Calypso Cafe

Calypso is great. Healthy food, clean restaurant, fast, and they are always exceptionally friendly.

This place rocks. They have all natural and fast service and a great location. There’s an outdoor patio area for the dogs and it’s full-​service. Everything is amazing in their menu. Our family absolutely loves eating here. We travel from East Tn to West Tn often and we always stop at this location for a wonderful healthy lunch or supper. Everyone always smiles and provides us with great service. They have a real rainbow unicorn with a leprechaun on its back by the cash register. There is a little old man wearing suspenders holding a 10 gauge shotgun by the bathroom with a UT Vols baseball cap on. He greets everyone with a big olé East Tn HOWDY!!!

We went late on a Friday night for a quick dinner… delicious, perfectly priced and an easy environment. Loved the nachos that I got & the fruit tea is as good as they say! The only problem was we were there about 8:00 — 8:15 and the employee started cleaning up at 8:30. I understand that the young workers probably wanted to get out of work and go out as it was Friday night, but, it would have been nice of them to wait to start stacking the chairs and mopping the floors until we were gone– which was still before 9pm. Overall, I’ll be back but possibly for takeout rather than eating in.

It’s insane how good this place is. Very consistent food quality and flavors. Try it for lunch one day if you haven’t!

Always fresh and quick. Roast chicken, choice of sauces, the only «greens» I will ever eat and fun side orders. Lots of vegetarian options too. Awesome salad dressing. In the fall and winter they have soups and spiced tea and spiced coffee to warm you up.

This was really good food. Great healthy choices. The price was low, the flavors were original, the service was fast. Just what we were looking for when passing through Nashville and needing some dinner.

This is my kind of place! I will be a regular
— Fresh, healthy food which also tastes good
— A nice variety of healthy options
— Great prices (though if you’re a big eater you may want to order a second side — and it’d still be cheaper than most spots)
— Friendly staff and welcoming environment
— Bright and clean inside, and a nice patio outside
The only thing that would make this better: use of local ingredients…

Really like this place for a quick light lunch or dinner. The chicken is delicious and i love their corn muffins.
I like the jerk chicken with slaw and muffins.

Pretty good casual light meal.

Nice, healthy, not expensive food. Nice to have after work out food craving)) chicken is not same than used to be when they were in different location, but, still good.

Solid lunch spot. Calypso is consistently quick, healthy and affordable. If you call in a to go order, it is ready within 10 minutes. If you go for a sit down lunch, your food is generally to you within 5 minutes.
I recommend the Black Bean Salad (with white meat chicken!). This salad is basically nachos. The black beans are legit, and the tangy barbeque sauce dressing brightens everything up. I also love the Quarter White Chicken with the Jamaican Curry. This comes with two sides. As previously mentioned, the black beans are bomb. Always order these. The other side is up in the air, but I like the caliloo greens, boija muffins, corn salad, and sweet potatoes.
For dessert, I love picking up one of their carrot cake bars up by the register. It’s a great pick me up for later in the afternoon with yummy white chocolate chips.
Service can be hit or miss, hence 4 instead of 5 stars.

Calypso has always been one of my favorites, and I’m plum delighted they moved to this location even closer to my office… and significantly less stressful to park than Elliston Place was!
The Black Bean Salad is my «go to,» and try it substituting the barbecue sauce for their Creamy Dill dressing if you want something extra delicious.
The fruit tea is amazing, really amazing, but often I have to decide between enjoying the sweet fruitiness of the tea or having a productive afternoon… so I am just as likely to opt for water. They are so kind to offer you a «to go» cup, which I can’t refuse, and then you know how you get basically «sweet belly» in the afternoons? Yea… that.
So glad I got to introduce three co-​workers to this location earlier this week for their very first time ever. As I told them, I’ve never had anything I didn’t like here, so just trust me and go visit.

I frequent the Calypso on Thompson Lane and the service is always fine. No frills but quick and friendly. I’m really disappointed in the Charlotte Ave location. We arrived 35 minutes before closing, which I don’t count as too late. A waitress took our drink order promptly and then disappeared. Meanwhile, two other staff members were stacking chairs and not at all discreetly, even the ones right next to us. After ten minutes waiting for our drinks with none of the five employees on the floor checking on us or seeming at all concerned with our existence, I asked another waitress if she could check on our drinks. She reluctantly took our food order. The food came promptly enough and tasted good as ever. I love their sweet potatoes and corn muffins. Waitress only checked on us as an afterthought when we were nearly through eating. She didn’t bring the check. When we approached the counter to pay, the cashier asked her for the check and she shrugged l, saying «I don’t know where it is.» I told the manager that it would have been nice if they didn’t clear the entire floor until we were done eating and added that the service was pretty bad. He shrugged and muttered something inaudible.
I get that they were trying to get out of there, but there are ways to do your side work without tossing plastic chairs around and totally neglecting your tables. If we waltzed in with 20 minutes before closing, it might be a little more understandable. But 35? It makes sense that the servers don’t care if the manager doesn’t care. Felt like they didn’t want the business, and they won’t be getting it again.

A fruit tea and a half of chicken with their Jamaican Curry sauce is never a wrong way to enjoy lunch at Calypso.
I first went to the Calypso by centennial park about 6 years ago and I’ve been coming back when I’m in town ever since.
The fruit tea is definitely their thing. It’s tasty, refreshing and in plentiful supply. I like to pretend it’s healthy because it’s fruit tea, but I don’t really know if it’s healthier than other drinks.
The pulled chicken BBQ plate is great if you don’t want to get your hands dirty. You get a good amount of chicken pulled off the bone and two sides. As I said before, the Jamaican curry is great on a quarter or half chicken.
The sides are not just filler either. The St. Lucian rice is always cooked perfectly and the sweet potato with shaved coconut is a desert masquerading as a side. Needless to say, I tend to get that combination.
I recommend the mint brownie for dessert, you should probably get two.
The décor is nothing to write home about. You sit on plastic outdoor chairs in a room that is painted in colors that evoke thoughts of the Caribbean. Everything is clean and you can see them cook your food. The service is quick and the people are friendly.
In conclusion, great food at a great price.

Awesome healthy and filling spot for lunch. We ordered and less then 5 minutes later, they brought us our food. It’s so nice to find a spot that doesn’t take an hour to get food in the middle of a work day.
Oh and for those of you thinking its one of those hippie, vegan, all you eat is rabbit food places… It’s not! They have options that are hearty and able to satisfy everyone’s needs and the price point is right on.
Don’t forget to try their famous fruit tea, it’s sweet but it’s refreshing at the same time.

ALL THE STARS! Calypso Café gets all of the stars.
I’ve been eating at calypso for ten years at least and I’ve never had anything less than a five-​star experience — every location, every time.
This location on Charlotte is my most frequented, and before that it was the Elliston location that moved to Charlotte.
The food is fresh, healthy, and unbelievably delicious. Everything on the menu is great. My go-to’s are the black bean salad and the «beans and three» plate (their famous black beans with three additional sides). You have to get the black beans, and you have to get the sour cream and red onions on top.
The service is impeccable. No faster service in Nashville — your food is brought to you immediately. My husband noted at lunch yesterday that he was telling me the same story when we ordered and when our food arrived! It makes for the quickest spot in Nashville for a work day lunch. And the servers are just the sweetest people.
I often call ahead and order food for pick up — It’s always ready when I get there, and I’m usually only 5 minutes away.
Can’t sing it’s praises enough — Calypso… I love you forever.

Fast and fresh! Great service and good flavors. Can’t beat the price. Really enjoyed the nachos. The veggie melt wasn’t very filling but it was still good. Enjoyed the cleanliness of the place. Very modern.

Struggling to find the right words to describe Calypso because I really have mixed feelings about it. The experience (dining with 9 friends) was very nice. Great staff… courteous, attentive, congenial, prompt. But my «sticking» point with this review is the food. Simply put, I was expecting more. Portion sizes were fine. Pulled chicken sandwich (and roast quarter) chicken were both tender but too dry. The BBQ sauce didn’t help because, while it moistened the chicken, it added only a modicum of flavor. The coconut-​topped Boija Muffins were flavorful but also so dried out they crumbled into a (tasty) pile of disappointing crumbs. Chicken soup — ok, this was a positive. Orzo Basil salad — savory yum-​ness. Best of the night for me — the Cuban black beans, cooked to just post-​al dente and very flavorful with diced red onions and sour cream. Prices really can’t be beat… it is a bargain. And the saving grace… Jerk sauce is picante but not hot, savory enough with a multitude of spices done just right. All-​in-​all an affordable average dinner.

Yes, we all know that this place was voted as the best cheap eats according to the Nashville scene. That is pretty much accurate. Per the food to cost to volume of food consideration, this place does deliver.
I mean the food is indeed healthy but nothing that has really wowed me, but for a sit down — non-​fast food place, it really serves up options that normally go for double the price in any other establishment.
The ambiance is also open airy spaced yet modern so you feel like are in the 21^st century with lots of space.

So super excited to see a calypso café in the neighborhood. And literally right around the corner from our house, which is a huge plus for us. We’ve been waiting a while for a healthy cuisine restaurant in this area that won’t break the bank. The service was friendly was the food was fresh and fantastic. I had the chicken and veggie salad and could barely put my fork down (pile on the sprouts-​yum!). Husband had the barbecue chicken plate with sweet potato and orzo sides and was indeed a happy camper! Lots of parking is also a plus! We will be back… Weekly!

I was a bit pained to see that the Calypso on Elliston had closed. I have been going there for years! However, I am very excited that they opened on Charlotte and stopped in on their second day open.
The space is MUCH larger and you can tell that they have tried to cater to the employees at the new HCA HQ that is being built. It felt rather like a cafeteria, and had plenty of seating! The staff was friendly and quick as always, and I grabbed my to-​go order in about 5 minutes and was on my way!
What I love about Calypso remains; a healthy and versatile menu for all dietary needs. My favorite sides are the black beans and sweet potatoes! Also, the BBQ sauce is the perfect sauce to use to dip the chicken into. mmmm.
I still love Calypso and look forward to many more visits at the new location!