Lorraine’s

The food is decent, a little pricey for what I would consider bar food. The biggest issue here is that the restaurant is chronically understaffed. I travel to Franklin monthly and stay at the Marriott occasionally. I’ve never experienced a meal here where there was adequate staff. The bartender is the floor service waiter/​waitress for the restaurant area. There’s no bus staff. The front desk staff help seat customers.
There are always people wandering around with Marriott name tags, but they clearly don’t belong to the restaurant operations. This place has potential, but sadly it falls short on service. Repeatedly.

I work close by so its been a go to option regularly, however, the quality of the food, especially their salad bar/​buffet is slipping. Right now they are in renovations and we stopped in for lunch, however did not realize until too late that the buffet was SEVERELY reduced in size yet the price was still the same. I was not pleased. In addition today I was asked by two different people three times what i would like to drink before ever getting anything. I appreciate the accuracy but it shouldn’t take that much coaching to get a sweet tea.

I met a colleague here for lunch. They offer a buffet, and I was pleased with the range of selections and the quality. This isn’t a gourmet restaurant, but the food was more than sufficient. A full salad bar, soups, and a range of hot foots, including fish and non-​meat items. This is a great option for hotel guests or business lunches. Service is slow, but very pleasant. It’s a little pricey, although you’d be a fool to expect anything else in a hotel, let alone this joint in Cool Springs.

I’ve been here twice before, and recently the service wasn’t that great. They have changed up their menu, and the food is still pricey but still good. Last time I visited, I ordered a wrap with fries, and asked for no tomatoes and cheese on the wrap. The server didn’t seem to bother to listen, as when my food was brought out there was tomatoes and cheese on the wrap and not any other veggies. I asked about this, and she said (in an argumentative tone) that she thought I told her differently. After that, I had lost my appetite.
I still frequent the hotel a lot (as it has been home to previous conventions I have been to, and one that is happening here next August), but will probably not return here.

In town for a conference; über’d from the airport (no car). About 9:00PM…and they are out of chicken… everything. Ordered a ribeye. 10 minutes later, they are out of ribeye. Had the strip steak eventually, still charged for the ribeye.
Food was OK, or maybe I was just famished.
Still better than airport food. But if you have a car, you can do better.
Server was nice.

Post wedding hangover breakfast. Service is slow, but polite. It’s the South so I have to get accustomed to this. The breakfast buffet was full of goodies. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, homemade biscuits and country gravy. Loads of fresh fruits and oatmeal and granola. Good coffee.

Timing is everything!
We have visited Lorraine’s several times over the years primarily for Chamber of Commerce luncheons and for breakfast after spending the night for a special event, etc.
On a normal day, Lorraine’s hosts a nice lunch buffet and on Sundays they do a nice brunch. Not five star, granted, but nice with the waffle and omelette stations, etc.
Recently we bought a groupon for breakfast or lunch that was valid on Sunday and thought great, a nice morning and a deal to boot. We visited last Sunday at 12:15 pm (the time is very important) on the Sunday two weeks prior to our groupon expiring (why do I always do that?).
Turns out on Sunday, at noon the clock strikes and everything stops. No waffle guy, no omelette station, and the breakfast buffet sits there for a bit allowing customers already in mid-​meal to go get a last minute pastry or fruit to end their experience. Customers walking in can order a barbecue sandwich off the menu, or a chicken sandwich, I think there were some soups… no buffet of any kind.
Now we realize if we had gone straight from the church we would have been there within the allotted time period and never known the possible peril that befalls late arrivals — but noon? Seriously? This has to be the only restaurant in Cool Springs that offers brunch but should really just call it breakfast. If you want to end breakfast at noon or even 11 am, or even 10:30 am — we understand that.
The server was OK and almost apologetic, but offerered to go check and see if they had «broken down» the equipment yet and said if we wanted to visit the buffet for one trip to hurry. Literally, those were his words.
It wasn’t the best experience, but I understand he tried. Then my favorite part is he charged us the «local discount» of $ 3 each that I never knew they offered before. But then when we presented our groupon, he explained he had to take the discount away, seriously. So, for a $ 20 groupon and $ 14 — we got dry eggs, cold bacon and sausage, filmed over grits, and rubbery pancakes.
We’ve had better and we know they can do better — but beware, timing is everything!

Very good food and a nice ambiance. My wife had the shrimp and grits, I had a Caesar salad with grilled flank steak and we split an appetizer of fried green tomatoes.
It was practically empty so we made it through a very nice in almost no time at all.
I would definitely recommend Lorraine’s!

A diamond in the rough.
OK, maybe the Franklin Marriott doesn’t qualify as ‘the rough’, but this place seems relatively undiscovered.
It was practically empty on a weekday afternoon, which meant we had little competition at the $ 11 buffet featuring all manner of pre-​Thanksgiving treats.
I could quibble a little with the quality of a few dishes, but overall this was amazing value with lovely service from the waitress who refilled our iced teas (included in the buffet price) and took care of our table.
At one of the few occupied nearby tables an engaged couple and their family were sampling various dishes (not off the buffet) and planning their wedding dinner, which indicated to me that the food must be highly regarded by those in-​the-​know.
The décor was elegant. The view is pretty nice (patio with parking lot/​road beyond). I’d call this an incredible all-​around value that definitely deserves more attention from locals and visitors alike.