Nashville Reviews: Nashville Underground

The SoBros Network team ventured down to Broadway during the Nashville Scene's Nashville Hot Chicken Week for a review of Nashville Underground.

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Last week was one of the greatest weeks on the Nashville calendar. The Nashville Scene put on Nashville Hot Chicken Week 2020, and the SoBros Network team wanted to put boots on the ground. Shit happens, and we weren’t able to make it to all of the places we wanted to go. But, such is life in the content game sometimes. We decided the hot chicken ramen from Nashville Underground was the top priority.

I regret that decision.

Our experience was pretty bad. My girlfriend and I met up with Jesse and Brittany and a couple of friends who were in town visiting. We went last Thursday night – it’s pretty quiet in Nashville this time of year, much less on a rainy week night. But, Nashville Underground wasn’t crowded at all.

There was six of us – we all had a go of the hot chicken ramen. The flavor had potential, but it was served lukewarm (I took a couple of bites that I would’ve classified as ‘cold’). Everything was kinda soggy as if this was made hours prior and just sat out, fermenting in that box. Someone even said, “this was probably good when it was first made on Monday.” Good one. I was less than thrilled, but we wanted to give this a full review, so we ordered some fried pickles that were far too salty. And, we each got entrees – I went with a Nashville hot chicken wrap that was basically just lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles, drenched in ranch with two bites of chicken (that wasn’t even hot). It was not good.

I don’t think any of us came away from that experience without a complaint. So, we got together and penned out our thoughts on that meal – review time, LFG.

Pics

The gross box of Nashville hot chicken ramen.
The fried pickles were so incredibly salty, they burned more going down than the hot chicken.
Jesse’s hot chicken (nuggets) and mac-and-breadcrumbs (unfortunately, calling this mac and cheese would warrant actually having cheese on the dish…)

Ratings

Flavor: 3/10. The flavor of the ramen had some potential. I had to imagine what it would’ve been like in an actual bowl of ramen, served hot, instead of a bunch of mush in a box. But, you could see the vision behind the dish. I couldn’t even really taste the hot chicken in my wrap – all I tasted there was lettuce, pickles, and ranch.

Texture: 1/10. The chicken was lukewarm and downright S L I M Y in the ramen. It was tough and dry in the hot chicken wrap I got. No matter how you slice it, it just didn’t seem like very good chicken from a quality standpoint.

Heat: 2/10. The heat of the ramen was boosted by the jalapenos…not the chicken. I barely even noticed the chicken in my wrap. I wouldn’t call that ‘Nashville hot,’ but that’s just me.

Fixins: 2/10. The ranch was good. The fries were decent. Nearly every other ancillary component of our meal was boring. The fried pickles – man – you might as well have just set a salt lick at the table.

Overall: 2/10. Just an overall bad experience – I can’t think of a worse one I’ve actually had in Nashville. Our service was pretty terrible, it’s not like the place was packed. Homeboy just dipped out for 10+ minutes at a time.

I was willing to give Nashville Underground a bit of a break – it’s January, it’s Broadway, it’s a Thursday night. Maybe they just phoned it in on that night. But, if it was my establishment, I don’t think I’d have been too pleased knowing my customers had an experience like this. I hate that out of all the good food in this city, this is what the people who visit our city and head down to Broadway experience. Hopefully, the tourists are doing their homework, but who knows? I hope Nashville Underground steps it up in the future.

For a place that wants to advertise their hot chicken (with a neon sign in the window), they have a long way to go before they’re considered among Nashville’s elite.

Brittany’s Review

The “ramen” was a joke. They served us cold soup in a box with a few pieces of chicken and some jalapeños. It was honestly sad.

My chicken tenders came, and instead of them being tossed in the spices, the “Nashville Hot” sauce came on the side. That was disappointing and not what I expected since the basis of “Nashville hot chicken” is that it’s cooked with the spices and usually not dipped. I guess I should’ve asked and not assumed but I’ve never been to a hot chicken restaurant where this has been the case.

The best thing about Nashville Underground was the homemade ranch, and for a town that’s supposed to be all about good food and flavor, they should be ashamed that this restaurant has the city in its name. This restaurant truly should be underground so it’ll be unreachable to the outside world and no one ever has to go there again.

Brittany Fernandez

Jesse’s Review

I’d feel way worse about writing this if I thought ANY effort was put into our meals.

We started off with the $5 appetizer portions of the Nashville hot chicken ramen. The ramen has potential…but was mostly cold and severely lacked chicken. I think I had one small piece of chicken in my ramen.

For my entree, I ordered the Nashville hot chicken macaroni and cheese….which was more like macaroni and bread crumbs. It was topped with three small “hot” chicken tenders that were probably a little bigger than jumbo shrimp. What I got severely differed from the advertisement. I’d be hard pressed to find any cheese in the dish. Plenty of bread crumbs though!

Our service was horrendous. Our waiter would disappear for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes at a time. We went for a very long time without refills on water or anything. It was a rough go, honestly. I’m usually pretty relaxed about restaurant experiences, having done my time in a kitchen. But Nashville Underground was not busy at all, and I just got the overall feeling that they didn’t care if we were there or not. I know eating on Broadway can be a gamble. Let me take some risk out of your downtown Nashville experience, just don’t go there.

RighteousJesse

CURRENT NASHVILLE HOT CHICKEN POWER RANKINGS

  1. Scoreboard (6.62/10)
  2. Riverfront Tavern (6.25/10)
  3. Helen’s Hot Chicken (5.75/10)
  4. Firecracker Hot Chicken (5.5/10)
  5. PDK Kitchen (5.13/10)

Important qualifier: We’ve literally only reviewed seven places around town at this point. Don’t @ me with the “where’s Hattie B’s? Where’s Bolton’s? Where’s Prince’s?” I KNOW – we’re working on getting out to the heavyweights in the Nashville hot chicken scene this year. This portfolio has to start somewhere, and right now, it’s starting east of town because that’s the easiest for me to get to. *shrugs*

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley

Check out the SoBros Shop. Become a Patron. Give us money for no reason. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @SoBrosNetwork. Watch on YouTube.

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