Best Family Style Restaurants in Columbia

The Vodka Rosa pasta is AMAZING! My favorite pasta in all of Nashville!!! The ambiance is super cool and fun. I love this restaurant!!

Visiting Nashville for our wedding anniversary and spent our anniversary evening here. It did not disappoint, Chaz our server was very insightful and recommended a great red wine to have with our dinner. The food was outstanding, meatball starter and a shrimp cocktail for my wife followed by chicken parm and lemon shrimp pasta. We also had a side of the duck confit potatoes (which you must order), the potatoes were out of this world. Great ambiance with a live singer and piano player, I cannot recommend this place enough, thank you guys for making our anniversary feel special.

I celebrated an early birthday dinner with drinks and appetizers and my server was very kind and very attentive. I really enjoyed pretty much every staff member there. This is my second time there and they always take care of us and truly just give their all to the service no matter what you’re getting.

This restaurant was recommended to us by some Friends who had visited the previous night. Cameron was our Server. Absolutely outstanding. Friendly, informative but not pushy. Seemed to care about we chose The Optimist and what kind of fish we liked and what might not fit our pallet. He genuinely cared and as he said, “I love my job, I try to make your time a positive experience and enjoyable.” The food was spectacular. The variety of Oysters was a great way to start and the side information was great. And the Kingfish Appy was also delicious. We did learn that it was caught Australia. Amazing that we are sitting in Nashville and enjoyed a great bite from the other side of the world Mate!! The main course of Red Fish was tasty and just the right size to savor. We complimented that with the Cavatelli and Mushrooms. And also tried the Heirloom Tomatoes. All were Excellent and Five Stars. We were fairly full but shared a Atlantic Beach Pie that was highly recommended by numerous employees. It did not disappoint and was light enough to finish even with the great Graham cracker like finish. Highly, Highly recommend The Optimist and would Also ask for Cameron for a culinary experience that will not disappoint all around!!!

The food was great, service was awesome and the staff were very friendly. I would definitely recommend and come back again.