Suzy Wong’s, a brothel of epicurean delight. At Suzy Wong’s you will enjoy a tapas style menu of made to order sushi, shared plates, and “yum” bowls. They feature live drag shows Friday evenings through Sunday morning, the “Drag’n Brunch” and “Drag’n Dinner.”
Suzy Wong’s House of Yum is the creation of Chef Arnold Myint, who also owns Nashville restaurants PM Cafe & Blvd. Chef Arnold competed on Top Chef and most recently on Food Network Star Season 11. Chef Arnold crafted Asian favorites with Southern cuisine.
In partnership with Zeus Entertainment, Suzy Wong’s is located in the heart of Nashville’s trendiest alternative scene, Chef Arnold’s alter ego is Suzy Wong. She is a marketing character and female persona who is seen out at social events as a philanthropic domestic diva. The name references the popular 1950’s novel, the World of Suzy Wong, the story of a beautiful Asian “lady of the evening” falling in love with an American diplomat.
Suzy Wong’s serves up a cornucopia of Asian delights along with creative cocktails, sleek decor, and fun upbeat music. So let’s start here. We loved the atmosphere, decor and the music, sleek, fun, and upbeat as advertised. The menu was not huge, which is fine but to advertise a cornucopia of Asian delights, I had imagined they would have more fun Asian options, not an all American burger. Not sure how that fits the theme, maybe an all American Teriyaki or Korean BBQ burger. It seems if you have plans to attend Suzy Wong’s, try and attend the “Drag’n Brunch,” the brunch menu seems more interesting. We went to the “Drag’n Dinner,” and a few house rules will be presented by the host as you arrive. The establishment is small so there is a 2 hour cap per party so that they can turn the tables to optimize productivity and earning potential. I totally get this and think it’s brilliant to state this in the beginning to eliminate any ill feelings and Suzy Wong’s was totally upfront about it, love it. Another plus, the host asked if our party needed any change broken down to dollar bills to tip the entertainers with. Brilliant! Didn’t even think to bring singles and that’s okay because there’s an ATM (TIME, for those of you from Wisconsin) machine conveniently located close by. The third house rule is there will be one check presented for the party, no individual tabs. They can do split payments but will not do separate tabs, and really that’s totally understandable with the amount of Bachelorette parties that attend there. Listen, in today’s era with Venmo existing, get one person, usually the maid of honor or the mother of the bride paying for the tab and have everyone Venmo their payment, nothing is worse than trying to do 12 separate tabs for drunk party animals.
Let’s talk about the food in more detail. We ordered edamame to start. The Asian wonton nachos were fun as were the loaded pot stickers and crab wontons. The teriyaki steak skewers were overcooked, dry and too hard to chew, it was more like jerky. My wife had the peanut sauce chicken Penang which was gluten free, she said it was delicious. I had the dragon roll and it was fine. The Sriracha honey walnut shrimp was okay as well. The ladies enjoyed their meals, the boys were more interested in drinking Tsing Tao beer which we must have drank at least a 12 pack. The ladies enjoyed a bottle of wine together.
I wanted to try some of their fun creative cocktails like their pride flight of multi colored champagne cocktails with hints of peach, they all sounded too sweet and sugary but must be fun for the bachelorettes and the ladies. I stuck to beer.
Some interesting things to note. For an Asian themed restaurant, they provided forks instead of chopsticks. I didn’t ask if they had any but I felt it should have been the other way around. Have chopsticks at the table all set and ready to go and provide forks if needed. This gives it more of an authentic Asian decor and feel, even though the majority of your guests would rather have forks, have your guests ask for them. There’s only 1 unisex bathroom. I get the place is small but having 1 bathroom to share with everyone in the restaurant, drinking all those beers, I had to frequent the restroom and often had to wait in lines of 4 or more people.
The highlight of Suzy Wong’s is the entertainment. The drag show was very creative, interactive, and fun. Great place to celebrate events, birthdays and bachelorette parties for certain. Next time we’ll try the “Drag’n Brunch” to see if the food is better. Overall we like and recommend the place for what it is, a whole lot of fun!
Key words: Asian fusion, drag show, bachelorettes, Drag’n brunch
Price Range: $$
Overall grade: Boozy: thumbs up Woozy: thumbs up
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Boozy Woozie Cocktail inspired by Suzy Wong’s House of Yum:
Wong’s Yum Yum Feng Shui
2 oz Proper filtered diplomat junmai sake
1 oz Peach Schnapps
1 oz Yuzu juice or extract
0.5 oz Serrano Simple Syrup
1 oz cranberry juice (for color)
3 oz ginger beer
Garnish with a Luxardo maraschino cherry
Served on the rocks in a Collins glass
Optional: fun colorful bendy straw and/or cocktail umbrella