Noôsh Brings Persian Cuisine From the Hearth

It’s best to trust a guide when you’re in unfamiliar territory — that can be a map, or a trusted source, or even your own senses. Use all of these at Noôsh, a new fine-dining spot on White Bridge Road where meals come together easily around warm Persian stews and glistening kebabs.

Small jars of tangy, crimson sumac sit on each table, complementing the gem tones throughout the split-level dining room. Palette matches palate for owner Naz Kiani: Warm color and rich spice tie together every item on the two-page menu, which takes diners from smoky blended eggplant to butter-yellow saffron ice cream.

Noôsh’s success comes from a careful balance between the complex, the simple, the known and the unfamiliar. While fesenjan, a thick stew of walnuts and pomegranate, is a rare find in Nashville, it is a basic staple of one of humanity’s oldest cuisines, developed over millennia across the once-vast Persian Empire. Geographic reach and common ingredients allowed Persian cuisine to influence (and be influenced by) the food of North Africa, Turkey, the broader Middle East and the Mediterranean. Noôsh does its best to showcase the dishes that make Persian food stand out. 

At dinner recently, a server told our table that many regulars have already picked up on the best path through a dinner here — the three-course contract labeled “Feast,” tucked under a paralyzing choice of fish, lamb, chicken, beef and vegetable kebabs. It’s a framework for shared dips, four kebabs, stew, rice and saffron ice cream that can satisfy at least two diners for $88. Deals that good might run Kiani out of business.

A good meal here centers on the blazing oven visible behind a glass wall. Juicy kubideh (ground lamb) and flaky salmon, brightened by the quick squeeze of a charred lemon, are not to be missed. Rice comes dotted with lentils (adas polo), lima beans (baghali polo) or barberries (zereshk polo), perfect as a kebab landing pad or testing ground for ground sumac, which hits like salty-sour fruit and goes well with everything.

A short drink list riffs on classic cocktails with help from Persian staples like apricot, sumac, rose and, of course, pomegranate. The House Doogh — a thin, craveable yogurt drink — deserves at least one trip around the table. With minimal tweaks, the menu’s basis in rice, vegetables, legumes and spices easily accommodates vegetarian, vegan, alcohol-free and gluten-free diners.

Noôsh’s only disappointment was a few false promises brought by the Friday night rush. A shortage of hummus meant we instead got both eggplant spreads: the smokier mirza ghasemi and the savory kashk-o-bademjan, thickened with drizzled whey. Sold-out chenjeh, Noôsh’s sirloin kebab, opened up space for a succulent shrimp skewer. The hot chicken kebab has been struck from the menu altogether, mainly a blow to our curiosity.

Noôsh comes online as part of a real food renaissance for the area. It physically replaced pizzeria Porta Via, and for now, it seems to rely on a similar West Side clientele: older couples dining in even-numbered pairs drinking wine; adult children meeting up with parents for a weekly night out. But it still has empty seats. West End Avenue and Hillsboro Pike have historically lagged behind culinary hot spots like Germantown and East Nashville, and Noôsh — along with recently announced expansions for Two Ten Jack and Soy Cubano, as well as a Dalt’s makeover from Strategic Hospitality — might help better establish the area’s dining scene, where national chains like Raising Cane’s, Chipotle and Chuy’s outnumber a few beloved stalwarts (Sonobana, Sperry’s, a revamped Caffé Nonna).

Just around the corner from Noôsh, the new Belle Meade Village will bring a nearby supply of people and money, a much-needed lifeline for a restaurant situated inside an otherwise sleepy commercial plaza.