Antica

Anitca has some promising dishes on the menu, and some were good. But the service was odd and, after a $ 60+ tab even with happy hour specials, we were still hungry enough to hit up a nearby pizza joint later and order another meal.
First, when you walk in it’s hard to tell where to «check in» with the hostess. We had a reservation and the restaurant was relatively empty. We entered the front door — the one by the street should qualify. No one was within 50 feet of the door so we walked around and there was only a bartender on the floor, busy mixing drinks. Finally someone came out of the kitchen to seat us… well the host stand is in the middle of the restaurant if you can’t find it.
The wait staff was a little slow to start, then was attentive for a while. Then we wanted more food — as others mention, the plates are tiny — it took a while to get someone’s attention. The food we ordered came out quickly. Then it took a long time to close the tab. The restaurant was filling up but it didn’t seem to have a lot of wait staff.
We enjoyed the gnocchi with scallops and the stuffed mushrooms. The wasabi edamame dip was disappointing, the catfish cakes OK. The pepita butter tomato preservers were good. Of all the good items, most were much smaller (yes, I get that tapas are supposed to be small) than their price would lead you to believe.
Parking is easy — street or garage.

Silly Goose prices, yet half the quantity; and not organic.

I was a little scared when we got there because we were the only customers. Knowledgable server described the cuisine and local spirits. Poutine, mushroom, and pork belly tapas were all excellent. Great selection of local brew and outside dining made for splendid atmosphere.
We will return!

This food was amazing. The gnocchi and catfish cakes were amazing! You have got to try this!

Awesome tapas dishes with a cohesive palate, consistent point of view and super delicious bites. Can’t recommend it enough!

I was pretty let down with Antica. I was really excited about tapas in Nashville.
Pros
— Price. This place is super affordable for both drinks and food.
— Pepita butter dish was great.
Cons
— Location. Not easy to find at all. It is hidden in the back of an apartment/​condo complex.
— Out of 5 items I only liked 1.
— The place was empty. We were the only customers. That’s weird.
I won’t go back. There are too many great options in Nashville to go there again.

Yeah. I’m just as surprised as you at the one star rating. Unfortunately, I feel it’s justified.
My gal pal and I thoroughly reviewed the menu when the CMYE was posted for Antica’s Grand Opening. We were super pumped to try the cocktails, but more so the food! Needless to say, on the night of the event we had a really hard time waiting until 8pm to get there and start ordering!
Antica’s location isn’t a bad one considering East Nashville is notorious for serious parking hunts. With a lot behind the building and a parking garage below, I have never had difficulty finding a spot when visiting any of the venues in this building. This visit was no exception. The icing? It’s free!
And the good things about Antica stop right about there.
Unsure if the front entrance was in the back, or vice versa, we entered on the back side of the building (next to the bar), and eventually realized we were to walk across the main floor to the oddly shaped front area to speak with the hostess.
She met us a few steps away from her spot, with anything but a smile on her face, as she curtly asked if we had a reservation. We advised her we were there for the Unilocal event to celebrate the grand opening. She seemed incredibly irritated while she motioned us to turn around and walk over to a large, white sofa against the wall… from where we had just entered. #awkward
We joined our fellow Unilocalers and conversed while a considerable amount of time passed. One server finally appeared to take drink orders. It took equally as long to receive our first drinks, which were delivered at random intervals by various staffers. At that point, I was unsure who our server was, or if we were to just go to the bar to order going forward. Most Unilocalers know grand openings can be rough for a new business, so we were incredibly patient. However, it started to wear thin quickly. More of our crew arrived, and noted how long it was taking to get an order in for anything. Did I mention the lack of menus too?
I chose «Keisha’s Love Notes» (gin, hibiscus, basil, orange, sparkling booze). It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either.
Ok. I will retract my above-​mentioned statement about good things stopping at ease of parking. At this point in our not-​so-​smooth visit, our server for the rest of the evening appeared for the first time, and politely introduced herself. She quickly assessed what we needed and wanted, apologized for any troubles and waits we may have already experienced, and seemed to really be on her A game. Despite her best efforts, it seemed as though both the bar and the kitchen were in the weeds. At one point I’m pretty sure she had been in tears before coming back to check on us. By the end of the visit I felt so bad for her, and was incredibly appreciative of her efforts. (She received a large tip from us, and deserved every cent of it which she didn’t want to accept.)
So, the food. Ah, yes. Well… they were out of a LOT of things which I found rather interesting considering this was their «Grand Opening».
No quail eggs for me, so I settled for their tomato gelée, which was a bad choice. Maybe I just don’t know enough about gelée to appreciate it. Whatever the case may be, it was money down the drain in my book.
Onto the entrée (which I ordered at the same time as my app in fear of severe delay). No gnocchi. No lamb. «Heart of Ribeye? Yes! FINALLY! A dish you have!»
As I suspected, it took a very long time to receive my entrée. When it was finally served, I immediately noticed the capers were missing, and the price to portion ratio was WAY off. Starving, I dove in anyway only to discover it was ice cold. Obviously, I was not happy, but ate it all so my stomach wouldn’t eat me. Sending it back would’ve been pointless with all the waits we had already endured.
One other table mate simply never had one of her two dishes delivered. This was after she spent much time negotiating a decent vegan meal since the options were more limited than all of us had thought. We can only assume the kitchen lost the order.
Overall, a massive fail. We spent many hours there, a lot of money, and left still hungry. So a group of us headed out to find another restaurant to fill the void.

What can I say?
This place is the jam.
If you dig innovative cuisine at a super affordable price along with a comfy and unpretentious place to relax and enjoy the good life, Antica needs to be your next stop for dinner, cocktails, or for Sunday Funday (½ off bottles of wine all day!) This little nook inside the 5^th & Main building is an authentic «Gathering Place.»
Let’s start with the fact that their menu is super vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-​free friendly. I am always delighted with all of the options that I have to select from here. My go-​to small plate is the Pepita Butter and Tomato Preserves on Toast (Manchego Cheese optional). Seriously this $ 3 little plate of heaven reminds me of a sophisticated version of the comfort that a peanut butter and jelly sandwich brought to me for years, but oh, so, much better. Trust me, order it. And, order it NOW. You can’t also go wrong with the Mushroom-​Stuffed Potato with Parsley Salad and Garlic Confit ($ 5) — so savory and bursting with flavor, Butternut Squash Croquette with Apple Butter and Pistachio ($ 3), and Charred Endive Salad with Honey-​Whipped Goat Cheese, Poached Currants, Lemon, a Prosciutto Chip and Black Sea Salt ($ 8 — I enjoyed my vegan-​ized).
Plus, the cocktails. OH, THE LOVELY COCKTAILS.
Do you ever feel like so many places just don’t act like they are having fun behind the bar any longer? Sure, I adore and appreciate the art of Mixology. It is in indeed an art but it is rather refreshing to walk into a joint and see drinks like «Mexico? More Like Sexy-​Co» (Puerto Vallarta Reposado. Campari. Maraschino. Lemon. Chile. Ginger — $ 10) or «See Fred Die”(Brokers Gin. Cherry Heering. Fireball Whiskey. Orgeat. Citrus. — $ 10) on the menu. Imbibing is supposed to be fun and Antica brings the party with a creative list of cocktails that are exceptionally tasty. Did I need to also remind you of ½ off wine bottles on Sunday too?
I just hosted a beautiful celebration for 13 ladies at Antica yesterday and was surprised to see that many of the invited had no idea that this fantastic spot existed. We enjoyed a large spread of shared plates, bubbles, sangria, bubbles, and wine while we relaxed in the cozy lounge area for hours. And, the service was nothing short of stellar. It was truly a treat to see everyone enjoying themselves so much. Whether you’re planning an intimate dinner for two, grabbing a solo nightcap, or planning a soirée, Antica will not let you down.

«Nashville is severely lacking a tapas.»
I have read that on many an epitaph and wondered if this city will ever get one. Well, Antica has come and changed all of that. It’s not a Spanish style tapas, but no matter. The concept is just fine. Swanky interiors, a cozy bar, and a great menu makes this place a must-​go. They did a great job ensuring that vegetarians have enough options to feel inclusive. Quails eggs, the poutine, the quinoa salad, everything was sublime. A good selection of beers, cocktails and booze makes this a perfect place to impress a date. I impressed myself going there. And so should you.

My supper club and I bought the $ 10 for $ 20 deal that Antica had and prepared for tapas heaven.
When we arrived at 7:30 PM on a Wednesday there wasn’t a single person in the restaurant. I’ll admit, this worried me a little at first. However, once the food arrived I felt like I had discovered this ultra cool secret spot that the masses hadn’t found yet.
We tried SOOO many different tapas and each one was more delicious than the last. From poutine, braised pork belly and hot quail to deviled quail eggs, pulled pork tacos and fried gnocchi. it was all magical. I also read on the menu that if you go during their happy hour you get certain tapas for free.
If you want to try some upscale tapas, I’d highly recommend checking out Antica.

I arrived here at 6:30pm on a Wednesday night for a Nashville Bloggers meet up. The restaurant is located in one of the new buildings on Main. A nice little building in a not so nice part of town. The vibe is hip on inside, lots of natural colors & dark mood lighting. Apart from the 20 or so bloggers there, the restaurant was dead. I think in the 2 hours I was there, I saw about 3 different tables of people dine.
Food/​Drinks — I didn’t eat. But from what I saw others eating, & their feedback, the food was very good. I had an Antica sour, that consisted of bourbon, egg white, blood orange shrub, & lavender honey. It was AMAZING. I could’ve drank 7 of them. Normally priced $ 9 but I got it for $ 5 because management was so nice & gave a special menu to the bloggers. I wanted to try something different, so I ordered a fig & fiddle. It was okay. It had too much fig bits in it. It was chunky to drink. I felt like I was going to have chunks of fig in my teeth. I wished I’d had just ordered another Antica sour. The bartender working was very friendly & was very into making the drinks. You could tell he enjoyed his job.
All in all, a nice place with a hip vibe & good drinks.

Excellent adventurous food and cocktails.
Usually going to a tapas place generates in me a kind of culinary resignation, an ennui inspired by a near-​certain future of decent food in far too small portions. At Antica, however, they use the small plate format to do something more exciting with the food.
The prices are welcoming of trying many different things, and the menu is helpfully organized into subsets of different sizes of the generally small dishes.
Most of what I had was fantastic and richly satisfying. The remainder of what I had was intriguingly experimental, which is exactly what I’d like to find in a place with so many things on offer: many solid hits and a few indie attempts. Such an approach is what makes repeated visits rewarding.
The cocktails follow the same pattern. There are clear house favorites that are excellent, and the rest are stranger, and potentially more compelling, mixtures.
All of this, set in a cool, dark, intimate room, and you have a great reason to hit that unfortunate corner in East Nashville for a great evening with great company.

Antica, located in the Fifth and Main building, is the newsiest iteration in a space that seemed to contain an ever-​revolving array of bars and restaurants (Myrida for example). This space never seems to keep a tenant long, and perhaps that’s because the location just isn’t the best. The parking at Fifth and Main leaves a lot to be desired and the location has almost zero foot traffic. But Antica is a quality place and I can only hope people trek out there more often.
The décor is quite nice, though it feels more like a lounge or bar than restaurant. There’s a large white couch and low seating for mingling with friends. We sat in a comfortable corner booth, but the best part was the place was toasty warm on a cold night. And I have to give a thumbs up for the music playlist which included the Talking Heads, Modest Mouse, Cut Copy, and LCD Soundsystem.
The cocktail menu at Antica was solid and contained several drinks I wouldn’t mind trying out. Drinks also appear to be $ 1-​$ 2 cheaper than they would be at some other local cocktail bars. I ordered the Keshia’s Love Notes which contained gin, hibiscus syrup, rosemary, orange and prosecco. The drink was really light and herbal with a nice blend of refreshing flavors. Steve ordered the Mexico? More like Sexy-​Co (real name– no joke) that contained tequila, Compari, lemon and chile. This drink was smokey and spicy and impressed both of us. I think if I make it back I would order this drink despite the embarrassing-​to-​say name.
Antica is another one of those «modern take on tapas» places that seem to be popping up all over the pace. Our first small plate was their take on Poutine with french fries, mushroom gravy and ricotta. The gravy was very flavorful and it worked nicely off of the mild ricotta. This was a nice departure from the heavier, more traditional poutine.
Our second plate was deviled quail eggs. This dish was adorable but at $ 5 I think we should have at least gotten one more egg. The eggs were good– but were missing something flavor-​wise. Perhaps a pickle or vinegar flavor would add some nice balance.
And then everything arrived all at once! I specifically asked the waiter to have the chef course our order at his/​her discretion and it appeared that they just cooked everything at the same time and decided to serve most of it all together. I really wanted to get an idea of how the chef would prefer to place the flavors, and perhaps only give us one dish at a time, but this is not the place for it (Treehouse and Catbird are).
The Vietnamese catfish cakes with sweet chili sauce were fluffy little balls with a very mild fish taste. It almost reminded me of Jamaican fish cakes. The sweet chili sauce was a really enjoyable accompaniment that wasn’t too hot up front, but then the heat slowly ramped-​up until your mouth was singing with spice. Next up was the hot quail with white bread toast and cucumber raita. This was an awesome version of the famous Nashville hot chicken, but it was a more mild, refined flavor that worked perfectly with the gaminess of the quail. This little dish might have been my favorite thing of the whole evening.
Next up was the braised pork belly in spiced-​rum molasses. This take on the dish was just too sweet and wasn’t really my thing. It appeared that they braised the belly and then cut it into chunks, flash-​fried it, and then poured a ton of sauce on it. Pork belly is one of my favorite foods, and this way of preparing it just wasn’t for me. If you aren’t into super-​sweet things, you should skip it.
There was a long wait between the pork belly and our last dish, so when our waiter came over to ask if we’d like to see a dessert menu, we knew he had forgotten our final item. I had a feeling that this was going to happen because the waiter didn’t write any of our six dishes down. That is a lot for anyone to remember! There is no shame in writing things down so you get it right. Thankfully the waiter was apologetic and our dish came out very quickly.
Our final choice was our only thing off the large plate menu and it was potato gnocchi with scallops and pickled tomatoes in a mushroom cream. For a large plate, this was really tiny (it was less food than both the pork belly and the quail). There were about six pieces of gnocchi and itty bitty pieces of scallop. Chopped-​up, very hard to find, pieces of scallop. This is not at all what I was expecting. The overall flavor was very nice, but the dish should have been bigger and contained one or two whole scallops for the price. ($ 12) I would say skip this and just order something else off the small plates menu.
Overall, I enjoyed my dinner at Antica. The food is good overall but they do need to work on the value-​to-​price ratio of some of their dishes. The drinks are simply stand-​out amazing and I will be stopping in for some more cocktails– if only I can figure out the maze that is Fifth and Main.

1. The food was extremely overpriced for the TEEEEENY portions.
2. The service SUCKED. It wasn’t very busy, but we had to remind our server/​busboy/​bartender/​food runner what we ordered and were waiting for multiple times.
3. The drink prices were pretty decent if you’re just drinking beer.

over all i give them 5 stars for doing something different in our city.
I’m gonna start by telling you that i ordered everything on the menu, all 15 courses.
Im going to highlight on the Best ones.
First of all, there are lots of people doing deviled eggs these days. and these guys take it to the top and did tiny little delicate deviled quail eggs with truffle oil.
Its Amazing, very different. I noticed a bad review of Tomato Gelee and I admit it was amazing and different, and it shouldn’t have gotten a bad review.
It is definitely unlike any other dish I’ve had in other restaurants.
The Pepita Butter was amazing.
The Faux Bone marrow is extremely unique dish.
One of my favorite was the Pork belly rillons were just perfect! Amazing!
my 2^nd favorite was the Potato Gnocchi with scallops totally amazing Dish!
The only negative thing i could say to the restaurant are things that they have to work out because they are so new. For example they don’t have a fully developed wine list yet, the wait staff is not educated in wines, for example they couldn’t tell me where their bottle of wines came from? from which country? and I had to get the Manager to ensure that I have a french bottle of wine.
The seating and tables aren’t fancy they are just normal of course this place has to start making some money before they could do these kind of things. but as far as judging them in their product, on their food you can really tell that thats where their time and attention has been going. their food truly is different and amazing and deserves a five star review,

So sad to give 1 star but after two weeks of deliberation I still can’t think of a justification for better. Maybe I had built the place up too much in my head? Maybe I’m too picky? Maybe this? Maybe that? Thoughts were running through my head but no…
I visited Antica with a couple of friends and fellow Unilocalers for the grand opening and a Unilocal CMYE. There isn’t much better of a formula for a good restaurant experience right? In this case it was a formula for a failure of a culinary experience
First parking here is a bit confusing but free. If I was to recommend something it would be to park in the garage and walking up the ramp. We walked in the door of the restaurant looking for our party of Unilocalers when, what I can only assume was the hostess, asked with eyes a-​rolling if we had a reservation. Sorry to inconvenience you hostess… We sat down in the reserved section for us Unilocalers and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, someone came to get our drink orders. Then we waited, waited, waited…
Alright! Time to order foodage! Finally half our drinks come back and boy was I hungry. Two dishes were screaming my name. Deviled quail eggs and the gnocchi but I was to be disappointed. They were out of these two dishes. Really?!? On you’re grand opening at 8pm you are out of two dishes??? My friends ordered what they wanted then we waited, and waited some more when finally, 3 of five dishes made it out and I ordered my food. Drinks were empty and we had to wait some more to order a second round… Catching a pattern?
Wow this review has run long. Guess I should just sum up the rest of the night. Drinks went empty a second time, 1 dish never made it out and we found out that they only make 1 dish at a time. Don’t come here with more than a party of 2 unless you like waiting. All this said our waitress was working hard and trying to get us our items quickly. She did a great job especially for only having worked there for about 3 hours that evening. We left hungry and went to The Treehouse where the service was impeccable as was the vittles. Thankfully a redemption for the evening.

I’m going to start this off by saying that you need to drop whatever you’re doing right this second and go to Antica right this moment to try the scrap-​meat sliders. I eat a lot of food, and this might be the most amazing thing I have ever tasted.
Now that we have that out of the way…
I had a wonderful experience at Antica. Ate at the bar, was served by very friendly staff (Kayla, I believe) and ordered the Fig and Fiddle, I think, a great rye drink with an orange-​citrus finish, fantastic Then I had a Yazoo Gerst, and the God blessed scrap meat sliders that changed my life forever.
I’ll definitely come back, probably this weekend.

Antica is a wonderworld of craftsmanship. Their attention to detail is impeccable.
Before I get wordy with my experience, I will say some things you need to know before you go to Antica. Antica is a tapas bar. That being said, everything is priced in such a way that you can essentially build your own meal ($ 4-​$ 15 per plate). You should expect to pay between $ 25-​$ 50 per person. You should also expect to share the meal with your company since the courses come out one at a time. It really is an experience. I would recommend getting 3 – 5 plates per person if you’re going there for dinner. Also, there is plenty of parking in the back.
Ok, on to the good stuff.
Antica is dark, moody, and modern with Edison lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. It’s a little haven amid the ruckus of East Nashville’s main street. One of the owners (who also helped serve us – thought that was neat) told us they were having someone handcraft booths for them. Those will be done sometime in the next few weeks – afterall, Antica is only 1 week old. With that being said, if you can hit a home-​run in your first week, I can’t imagine how wonderful this place is going to be 6 months from now when they have all of their systems in place (server here).
Not only does the food taste amazing, but it’s also beautiful. I will admit, there were a few times when I just wanted to sit and look at our food for a few moments before actually diving in. It’s apparent that the owners are into details – every detail, which makes for a truly delightful dining experience. I apologize for not taking any photos.
Ok, onto taste. I can honestly say we didn’t have anything we didn’t love. I love how the chef thought about texture as well as flavor – all very pleasing to the palette. We had the butternut squash croquettes – soft with warm ricotta and butternut with a crispy pecan crust, sitting in dolop of apple butter. Very warm flavors. Next we had the Pepita butter with Manchego and tomato preserves on toast. The tomato preserves we surprisingly sweet and lended nicely to the cheese and pepita butter. Next we had the heart of ribeye with lavender potatoes, demi-​glaze, and crispy collard-​chips and fried capers – this dish was especially flavorful. The steak was a perfect medium rare. The collard chip added a really nice bitter flavor with some crispy texture. We finished with the roasted endive salad with chevre, and currents. Also amazing. I think my favorite was the ribeye.
Our drinks were really good – we had the Fig and Fiddle (figs, herbs, and rye) as well as the Excalibur, which is a nice Scotch cocktail (in my opinion there are not enough Scotch cocktails). This one was nice and round with orange flavors.
We can’t wait to go back to Antica.

We had high hopes for this restaurant. It is definitely an improvement over Myridia, but the room still feels cold and rather impersonal, and the food is creative but mediocre.
I started off with an Antica Sour which set the stage nicely with its blood orange shrub — a wonderful drink. It offered a promise for an excellent meal.
We ordered a plate from each section of the menu, per our waitress’s suggestion, and although most of our first set of plates were decent, the tomato gelee was confusing. We are not inexperienced in the world of unusual foods, but this dish was confounding. It was essentially just the gelee with dehydrated mushrooms sprinkled on top. There were no crackers, there was no bread, it was served with spoons. I could maybe handle the curious presentation if the gelee itself knocked my socks off, but it just tasted of sour garlic. Absolutely nothing special and frankly pretty disgusting.
I really enjoyed the pork belly. The mustard «caviar» was a nice touch. My boyfriend ordered the gnocchi without the scallops (he’s one of those vegetarian things), and although they made it very clear they don’t modify the dishes, they made an exception for him. It’s a good thing they did, because this was the only dish that moved him all night.
The Ethiopian pulled pork was nothin exciting. The meat was rather dry and under seasoned. My last dish was the tuna crudo and it was pretty good, but it didn’t save this restaurant from feeling pretty middle of the road.
The atmosphere is a bit strange. Very loungy but extremely cold. It’s a big open room with a concrete floor and we were quite chilly.
The service was top notch, our waitress was very attentive and seemed to know the menu well. One of the owners came over and welcomed us and was extremely sweet and we enjoyed talking to him. I would really like to give these people a better review because they are professional and good natured folks. They haven’t had their grand opening yet, so maybe they just need time to get the kinks worked out.

This place is shaping up to be quite the little gem on the east side and is finally coming into its own.
Owner Kaz Hishida has wisely brought on some very talented help to revamp the former «Myridia» concept into a very promising Spanish-​style tapas and small plates restaurant with lots of skill in the kitchen and behind the bar. Those familiar with Rumba and Jackson’s on the west side will recognize some familiar faces that bring veteran experience to this newcomer and give it an edge in the otherwise very crowded East Nashville landscape. I’m excited to see how this one pans out.
Specifically, fans of bacon (and who isn’t!?) should try the Pork Belly Rillons – thick chunks of bacon in a delectable maple glaze. I would go back if only to eat this masterpiece again.