Edley's BBQ

Edley’s is s small chain of barbecue restaurants, with three branches in Nashville and one in Kentucky, founded by Will and Catherine Newman (the restaurants are named after Will’s grandfather). The Sylvan Park branch has parking at the back of the restaurant, and some outside seating. The main dining room is bustling, with small tables packed together and a separate bar. The system here is that you find a table (if you can) and then queue up to order your food. You are given a numbered tag which you display on your table, and the waiters will find you when your food is ready. There are no reservations, and the place is popular. We went for an early lunch and the queue already snaked out of the door. One tip is that you can, despite what the sign says, order your food at the bar, which is dramatically quicker than waiting in the main line at the central ordering station.

The menu offers assorted tacos and sandwiches. A shrimp sandwich had fried shrimps in a brioche bun. The shrimps were actually quite decently cooked but the bun was oddly over-sweet, and seemed to be an industrial bought-in bun (11/20). My pork tacos had pulled pork with a barbecue sauce, the meat itself fine if unexceptional. The tacos again appeared to be mass produced and was not especially good, though the sauce with it was pleasantly tangy (11/20). The bill for two, with beer to drink, came to $15 (£12) each even with tip, so this was certainly inexpensive. They certainly seem to have hit the correct formula for their market, as the large premises was completely heaving from when we arrived to when we left, with the queue to order barely dwindling in length.