Boscos: Restaurant & Brewing Co

It’s been quite some time since I’ve been to Bosco’s, so when my wife’s co-​workers picked it for a dinner get-​together, I was pretty excited!
On our way in, I noticed a «no guns» sign on the door. Although my handgun permit is still processing and I therefore couldn’t have carried anyway, I would have turned around and left had it not been a work function. Tennessee is a pretty firearm-​friendly state, so I was surprised to see a local, non-​chain restaurant prohibiting them. I won’t subtract any points from my rating because of it, but it’s certainly worth mentioning. The restaurant was half-​empty at 7pm on a Thursday, though the Vandy home game down the street might have contributed to that.
Naturally, I started things off with a brew. Their Isle of Skye Scottish Ale sounded intriguing, especially since we had been to Skye on vacation just a few months ago. This was a nice dark ale, with a good bite from all the hops. Very enjoyable. For round 2, I went with the Witbier, which was more light and crisp. It was a refreshing wheat beer with nice hints of orange in the mix.
There were several different appetizers floating around the table, and I managed to sample them all. The Fried Green Tomatoes were hand-​battered (no frozen crap here). They were layered with goat cheese, roasted peppers, basil, and what was supposed to be a spicy Tabasco remoulade. I loved the goat cheese, but it wasn’t spicy at all. The Smoked Duck Spring Rolls had a great flavor, but were a tad greasy. They were served with a spicy Szechuan chili sauce, which wasn’t at all spicy either. Last came the Calamari. I liked the crispy hand-​breaded batter, though there wasn’t much seasoning to be found. Here again, the accompanying chile-​infused marinara sauce was devoid of heat. What’s going on??? This is a restaurant, not a nursing home. Spice things up a little!
For my entrée, I went with the Shrimp and Grits, which sounded awesome: creamy asiago cheese grits topped with grilled jumbo shrimp and a Tasso gravy. For those unfamiliar with the term «Tasso,» it’s a Louisiana specialty that’s basically a spicy, peppery cut of smoked pork shoulder butt (no, not ham). The grits were creamy and cheesy, but otherwise pretty bland. The gravy was a nice touch, though there wasn’t nearly enough of it. My shrimp were also a bit overcooked.
My wife said her cheeseburger was pretty bland, too. I ate the discarded remains, and I agree completely. The mustard she added was the only saving grace.
Either the quality has gone down at Bosco’s over the years, or maybe I’m just remembering it too fondly. Either way, I won’t be back.

Food was ok, but I didn’t get to try the beer. Hopefully, next time!

Very good food and atmosphere! The shrimp and grits were amazing and the bread pudding was firm and wonderful. Very nice staff, we highly recommend it!

When I walked in the greeter just stared at me for about ten seconds of awkwardness. I finally spoke to her. I guess she didn’t realize it was her job to «greet» me. There was a live jazz band so that was nice but a little loud for the size of the restaurant.
The service was great, the beers were all delicious, and the food was tasty. I would say this… they might as well call it Sunday breakfast instead of «brunch «because on Sundays until 3 most of your food options outside of breakfast items are limited to a burger or a salad.
I will have to give them another try during a week night to experience the menu properly and give their greeters a chance to redeem themselves for that 5^th star.

It’s a great location and good atmosphere. I like the microbrewery built in. I don’t love any of the beers, but I like the concept. The food offerings are all good, but nothing I have eat has blown me away. It is a good place for groups. It’s worth visiting if you have not been, but it’s missing that signature item that makes it a four star restaurant.

I live near Boscos so I need to find good places near me. I went one night and sat near the bar. The waiter was friendly and I’m sure he was not too happy when my party of three only ordered waters. He still was attentive to us. I ordered the Margherita pizza and it was very good. It was six slices which was plenty for me to eat there and take two pieces home with me. I will say Boscos is a little more than I would want to spend on just a hang out spot but I really liked the food. I was looking at getting a drink but it seemed like most cost about $ 10 and that’s more than I wanted to spend on one drink. I will definitely be back though.

I had brunch here on New Years Day. The service was excellent and my favorite part was the open kitchen. This established brews their own beer and didn’t have any on this visit but will definitely come back for some. I ordered a western omelet. It was one of the best omelets I’ve had in that area. I don’t really have must to say about this place but that I would recommend it to anyone looking for a post morning hangover cure

A solid restaurant in the Village. They brew their own beer AND serve really good food. Great atmosphere as well. Great for groups.
You can’t go wrong with anything on the menu. Try the black bean and goat cheese tamale! I’m not even a black bean person and this dish is delicious! They also serve good fish dishes and shrimp and grits. Their pasta and salads are also good. The fried artichokes with buttermilk garlic dipping sauce is my favorite appetizer.
They also have a solid brunch worth checking out as well. Not my favorite brunch place, but on the rotation when we go out for weekend brunch.

Boscos is a fun spot. The food is very good and they have an excellent beer selection.
I’m not sure what the deal is with microbrews in Nashville and their food, but all of them do a great job. Boscos is no exception. I don’t make it down to Hillsboro Village often, but I do try different menu items with each visit to this restaurant. Everything is very well prepared.
The beer is good, like you would expect. They have several different brews to choose from and they can put together a sampler. I generally stick to ales, browns, and stouts and they have something for every beer drinker.
I enjoy going to Boscos. The inside is beautiful and you can see the brewery in the back of the building. The food is always very good and they have several different beers to enjoy. There are staple items on their beer list, but they are always tinkering with recipes to present something new.

Solid restaurant with good, fast service.
We got the spinach and artichoke dip for the appetizer. Wasn’t a standout but was decent and as you would expect.
Our party of 3 got the Smoked Salmon with asparagus, the eggplant manicotti, and the chicken and sausage rigatoni. The smoked salmon was absolute perfection! It was perfected seasoned and really moist (and the portions were just right). The rigatoni was just ok, but the eggplant manicotti was really special and had a unique taste that I hadn’t had before at other places (though the dish was really heavy compared to the other two so make sure you’re hungry to get this).
Our waitress was really nice and patient recommending us the different types of craft beers (we ended up getting the Hillsboro brown which was rich and dark just the way we like it).
Overall it was a great experience. We will definitely come back!

Solid restaurant with upscale bar food (think angus sirloin burgers and ahi tuna tacos) and good beer. I came for a pre-​interview dinner and had a great time. The waiters were welcoming and fast on water refills, and more importantly, they politely concealed their smiles at my «so, err, which of your beers is most girl-​friendly?»
I sampled the calamari, which didn’t stand out much to me. For some reason, calamari always tastes like breaded rubber bands. To be fair, Boscos had some very tender rubber bands, so I’m sure calamari-​lovers were probably pleased. The Seared Tuna Salad, on the other hand, was great, with perfectly-​seared fish slices (served rare but slightly warm) and a tasty sesame ginger dressing. The star dish of the night for me, though, was the Bread Pudding. Warm and fall-​apart-​in-​your-​mouth moist, the Pumpkin Bread Pudding was a stand-​out and would bring me back again and again. I probably could have eaten three of them, not because of a small portion size (the portions were quite generous), but because the dessert was just that delicious.
All in all, a great experience. If I’m lucky enough to end up in Nashville, I’ll definitely be a regular!

Second visit to Boscos. Had the Steak sandwich with the parmesan fries, and they were both very good. The Flaming Stone beer is always good of course. Was very pleasantly surprised that they now have containers to take some beer home with you.
Also had the Apple crisp desert, also very good.

My husband and I decided to try out this restaurant for lunch on a visit to the Vanderbilt area of Nashville one Thursday afternoon.
My husband ordered the Thursday lunch express roast beef sandwich with horseradish mustard and worcestershire sauce. We both agreed the meat was a bit dry, while the sandwich lacked the heartiness you’d expect from a lunch portion. However, it was still pretty good, just not great. I ordered the Boscos bliss salad with homemade caesar dressing on the side. The salad was simple and satisfied my craving for a light, healthy meal. However, the dressing was too salty!
In all, our first meal in Nashville was a bit of a disappointment and simply filled our stomachs with a less than inspired meal.

Highly recommend the shrimp appetizer. The ahi tacos are good too, but they explode upon first bite. Good atmosphere, good service.
…and why is it that no breweries around here have any big ol’ 100 + IBU IPA’s?

I have been to Bosco’s too many times to count — before or after movies at the Belcourt, for Sunday brunch, or just to meet friends.
The house crafted brews are superb. Some favorites are the Flaming Stone and whichever porter they have on tap. Don’t like brew? No problem — they have a full bar, and I can attest to the refreshing quality of their Lemon Drop on a hot summer’s day.
Food — their food is almost always good, if not stellar. Their wood fired pizzas are a great choice, although I miss some of the choices they used to have that are no longer on the menu (applewood smoked bacon and gouda. *sigh*). The California, Pollo Diablo and Germantown Purist are all solid choices.
Their House Mista salad is really nice, especially with their balsamic dressing. Other good choices are the Smoked Pork Chops, Pan Seared Chicken, Burger, Blackened Grouper Sandwich, Grilled Portabella Sandwich and Smoked Chicken Club. I think their pastas and black bean and goat cheese tamale are just fair. All I have tried are bland (tamales) and over-​sauced.
Even though it is in the heart of Hillsboro Village, usually you can find a parking place behind the restaurant, or perhaps down the street on Belcourt.
It can get pretty loud in here — best seats for conversing are in the booths in the front.

I’ve only been on Sunday, for Sunday Jazz Brunch, so I can’t speak for their normal menu foods, but their brunch menu was pretty good. During Sunday brunch, there is live jazz music near the bar and they have mimosas and bloody mary’s for $ 3.75. I had an oskar benedict, which was good.
They do have their own brewery in the back so I would like to go back sometime for lunch or dinner and try their beers.

I’ve been here twice while visiting Nashville and you cannot beat the location for where I stay. It’s less than a block to walk. I can’t speak to the beer but apparently it’s good, but they don’t have ciders so that is a big downer for me.
The food and service was really great the first time I went for dinner. I got a chicken dish and actually split it with another person because there was plenty.
I went back for lunch on my most recent trip and got a burger, it was so so.
Overall I’m just not blown away by this place, but if I lived in the neighborhood I think it would be a cool place to hang out and have a bite to eat.

Boscos is great for every meal! I’ll list my favorites for each below:
Brunch: Get the eggs sardou! If you are an eggs benedict lover, meet your new best friend! It has artichoke hearts and creamed spinach on top. mmmm. Their brunch is great because they have live jazz music and $ 3.50 mimosas and bloody marys! Score! I think their brunch is my favorite meal here. Side note: don’t come in and expect a huge brunch. It’s just the right portion of food where you are satisfied but not stuffed. I’ve been to brunch with some people who complained about the portion size, but I found it perfect.
Lunch/​Dinner: They have lunch specials for $ 8.00 each day which is great if you are price conscious. I can’t stop ordering the black bean tamale (disclaimer: you need to like goat cheese). If you are in a pizza mood and like a little spice, get the pollo diablo. The buffalo chicken pizza is excellent as well.
I love the hillsboro location, it is at a great spot in town and once you are done, walk down the street and shop at Panega :)
The only reason I’m giving it 4 stars is because it is a beer restaurant and I’m not a big beer lover, but they have a full bar and a great mojito!

Giving 4 stars based on the food/​beer alone, which is well worth a visit and the atmosphere you will experience by sitting at the bar.
I strongly suggest sitting at the bar and going during happy hour for the incredible value for money. The experience/​atmosphere had by eating in the dining room here is pretty unimpressive. It’s a very large place and they don’t seem to handle the crowds too well. It is nice to sit by the front windows if you can get those tables. Otherwise the back is very dark and reminds me of a factory.
The appetizers are only $ 5 during Happy Hour, they also brew their own beer. You can request tastes. I’d recommend starting with a flight.
They have a stuffed mushroom appetizer that reminds me a of a NY Pizza bagel if it went gourmet. Amazing flavor profile that is not to be missed. It is a no brainer and I order it every time I visit.
The shrimp appetizer from the oven, and fried artichoke hearts are also worth a try.
I’ve heard good things about all of the pizzas as well, but they aren’t really my thing.
They have an IPA right now that is pretty tasty and not too hoppy.

For some reason, Bosco’s is where I have taken my out-​of-​town guests for brunch over the last few years. It’s typically on a Sunday, complete with a live jazz trio. I think because it provokes great conversation in a relaxed atmosphere — allowing recovery from the previous night’s (possible) debauchery…
Must be the jazz…
Only once have I dined here in the evening, with a local friend. We chose to meet on a whim, and I recall live music and a full house. We grabbed spots at the bar, and had a great time catching up over our light meals and cocktails.
Recently, my husband, mother-​in-​law, and I decided to go on a Sunday afternoon. My mother-​in-​law and I were disappointed that it was 2:00pm, but we could only order from the limited brunch menu until 3:00pm. (My husband was perfectly happy with ordering a breakfast plate, but she and I were not feelin’ breakfast-​type food at all.) Our server apologized for the limited lunch options. Heck — it’s not her fault. It made me wonder if she hears that a lot.
The food and the service have always been good. The asparagus and mushroom omelet is one of my favorites. One of my out-​of-​town guests, «The Brit» as I lovingly call him, tried the Eggs Benedict, and he thought it was quite good. I won’t eat calamari, but my husband and my mother-​in-​law are snobs on the dish. For a non-​coastal area, they think Bosco’s has it down.
I sampled their Famous Flaming Stone beer, and while it is too light for my taste, it did have a nice flavor to it. Based off the I.B.U., I chose Hillsboro Brown as my draft. It was more bitter and less sweet than I thought it would be, but definitely drinkable.

So, with a sigh I am giving two stars to Boscos and that’s mostly because of their cask conditioned beer. I brought my mom and sis here for dinner with my friend and his wife. Well, in honesty the plan was to go to Monell’s but it was closed for renovations and for some reason Sunset Grill was also closed and Boscos seemed like an okay alternative, especially because we were all getting hungry.
We walked in and were sat pretty quickly and our waiter came, introduced himself and then gave us time to decide. Then another waiter came by, introduced himself and gave us time to decide. I was hoping the second guy was in error since he seemed less put together than our first waiter.
Unfortunately, this was not the case and the head in the clouds waiter came by and aside from being lucid when he talked about the beer he was just strange. We asked for some lemon for the water and he completely forgot it when he brought our drinks which was fine but when he came back with the lemons he literally walked right past us to another section, where it was empty, then he stopped and backtracked and the table he was serving was the one he just passed by with the 5 people waiting to order. The bottle conditioned Ed’s Porter though was pretty good and was the highlight of the visit.
Our food was just okay, my shrimp and grits was very low on shrimp and I should have just ordered the shrimp appetizer for myself as a main course-​which was the same amount of shrimp for almost half the cost. Similarly, my sister’s shrimp scampi came with a small amount of shrimp and was really bland. My friend’s wife got the portabella club sandwich with fruit and it came with three slices. My mom’s pork chop was the best meal out of the bunch. There are better options for beer and fancy food in Nashville.