Sylvan Park - Nashville, TN

Posted By Michael Stern on November 20, 2011 5:44 AM

Sylvan Park is a simple little dining room that is one of Nashville’s great plate lunch restaurants. Choices of entrée include slices of fried Tennessee ham, barbecued chicken, and breaded pork chops; and the roster of side dishes, served in little bowls and on thick, unbreakable partitioned plates, is unforgettable. Every day, there are at least a dozen from which to choose, including definitive turnip greens and shockingly sweet stewed apples.

For dipping and mopping the juices and for serving as uncomplicated punctuation among the assertive flavors, Sylvan Park offers tender little biscuits with great absorbent qualities as well as tangy cornbread muffins with a rough texture that crumbles nicely over a serving of creamy white beans.

Sylvan Park is known also for its pies: chocolate, butterscotch, egg custard, sweet potato. They aren’t pretty. Cut to order in the kitchen, a slice often arrives half-fallen-apart on the plate. That’s because these pies are very, very delicate with fragile meringue on top of the creamy ones. A highly recommended alternative to pie, when available: banana pudding. Its flavor is huge, and it is made the classic southern way, with softened vanilla wafers and streaks of meringue throughout the balmy custard.

Overall Rating

mashed turnips

chocolate pie

Coconut Pie

Chess Pie

Tennessee ham

turnip greens

banana pudding

Stewed Apples

Fried Bologna Breakfast

Caramel Pie

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Posted By Darryl Miller on October 2, 2010 7:57 PM

We looked forward to Sylvan Park for our Saturday lunch, but quickly decided expectatin is greater than the real thing. Our waitress was efficient and friendly; she was the best thing in the place! There were four of us in our party; all ordered from the daily menu except one who ordered breakfast (country ham and eggs). All except the breakfast arrived cold. Even the coffee was cold! The waitress apologized time after time, but even when she brought out the food, it still was not hot!

The food was very salty, especially the green breans and the red sauce for the meat loaf. The breakfast person smiled from ear-to-ear about her food. No one wanted dessert.

We certainly don't plan to return, especially with Arnold's just down the street and many, many wonderful places to eat in Nashville.

Overall Rating

Tennessee ham

mashed turnips

Fried Okra

Fried Corn

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Posted By Brent Kulman on June 22, 2009 6:42 PM

Sylvan Park is another one of those places in Nashville that retains its distinct character. At lunchtime the place gets rather crowded and there is really no room to wait inside on a chilly day, other than to crowd around the cash register, once the one waiting chair is taken. I managed to sit in the chair for awhile and worried the whole time that I might lose my place in the waiting line as a result. And there is no hostess that keeps track, so it is a bit of an honor system when it comes to who occupies the next available table.

I tend to go meatless at meat and threes as I just cannot decide among the vegetables. So a decent but unmemorable macaroni and cheese sufficed as my starch and I surrounded it with turnip greens, green beans, and an interesting squash casserole. With the exception of the turnip greens, which were unusually bitter (even before I doused them with the obligatory splash of vinegar), the vegetable dishes were quite good.

Lots of regulars come to this joint and the waitstaff knows them by name. That is always a good sign in the South.

Overall Rating

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