Tailor
Michelin Recommended
James Beard Recognized
Vivek Surti
Tailor is a tasting menu restaurant in Germantown helmed by chef Vivek Surti — Indian heritage filtered through global culinary training, one of the best cocktail programs in the South, and a Michelin Recommended dining experience that feels genuinely like a dinner party.
Review
About
Tailor has built a reputation as one of Nashville's most intellectually ambitious restaurants, and the reputation is earned. This is a kitchen and bar operating at a level of creativity and technical execution that would be notable anywhere, and it does so while remaining genuinely pleasurable to eat and drink rather than falling into the trap of innovation for its own sake.
Chef Vivek Surti draws on his Indian heritage — and specifically on his mother's cooking, which forms the emotional and culinary foundation of the menu — to produce food that is genuinely unlike anything else in Nashville. These aren't abstractions or approximations of Indian flavor. They're deeply personal preparations that carry real history and real affection in every course. Arrive early and have a drink in the living room up front before you're ushered in. The meal begins with farsa gathiya and ends, always, with chai — using a recipe that Vivek's father took 10 years to perfect. That chai is the right note to end on.
The cocktail program is one of the best in Nashville and arguably in the South. The drinks function as actual culinary contributions to the meal — herbs, spices, and flavor profiles that echo and complement the food.
Tailor is Michelin Recommended. It is the kind of restaurant that changes what you think is possible in this city.
Chef Vivek Surti draws on his Indian heritage — and specifically on his mother's cooking, which forms the emotional and culinary foundation of the menu — to produce food that is genuinely unlike anything else in Nashville. These aren't abstractions or approximations of Indian flavor. They're deeply personal preparations that carry real history and real affection in every course. Arrive early and have a drink in the living room up front before you're ushered in. The meal begins with farsa gathiya and ends, always, with chai — using a recipe that Vivek's father took 10 years to perfect. That chai is the right note to end on.
The cocktail program is one of the best in Nashville and arguably in the South. The drinks function as actual culinary contributions to the meal — herbs, spices, and flavor profiles that echo and complement the food.
Tailor is Michelin Recommended. It is the kind of restaurant that changes what you think is possible in this city.
One of Nashville's most genuinely exciting restaurants and a Michelin Recommended dining experience — Indian-rooted cooking that feels like a dinner party, a cocktail program in a class of its own, and a final course of chai from a recipe Vivek's father spent 10 years perfecting.
Tailor presents a tasting menu rooted in chef Vivek Surti's Indian heritage. There are two seatings: 5:30 and 8pm. Arrive early — there's a living room up front where you can have a pre-dinner drink before being ushered into the main dining room. The chef and host explain each course as it arrives, beginning with farsa gathiya (small crunchy chickpea puffs) and moving through vegetable, seafood, and main courses. The final course is always chai, using a recipe that Vivek's father took 10 years to perfect.
The menu changes every season. Recent courses have included squid, American wagyu, and sambhar with tamarind rice. The food is rooted in Surti's mother's cooking, which forms the emotional and culinary foundation of the menu — deeply personal preparations that carry real history in every course. Vivek's mom is often in the restaurant.
The cocktail program is one of the best in Nashville and arguably in the South. The drinks function as culinary contributions to the meal, echoing the kitchen's spice profiles and flavor logic.
Tailor is Michelin Recommended in the inaugural American South Guide.
The menu changes every season. Recent courses have included squid, American wagyu, and sambhar with tamarind rice. The food is rooted in Surti's mother's cooking, which forms the emotional and culinary foundation of the menu — deeply personal preparations that carry real history in every course. Vivek's mom is often in the restaurant.
The cocktail program is one of the best in Nashville and arguably in the South. The drinks function as culinary contributions to the meal, echoing the kitchen's spice profiles and flavor logic.
Tailor is Michelin Recommended in the inaugural American South Guide.
