Tabouli's Greek Italian Restaurant

by Tart L.

An odd mixture of Greek and Italian wanna-be. You have to walk thru the patio smoking area to get inside the main dining area. The menu is limited. Ham pizza, caesar salad, fried cheese sticks, meatball sandwiches, Greek hamburger, spaghetti and meatballs and chicken fettuccine are offered. The menu is a little stale and should be refreshed or entirely overhauled. It doesn't hold a candle to the focused quality Greek and mediterranean restaurants Nashville offers.

by Andrew C.

This place has earned a nickname in my circle of friends as "The Most Poorly Run Business in Nashville."Don't let the name fool you though.  Even though it WILL take you 20 minutes to order, and double that time to receive your food, even with no one else there, the food is decent.  The menu is a weird mix of Italian and Greek, and they are often out of a lot of stuff.Wednesday nights are "College Night" and they have 1.50$ beers: which is worth putting up with the poorly run-ness of the place.  Also, no other restaurant around has Bud Ice on the beer list.  Oh yeah - there's live music as well on Wednesdays.

by Caleb P.

Tabouli is, if anything, a confused place. Splitting it's schizophrenia between being a hookah bar, a college hangout spot, a bar, a greek and italian restaurant, and a music venue (why does anywhere in Nashville that serves alcohol think it needs to try to be a rock club as well?!), they could benefit from a consultant visit, or maybe just some ADD medication.The hookah is, well hookah, the food is actually quite good, however as was previously mentioned the wait times are often egregious, even when you consider the amount of volume they're doing on any given night. The music is rarely anything worth seeing if you weren't already planning on going there, and the atmosphere is usually quite loud and far from relaxed.If the owners of Tabouli would stick to Restaurant/Hookah or even Bar/Hookah, or even Venue/Hookah maybe this could all work, but as of now there's simply to much going on for any one thing to receive enough attention to be outstanding.

by Erin D.

I use to go here a lot when I attended Belmont. It was a great place to go to get some fairly cheap food, that wasn't produced by the campus catering company. You never had to worry about parking, because you walked. Now that I've graduated, it's not so convenient. Parking here is hell, especially without that Belmont pass. The food is good, but not worth the hassle of getting there in my opinion.

by lydia x.

They have Remodel! It is a must see. You all will change your mind. I've always loved it the way it was. The food was awesome. I use to work by there and go on my Lunch from time to time or get it to go. I've been to the Green Hills Greek place and I wasn't a fan. You get more bang for your buck at Tabouli's. They've totally improved the restaurant and menu. GO BACK! It's GREAT!

by Bryan C.

I happened upon Tabouli's on accident.  We were trying to grab a quick bite to eat, on break from the studio, and totally forgot it was a Friday night, so PM was out of the question.  We looked next door and saw plenty of tables available, and thought we'd check it out.    We entered through the newly added patio/garage area, which fit strangely with the rest of the restaurant.  It seems they're hoping to capitalize off the summer patio crowd, so I'll save my judgement on that until later.    The menu was a mix of meditteranean and italian food, which probably isn't as much of a stretch as it seems.  I ordered the Chicken Shawarma, which was surprisingly delicious, despite the fact they forgot to put the hummus on there.  I pointed this out to our waitress and all was righted.    My friend got the Spaghetti with Meatballs and let me sample.  The meatballs were well seasoned, but the sauce was just okay, a little better than store bought sauce.    The food was moderately priced, the cheapest wrap being around 7 dollars, and most entrees in the $12-$15 range.  They seem to have a buffet for lunch, which I'll definitely want to check out.  The staff was a bit slow, but it felt like they were used to standing around from lack of patrons.  Around nine o'clock, a belly dancer came out and started dancing around tables.  This was our cue that it was time to go.  It wasn't the most memorable experience, but I'll probably go back again.

by Robin S.

Strange place--it never seems to be crowded, and I can now see why.  Ran in today to get take out since I have zero food at my house, and thought I'd try it out.  Plus I had a hankering for Greek food for some reason.  Anyway, I get there about noon and I think I was the first customer of the day.  Which is a little odd, considering it was lunchtime and other restaurants nearby were bustling.  That should have been a red flag but I pressed on.  Menu is interesting...Greek, Italian, they can't seem to decide.  The waitress/only person I saw in the place was very nice but was hard to understand (thick accent--was it Greek?  Italian?  I have no idea...).  She tried to explain a few things on the menu but I just ended up pointing and ordering--came out with a falafel pita sandwich--it was OK but nothing to write home about--and a Tabouli salad.  I ate one bite and I swear the garlic and onions I ingested in that bite should keep the vampires away from me for the rest of my life.  WOW.  It wasn't a salad like I imagined--more like a salsa of sorts.  Probably would be better as a topping for chicken, or in a sandwich or something--not on its own!I spent about $13 for lunch, which is more than I generally like to spend, and it was not worth it.  I won't go back there.  It's a shame too--they have a great location on Belmont.  One star for location, one star for service but that's it.

by Mariela C.

Tabouli's late night menu never ceases to amuse me. Why you ask? Because as a far as I can see only 4-5 things on it are actually Greek. Nevertheless, I must say that the Greek/Italian/American fare late night options were pretty tasty. Their beer selection is above average, and they get extra points because the last time that I ended up there they were having beer specials to get rid of beer that they didn't want. On debate night they also had two specialty drinks that weren't great, but were a really clever way to get people into the night's festivities. I think the best thing about Tabouli's is their hookah. Our server was nice enough to make us a special blend of strawberry and mint after gauging our inability to choose a flavor, and it ended up being delicious (especially when compared to Tarboosh or Aladdin's). I also have to mention, that their service was more than fantastic. Layla, who had the bad fortune of having to serve myself and the rest of my debaucherous posse, was great the entire night!

by Katherine M.

I love the food at Tabouli. It's fresh and the real deal. My friend and I went and were the only people in the place. But, I wanted good Greek food and good Greek food I got! I had a mixed plate of hummus, chicken kabobs, saffron rice, and falafel. It was all delicious. If you like this type of food, Tabouli is right up your alley.The atmosphere leaves a lot to be desired. I think the owners could stand to spruce up the place! So if it's atmosphere you're after, try someplace else. But, if you are in the mood for some really good Greek food, you should stop in. They also have Italian food on the menu, which is odd. I think that this is for the less adventuresome eaters of the world. Or kids. Let them do what they do and order off the Greek menu!The portions are very large. I took half of mine home and made a yummy lunch the next day. The prices for dinner are very reasonable. My large plate was #14 and it made two meals. So fine dining? No! Cool atmosphere? No! Good food? Yes!!

by Lauren A.

I'll be generous and give the place 3 stars, but mostly because i haven't actually had anything that was terrible to eat here... nor had any sort of terrible experience here...  But I do find it really odd that its never busy, the menu is a strange mix of greek and italian...  when they are busy, they'r enot prepared... I dont think they ever have more than 2 waitresses on staff at one time (for good reason)..  When I go i tend to get a plate that has a mixture of falafal (which its decent), hummus, and baba ghanoush.  The pita is always hot and fresh, so thats a plus.  I had read awhile back that the chef from Radius 10 had planned on using the space to put in an upscale mexican restaurant...  I think if that happened, it would do well.  I don't think Tabouli's will ever pick up service... something fishy must be going on there for that place to still be in business.  Its in a great location on a great street that could use a new restaurant.  I think they tried to add live music on the patio for "college night" to gain more customers... but from the live act that I saw while sitting next door at PM, I don't think it'll work.