Eating Nashville: Hand Cut Chophouse has smoked cocktails and tourists behaving badly

Brad: Another downtown hotel opens another expensive restaurant to try to attract a chunk of the seemingly ever-growing horde of tourists. Are we growing weary of that storyline? Well the answer, for me, is not yet.

Yes, there are some disappointments recently, including the 1 Kitchen in 1 Hotel Nashville and the Makeready L&L in the Noelle.

But two of my fave restaurants in the entire city are in downtown hotels, Yolan in The Joseph and Bourbon Steak in the J.W. Marriott. And I do love a steakhouse. So, Mack, I had an open mind and hopeful belly as we headed to the latest, Hand Cut Chophouse, in the downtown Embassy Suites.

Mackensy: Yep, Both of those restaurants are fantastic. I also love a good steakhouse, even if it's rare for me to visit one on my own time.

My first impressions of this spot were mainly of tourists behaving badly. We entered through the bar side and had a hard time moving past the people gathered there, with my "excuse mes" going unnoticed until I had to physically push my way through the tightly bunched happy hour crowd.

As we approached the host stand, we had to wait for a while as the hostess answered what seemed like far too many questions over the phone. Another out-of-towner strode past us and began hurling demands as she tried to wrap up her call.

Another host in training watched it all go down while making polite chit-chat while we waited. There was, at least, plenty to look at, from the brightly painted sausage grinders hanging from the ceiling to the huge TV screens on the far wall in front of which sat a guitarist belting out a decent version of a Jason Isbell song.

Brad: Yeah, overall, there was an uneasy, manic energy, and the restaurant staff seemed unorganized and unable to smoothly handle, well, anything, really. On to the food, which was inconsistent at best. The best thing we ate was the classic Caesar salad. Classic indeed: Crispy, fresh romaine lettuce, perfectly coated with a dressing that had the perfect amount of bite. And the croutons! Light, airy, crunchy, addictive.

The only other item I really enjoyed was the classic cheeseburger, which, here, is a really well-executed version of a Big Mac. Notice I didn't say "elevated" − shredded iceberg lettuce is shredded iceberg lettuce. But the beef was fresh and tender, and I really liked Hand Cut's version of special sauce.

Mack: We got into what we'll call "a discussion" right away over the service. There was quite a lot of crazy going on, yet the servers worked their way through it, albeit slowly. The people next to us had an absolute fit over "rare" pork that looked fine to me. The server whisked it away with pleasant apologies despite the weird, loud dressing down he received. If a restaurant staff is overwhelmed but still manages to be unfailingly polite and right any wrongs, what you have is a group of people doing their best with the tools they've been handed.

The classic Caesar was excellent, and here's where I once again beg kitchens not to get too creative with Caesars, which are classic for a reason. The cheeseburger was good, but for the money, I could get three more-enjoyable ones at Red Headed Stranger.

I'd rather have the cheeseburger than another bowl of that crab pasta, though. I could only tell there was crab in the cream sauce because I kept getting shells in my teeth.

Brad: Ha! Funny yet true (and kinda gross, tbh). Also disappointing: The black truffle sirloin cap, served with both a truffle cream and truffle-infused butter. This, folks, is what I like to call So Much Truffle That You Can't Taste the OK Beef That All That Truffle Is Completely Overpowering.

While I'm complaining, the mac and cheese lacked flavor, that crab pasta was just wet and bland and our server disappeared for about 20 minutes after we'd finished our entrees.

Mack: Because he had an ungodly number of tables in his section and they all sat down at the same time! He wasn't smoking cigarettes in the alley. Anyway, yes. The beef was much better than ok, but it was hard to tell under what was enough truffle to blow out your palate for days.

I enjoyed my Waffle Cone Smoked Old Fashioned, which was a fun spectacle of smoke and also spectacularly sweet, but that's essentially what was promised. I would make this your dessert and call it a day.

Brad: Or should you go at all? Is Hand Cut Chophouse a good stop for locals? My answer is no; overall, there are many more places serving much better food, and the restaurant has serious service issues to work out. But it was cool seeing Mack's smokey Old Fashioned come together tableside!

Have a spot you'd like Mack and Brad to check out in Nashville? Find Mackensy at mlunsford@tennessean.com and Brad at brad@tennessean.com. We'd love to hear your suggestions and hear your thoughts on your favorite Nashville restaurants.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Eating Nashville: Hand Cut Chophouse spectacle of tourists, truffles