Kurdish Food in Nashville: Kabobs, Bread and Dolma

Kurdish food in Nashville is grilled meat, warm flatbread, rice and herbs, yogurt and stuffed vegetables, cooked mostly by the families who brought the recipes with them and served along the southeast side of the city. Learn the dishes, how to order and how to rate a plate.

What is Kurdish food in Nashville?

The cooking of the Kurdish people, whose homeland spans parts of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria, as served by the community that settled in Nashville over the past few decades. Nashville has long been described as home to a notable Kurdish population, and the area around Nolensville Pike is sometimes nicknamed Little Kurdistan.

What matters at the table is the cooking: simple ingredients, careful technique and generous hospitality.

What will you eat at a Little Kurdistan Nashville table?

Expect a spread rather than a single plate. Grilled meats arrive with rice, salad and bread. Stews are served with rice. Yogurt is on the side, and so are fresh herbs, onions and pickles. Tea is poured often. Meals are meant to be shared.

Start with what you recognize, such as a kabob, and add one thing you do not. Ask the server which dishes are made in house that day.

How do you order Kurdish kabob and flatbread?

Kabob is meat, often lamb or chicken, seasoned and grilled over high heat. It may arrive on skewers, as minced meat or as cubes, with rice, grilled tomatoes and onions. The flatbread is as important as the meat. It is used to scoop, wrap and wipe the plate, and it is best eaten warm.

Tear a piece, wrap some meat and a few herbs and eat it with your hands. If you are unsure, watch the next table. Rate the kabob and the bread separately by the dish, because they are made by different hands and judged by different standards.

What are dolma and kubba?

Dolma are vegetables, such as peppers, tomatoes, onions or vine leaves, stuffed with rice and sometimes meat, then slowly cooked. Kubba, also spelled kibbeh in other regions, are dumplings or patties with a shell of rice or bulgur around a seasoned filling, and they can be fried or simmered in broth. Both are labor-intensive, which is why they often appear on weekends and special occasions.

If a kitchen offers them, try them. They tell you how much time the cooks are willing to spend.

Is there a Kurdish bakery Nashville diners can visit?

Bakeries and markets that sell flatbread, pastries and sweets are part of the neighborhood, and many sell bread still warm from the oven. A bakery stop is the cheapest way to taste the cooking. Buy a loaf, eat it on the walk and rate it by the dish.

Tags such as Bakery, Market Stall and Great Value fit well. Check hours before you go, because small bakeries often sell out and close early.

How do you find a good Kurdish restaurant on Nolensville Pike?

The best way to find one is to ask. Neighbors, co-workers and the person at the counter will tell you where they eat. Follow your eyes: a full room of families at lunch, a grill in view and a menu with more than kabobs are good signs.

Pair this page with the wider Nolensville Pike guide to plan a day along the road, and use the Sylvan Park guide for a quieter evening elsewhere.

What do you drink with a Kurdish meal?

Tea, mostly. Black tea, served hot and strong in small glasses, with sugar on the side, is poured at the start, during and after the meal. A yogurt drink, salty and cold, is the other classic, and it suits grilled meat. Water is always on the table. If you are offered a second glass of tea, accepting is polite.

Breakfast has its own pattern: bread, cheese, olives, eggs, honey, cream and tea, spread across the table so everyone can reach. If you find a place that serves it, go in the morning and take your time.

Sweets are served with tea rather than after a meal. A small pastry or a handful of nuts is the usual offer.

How should you treat the occasion?

As hospitality. In Kurdish homes and restaurants, guests are fed generously, and refusing food can seem odd. Eat what you can and say thank you. If you are invited to a celebration, such as Newroz, the Kurdish new year in March, accept with gratitude.

Rate with respect. Name the dish properly if you can learn the name, and describe what you tasted. A note such as "smoky, tender, served with warm bread" helps the next person order with confidence.

How do you keep track of what you tried?

A Kurdish table brings a dozen plates at once, and Mosey lets you rate each one on its own, from the grilled meat to the flatbread to the herbs. Rate each dish, add a note on what it was and save the kitchen to a list. If you ate with friends, tag them, and they can add their own rating of the same meal.

The US food guides cover other cities, and the Food in Tennessee guide lists every Tennessee page.

Open the Mosey app after your next Kurdish meal in Nashville, rate the kabob and the bread separately and save the place to a list for a friend.