Edessa Restaurant Kurdish Turkish Cuisine
Turkish restaurant · Grassmere
3802 Nolensville Pk, Nashville, TN 37211
Highlights
Kurdish & Turkish cuisine: kabobs, flatbread, lamb shank & more
Kurdish & Turkish cuisine: kabobs, flatbread, lamb shank & more
"Nashville has the largest community of Kurds in the U.S., and halal favorite Edessa packs a ton of Kurdish as well as Turkish flavor into its Nolensville Pike strip mall space, with standout items like a savory Anatolian flatbread stuffed with spinach and cheese, a variety of kabobs (like Cornish chicken and lamb), and several pides. To drink, try ayran, a food-friendly salted yogurt, and for dessert, baklava or Turkish kunefe (shredded wheat with a layer of melted cheese, topped with chopped pistachios and aromatic sweet syrup, served with ice cream). —DJR" - Ellen Fort
"Part Kurdish, part Turkish, all excellent—Edessa is where you go when you want a proper sit-down meal. It’s where we take our out-of-town friends who want to know just how good the Kurdish and Turkish food are in Nashville. Their adana kebab plate is the thing to get here—two juicy skewers of chargrilled ground lamb and beef served with rice and a side salad that’s hard to beat. If you really want a feast, bring a few people and order their kebab festival, a dazzling display of grilled meats. And if you don’t order the kunefe for dessert, you’re doing it wrong." - anas saba
"If you want to start exploring all of the greatness bubbling up on Nolensville Pike, Edessa is the best place to start. The Turkish and Kurdish restaurant is located in an unassuming strip mall in Little Kurdistan and the food here puts on a show. Hunks of meat hang from a rack medieval-style, and pillowy bubbles of lavash are thrown right from the oven onto your table. There’s rarely a miss and it's an elite spot for a group dinner of excellent dips and mountains of meat. photo credit: Casey Irwin photo credit: Casey Irwin photo credit: Casey Irwin photo credit: Casey Irwin Share everything, starting with the lavash—a thin, pliable flatbread that arrives at the table looking like Kirby. Pop it with a fork and use it, along with pieces of pita, to dig into the various dips and spreads in the appetizer platter. Among them, the city’s greatest baba ganoush and hummus. The juicy kabobs on the mixed grill are more than enough for two people, but a larger group should definitely go in on the kabob festival that comes with apps, salad, soups, kabobs, rice, and baklava for $160. Drinks are BYOB here, so plan accordingly. Ask for one of the cozy red booths, if one’s available. They comfortably seat four, but you can squeeze six if you’re feeling particularly ambitious. And because so many of the plates here are meant to be shared with a group, it isn’t unusual to find that exact situation happening all around the room. The more lavash, the merrier. Food Rundown Fresh Lavash Make this the first thing you order, because you’ll use it throughout your meal for dipping, wrapping, and sopping up everything. The fun part, though, is popping this massive bubble of bread. A tiny poke with a fork will do it, and then you can watch it deflate into a thin, pliable, earthy sheet of carbs that’s impossible to stop eating. Signature Appetizer Platter This platter has all of Edessa’s greatest hits: juicy ezme with chopped tomatoes and peppers, earthy baba ghanoush, rich hummus, tender stuffed grape leaves, lemony tabbouleh, cool and creamy haydari, and thick slices of pita. The platter easily feeds a group of four as a starter. photo credit: Casey Irwin Mixed Grill Kabob The mixed grill comes with three different kabobs—chargrilled filet mignon, chicken, adana— along with a lamb chop and a generous heaping of yellow rice and salad. The chicken and Adana are far and away the winners, tender and bursting with flavorful spices. The filet is a bit tough but has a nice earthy seasoning to it. photo credit: Edessa Kabob Festival The kabob festival is the move if you're coming with a big group. You get Edessa’s haydari, ezme, baba ghanoush, salad, lentil soup, lamb chop, rice, and three different kabobs: adana, chicken, kofta. The kabobs are tender and bursting with flavorful spices. Get all three varieties to eliminate any decision fatigue. Baklava Both the traditional baklava and the Edessa baklava are delightfully sticky. Edessa’s version adds a mix of dried apricots, raisins, and figs to the mix, which adds some nice variety." - Jackie Gutierrez-Jones
"Possibly a little known fact: Nashville is home to the largest Kurdish population in the United States. Music City’s “Little Kurdistan” is located in South Nashville, where excellent food from the diaspora can be found at restaurants like Edessa, hidden in an unassuming strip mall. There, the kabobs are wildly popular, grilled over open flame and served on skewers dangling dramatically from tabletop stands. The Adana kabob is particularly iconic, composed of ground lamb and beef with herbs and spices, exceptionally excellent when dragged through Edessa’s creamy hummus. For a group, however, you might as well order the “Kabob Festival,” an absolute bonanza of meats accompanied by all the mezze, soup, rice, and baklava for dessert." - Ellen Fort
"Nashville has the largest community of Kurds in the U.S., and halal favorite Edessa packs a ton of Kurdish as well as Turkish flavor into its Nolensville Pike strip mall space, with standout items like Cornish chicken, shish kebabs, and a savory Anatolian flatbread stuffed with spinach and cheese. To drink, try ayran, a food-friendly salted yogurt, and for dessert, baklava or Turkish kanafeh (shredded wheat with a layer of melted cheese, topped with chopped pistachios and aromatic sweet syrup, served with ice cream)." - Jackie Gutierrez-Jones, Eater Staff
