Substrate

Fantastic experience: Gluten free options, great service and cute local goods inside!

Fantastic experience: Four of us ate here due to proximity from our bnb. We all loved everything. Classic breakfast, breakfast bowl, turnover, muffin, biscuits, tea & coffee. The scrambled eggs were delicious. Friendly quick and helpful service too. They checked their gravy ingredients for an allergen without hesitation. Definitely coming back every day of our stay.

Fantastic experience: Great vibes and good food!

Positive experience: Nice, local coffee shop. Cool vibe inside. Food was pretty good.

Negative experience: Walked out after paying and waiting 45 mins for food. No food ever arrived.

Positive experience: Love that they source local ingredients and have interesting, local products for sale. Great atmosphere and friendly service. Complementary flavored water. Breakfast burrito was good, not great for my personal tastes. Would return because I appreciate health conscious businesses like this one!

Fantastic experience: The Cinnamon Dulce coffee was amazing!!!

Fantastic experience: This is one of the best kept secrets in Nashville, truly everything single one of the stores in this complex (Hoop House, Sage Refill Market, etc.) is incredible in its own way! Coffee is great, pretty affordable compared to a lot of other places in the area. Love the commitment to sustainability, sourcing high quality ingredients, and partnering with local businesses. Could not recommend Substrate enough!!

Fantastic experience: There's this one worker there, he's tall and has blonde curly hair. I think his name was Brayden or Brogdon or something. Anyways he's really professional and personable, gave me great customer experience. He definitely deserves a raise.

Positive experience: Visited 2/26 with my sister. Cute patio and good vanilla latte! Unfortunately the barista today was quite abrasive and seemed to have an attitude from the moment we walked in. Not sure what was going on… Both my sister and I were in great moods as it was almost 70 degrees and sunny in February! We left feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable due to our interactions with this barista. Did not see them interact with other customers though so maybe it was just us, and hopefully it was just a bad day for them!

Fantastic experience: One of the most interesting menus I've seen in a long time - lots of option beyond the plain mocha or latte. VERY good drinks. Employees were super friendly & helpful! And the music always provides a great ambience. Will def return

Fantastic experience: Was there just last weekend. Avocados toast was the BEST.

Positive experience: The ambience and service are super good. Avocado toast with omelet on it is super good with tasty micro greens. Yogurt Parfait is very authentic unlike sweet yogurt parfaits. Latte is decent enough.

Fantastic experience: Great place! Never so busy you can't find a seat. The vegetarian sausage is amazing. It's my favorite place to get breakfast of all the coffee shops in town. Also easy (and free) to find parking. Update, they are now selling Mushroom Supplements and I've love their Mushroom Tacos. FINALLY great vegetarian protein options that are healthy and tasty!

Fantastic experience: Food and service outstanding.

Positive experience: Great

Positive experience: This place was interesting. I think there is people that will absolutely love this place. We thought it was okay. The coffee was good. I had the Cinnamon Dulce. The meal was also interesting. I had the OLD SCHOOL CLASSIC-Bread/Biscuit, eggs, bacon/sausage, greens. They served a salad with a tangy dressing as the greens and it wasn’t really our cup of tea. We are glad we tried it but don’t know if we would go again.

Fantastic experience: Club sandwich is awesome. Recently switched gluten free bread suppliers. New bread is heavy and tasteless. Coffee, drip and espresso, are excellent.

Positive experience: I don't know if we just caught this place on a bad day but our visit was not pleasant. Everything is kinda expensive, the service is extremely slow and by the time I got my eggs they were cold. I personally would never go back.

Fantastic experience: Just got brunch there. Fabulous!!! The vegetarian burrito was one of the best we EVER had. The coffees taste so good and the atmosphere is nice & relaxed. Absolutely love it. 10/10 recommend.

Fantastic experience: Love love this place so beautiful

Positive experience: Very friendly, calm and relaxing atmosphere. Within walking distance from 12th Avenue and Belmont University.

Fantastic experience: Came here to work remotely—great atmosphere, bright and sunny, good WiFi and coffee. The food was amazing. And they have parking too

Fantastic experience: Amazing music played by Pablo Garzon Band. Hope you can schedule him more often. We had a great time! Perfect music for brunch time!

Negative experience: We stopped in for a quick drink. I ordered the Rose Latte and my friend ordered a hot chocolate. I asked for my Latte to be sweet and I asked for just a few pieces of ice in a hot drink. He remarked they are already sweet. There was a 15 minute wait for drinks. The Latte was filled with ice. There wasn't a bit of sweet, none. No Rose flavor at all. The hot chocolate wasn't hot and you could barely taste any chocolate at all. Not kidding. I can't recommend.

Fantastic experience: Running errands with daughter Flora Hoff . We stopped in at Cafe Ma'Kai. Flora had mushroom toast and I had a breakfast sandwich. The food was delicious.

Fantastic experience: Love this place

Positive experience: Lovely space to work/ study. Food is ok, but coffee is great!

Negative experience: Really bad food, very small portion for $20 avacado toast

Fantastic experience: This lovely restaurant has great service, friendly staff and amazing food. The coffee was hot, fresh and delicious, the pitcher or mimosas was a great deal. I highly recommend the avocado toast. It’s literally the best avocado toast I’ve ever had. They had several plant based and vegan options. I will definitely visit again on my travels.

Fantastic experience: It's like walking into a modernized island in the charming Belmont area. The staff is pretty cute and the manager probably deserves a salary raise. I cannot complain here.

Fantastic experience: Ours first time here , The food, service and the atmosphere was all perfect

Negative experience: Hard pass. Best part was it was close. Biscuits were spongy and more like muffins. Avocado mash = old guacamole. Small sandwiches.

Positive experience: While I enjoy this place and the food, it’s never consistent. I’ve found hairs in my to-go orders 4 separate times. No one there uses hair nets. Ordered a breakfast burrito the other day and there was no egg and a few pieces of ground beef.

Negative experience: My boyfriend and I came in to get some coffee before he went to work. I saw an ad on IG for buy one get one free and since I hadn’t tried it before, I figured why not. First off, the atmosphere is immaculate. I’m not in school anymore, but if I was, this would be the place to study. Kudos to whoever was in charge of that. There was no line or many people there when we ordered. We got a hot chai latte and iced matcha latte. We waited for probably 15 minutes to get our drinks that really should have taken no longer than 5 minutes to make. The chai latte was room temperature and the iced matcha latte was basically iced almond milk with a hint of matcha flavoring. I’m glad we got the BOGO cause we felt it was a waste of our money. The baristas needs way better time management skills and training on making these drinks. We won’t be coming back. :-(

Fantastic experience: Fresh, fresh, fresh, ... food here is so good, ... I had the salmon curry Thai hot [5], friends had sushi, ... spring rolls, ... OHHHH the spring rolls (so good, I don't usually care for spring rolls). Will be back, a lot! I do note, however, that for me, the Thai hot wasn't all that spicey, ... I was expecting my forehead to sweat, but not enough spice/heat, although, at least it wasn't sweetend (can't stand sweet, Americanized, Thai food).

Fantastic experience: Laid back spot for some coffee and it was delicious!

Fantastic experience: Great coffee. The biscuit breakfast sandwich was fantastic and so was the sandwich.

Positive experience: Really good food but some employees are unpleasant.

Positive experience: Very good coffee, but their pos system was malfunctioning when I visited and they were running way behind schedule (25 mins +) on food.

Fantastic experience: Best sweet potatoes Maple Latte ever !!! The caramelized onions in toast were delicious!

Positive experience: This place was pretty descent. Friendly folks and cozy atmosphere. Had the tacos which were pretty good. My fiancé got there take on avocado toast. She thought it was fairly descent but would have changed the wellness on the egg. All and all a great place to stop for a quick bite, some coffee. They also use all local ingredients from bread to greens and so much more.

Negative experience: I love trying new vegan places and seeing what new hot spot to try next. After looking at the menu I was very excited to pick out what I wanted only to be told they only had FOUR meals available. I was quickly greeted with horribly rude staff. I simply was asking a question about their vegan options available and was responded to with a snarky “anything with v is vegan.” They are very stingy with asking for more of a certain ingredient considering the bare minimum proportion I will definitely never come back. And this is coming from someone who has worked for years in the service and restaurant industry. I definitely don’t see this place lasting with service like that.

Negative experience: Literally paid 20 dollars for a matcha latte and “caesar salad”. The matcha was green oat milk, you couldn’t taste the matcha at all. Literally at all. The salad was a bowl of lettuce and some croutons with the dressing on the side. The dressing was less than 1/4 of the ramekin full. Asked for more dressing after putting the 5 drops in the ramekin on the salad and she poured less than she’d poured before. Literally 10 dollars for a bowl of lettuce with a tiny bit of dressing. Definitely never coming back here lmao. Lady working was lowkey rude when I asked for extra. Went Sunday august 28 right before 3 pm.

Fantastic experience: This is a really cute and quiet spot with a great atmosphere and great coffee. Highly recommend

Fantastic experience: We were stopping through on our way home, and were so glad we chose Cafe Ma'kai! The food was fresh and delicious, and their coffee was delicious and customizable. Coupled with a friendly staff and relaxed atmosphere, it was the perfect place to grab a meal. Definitely will stop in when we're back in Nashville. Bonus: easy parking!

Negative experience: Just okay. I am pregnant and ordered the breakfast biscuit. The bacon came out underdone. When I asked about it they said it was cooked and kept arguing. Either way, I wasn't eating it and I spent money on it. I wanted to eat so they then got me another item, avocado toast, but they charged me for it! So I paid for a whole meal I didn't like, then another that was just okay. I have worked in service before and if I had this I would have said, "I am so sorry about that, would you like a refund or another item on the house?" No need to argue. I was very kind in my interaction but annoyed. They could have been worse but still did not give good customer service. Don't know if I will come back because of this.

Positive experience: Great vibe. We’ve been there twice. The first time was great. Second time we waited for more than 30min to get our breakfast. The place wasn’t even crowded.

Positive experience: Great coffee, good service and the breakfast plate is a good portion. I wish the breakfast sandwich was a little bigger, but the ingredients are fresh.

Negative experience: This place is expensive, and does not cook their food, its just microwaved. My friend's breakfast burrito was cold in the middle. Their coffee comes in a very small size and only drip is available. Dont come here.

Fantastic experience: Good brunch, the breakfast sandwich was small but good. The lemonade is made fresh and super good!

Fantastic experience: Super cute spot and really kind baristas. This is honestly just a great place to relax, get a little computer work done, and enjoy some excellent coffee!

Fantastic experience: Love this place! The food is tasty and some of the best coffee in town!

Fantastic experience: Stopped by for coffee and ordered a cappuccino. The coffee was amazing and the setting is very welcoming. Loved the plants!!

Negative experience: I will preface this by saying I typically only post bad reviews for a truly disappointing experience (especially when it's a local business)...I couldn't help but feel that this experience needed to be shared - if nothing else to get the attention of ownership to help with operations. I also want to be sensitive to the fact that employees are hard to find nowadays and I'm sure they are experiencing staffing issues. Still...there was not much excuse for the lack of awareness and lack of customer service we experienced here. My friends and I stopped by Cafe Makai after watching the rock n roll marathon runners run on Saturday morning, hoping to get a quick coffee for our walk back to the Gulch. I ordered an iced americano and my friend, who paid separately, ordered a draft nitro. The front of house woman put us on the same ticket and handed us a number, even though we paid separately. It took us 25 WHOLE minutes to get our coffees, despite no line when we arrived. I began to get concerned when others were getting their nitro coffees ahead of my friend. I asked the front staff if our order got lost and she said no, it's coming up. The whole time we are standing RIGHT in front of the counter and the staff, including the barista. A couple observations from us: -The front staff could have poured the nitro RIGHT away...we observed her doing many other tasks not related to direct customer care (washing the counter, etc). She appeared to be new, so whatever...it was frustrating, but it was clear she was new. Eventually we asked if she could pour it (which seemed to annoy her). -The barista was the slowest person I've ever seen work at a coffee shop. I've worked at many myself and I could have pumped out probably 20 espresso drinks in the amount of time she spent staring around aimlessly and trying to locate customers to deliver drinks to. -There was no awareness of efficiency or of customer service to be found in this coffeeshop. I was so close to asking for a refund for my Americano (all she needed to do was pull a double espresso) if she hadn't brought my coffee out right as I was waiting for my opportunity. Someone, I really don't care who, should have at least checked in on us to see what we had ordered as we were just hovering near the counter waiting for our to-go drinks. If I were the small business owner of this establishment, I would be in there making sure my operations were smooth and staff were following best practices, and at a minimum, paying attention to paying customers with simple drink orders. Also, one simple change they could make would be to not have their SOLE barista walk all over the store looking for numbers after she finishes making a drink...you've got to get a runner if you're going to choose to give numbers for to-go coffee orders. I really don't understand why they wouldn't just take a name and call the name when the order is ready for to go coffees. I would say I would go back again if the staff had showed any concern or awareness of how ridiculous the situation was for the customer, but they just had no idea. That all being said, I do hope the business owner has a chance to assess staffing and operations. Best of luck.

Positive experience: I ordered an iced latte and the barista behind the register asked if I wanted it black.. making it sound like he wasn't sure how a latte was made. He also wasn't confident in what they offered (i.e. not sure what syrup flavors they had).. ended up ordering a plain iced latte and a nitro cold brew and they both turned out delightful to our surprise. We also ordered a blue matcha which tasted like milk.. wouldn't recommend. And a muffin.. it was ok. Later ordered a breakfast burrito which was pretty good but good use some salt. The atmosphere is great. They've got music which isn't too loud. Overall, decent spot. May want to spend some time training the register staff.

Fantastic experience: I love this place so much but have to give a quick side note, the apple toast isn’t vegan. I’m not saying that to complain (once again they are amazing) but I am dairy free and ordered it and it had dairy. The coffee is incredible though!! Stop here if you can :)

Positive experience: Honestly, this place was just okay. I got some coffee as well as a biscuit sandwich and both were sort of lackluster...the coffee especially so. Was a little disappointed. I'm glad I tried it out but would I go again? Probably not.

Positive experience: I applaud them for sourcing local ingredients and using eco-friendlier products. But, the food is overpriced and service is slow. I hate to say it, but I could have made better breakfast tacos at home.

Fantastic experience: Super cute Hawaiian style coffee shop. I like the decor and vibe of the place. I had tea and the fruit parfait. Delicious!

Positive experience: Appealing in appearance but uncomfortable seating. Coffee is adequate.

Fantastic experience: This restaurant is a hidden jewel. It has a delicious and eclectic menu that I will be coming back over and over to try each and every item.

Positive experience: Super cute and chill vibes. Love the hanging plants with long vines. I felt like I didn’t get much food for the price. The food took a bit and it wasn’t even warm toast. Great coffee!

Fantastic experience: Enjoyed the vibes and food. Grabbed breakfast tacos to go with my caramel oatmilk latte. Another friend grabbed the cappuccino which they said was also great.

Fantastic experience: Stopped by for coffee and enjoyed a delicious flat white! I also decided to try some avocado toast and that was equally tasty! There’s plenty of indoor seating as well as some tables outside on the patio!

Negative experience: Decided to stop by to get a drink and some breakfast. Let me start of by saying this cafe is a super cute and definitely could be a place to get some studying done. However, the one star rating is because of the food quality and EXTREMELY slow service. I got a breakfast burrito and the potatoes were so undercooked I couldn't even stab my fork through them. We also waited 50 mins for two drinks (this isn’t an exaggeration). 50 mins for a latte and Arnold Palmer is quite ridiculous for a place that wasn’t even that busy.

Positive experience: Food was prepared great. A little seasoning would have helped. Service was great. Wait time was historical long.

Negative experience: Understaffed. 1 barista and 1 cook working on Friday. Had to wait 30 minutes to get my coffee. If you are in a hurry don’t eat here.

Negative experience: This place was recommended for us, and we drove from Murfreesboro. Got here at three pm to be turned away because the kitchen is closed. Posted hours online and on the front says 3. Did not try the food. But accuracy in operations hours will be nice.

Negative experience: Cut my finger on the biodegradable coffee cup lid. Large coffee is 10oz

Fantastic experience: Love it

Fantastic experience: I heard that they were dog-friendly and they allow dogs inside! The blueberry muffin was amazing and I will definitely be returning with my pup soon.

Negative experience: Waited 40 minutes for a black coffee. Several customers ahead of us left without receiving their food. It doesn’t appear this cafe is prepared to serve more than a few people at once.

Fantastic experience: The staff is very cool and the food was very good

Fantastic experience: Loved the cafe + beachy vibes! The food had so much flavor and it was obvious that the ingredients were locally sourced. Beautiful lighting, incredible playlists in the background and overall a hidden gem ABSOLUTELY recommend!!

Fantastic experience: Love Counter Culture Coffee! Had some great Avocado Toast as well.

Positive experience: I got some sort of strawberry latte from Makai. The coffee itself had good flavor, though didn’t taste the strawberry at all and I had so many coffee grounds floating at the top and at the very bottom that I had to strain it when I got home.

Fantastic experience: Awesome amazing breakfast biscuit with sausage. The biscuits are the best biscuits I've had and the breakfast burrito was full of favor. The greens are fresh and the blackened catfish was great

Fantastic experience: Awesome

Positive experience: Very friendly and fast service! They have good biscuits, strong coffee, and reasonable prices. It's a nice place to bring your laptop and study.

Fantastic experience: This place is so neat! The couple that own it are some of the nicest people I’ve met! I went there for a graduation party and they opened up the whole space to us like it was like our own home. I didn’t get to try any food but the coffee was REALLY good!!

Fantastic experience: Great place Healthy food very good taste and good ingredients and the staff was very nice. Even one of the guys spoke in Spanish with me . Sorry I should’ve take the picture before the Vite but looked so delicious

Fantastic experience: Cool vibe. Delicious coffee, great service and the best egg biscuit sandwich I’ve ever had. We will be back!

Negative experience: Had a huge piece of paper in my veggie wrap which I didn’t notice until I was chewing on a chunk of it on my third bite. Opened up the other half and found more paper. Off putting to say the least. Minimal response from the person at the counter.

Positive experience: I love black coffee so I ordered the drip. I think their water to grounds ratio was fine and it was fresh, but their choice of bean was not at all my taste. One of these ultra metallic ones (iron?). No other notes present. I guess some people like it, and if you're putting a ton of cream and sugar in it you probably won't notice how bad it is.

Positive experience: Awesome breakfast sammy on a great biscuit. Loved it. The coffee was fine, not great. Inside was clean and comfortable. Good place to get some work done away from the house.

Fantastic experience: Good coffee, pleasant ambiance, very fast internet

Positive experience: Great service and a really cool space! The coffee and fruit parfait were good as well!

Fantastic experience: Excellent service, delicious coffee, immaculate atmosphere. I highly recommend this coffee shop.

Fantastic experience: Excellent customer service, great coffee and food! The girls were so professional, so helpful, and so friendly. Very glad we found this place!

Negative experience: Be careful as this store discriminates against those with different backgrounds and beliefs.

Fantastic experience: Great vibe, relaxed and airy. The coffee drinks--my cinnamon dulce and my wife's golden turmeric--were delicious, and the avocado toast and fruit yogurt parfait were even better than expected. Sam, the owner, came and checked on us personally. One of our new favorites in Nashville!

Fantastic experience: Great coffee, delicious choices and even have dairy alternatives like oat milk.

Fantastic experience: Wonderful café and great place to host a party! Everyone there is so helpful and professional! Loved working with Grace and Sam for our baby shower. I'll hopefully have all my parties there in the future!

Negative experience: Coffee was good. Food was not good at all. Super overpriced and the quality was subpar (ie under seasoned, bread was dry, cheese in sandwich was literally a 1inch square in the middle of the sandwich?). Again, coffee was good and the shop has cute ambience/ friendly staff- just don’t get the food.

Fantastic experience: Love this place. Great food and service. 7th weekend in row eating there!

Fantastic experience: Great coffee, really cool local items for sale and the breakfast was delicious

Fantastic experience: Best breakfast burrito around! Also, their biscuits are delicious - a true southern style biscuit.

Fantastic experience: Great vibe! Great food! Great people! Order the breakfast burrito and you will be thankful!! Oh - they have bacon for your dog too!

Fantastic experience: Insanely good biscuits and chef is humble and sweet!