Bailey and Cato Family Restaurant
1307 McGavock PikeNashville, TN 37216
Inglewood/ Trinity Lane
227-4694
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 12-10 p.m. Sun.
Restaurant Details
Don’t let the quiet exterior fool you. Inside the faded-salmon house—kitty-corner from the foodie strip of Riverside Village—the Bailey family is hard at work, smoking ribs, cleaning greens and stewing yams for a rotating menu of Southern and soul classics. If you can't commit to memory the weekly schedule, you can always rely on barbecue ribs and some of the best fried chicken in town, which are available daily.
Price: $$
Payment Type: All Major Credit Cards, cash
Parking: Lot Available
Reservations: Not Necessary
Reviews/comments (6)
Showing 1-6 of 6
This has been a favorite of my family for abaout 10 years. The food is consistently good and Barbara, Robert and their family are very nice respectable people. You get plenty of food for your money. THEY DO HAVE PARKING. You park in the gravel lot in front of the restaurant. They also deliver.
Rating Detail:
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 5
Overall: 5
like
dislike
My husband and I have been to this little place a dozen times. We have recommended them to several of our friends. Although we have never felt comfortable w/the atmosphere/attitude of the staff and surroundings (very dumpy), we have tried to patronize this place because they are a minority owned business. I have a saying, "I don't pay for bad service". I have put this saying aside many many times in this place because the staff always seem to be attitudal, angry, and unprofessional. They make you feel as though you are a bother rather than a valued customer. No one ever says.. hello, welcome, thank you, or come back to see us. I can't recall ever noticing a score (too distracted by the attitudes). As of right now, we are done! My husband and I will not continue to put our money into a place that obviously does not care anything about its customers, and care even less about offering their customers a decent, clean establishment. You can't even sit down in this place without someone's butt in your face, or them stepping on your toes. It's painfully apparent that they have no intentions of doing anything except pocketing their profits. For the record.... The greens are always dry (could do w/a little meat grease, and vinegar) the mac and cheese is awful (need to use better cheese and cream) I had the sweet potatoes once and said..never would I make that mistake again! They normally keep the dessert behind the serving area, but noticed that some are now in the drink cooler. Decided to try one and the cake was stale. So long B &C. You have lost two very good customers. The sad part about it is... We don't think that they even care.
I had put off giving them a try until recently, eagerly anticipating what I'd heard was authentic southern home-cooked vittles. Unfortunately, I was unpleasantly suprised. I got a rib plate to go with mac & cheese, white beans and the hot-water style cornbread hoe cakes. Roughly half of each small section of ribs was literally inedible. They'd been cooked WAY too long and were very dry and leathery. I already felt cheated, but this feeling became stronger when I realized with the first fork-full of the white beans that they were CANNED beans, with quite a bit of seasoning added in an unsuccessful attempt to both conceal this, and to keep time and labor to a minimum related to preparing actual home-cooked beans which require nothing more than a cold-water pre-soak and some ham hock and salt & pepper to result in an extremely tasty and therapeutic dish. The mac & cheese was pretty decent as was the cornbread, however the cornbread was room-temp at best and it was obvious it had been 'on standby' for a while since it left the skillet or fryer. My gut feeling (no pun intended) is to give them a second shot and order up different items the next time, but in my mind the canned white beans speaks volumes regarding their management/quality control ethics. There's not many things more annoying to me than springing eight or nine dollars for wanna-be southern quisine when that amount (and LESS) will buy you a very substantial and satisfying sit-down meal at other viable restaurants in the very same area of town.
The food is absolutely delicious - one of my favorite places to get good Southern vegetables and sides. All of the people there are friendly and service is always quick. There's not a lot of space to eat inside (though there is some), so during busy times it's best to get the food to go.
My parents - visiting from out of state - wanted to try this out. Because I am well aware of the portions at meat-n-three's around here, I got the pulled pork sandwich which was average. The BBQ sauce was not the kind of sauce that I like - too sweet with no other options besides...well...sweet BBQ sauce.
However, my parents got the ribs and two sides which were fantastic (and were miserable the rest of the day...this is why I chose the sandwich). I didn't want to wait 20 min. for the fried chicken or I would have probably given this a five star rating. Atmosphere is exactly what it should be...little to no style, limited seating, and B-movies on the small TV for your viewing pleasure. Isn't that what you are looking for in a place like this?
If you want to go in there and have a conversation with the server, don't do it. It's not gonna happen. Don't talk on your cell phone unless you are done ordering and paying for your food. They are there to serve you a big plate of goodness and don't want to mess with the small talk or customers holding up the line while they ask their buddy if they want mild or hot BBQ sauce. Get in there, stuff yourself silly and get out. 'Nuff said.
As far as meat-and-threes go, this one just doesn't hold up. The atmosphere is dumpy/awesome, but they skimp on some of the offerings, for instance it's an abomination for a meat-and-three restaurant to serve fake mashed potatoes like B&C does. I get take-out only as it's usually really busy and has little room. We have eaten here several times, and have never been fully impressed. If you're in the mood for soul food, Southern Bred (five minutes away) has MUCH better food and plenty of room to sit.
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