Calypso Cafe

One of my favorite lunch spots! I typically get carry out but they always seem to be very busy during lunch hours. Carry out usually runs 10 – 15 minutes until its ready.
I typically always get the lucayan salad, which has fresh chicken, almonds, mandarin oranges and served with an amazing vinaigrette dressing. The salad is a very big portion and also comes with two corn muffins. My only compliant is that I wished they cut up the chicken, they give you two large chicken breasts.
Otherwise this is a great healthy lunch option!

I love their Fruit Tea! I highly recommend it if you like tea.
Four stars, because the service was a little slow and some people were unattended.

I went to Calypso Café for lunch today with a group of 6 people. They were quick to accommodate seating for us, which I really appreciated. Our server was really friendly and efficient, and was happy to do separate checks for all, which I know can be a pain!
I ordered the Black Bean Nachos and my mind was BLOWN. SOOOOOOOO good! I opted for the white chicken, but man that bbq sauce that it comes with, as well as the cheese and the black beans, onions, and tomatoes… wow! Two others at our table also ordered the nachos, and everyone was just raving about them.
I fully enjoyed the fruit tea, and actually brought a cup back to a friend at work who was in town and hadn’t tasted this amazing fruit tea before, either.
This location can be really tight for parking, but if you go to lunch a bit later, you won’t have an issue getting a table or a parking spot.
Calypso has always been consistently good, and I’m so glad to have one near work (this one) and near my home in East Nashville, too!

Calypso is great for a quick flavorful salad on a weekday. Today, I stopped in for my «regular,» the Lucayan Salad which is a bed of greens topped with heavily marinated (read: moist) chicken, a pile of mandarin orange pieces, and a large handful of almond slices. It comes with their «special» vinaigrette (quite good, but the oranges and chicken provide enough flavor for me). The boija muffins are like a sweet Caribbean cornbread and for the first time ever came out hot from the oven — delicious!
Environment is fine, but nothing to write home about. Service was prompt, but disinterested. The checkout man was downright surly and didn’t leave you with a good feeling (adding on the dessert bars they have at the register seemed like an inconvenience to him!)
All in all, would recommend for lunch, but don’t try to impress your boss or date with it.

With all the changes that have taken place in Nashville since the time I first lived here, it’s nice to know that Calypso Café is still alive and kicking. Granted, the Vanderbilt-​adjacent location I used to frequent is no more but that just gives me more reason to venture out to other parts of the metro and see what’s happening.
On a busy mid-​Spring Tuesday, I found myself in Berry Hill and very hungry. I thought about driving home and making lunch from the food I had in the fridge (responsible) but, instead, I gave in to my impulses and stopped in to Calypso Café. I’ve been ordering the same thing here for [redacted] years but I decided to change it up a bit. For my meal I ordered the black bean salad and rather than fruit tea, I ordered the hot spiced tea. Both were fine choices. Like most other things at Calypso, the salad portion was extremely generous. It’s not going to win any James Beard awards but this is island comfort food. It’s supposed to give you a food hug — and it does. My plate of tortilla chips was slathered in black beans, red onions, lettuce, cheese, tomato, bbq chicken, and bbq sauce. Yes, it sounds like a ridiculous ‘salad.’ Yes, it’s extremely satisfying. Yes, I’d order again. The revelation of the meal was the hot spiced tea. Long have I been a gluttonous fan of Calypso’s fruit tea. It’s addicting. But this hot spiced tea was eye-​opening. With a taste I’d describe at ‘Christmas in the islands’, I found myself trying to balance savoring the drink and wanting to gulp it down as fast as I could. My only regret is that it’s not a bigger serving. With colder weather on the way (I think), put this drink into your rotation. One thing I liked about this location was the music. I never really noticed music at the other locations. Maybe it was due to the fact that the dining room was, mostly, empty but island jam after island jam accompanied my meal and made me wish that the islands had their act more together for I would, surely, move there and spend the rest of my days relaxing.
Until that time, I’ll have Calypso.

Fast, healthy and delicious. Calypso Café is a really good spot to grab a light meal (especially if you’re on a diet or you need something quick and you’re not in the mood for fast food). The chicken is cooked rotisserie style and comes with a choice of sauces, however, the sauces are definitely not required as the chicken itself is cooked and seasoned very well. The black beans and sweet potatoes are what I usually get as my sides. The black beans are a nice compliment to the chicken and the sweet potatoes are just sweet enough to almost be considered a dessert. Speaking of dessert, the mint brownie was my one disappointment with my meal, but not because it was bad. The actual brownie itself is FANTASTIC, I just wish they would offer an option of the brownie without the mint. But, if you like chocolate and mint, you’ll definitely be a fan of that dessert. Calypso Café is my go to spot when I want a tasty meal, but I don’t want to feel guilty about it later.

Calypso Café is always our first stop when we visit Smashville for a Predators game! We love the black bean nachos, bbq chicken sandwiches and boija muffins!

I have been coming here for years for both dine in and takeout. It’s a great place for a quick bite at a reasonable price. Most everything on the menu is less than $ 10 and they even have family meals for less than $ 20 if you are looking for a quick takeout dinner.
My favorites are the Black Bean Salad, Jerk Chicken, Calliloo (greens), Sweet Potatoes and Three Bean Salad. All of the sauces and salad dressings are house made. Toppings and sides are super fresh and chicken is perfectly roasted… tender and juicy.
Beware…the Black Bean Salad is VERY addictive… that BBQ sauce is delicious! I have found myself craving it and eating at Calypso more than once in a week. The good news is it’s inexpensive and healthier than a lot of other options!

This has been my go to place for take out lunch and dinner when I’m in town for work! Their ‘Jerk chicken’ plate is by no means a traditional Jamaican jerk dish, but I still really like it! Fresh and lean, half chicken with the black bean salad (no sour cream) and the rice is my go to!

Love this place, eat here at least a couple times a month. Super healthy and tastes awesome. Fairly priced, try the ½ chicken and fruit tea.

Friendly staff, but slow service. Took like 8 minutes for the waitress to bring us our waters. Just OK food, though they do give nice-​sized portions. Was not impressed. Would not recommend

Do not use your credit card at this location! I just found a charge on my bank account for three times the price of my meal with tip. It’s just sad that this restaurant has resorted to scamming their customers.

Don’t go alone. Won’t get service after having to seat myself, I could not get anyone to wait on me. After 25 minutes I left. Place wasn’t even half full, but they had just one waiter working. So, I guess a table with one person was not a priority.

I only had food from here as part of a takeout run my coworkers did for our department.
I had the quarter dark meat chicken with Jamaican curry and 2 sides. The chicken to me was the best part of the meal. I love a bit of spice and sweetness with my meat dishes, and this fit the bill. It was very tender. I could also taste a vague Indian-​influenced seasoning. However, your taste may vary: A coworker had this dish before and didn’t like it. She thought it tasted like spicy apple sauce on her chicken.
I wasn’t too thrilled with the Boija muffins. Apparently they were not only stale and bland in my order, but in my coworkers’ orders, and those of a previous excursion to this place.
I also had the native cole slaw. I had only 1 bite and didn’t care for it. I think I should stick with American style cole slaw.
I think I also had some bread. I think they put margarine instead of butter on them. But I’m not sure. It didn’t taste like butter to me.
We had an order for a about half a dozen of us, and the food was ready fairly quickly.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is pretty welcoming however the staff is not. We walked in and got seated and were met with a man who just said «We don’t have chicken or burgers today» and walked away. No chance for us to ask questions, no explanations as to why this was the case, or anything. Then another woman comes takes our order and we all order. The food came literally 4 – 5 minutes later which was good but whenever that happens I kind of question why it was so quick. The food tasted like it had been microwaved and was very tasteless. No refills were given in fact, we didn’t even see our server until they came back to bring us our check which was about 5 – 10 minutes after I food came. It was a VERY bad experience. I would not recommend anyone stopping here. There are way too many good options here in this city to settle for such an establishment.

Best collard greens this aging hipster reared in New Orleans has ever had. The food here is flavorful and they have ice tea mixed with orange and pineapple juice. I had a quarter white meat rotisserie chicken with two sides and a tea for under $ 10.
The environment is casual and laid back. Servers were friendly. Overall, healthy, flavorful food for reasonable prices.

Meh. Definitely not my favorite restaurant in Nashville. Service was fine, not rude, but not friendly. The food was decent. They put everything on one small plate and all my food was touching. They have weird combinations of food-​like mashed sweet potatoes with coconut. The restaurant also isn’t incredibly clean.
Not a bad place, but you definitely have better options in the area!

Meals are well portioned, healthy, and fresh. Not authentic Caribbean food. Atmosphere was friendly. Prices are reasonable.

This one star is based solely on service as I didn’t have a chance to try the food.
My boyfriend and I went on a Sunday around 6pm. The restaurant was half full with a sign by the door saying ‘please wait to be seated’.
Well, we waited… But it didn’t seem like anyone was coming to seat us, so my boyfriend approached the counter and asked if we should wait. (We hadn’t been here before, we didn’t know).
We were told to seat ourselves at any small table on the left side of the restaurant. (The right side was empty).
Apparently the table we sat at wasn’t small enough because shortly after sitting down, an employee came over to inform us that their half-​full restaurant would clearly be packed to the brim before they closed in two hours, and that we should pick a smaller table.
Give me a break. This is not a restaurant where your meal takes 1.5 hours to happen. Don’t pack me in like a sardine before you’re even busy.
So I’m sitting at a cozy booth eating dinner and giving someone else my money.
If you can’t pay someone to seat people, then let me sit where I want while I pay to eat your food.

This is the restaurant I craved the most when I lived out of state.
I’m sad to see the one by the parthenon has closed but I did get there one last time before that happened.
The dipping sauce for the nachos is awesome!