I wanted to love this place since we went out for a special celebration of my husband. We had not been before and the menu looked amazing! We did not have a great experience. We had a party of 10 and went early (before 6pm on a weekday). It was not busy, and when we arrived there was one couple seated. Despite this, I think they rushed our food. And we would have gladly waited a little longer for cooked food. :/ Everyone at the table who ordered "steamed broccoli" received hard, barely cooked broccoli. My mother-in-law's potatoes were not fully cooked, and her salmon was raw. Since all her food was not edible, they took it off the bill. So at least there's that. The green beans my mother ordered were also quite crunchy, which can be personal preference. I did not complain about my salmon, but it was undercooked as well. However, even if it were cooked, the lemon sauce makes it inedible. I order salmon at most restaurants and I have never tasted a more horrific sauce. I thought maybe I was being dramatic, so let everyone at the table taste the sauce. Every single one of them scrunched up their face and said "UGH!" It was described by my family members as "putrid, disgusting, rotten pudding, and having a strong iron taste." I have to agree there. When they put it on the table I thought the fish was bad, but it was just the strong smell of the sauce. So all the broccoli, salmon, and potatoes were undercooked... however everyone who ordered steak received it cooked way past what they had ordered. My husband ordered medium, and it looked close to well done. My nephew ordered medium rare, and it looked medium well. My husband's steak was still tender and tasty though, so he did not complain. His Brussels sprouts were decent and grits were very flavorful. My sides were mac and cheese and a salad. Those were both very good! The mac and cheese is in an interesting flavorful sauce. More creamy than cheesy, but I enjoyed it. The salad seemed pretty fresh with homemade dressing from what I could tell. Our server was nice, but did not check on us at all, and was only at the table to take our orders, deliver the food, and give us the check. The majority of us had empty drink glasses and would have wanted refills. There was an automatic tip of 20% on the bill because of the larger party, which was fine, but like I said, the service wasn't great since we didn't get checked on whatsoever. Overall, it's not the worst place I've ever been but it wasn't very good. You hate to go to a place that SHOULD be good, pay good money, and receive that quality, but we weren't going to sit there and every single one of us complain. Sometimes, you just have to eat a bad meal, laugh about it, and not return. The fact of the matter is there are much better places to eat in Cookeville with better food and better service, so we probably won't be back. read more

Irrationale Kitchen + Taps - Salmon - New American Near Me - Cookeville, Tennessee

Went here with my coworkers after hearing one of them rave about it, and it definitely lived up to the hype. The mac & cheese was amazing and the flatbread was just as good. The fish and chips were more on the average side, but still enjoyable. What really stood out was the service -- super friendly and attentive the whole time. Overall, a great spot and I'd definitely go back to try more of the menu. read more

Irrationale Kitchen + Taps - Flatbread, fish and chips, and side of Mac and Cheese - New American Near Me - Cookeville, Tennessee

We had a lovely time. Will definitely be back if passing thru again The vibe and decor is 10/10 Plenty of parking 10/10 Clean restaurant 10/10 Clean restrooms 10/10 Clever and creative menu 10/10 Lovely staff 10/10 Flank steak (see pic) was delicious Fish and Chips were yummy Grilled chicken sandwich was tasty and fresh. No complaints all smiles read more

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Spacious dining area! Kind and efficient service. Most importantly, delicious food. Shrimp and Grits served with gouda cheese grits, could have served a bit more grits. Hot tea selection is rather limited. Overall, a nice experience and we will return! read more

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Such a great location with an excellent pub atmosphere. Was able to watch a basketball game while Connor took care of our food and drink. Excellent bartender! Food was delicious. We'll definitely be back read more

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We had eaten here last summer and enjoyed it, so we decided to go back; I wish we hadn't. There were probably 8-10 groups of people, mostly couples; but only one server and a hostess. The server was below average, but at least he was trying. I ordered the teriyaki steak skewers, Gouda grits and broccoli. My steak was not hot, just barely warm. My wife had the western burger and fries, they forgot the fried onions on the burger, and when we requested, the onions were not warm either. I also had to request drink refills, even though my glass was obviously empty. read more

First impression... It's super confusing where to enter the restaurant. There was no distinctive entrance. The Sangria didn't have good flavor at all, but... there was enough liquor to make me enjoy the flavor the more I sipped, lol The meal was really flavorful! Great omelet and burger! The peaches not so much. They tasted like canned peaches just thrown in cinnamon and sugar. I feel like they could have grilled them first, or done anything to give them a little pizzazz. The staff was decently friendly, and the environment was calm and quiet. read more

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I had a Cobb salad at the bar for lunch. Large parking lot and chill vibe. The food was great!

I think this place has potential. Ordered takeout on a Wednesday night. The order had a lot of components, and they didn't miss anything. I don't like Brussels sprouts, and I can honestly say these were very good. The cheese grits were a let down. They were mealy. The worst part was my steak medallions were undercooked. I asked for medium well, and they were under. Another order asked for well done, and they were under. Not the end of the world but not great. The menu looks good, and I've heard good things from people who have eaten here in person. Id give it another chance. read more

Irrationale Kitchen + Taps - Asked for beef medallions medium well, and these are noticeably under. Brussels sprouts were great, though. - New American Near Me - Cookeville, Tennessee

What a great find. A great menu with some home runs for sure. Dishes to look forward to for are the Gouda Grits, Duck Fat and Feta Tots and the Bison Blue burger is the bomb! Plus a great selection of suds. Run, don't walk and get Irrational today! read more

Brunch was delicious!! Really friendly staff. I suggest making a reservation if you have a larger group. I good mix of breakfast and non breakfast foods. French toast was amazing!! read more

We stopped in on a Friday afternoon for lunch. It's an interesting space with a ton of room and very open feeling, not jammed with tables that you have to negotiate your way around to get through the dining room. A few big tvs and lots of interesting decor and light fixtures, high ceilings and lots of brick and wood in an industrial but rustic way(?) Menu looks great with lots of interesting choices. The salads looked really good so I decided on a salad pretty quickly! My wife had one Of the burgers, which she let me take a bite of and was DELISH! My Mediterranean Salad with steak medallions was fantastic, as expected. It tasted as good as it looked! Server was a little slow to get started, must've been swamped with another table or something, but after "first contact", she was great and very attentive. Highly recommend this as a great option for real food in Cookeville. read more

Irrationale Kitchen + Taps - Mediterranean Salad with steak medallions WOW! - New American Near Me - Cookeville, Tennessee

Excellent service, I had the bone-in pork chop which had great flavor and my guest had the fish and chips which was good too! Portion size was also good. It has a modern, industrial style which makes it alittle loud. Regardless, I'll be back! read more

My wife and came here and requested a booth because I can't sit on their uncomfortable metal chairs. Hostess refused to seat us at booth or half booth because they save them for "larger" parties. Even though there was plenty of space available. Terrible customer service. read more

Very good food and service. Looking forward to visiting again soon. Hamburger was great!!

Great restaurant located in what used to be a factory. The food is really good. We had the smash burgers and duck tots. Both were prepared perfectly. Jesse, the bar tender, was great. He knows his business. Loved the ambiance, the cool bar and all the sports t.v.'s. We will definitely be back when in Cookeville. read more

Irrationale Kitchen + Taps - Jesse, our bar-tender, in his cool overalls. - New American Near Me - Cookeville, Tennessee

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Good food and beer! Service was great! Nice TV's for sports. Will definitely go again!

What a dissappointment! My wife and I decided to drive to Cookeville, a 45 minute drive, to treat ourselves to a special date night. We arrived at Irrationale Kitchen +Taps and were greeted by the hostess; we were then seated by our very courteous waitress. Our service from our waitress was great. Salads were well prepared, fresh, and served with what seemed to be homemade dressings. I ordered Ribeye and my wife ordered sousvide prepared Prime Rib. Thus began the disaster. BTW, my wife and I are retired professionals with extensive experience in meat quality grading. Prime rib is exactly what it says; a rib cut that grades "prime". With the lack of intermarbling fat and amount of connective tissue, it was very obvious quality grade could not have been any better than "good" , a grade that would be ground into burgers. It is obvious they are trying to use the sousvide process to tenderize an otherwise inferior piece of meat. My Ribeye cut was no different. Dry, tough, no inter-marbeling fat, a quality grade no better than "Good". This quality grade should be used for burgers. And then we tried to salvage our dinner date with dessert. Their "Peach Cobbler" was made with APPLE PIE filling. And my "homemade"Banana Pudding was nothing more than Cool Whip, banana flavoring and vanilla wafers. We were deeply dissappointed to travel out of town, start the evening in such a nice, quiet restaurant, first served delicious salads, and then have the main courses and desserts to be such disasterous courses. Needless to say, my wife and I WILL NOT return. read more

Pleasantly surprised with the service and food! I had the fried green tomatoes with Gouda grits and they were great! The service was on point - never intrusive and I noticed all the servers looked happy and having a good time. The beer menu changes regularly so you can always find something new and tasty! read more

Irrationale Kitchen + Taps - Fried green tomatoes and Gouda grits - New American Near Me - Cookeville, Tennessee

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First time trying this place but will definitely be back. Great service, and The food was delicious!!

'Great' is reserved for those experiences that truly are a step above. This Sunday brunch fell short by just a bit. Nice parking, nice building, clean and modern restaurant. A bit cold and empty feeling in the dining room. I don't particularly like tiny tables set up as little islands in the middle of the hubub. Loud and echoey. Service was great. The food was good overall. Cranberry/orange mimosas were very good at the bar while we waited for our table. Although, let's make them a bit special, maybe a mint garnish or ??? My sense is that whoever is behind the scenes of this place has the imagination and needs to use just a bit more of it to really make it special. Coffee was excellent, I should have asked for espresso - didn't think of it. Orange juice is very large and good. French toast with glazed pralines got five stars from my wife. I had Eggs Benedict and I would give it three stars. The Hollandaise sauce was too tart-lemony for me. I would prefer savory buttery. And as you know, when a sauce is covering your meal and it's not quite right, well that just doesn't work. Fried potatoes were meh. I can whip up a better breakfast in my electric griddle easy-peasy. When I go out for brunch, I want something better than I can make at home. I thought prices were reasonable. My takeaway is that there is a lot of potential here. It's all in the details. Wouldn't it be cool if the staff had a uniform - the same shirts perhaps. Greg read more

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I ate there the evening of 8/21/25. The mushroom appetizer, and brussel sprouts were good. Our waiter, Presley, was helpful and courteous. I ordered Teriyaki steak medallions, which were too tough to chew(cooked medium). I communicated that to Presley and he advised the kitchen but I wasn't offered any comp on the 19.00 charge. read more

Irrational's brunch is amazing!!! I love the irrational Benedict! Always great , fast friendly service! Whenever we have visitors in town, we love taking them here!!! read more

Great Festive Drinks-Fish great ( not really any chips) malt vinegar available but cones with Tartar Sauce. read more

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We are new in town, stopped at a store in the same building as IrrationAle walked by the door and could smell the char grilled burgers permeating the hallway. Our hungry stomachs and noses guided us in. We were sat promptly, our server was at our table within seconds getting our drink order. We ordered so much food! We started with the mushrooms and fried green tomatoes, they came out piping hot, I really enjoyed the batter on both. We ate every last mushroom and tomato. For our mains we ordered burgers these burgers were so darn juicy they should be served along with a bib and wet wipes. The meat was cooked to perfection medium just like I like it. We then order the banana pudding for dessert to share and my husband ended up eating 2. He did not share! All in all we will be back. Looking forward to the fish and chips! read more

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Food here was excellent and well seasoned. It was hard to figure out where to enter the restaurant, but once I did it was fine. Very good sports bar ambience and friendly waitstaff. read more

Irrationale Kitchen + Taps - Grilled salmon meal - New American Near Me - Cookeville, Tennessee

We could not decide what we wanted for lunch off the menu- there were so many things. Our server suggested the "flat bread special" and SO DURN THANKFUL she did. It was grilled chicken, and fried green tomato salsa with cheese and a avocado sauce for dipping. I hated to share it with my husband. We also ordered the beer cheese and pretzels- thankfully he at most of that so I didn't have to share the flatbread. The beer cheese was good, but his favorite or the pretzel was dipping the stone ground mustard. I also got the duck fat tots- yum. Lastly husband made room for "gotta get up to get down" Sweet/ Milk Stout from wiseacre brewing. He really enjoyed that as well. read more

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Food was good. Service was tad unorganized. The decorations or design of seating was lacking. Reminds me of an outdoor bar. Nothing terrible. Just wasn't what I thought. read more

WOW! What a fun place. Great food and good service. Just a little different but in a good way. Worth the drive (almost an hour) from Crossville. We will keep returning and bringing friends. read more

Great service, excellent atmosphere and terrific food. The location is 2 miles off freeway and easy to travel to.

Irrationale Kitchen offers a mediocre dining experience with average food and below-par cocktails. Additionally, the atmosphere can be very loud. While it's an option, there are certainly better choices available in town. read more

My best friend and I had heard very mixed reviews about Irrationale and so as we were out and about and driving by we decided to stop for lunch. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon around 1 PM. First, the signage outside is confusing. We didn't see any clear way to get in and ended up entering behind the bar which has a sign for catering or delivery orders or something like that. Oh well, we got in and it didn't seem to bother anyone. The bartender explained how to enter properly next time. This seems like an easily fixable issue. They have a ton of blank wall space to put up signage. We were seated in the main large dining area. I liked the ambiance but it seemed a little "bare" some more decor would really warm the place up a little. That being said it was a nice space with plenty of room for groups large or small. For lunchtime the place was pretty quiet, five tables with guests total. We were greeted warmly and seated promptly. Our server who's name I regrettably neglected to get was great. It looked like she was the bartender, hostess and server and she pulled it all off without neglecting any of us. She deserves 5 stars. A lot of the iffy reviews have revolved around service and wait times. Our service was on point. Seated and order taken in short order. We both ordered the wedge salad for $7 (great price) and it took 23 minutes to come to the table. That's a loooong wait for a salad. The salad itself was ok. A wedge salad depends on the wedge to really be good. My wedge was slightly chewy and lacked the crisp/crunch of a great iceberg wedge. The toppings were on point and delicious. My best friend's wedge was exactly the same as mine! On the could do better notes: Best friend ordered chicken as an add on to her salad and it was slapped on an unattractive too large plate on the side. She said the chicken wasn't really good and impossible to add to the salad as the bowl the salad was served in was to small to really cut anything. The chicken was served in long strips. She doesn't generally complain about anything so I took her for her word. I wanted an impossible burger but Irrationale is completely irrational and charges you a crazy $4 replacement fee to give you a frozen veggie burger that costs no more than ground beef. What the holy heck Irrationale? Way to alienate plant based eaters! This really made me mad enough that I won't go back. Another pet peeve is serving sides in bowls on a plate. It's a tacky way to make it look like there's more on a plate. I saw that on several diners's plates and just rolled my eyes. read more

Irrationale Kitchen + Taps - Wedge Salad - New American Near Me - Cookeville, Tennessee

After the TTU girls bb game we were hungry, and my husband suggested Irrationale. We were so close, why not? We normally keep our expectations low when trying new places, yet always hope for the best. We were greeted timely, and were sat in dining room. Our server came over and took our drink order, returned right away and then took our food order. The grilled chicken on brioche that I ordered was outstanding. It was blackened by request and grilled perfectly. The sandwich by far was the best I have had in town or anywhere else for that matter! The coleslaw was most unique, and I wasn't certain if I liked it at first, but it grew on me with each bite. I would certainly order it as a side dish again. My husband had the cheeseburger Med well and fries, and he couldn't have been happier with his order. The food was hot, the brioche was fresh and service was impeccable. I wish I knew our server's name because I would give him a shout out too! We will definately return! read more

The space is beautiful and the staff is very nice and attentive, but beware of the little flavor surprises they add to certain dishes. The Hey Hey salad, a very nicely sized salad comes with rice on it. Yeah, seems a bit weird. What isn't mentioned is that it is flavored with curry. If you're not a curry fan, you might wasn't another option. And the sweet potato fries come with cinnamon on them, which is fine if it's not a total surprise. It's not upsetting enough to keep me from coming back, but I'd like to see things like this put on the menu. read more

Great ambiance - food is good for American/bar food. I've only been during the day for lunch, and the wait is never bad. Bar service is really strong, dining was a little slow, but overall no outstanding complaints. read more

Service needs improvement. We ordered and waited for over an hour for appetizers and asked the waiter how long, she said I don't know, so we asked if she could check the kitchen and she said nope! Well about an hour more and we decided to pay for the drinks and the one appetizer we got and leave. We haven't gone back. read more

Great local spot with top notch food & drinks! Highly recommend the Spicy Bloody Maria! read more

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We stumbled into here on accident. Not wanting anything too expensive, and most definitely not wanting fast food, we decided to visit on a whim with no other viable choices that stood out in the area for the moment. Irrationale was such a nice spot and did not disappoint! Our waiter was extremely nice and constantly stopped by with new mason jars of our drinks without us even asking. We had the Chicken Tenders with duck fat tots, slaw, and sweet potato fries. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the slaw. It was honestly kind of bland and a bit watery. Everything else however? Amazing. The tenders were crispy and juicy and the duck fat tots were most definitely something we would come back for over and over again (and I am NOT a tater tot girl, I'm a fry girl). An interesting take was that the sweet potato fries were served with a marshmallow dip! Very unique and reminded us of sweet potato casserole we ate as kids. Overall, a nice spot for lunch! Everything looked clean and although the place was empty at the time, workers were constantly walking around cleaning and wiping down tables. Next time we'll go for dinner, and we will 100% be ordering duck fat tots again. read more

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I love this place! We're new to the area & looking for a place to get a good meal irrationale Was recommended. They did not disappoint. We don't eat out often but when we do this is my first choice. Everything I've had so far is wonderful. It's not real expensive which makes it a great choice for families. It's very relaxing, open, clean, friendly & the wait time is appropriate. LOVE! the chandelier in the waiting area & the old hanging windows. I give irrationale 6 stars:) read more

Really neat venue with a lot of exposed brick and rustic decor, if you like that vibe. Staff is very friendly. Food in every facet is subpar. We had never been before and it's been open for about a year now, so we wanted to sample a few things from the menu. We got two appetizers, the pretzels and beer cheese and the smoked pork & pimento flatbread. Both were fine, but the pretzel pails in comparison to Father Toms and the flatbread pails in comparison to 37 Cedar. We ordered to entrees, the chicken tenders and the Buffalo & blue burger. Chicken was a little dense and tough, tots were average, slaw was not good. Burger was the best part but the patty was served split into 3 different parts, unintentionally. Overall, very average food for a high price. 4 star venue, 3 star food, 2 star price. Won't go again unless a group of friends wanted to go. read more