Locust (* – Nashville, Tennessee USA)

Locust is one of three starred restaurants in Nashville.  I recently visited for lunch and enjoyed it a lot. The food is minimalist, quirky, and fun with a Japanese influence. The restaurant itself is very laidback and is also fun. The kind of place with great food but it’s not a serious or formal experience at all.

1. Lunch Menu – I believe the lunch menu is similar to the dinner menu but skips a couple of dishes. I was in a group of four and for four people they recommend ordering 1 of every dish and they would course it all out. We ordered everything except for the too much caviar and the Irish cheese dish which they recommended ordering later in the meal depending on how full people were getting.
2. Chutoro Sandwich – Lunch started with a medium fatty bluefin tuna sandwich which was my favorite overall dish. Light, a little creamy, fresh tasting sandwich. I wouldn’t mind eating 10 of these in one meal!
3. Sweet Razor Clams – next was sweet razor clams, they mentioned that this comes from New England. I believe they also had a bit of yuzu lemon here. The instructions were to eat them like a noodle!
4. Scallop, Yellowtail, and Preserved Fruit – I think the next dish was actually the beef tartare hand roll but I messed up the order of the photos. Anyways, the scallop, yellowtail, and preserved fruit was alternating pieces of scallop from Maine, yellowtail, and green apple which they pour a cream sauce with parsley oil and other things over. It was good, but I think it was a bit too small to share between four people. In hindsight I think we should have ordered two of these dishes. 
5. Glazed Yellowtail Collar – served with the prior scallop, yellowtail, and preserved fruit dish. This is a soy glazed collar with the bones removed and comes with a horseradish on the side that complements the dish well. We ordered two of these. A great dish.
6. Beef Tartare – this was a half order of the beef tartare handroll since some people at my table didn’t want to try it. The rice has a wasabi cream under it. The nori and capers come with it. I believe that the too much caviar add on is usually used with this dish. This dish also comes with a fun set of instructions. I believe this is one of the items that is always on their menu. Overall a solid dish for me.
7. Steamed Periwinkles – snails from Maine, with brown butter and a white peppercorn on the side that’s used to dip the snails in. Probably my least favorite overall dish. 
8. Potato Bread – this and the prior snail dish actually came out with the two yellowtail dishes. The potato bread was very light and airy and buttery. Butter was very good, too.
9. Spring Lamb Dumplings – I think Locust always has some sort of dumpling on the menu. This time it was spring lamb with spring vegetables, and a bit of bonus foie gras, carrot puree, and some other stuff under the foam. Very very good fancy dumplings.
10. The Rice of the Day – rice with Dungeness crab, curry, and Hokkaido uni add-on. Uni tasted great on its own, and the overall dish when mixed was very very good.
11. Ice Box – A Kakigori style shaved ice dish is also usually on the menu. Super powdery ice shaped into a block with an earl grey tea mousse with raspberry powder on top and a bit of salt. Underneath were various pieces of honeycomb and mochi. Delicious and fun.

Eat at Locust if you're visiting Nashville and want amazing food in a fun restaurant!