t just be noodle restaurants, though. Meet Noodles was my go-to comfort restaurant last semester, meaning I probably spent half of my meal money there. The combination of a sub-10 minute walking distance + warm Asian food is dangerous(ly enticing). They offer a great selection of Chinese noodle dishes, and I’ve never once been disappointed by anything I’ve ordered. For the indecisive folks out there, my usual order is the Shanxi sliced noodles (pictured above). I won’t go into detail about the dishes since I’ve realized that food descriptions are not my strong suit, but I’ll say this much: it’s good stuff!

3. Sitar Indian Cuisine

Something tells me that a lot of people already know about this restaurant (and the previous one for that matter), but here it is anyways! Due to my overwhelming love for rice and shrimp, I’ll admit that I haven’t tried as many things from Sitar as I have at some other places on this list. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve eaten, though! I unfortunately can’t comment on the dine-in experience, as I’ve always gotten my food to-go (sat down at a table just to get the photo lol); however, I can at least attest to the fact that they have some pretty speedy service. Overall, I’ve had a great experience, and I’ll definitely be back once I start craving shrimp biryani again.

2. OSH Restaurant & Grill

No, the duplicate photos are not a glitch. It was just the best way I could think to make sure that the image wouldn’t show up huge on everybody’s screens (so please bear with me).

I don’t think I’d ever been to an Uzbek restaurant before OSH, but boy did it set the bar high. To start off, the dinnerware is so pretty. Perhaps I’m just used to food being served on plain plates, but the matching plates, cups, and teapots felt fun and fancy to me. As for the food, all the dishes I tried over the course of my two visits were so good that writing about it is making my mouth water. I particularly enjoyed the lagman (oops that’s another noodle dish) and lamb kebab. The latter especially surprised me with how tender it was. But seriously, wow. I’m going to stop typing now so that I can think of other things that won’t make me unbearably hungry.

1. The Boba Bar

Last but not least is The Boba Bar! For everybody thinking, Wait, but that’s not a restaurant!, I’d have to agree. That being said, I really love the place (the I’ve-been-three-times-in-this-past-week-and-the-staff-remember-my-face-and-I-dream-of-their-boba-when-I-go-back-home-for-break kind of love), so I don’t care! The decor, the music, the drinks—it’s all just *chef’s kiss*. I’ve made it about a quarter of the way through the menu so far, and my favorite definitely has to be the brown sugar boba. Honorable mentions go to the peach yakult and the korean strawberry milk. Everything I’ve had has been really good, so I’m very excited to try more of their drinks.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but if you’ve got any suggestions for more restaurants I can visit, email them to mycommonslife@gmail.com! I’d love to explore some new places (provided they aren’t too expensive). Happy eating everybody!

MCL News Minute-October 19, 2022

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Alice has the details on the events coming up this week that you should know about, including a special film screening at the Belcourt, a presentation at the Wondry and a mental wellness workshop to help with managing stress.  

Opinion: Stir-fried Noodles Shouldn’t Be a Breakfast Food

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Noodles
The breakfast-to-lunch transition is too early.

I’ll admit: I am not the world’s biggest breakfast person. I don’t really like to eat large meals in the morning (it makes me nauseous), and classic breakfast foods like scrambled eggs and bacon are just alright to me. Despite that, I still like to eat a light meal in the mornings to give myself some energy. I might grab a cup of yogurt with some fruits, or perhaps a smoothie and a bagel. Stir-fried noodles and salad aren’t exactly top contenders on that list, but it’s inevitably what I end up having to eat on Tuesdays and Thursdays because of how early the breakfast ends in Commons.

My first class on those days is at 11 a.m. in that exact building—I clearly don’t have much of a reason to walk anywhere else to get my meal. I usually get to the dining hall at about 10 a.m. (which I think to be a perfectly reasonable hour for breakfast), and am always met with immense disappointment and heartbreak when I see that, for some reason unknown to man, it is officially lunchtime in Commons. At 10 a.m. in the morning! Who is eating lunch that early? I know that it’s not just me who thinks it’s odd either, because I’ve heard some of my friends voice the same opinion.

Of course, this isn’t my only frustration with campus dining hours. I wish that Rand was open on the weekends, or that I could get dinner later than 8 p.m., or that maybe I’d be able to get breakfast earlier than 9 a.m. on the weekends.

Actually, let me pause my original train of thought for a second, because I need to get this off my chest. The fact that the dining halls open so late on the weekends always rubs me the wrong way, because I’m forced to spend somewhere off campus for a meal if I have events in the morning. I’m thankfully not completely reliant on my meal plan, but it feels a bit icky that my only other reliable option is to starve if I don’t want to spend. Not to mention that morning people exist! I’m obviously not one of them, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere!

But I digress. As I was saying, I clearly have other issues with campus dining. However, I understand that extending operating hours could potentially be difficult due to logistical issues with employees or something of the sort. They get the benefit of the doubt, because I think it would be a bit depressing to research and find out that the change is actually perfectly feasible, but is simply not happening because some executive doesn’t feel like making it happen. Also, things are getting better (or so I’ve heard from upperclassmen), even if there are issues still present.

That being said! I can’t see why it would be difficult to simply make the breakfast-lunch transition an hour later. Maybe I’m just giving away my ignorance with that statement. Even so, as much as I love noodles, I still think stir-fried noodles shouldn’t be a breakfast food. And that is a hill that I will hopefully not have to die on!