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    Picnic Cafe

    4.2 (168 reviews)
    Closed Closed

    Picnic Cafe Photos

    Business Info

    PICNIC CAFE ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Moderate noise
    Outdoor seating
    Good for kids

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    Recommended Reviews - Picnic Cafe

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    Picnic Sampler

    A quick review after my latest visit: my patronage of The Picnic spans over thirty years and three locations! Many of my other local favorites have closed, but Picnic continues to thrive. Here's a few reasons why: true Nashville hospitality--friendly, professional, and efficient; fresh, delicious, homemade, flavorful food and drinks in just-right portions; clean and welcoming environment with evident attention to each detail; and fair pricing. The menu reflects the use of quality ingredients. I love the variety of the choices and the inclusion of fresh fruit and vegetables. I hope to enjoy meals at The Picnic for another thirty years! They truly exemplify Nashville traditions in the best way!

    Menu 2025
    Elizabeth B.

    I am (gasp) a native Nashvillian and this place is an institution. Fun decor, yummy food. The parking is easy and it is near major roads so access is good. It's often crowded so be prepared. You order at the counter and they bring food to your table. You may also pick up take out, which I did after enjoying my scoop of chicken salad. Check this spot out!

    Quiche combo: comes with a fruit salad, muffin and apricot salad! Yum!
    Mari B.

    Another place that is consistently good! Our office did a To-Go order and everyone was delicious! The Quiche was perfect! Always comes with a great fruit salad! Big fan of their apricot or strawberry frozen salad! Muffins are always delicious but my fave is the Cranberry Orange Muffin which is the perfect combo of sweet and tart! I'm not a fruit tea person but their tea is really good!

    Updated menu from early October 2025

    Cute atmosphere. We went in and ordered to go. As we waited a staff member offered us to get cups and ice for our bottled waters we had and all staff were very friendly. The menu on yelp was out dated but they accommodated what they had on the current menu to make what we were looking forward to. I will upload a new menu that we snapped a picture of while waiting. To go bag was filled with all the extras needed. Not a long wait at all. 10/10

    Sharon B.

    Great place for a pit stop! They had great snacky foods and packaged snacks too. We got the street corn salsa, chips, and the pimento cheese dip. We got the 30 minutes before closing and they had already done away with the coffee which sucked since we went there specifically for coffee. We also didn't realize that it was a hit and not a cafe. No seating inside.

    Lemon tart.
    Denny K.

    4.5 Always on the lookout for a convenient place for a quick pick-up lunch after meetings in Nashville, I found this lovely spot....(thanks to fellow Yelpers!). And, still cautious about Covid, I parked and took a "look-see" what options were and if masks were being worn. Lots of foot traffic in and out and a busy, albeit almost hidden parking lot. (But there are signs...so good job, Picnic staff and/or management. Fairly mixed bag of cautious folks at this point...meaning about half of the customers entering were wearing masks and nearly all staff, save for a few. Plenty of outside seating with a cooling mist-fan in one area. Inside this bright and cheery, sweetly decorated place there are multiple safeguards in place...from curbside pick up to hand sanitizer available inside. But, we're here for the food. First glance and first tastes 4 and 5 star! Quiche of the day - creamy and savory with a few surprise bits of veggie (tomato for one) embedded. Yes, we'd buy it again. Lemon-Artichoke Soup...a bit of a surprise. Great if you are looking for balanced flavor -- a bit of a down-turn if you shun heavily textured cream soups. Mixed stars from wife and myself on this item. Boulevard sandwich....a two thumbs up and 5 stars for flavor, variety, freshness, savory qualities in a more-than adequate portion. (I ended up saving half of mine for later.) Bean soup - this is a tough call in a sense. Freshly made (I assume) flavorful but without the depth of a hearty, slow-simmered soup. This was more like made today, served right away. Yes, some diced veggies added to the flavor, bits of ham needed a boost, and beans were nicely done. But needs a bit more seasoning and simmering. Broccoli Salad - Pretty savory and not too much dressing or sweetness, nice herbal flavor. Devilled Eggs - (Uh, can I give 6 stars?) DELISH! Desserts - there's a bunch and our lemon tart was very nbice. I thought fantastic; my sife said not enough lemon...So you'll have to decide for yourself. Service - absolutely 5 shining stars for helpful, courteous, patient, and efficient servers.

    The outside view of the new location of the Picnic Cafe
    Andrea H.

    This place services the "country club " set. Many people from Belle meade have been coming here for years. The mostly blue and white signature decor is very nice in their new location, but not quite as cozy because of the size and openness of the building. One definite advantage of the new place is a separate area for to go orders. If you are in a rush it's quick to grab something from the coolers. The menu definitely stands out. I would say it is more geared to women and luncheons. There are lots of salad items and sandwiches. I have been 3 times. As far as sandwiches go,I would say they are packed and above ordinary, and probably the closest you could get to your best homemade healthy sandwich. The little sides like fruit salad and potato salads are made with care. The recipes and certain items have been designed by Kathy the owner. The fruit punch is loaded with sugar but a favorite. There are lots of little special touches like the blue and white napkins and doilies giving the restaurant an old timey feel. I always opt for the tuna salad. I once had the lemon artichoke soup. It was grand. I had to go to the store and make some more at home. Since I am Italian, I am still trying to figure out how lemon artichoke wound up being a southern favorite. On one of my visits I snapped a photo for my watercolor:

    Quiche plate

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    10 years ago

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    12 years ago

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    11 years ago

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    12 years ago

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    10 years ago

    Best chicken salad in town!!! The fruit tea, soup, and take-out menu is great too. I appreciate the friendly service too.

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    14 years ago

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    Page 5 of 5

    Ask the Community - Picnic Cafe

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    The Pancake Pantry

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    Great service! The Cinnamon roll panache was very good but not too sweet which is exactly what I…read morewanted. There was a wait but it moved fast.

    The wait was worth the while... about 30~ mins or so. They have their system down, they're pretty…read morefast and efficient with their check in and check out process. I'll start off by saying I'm not the biggest fan of pancakes, nor cinnamon and have to be in the mood for both. Today happened to be the day. I tried their pancake sampler, with cinnamon, Caribbean and banana bread pancakes. They were all good, fluffy, airy and flavorful. Banana bread with their maple syrup, Caribbean with cinnamon. But, their cinnamon pancakes were amazing!! Those were definitely the winner!!! Best pancakes I've ever had. Their three pig omelette was pretty bomb as well. I got some of their sausage gravy on the side, to douse the omelette and that was definitely the move there. I think this is the first time I didn't need to use cholula for flavoring. The location is centralized, set up nicely, with huge open indoor space with plenty of seating outside. The service was great as well. Attentive and fast. All in all, I wish I had the time to come here yesterday, so I could try something different today. But, I took the place for everything it had and it definitely delivered. Highly recommend and I will be back, when I'm in the area for sure!

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    The Pancake Pantry

    The Pancake Pantry

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    I've heard such wonderful things about Pancake Pantry. So, it was a quick decision when the…read moredaughter asked me where I wanted to go for breakfast. She warned me that there's always a wait, but being a Monday, I thought it would be ok. We were surprised to find parking right across the street, then arrive to no line and being seated right away. Don't get me wrong -- the place was bustling! Shortly after we got to our table, which looked like the last one, the line started to form. Nicholas was our wonderful server. He was busy but stayed engaged throughout our time there. My daughter ordered the Banana Bread Pancakes while I chose the Swedish Pancakes, then added the Candied Bacon to share. It all came out super-fast! The Banana Bread Pancakes were fluffy, flavorful and so yummy. My Swedish Pancakes were classically thin, slightly sweet and loaded with lingonberry. And that Candied Bacon -- OMG. That was so good! It's definitely pricey, but worth it (IMO). The Pancake Pantry team work amazingly well in the organized chaos. They move quickly in turning over tables, but somehow never made us feel rushed. Really great experience. We'll be back!

    The wait to get in was pretty long, and unfortunately, their pop machine wasn't working, so they…read morewere serving drinks from 2-liter bottles. One of our people happened to be in the bathroom when they were ready to seat us, and they didn't want to seat the rest of us until she came back, which was a little frustrating. On the bright side, the food was good! There was a nice variety, the portions were plentiful, and the food came out in a timely manner. Overall, the food was definitely worth the hype.

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    November 2025
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    Avocado toast
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    Another Broken Egg Cafe

    Another Broken Egg Cafe

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    The 4 of us came in for breakfast last Saturday morning, with a fairly reasonable 30 minute wait…read morefor our table. Their text system for handling that was efficient and we were all lucky to find a comfortable place to sit both inside and out. Our waitress (Amanda) was sharp in terms of communication, understanding our selections, friendliness, and the ability to move a lot of plates (with food or not) without losing balance. Our table near a front corner was also pleasant and comfortable. Gayle and Erin started off with a pitcher of Mimosas, while I went for OJ and Coffee, and Jim Coffee. Our selections involved 2 orders of Waffles, 1 set of Lemon/Blueberry Pancakes, and French Toast. Meat sides were evenly split between Andouille sausage (for a little extra spice) and bacon, while eggs were either poached, scrambled, or over easy. I especially appreciated that my "Poached Hard" request came back spot on. The Pancakes/Waffles/French Toast were all light, tasty and well served by the maple syrup. It was all delicious and perhaps too much food. We were all happy with our choices and appreciated our upcoming walks to work all this off.

    Where to start, there was a line so we had to wait outside which had quite a few homeless people…read moresitting there waiting for food to be given to them. Once inside the staff was so kind and helpful. Our waitress was the best! They did have Gluten Free options which was very nice and they were good. I ordered the Cold Brew and it was gross. On a scale of 1 - 10 I would give it a 5 on cleanliness. I guess they allow pets so we listened to this dog bark as the owner threw waffles on the floor for him to eat. I happened to not be a pet person so this was a struggle for me + I felt bad for the dog. All those dirty feet walking on that floor and that dog was eating off of it. Didn't feel right. They did mess up our bill and we ended up realizing after that we over paid. Overall I do not recommend and wouldn't go back. If our waitress wouldn't have been amazing this would have been a 1 star review.

    Photos
    Inside
    Inside
    Eggs, avocado, ham, arugula! Delish! Ultimate Brunch Sandwich
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    Crab Cake Benedict

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    Crab Cake Benedict

    Picnic Cafe - breakfast_brunch - Updated August 2026

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