The Top 100 Places to Eat Near The Band Box

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Benjamin Goldberg, Max Goldberg, and Josh Habiger - Strategic Hospitality
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Ballpark Food · Best of Nashville

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Benjamin Goldberg, Max Goldberg, and Josh Habiger - Strategic Hospitality

Vivek Surti grew up eating Southern food and Gujarati home cooking, and this tasting menu restaurant in Germantown is where those two things finally sit down together. The open kitchen and plush, jewel-toned room feel more like a dinner party than a restaurant, helped along by the kitchen sending courses to every table at once. The Michelin Guide has it selected, and a James Beard Semifinalist nod for hospitality tracks with the room's warmth.

1. Bon Appétit #7 · America's Best New Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The Infatuation #10 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

1. Time Out The best bakeries in America
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Beautiful Pastries · Best of Nashville
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bakery

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
2. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Cafe and Bakery · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation #24 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Benjamin Goldberg, Max Goldberg, and Josh Habiger - Strategic Hospitality

A pasta program that changes with the season keeps regulars at this Germantown neighborhood restaurant coming back to see what Philip Krajeck is running on the menu. The cooking is unfussy and ingredient-driven, the kind of sharing-plates dinner where everything on the table looks better than what you ordered. The Michelin Guide has it selected, and a James Beard nomination for Best Chef Southeast followed.

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Best Chef: Southeast · Philip Krajeck
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Southeast · Philip Krajeck

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
3. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Way to Fill That Arnold's-Size-Hole-in-Your-Heart · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Coffee-on-the-Go · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Coffee-on-the-Go · Best of Nashville
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Chicken and dumplings unveiled tableside is the move at this East Nashville restaurant built around Appalachian and Southern cooking. The share-plate menu leans seasonal but keeps a few old-school anchors no matter what, leaning into ingredients like benne seeds and paw paws in ways your grandmother probably didn't but might wish she had. The vibe is rustic and cozy, the kind of room that makes you want to become a regular on your first visit.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Esquire #9 · The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

A U-shaped counter on the fifth floor where the cooks work close enough that you can watch them sweat, and they know it. The Catbird Seat is a tasting menu restaurant that has cycled through several chefs over the years without losing its grip on Nashville's imagination. The current husband-and-wife team leans into smoking, grilling, and preservation in ways that feel restless rather than studied. It holds a Michelin star.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
3. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Naturally leavened pizzas anchor the menu at this East Nashville neighborhood restaurant, though the kitchen moves seasonally enough that what lands on top is anyone's guess. Philip Krajeck also runs the more formal Rolf & Daughters, but Folk is the warmer, wood-paneled sibling where the cooking feels unfussy without being unambitious. The Michelin Guide has it selected, which tracks for a room that fills up with locals who clearly never needed a reason to return.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. The Infatuation #23 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
3. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Esquire Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. USA Today Restaurants of the Year

1. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
2. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Julio Hernandez

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Sfincione is Sicilian street food, something between focaccia and pizza, and this focacceria in the Gulch has built its entire identity around it. The dough gets folded in an open kitchen, then topped with fontina, breadcrumbs, and pecorino before rotating varieties like roasted potato cream or spicy tomato with burrata take over. The menu is short by design. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and Esquire named it among the best new restaurants in America in 2024.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. The Infatuation #25 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
2. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

A converted church sanctuary in East Nashville, which at least explains the soaring ceilings and the sense that something meaningful is happening here. The wine list runs over a hundred bottles, and the bar anchoring the room doubles as a social hub for groups settling in for the night. The kitchen plays it loose, moving between bar snacks and more serious plates. Chef Colby Rasavong picked up a Food and Wine Best New Chefs nod in 2025, and the Times put it on their restaurant list that same year.

1. Food & Wine Colby Rasavong · Best New Chefs
2. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
3. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants

A tapas spot tucked into the ground floor of an East Nashville apartment building, Peninsula is the kind of place that makes you feel slightly smug for knowing about it. The cooking roams the Iberian Peninsula while borrowing freely from wherever else it pleases, landing in combinations that sound odd and taste inevitable. The chef took a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast, and the Michelin Guide lists it as a Bib Gourmand.

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Best Chef: Southeast · Jake Howell
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
3. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Chef · Best of Nashville · Jake Howell

Chili pepper lights strung overhead and a line out the door set the tone for this Tex-Mex spot named for a Willie Nelson record. The flour tortillas are made in the open dining room, which is the kind of detail that keeps regulars honest about why they're there. Tacos, burritos, crunch wraps, a green chili cheeseburger, house hot sauces. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, and the frozen drinks have their own following.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Frozen Drinks · Best of Nashville

You pass through a cocktail bar to get to the dining room, which sets the tone. Bastion is a tasting-menu restaurant in Wedgewood-Houston built around contemporary Southern cooking that treats the region's pantry as a creative dare rather than a comfort blanket. The kitchen holds a Michelin star and a James Beard nomination, and earns both by keeping things loose enough that the whole thing still feels like a good night out.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best Chef: Southeast · Josh Habiger

The name nods to a kissaten, the cozy Japanese tea shop, and this no-reservations Japanese comfort food spot fills up fast enough to make that context feel earned. The menu is short and built for sharing, moving through onigiri, grilled yellowtail collar, and a chilled ramen salad with the unhurried confidence of a team that knows exactly what it's doing. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a James Beard nominee for Best New Restaurant.

1. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Leina Horii and Brian Lea
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

Reservations are scarce at this compact Japanese-influenced restaurant, and the walk-in line forms early. Chef Trevor Moran's menu is built around sharing plates with a precision that feels almost theatrical, from beef tartare hand rolls to rotating kakigori shaved into powdery, sculptural blocks. A Michelin star and a James Beard semifinalist nod signal the ambition; the laidback, buzzy room suggests nobody here is taking themselves too seriously.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. Esquire Seaweed Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. USA Today Restaurants of the Year

Grab a tray, check the chalk board for today's proteins, and pick three sides: that's the whole system at this old-school Nashville meat-and-three. The turnip greens, studded with smoky pork, are the kind of thing that makes you wonder why you ever cook at home. The room fills fast with people who already know their order, and the line moves whether you're ready or not.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The Infatuation #19 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Fancy Sushi · Best of Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. The Infatuation #17 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

A glass-enclosed pasta room visible from the dining floor sets the tone at this Italian wine bar in Wedgewood-Houston, where the look is sleek and industrial and the menu stays concise enough to actually read. House-made pastas anchor the middle of the card, soft serve sundaes close it out, and the kitchen treats both with equal seriousness. The New York Times put it on their Nashville list, and the Michelin Guide has selected it too.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Chef · Best of Nashville · Ryan Poli
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The Infatuation #6 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

1. The Infatuation Our Favorite Bakeries In The Country Right Now
2. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville
3. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Beignets · Best of Nashville

A refurbished car wash with vendors in the old bays is an unlikely home for some of the most focused cooking in Nashville. S.S. Gai is a chicken house with a single obsession: Thai street-style fried chicken, crispy in that way that makes you slow down and pay attention, served with sticky rice and tamarind chili fish sauce. The Michelin Bib Gourmand and a New York Times nod suggest the obsession is well-placed. Order at the window and don't skip the mango sticky rice.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
3. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

The steam table at lunch, loaded with curries and fried rice, is a direct line to the original spot Patti Myint opened decades ago. Her children relaunched this Belmont Thai restaurant with two of the original cooks still behind the stove, so the continuity is not a marketing pitch. Evenings shift to full-service with cocktails and a more creative menu. The New York Times named it among Nashville's 25 best, and it landed a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2024.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
3. The Infatuation #18 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Restaurant Bar Experience · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation #3 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

1. The New York Times Asparagus Tostada · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Chef Getting Bigger By Staying Small · Best of Nashville · Edgar Victoria
3. The Infatuation #8 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Bar · Best of Nashville

1. The Infatuation #14 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Symbiotic Food Truck/Bar Relationship · Best of Nashville
3. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Perma-Pop-Up · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
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1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Bar Spinoff · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restauranteur in the Face of Adversity · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Neighborhood Empire Builder · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best thing on Toast: Whipped Feta and Prosciutto Toast · Best of Nashville

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The name comes from "shokunin," a Japanese word for total devotion to a craft, which tells you something about how seriously Sean Brock takes his pizza. This Neapolitan slice spot in Riverside Village has a domed wood-fired oven imported from Italy and a glass-walled prep area where you can clock exactly where the cheese and cured meats came from. The crust is cold-fermented slow and bakes up light enough that you'll order a second. Michelin Bib Gourmand.

1. 50 Top Pizza #30 · 50 Top Pizza USA
2. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best thing on Toast: Whipped Feta and Prosciutto Toast · Best of Nashville

The heat scale here runs from "Southern" (no heat at all) to "Shut the Cluck Up," which tells you most of what you need to know. Hattie B's is a counter-service hot chicken spot, and Nashville basically treats it as a civic institution. Order dark or white meat, bones or boneless, then pick your tier and brace accordingly. The pimento mac and cheese makes a reliable peace offering on the side.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Place for a Coffee Date · Best of Nashville
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1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore, and Emanuel Reed

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Restaurant · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation #7 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

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2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Patio · Best of Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best thing on Toast: Whipped Feta and Prosciutto Toast · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
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1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Wine Bar · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation #16 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

Hand-cut Uyghur-style noodles stir-fried with beef, egg, and vegetables are the reason most people end up here, though the flaky tandir samosa with spicy red sauce makes a strong opening argument. Uzbegim is a casual Uzbek spot in Nashville with a patio worth seeking out, earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand for cooking that travels well outside its usual geography. The lamb kebab is charred and tender, and the house-made cherry juice is not an afterthought.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Coffee Shop Glow-Up · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Micro Cafe · Best of Nashville
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1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
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1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Barista · Best of Nashville · Mark Lemley
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1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Base for Tuna Tartare: Seaweed Sourdough · Best of Nashville

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2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pretzel · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Coffee-on-the-Go · Best of Nashville
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1. The Infatuation #20 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Photogenic Dish: Trout · Best of Nashville

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Fried Thing: Lumpia · Best of Nashville

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

An all-day cafe on Porter Road that moves from morning coffee to afternoon wine to dinner without breaking a sweat. The menu leans vegetable-forward, with small plates that look casual but carry more going on than you'd expect. East Nashville regulars treat it like a neighborhood living room, which it basically is. The Michelin Guide has it listed among its selected restaurants.

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Prime brisket with a peppery bark is the reason this Texas-style barbecue joint started as a food truck and has since moved twice to keep up with demand. The room runs to booths and picnic tables, road signs and Willie Nelson energy. Jalapeño sausage oozes cheese, the pulled pork is smoky, and the green bean side cooked with brisket has its own cult following. A Michelin Selected Restaurant, and the kind of place where strangers talk across tables.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The Infatuation #22 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
3. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Addition to Germantown · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Dessert Special: Bread Pudding · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best High-End Seafood · Best of Nashville

1. The Infatuation #12 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

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1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

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1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

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1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

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1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restauranteur in the Face of Adversity · Best of Nashville · Austin Ray
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Place to Go With a Big Party · Best of Nashville

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1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Downtown Lunch You Forgot About · Best of Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Back-of-House Vibes · Best of Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Fried Rice · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Ballsy Real Estate Move · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Restaurant · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Seasonal Menus · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Overlooked Coffee Shop · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Rooftop Bar Design · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Decadent Whiskey Tasting · Best of Nashville

1. The New York Times The Restaurant List
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now
3. The Infatuation #21 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Comeback · Best of Nashville