Noko

Noko is an Asian-inspired, wood-fired restaurant at 701 Porter Road in East Nashville, opened in 2023 in the space that had been Pomodoro East. It was founded by Jon Murray, who came to restaurants from the music business as an artist manager, with executive chef and partner Dung "Junior" Vo — a 2025 James Beard semi-finalist — and managing partner Wilson Brannock, the three having previously worked together on projects for Charleston's Indigo Road Hospitality Group. Murray set the tone early and it still holds: this is not a white-tablecloth place, he said before opening, and they were keeping the neighbourhood feel. The room seats 82 in a Japanese farmhouse register built around maple, and the cooking runs from salmon carpaccio with ponzu and pickled wasabi and bluefin tuna crudo with truffle mustard soy through lobster bao buns, Korean hot wings with gochujang barbecue and yuzu ranch, wagyu brisket, a smoked half chicken, and A5 wagyu teppanyaki sold by the ounce. It has been named to OpenTable's Top 100 Restaurants in America and took Eater Nashville's Best New Restaurant award.

The drinks list carries a section headed "Zero-Proof", and its most striking feature is the price: at $6 and $7, the built non-alcoholic cocktails cost roughly a third of what the restaurant's full cocktails do, which is unusual anywhere and almost unheard of in a room serving a $145 tomahawk. The Hero ($6) is the lightest, combining lychee, hibiscus, yuzu and soda. The house Phony Negroni ($7) is the one the Nashville Scene singled out when it reviewed the restaurant in October 2024 — three zero-proof cocktails, the critic wrote, including a house-made Phony Negroni that had me at Tasmanian pepper berry, bring the party to non-imbibers — and it is built from that pepper berry with cinnamon, juniper and orange essence rather than from a bought-in bottle. Guava Girlies ($7) uses Seedlip Garden 108 with guava, basil, yuzu and serrano. Since that review the list has grown to four with the addition of Kisumé, a non-alcoholic sparkling rosé poured by the glass at $11, tasting of crisp apple, melon and citrus. Noko serves Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays, with about fifty parking spaces in the shared Shops at Porter East lot.