NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville is no stranger to top dining spots with reputations known across the country; on Wednesday, Yelp released its list of Top 100 U.S. Restaurants, including three Nashville eateries.
But taking the highest spot among Nashville restaurants — listed as the ninth-best restaurant in the entire country — is a small restaurant off Thompson Lane in Nashville that's been open for barely a year, featuring a cuisine many have never tried before.
Having opened in late 2020, Shane Shamansurov says it probably would have made more sense to start up his Osh Restaurant and Grill when the world wasn't in the middle of a pandemic.
"We had a lot of customers come in and say, 'you picked the worst time to open a restaurant,'" Shamansurov said.
But perhaps his timing couldn't have been better.
Shamansurov received the news about his Yelp list ranking Wednesday afternoon.
"The whole family is here," Shamansurov said. "I called them up, I told them we won number nine — they said, 'In Nashville?' I said, 'No, the whole country.'"
Other restaurants on the Yelp list feature Michelin stars and James Beard awards; Shamansurov's restaurant features authentic cuisine from Uzbekistan and the former Soviet Union.
Shamansurov's restaurant follows in the footsteps of his father, who's been in the restaurant industry for 42 years.
"The priority was giving the best we can of my father's experience, to the community, to local Nashville people," Shamansurov said.
He says 90% of his customers are first-timers who have never had Uzbek cuisine before, most of whom become return customers.
One of the top sellers is osh — an Uzbek rice dish they named the restaurant after.
In addition to Osh Restaurant and Grill, Skulls Rainbow Room and the Caracasville Venezuelan food truck also made the list of Yelp's Top 100 restaurants.
