"You know how, when you go to a restaurant, you're hoping for a dazzling, memorable experience? We've all had a few. Unfortunately, Union Common did not deliver. Our experience was, by no means bad. We ordered on the less-expensive end of the menu for the most part. With what we experience, I'm glad we chose the lower end. For appetizers, we had a cheese plate that was covered 80% with other stuff: bland olives, uninteresting nuts, mustard, and an ok jam. The cheese wedges were pretty skimpy for the price. The breads with them were good. We also ordered the crab hushpuppies that had no visible or otherwise discernible crab in them. They were overcooked in oil that tasted like it needed a change. The cheese plate is salvageable. The hushpuppies should be dropped from the menu. One at the table ordered a salad course and chose the salt-roasted beets with mozzarella. The beets were fine, but when topped with a salty, bacony sauce, the salt content overwhelms. We asked for some vinegar that we added to the dish and that resolved the bulk of the problem. I'd order this dish again, WITH the vinegar. Two of the three of us ordered shrimp dishes. Kudos to the restaurant for using fresh, head-on shrimp. The shrimp with red beans dish failed to excite. The kale salad with shrimp seemed to be better...but when you eat all the kale and leave a whole shrimp...what does that say about the shrimp? The other ordered the bison burger with blue cheese. The burger came overcooked. The blue cheese was indistinguishable. The rest of the construction of the burger was pretty good, but the stars of the show were M.I.A. Overall, if this were a weekday neighborhood dinner, it's fine. If this is a special occasion, there are many, MANY better options in Nashville."
