The 100 Best Places to Eat in Nashville

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

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

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. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
3. Esquire Seaweed Martini · The Best Martinis in America

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

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

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

D'Andrews is a bakery and cafe on Church Street where the pastry case looks like a jewelry counter that took up baking. There are mousse desserts shaped like fruit, a chocolate cube wearing a white chocolate feather and a bit of gold leaf, and croissants that appear to have nothing to prove. It was a James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist. Expect a line, a lot of phones out first, and forks only afterward.

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

A Nashville bakery-cafe in 12 South where the cinnamon cookies come roughly the size of a salad plate and the churro croissants are filled with dulce de leche cream. The fast-casual counter up front handles the pastry situation; the cafe in back does soft scrambled eggs with chili crunch and lattes for anyone who secures a seat. Midcentury-sunny room, long lines of people who planned ahead, and beignets that won Nashville Scene's city-wide vote.

1. The Infatuation Our Favorite Bakeries In The Country Right Now
2. The Infatuation The 15 Best Bakeries In Nashville
3. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

Red leather banquettes, white tablecloths, a snappy U-shaped bar, and a shiny open kitchen pack into fifty seats on Dickerson Pike. This is a French-leaning dinner spot where smoke drifts in from a Basque-style wood-fire hearth and the wine list has Brooklyn credentials. Philip Krajeck's third Nashville restaurant has landed on the New York Times' list of Nashville's 25 best, which for a room this quietly romantic feels about right.

1. Esquire Martini · The Best Martinis in America
2. USA Today Restaurants of the Year
3. The New York Times 2026 · The Restaurant List

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

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

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. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Esquire #9 · The Best New Restaurants in America

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

Wood fire and a blazing wok run through nearly everything at this Pan-Asian restaurant on Porter Road, from the shishitos to the Wagyu brisket to a smoky half-chicken in wasabi white sauce. The menu roams freely across Asia without apologizing for it. The chef landed a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2025, and the New York Times put Noko on its Nashville list, which goes some way toward explaining why a reservation is the hardest thing to find in East Nashville right now.

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

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

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

Babychan is a Japanese bakery on the ground floor of a Germantown condo building, done up in walnut and Japanese art, which is more design effort than most places put into the thing you eat standing up. The case runs to sesame swiss rolls, salmon onigiri, and milk bread stuffed with cream cheese. It was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Restaurateur, and the pastries sell out early, so arrive at opening.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Cafe and Bakery · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation #24 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
3. The Infatuation The 15 Best Bakeries In Nashville

Kurdish restaurant on Nolensville Pike, in the Nashville neighborhood that holds the country's largest Kurdish population, so the room knows what it's doing. Lavash comes out of the oven puffed with hot air, sesame seeds still warm, and the lamb stew arrives in its clay pot. The New York Times put it on their 2024 Restaurant List. Come with people, order more than you think you need, and plan on finishing it anyway.

1. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List
2. The Infatuation #21 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

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

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

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

A diner-style Asian restaurant where a giant strawberry guards the door sets the tone for everything inside: Formica tabletops, red velvet couches, and a menu that bounces between hand-pulled noodles topped with brisket and a la zi spiced smash burger on a bao bun with beef fat fries. The retro fever-dream aesthetic is very much the point. The New York Times named it among Nashville's 25 best restaurants.

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. Time Out The best bakeries in America

The darkly tinted windows and near-invisible signage in an East Nashville strip mall suggest you might have the wrong address, but push through. This casual Mexican restaurant built its following as a pandemic pop-up and landed here with a menu centered on masa, nixtamalized and ground in-house, turning up as tortillas, sopes, and tostadas. The New York Times named the asparagus tostada one of the best restaurant dishes eaten across the country in 2025. No liquor license, but the taco shop next door sells beer.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Chef Getting Bigger By Staying Small · Best of Nashville · Edgar Victoria
2. The Infatuation #8 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

A bread house and wine bar born from an actual marriage, which is either romantic or the most efficient way to divide labor ever conceived. The dishes read simple but arrive with quiet technique underneath, and a dedicated section of chilled reds by the glass gives the wine list a personality of its own. The room is casual without being careless, and the New York Times put it on their Nashville list.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Wine Bar · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation #16 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

The raw bar anchors the room at this polished seafood restaurant, oysters from both coasts and the Gulf stacked up in a city that has no business pulling this off. Julia Sullivan, who came up at Per Se and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, keeps the menu rooted in Southern instincts while the flavors drift pleasantly coastal. The onion dip topped with Tennessee paddlefish caviar is the kind of dish that makes you feel silly for ever ordering anything else.

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

Vaulted beamed ceilings and herringbone floors set the tone for this farm-to-table dining room at Southall Farm, a sprawling estate just outside Franklin. The kitchen runs a seed-to-fork program, pulling ingredients from the property and nearby farms for a menu that looks like comfort food until you taste how much is happening underneath. Dress nicely but not formally; the farmhouse chic room forgives a blazer or a flannel with equal grace.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

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

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

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

The staff will advise you not to order the hot chicken above mild, and they mean it. Bolton's is a no-frills neighborhood soul food counter that predates the hot chicken craze by a decade, which earns it a certain authority. The fried catfish, ordered mild, makes a strong case for itself as the move here, and mild still has something to prove. A Nashville institution, in the most unpretentious sense possible.

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

Germantown was still dozing when this Italian-Southern trattoria and pizza spot opened, and it has been packing the room ever since. The kitchen treats Southern ingredients as native Italian speakers, so cavatelli gets field peas, cornmeal-crusted trout gets salsa verde, and summer pies get loaded with Tennessee tomatoes or ripe peaches. Leave room for dessert; the pastry chef has a following of her own.

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

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

The collard green melt on toasted rye with Russian dressing and pickled cherry peppers is the sandwich this kitschy Nashville counter built its reputation on, and that reputation has held. It's a casual, cash-friendly sandwich spot where nothing is light and the salad is buried under fried garlic and crispy pig ears. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place where the portions are architectural and the flavors are loud.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Neighborhood Hang · Best of Nashville

Kase x Noko is an omakase sushi counter where getting a seat means setting an alarm for five to midnight, six weeks ahead, and then refreshing like it's a concert drop. There are three sessions a night at the bar, and they vanish almost instantly. It's a tasting-menu splurge, so dress like you earned it, and expect the chef to run the evening with jokes between courses. Nashville Scene named it Best New Restaurant in 2025.

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

The Band Box is the food hall tucked behind the right-field fence at First Horizon Park, where you eat a hot dog and keep one eye on the Nashville Sounds. Thursday home games bring guest chefs doing their own takes on concession-stand grub, which beats the usual nachos under a heat lamp. Casual and ballpark-priced, with the crowd in team jerseys and a little more sauce on them than they planned.

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. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Under-the-Radar Coffee Empire · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

Flora + Fauna is a coffee shop in the Highland Yards development, where the nature theme is understated enough that nobody will ask you to hug a tree. The drinks menu keeps rotating through inventive flavors, and there's a lunch menu with seasonal pancake specials for dates who want a real meal. It's the sort of place people bring someone they like, and the parking lot helps. Nashville Scene named it Best Place for a Coffee Date.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Place for a Coffee Date · Best of Nashville
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

At 300 square feet, Matryoshka Coffee is less a place to linger and more a place to collect your espresso and marvel at the rainbow decor before heading back into the world. The micro cafe sits inside an apartment complex on the south side, and the menu leans into the same spirit as the walls: specialty drinks arrive with sprinkles and edible glitter, and the food options are instant ramen and cereal. Somehow this is not a bit; it's just the vibe.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Coffee Shop Glow-Up · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Micro Cafe · Best of Nashville
3. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

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

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

Concrete walls, a neutrals-only palette, and an LA sensibility that landed in Wedgewood-Houston: Cafe Babu is a coffee shop that knows exactly what it looks like and leans into it. The chai runs strong and spicy, and the signature latte gets a hit of cardamom syrup. Pastries and sandwiches carry the daytime shift; by evening the menu pivots to cocktails and small bites, which makes the patio, a Nashville Scene Best of Nashville winner, work a little harder.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Patio · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Barista · Best of Nashville · Mark Lemley
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in 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
2. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

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

Retrograde is a bright, tidy coffee shop on Dickerson Pike that has quietly become the new gathering spot for Nashville's remote workers, who roam in search of an outlet and a flat white. The toast does some of the work: whipped feta and prosciutto, with spice and olive oil, the sort of thing a Germantown brunch charges extra for. Expect laptops, low stakes, and a very full table of people who are definitely about to reply to that email.

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

Retrograde is a bright, tidy coffee shop on Clifton Ave that has become the new headquarters for West Nashville's remote workers, who migrated here after a beloved spot in The Nations closed. The laptops outnumber the pastries, but the whipped feta and prosciutto toast, finished with spice and olive oil, tastes like brunch from a pricier neighborhood without the wait. Nashville Scene named it Best Thing on Toast.

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. The Infatuation #20 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Photogenic Dish: Trout · Best of Nashville

Cocorico is a French bakery and café where the owner is actually from France, which saves everyone the usual accent anxiety. Croissants and baguettes share space with a little market of quiches, pasta, and local goods, plus a goat cheese sandwich that Nashville Scene once crowned Best Vegetarian Sandwich. Framed photos of Toulouse and mosaic tile set the scene for a counter-service lunch, with a muffin-sized chocolate cake as the closer.

1. The Infatuation The 15 Best Bakeries In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Vegetarian Sandwich: The G.O.A.T. · Best of Nashville

Dozen Bakery is a counter-service bakery that quietly supplies half the coffee shops in Nashville, so you've probably eaten its pastries without knowing it. The Berry Hill spot has room for laptops and brunch dates, and the line is a permanent fixture that moves faster than it looks. Lemon bar croissants and chili-garlic focaccia are the sort of thing that makes someone say "oh, I know a guy" about a bakery.

1. The Infatuation The 15 Best Bakeries In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Breakfast Sandwich: Focaccia Egg Sandwich · Best of Nashville

The 40-seat dining room shares a building with a nightclub, which does set a certain tone. Present Tense is a Japanese restaurant where the chef's Italian background keeps surfacing on the plate, squid ink noodles with nduja and wasabi, koji chicken with shoyu au poivre. The New York Times named it one of Nashville's 25 best restaurants. The chef's counter fills early, and by the time the martinis land, nobody's rushing anywhere.

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

The line at this meat-and-three curves from the steam table through the dining room, and someone near you will almost certainly say some version of "this is how we ate coming up." Silver Sands has been a family operation for generations, with the current chef waking before dawn to start on saucy beef tips, stewed okra, fried whiting, and salmon croquettes that feel more ambitious than the room lets on. The New York Times named it among Nashville's 25 best.

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

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

Souffle pancakes at noon and oysters by candlelight at the same address, which tells you most of what you need to know about Roze Pony. This all-day cafe and cocktail spot in West Nashville follows the East Nashville original from the same team, running from green juice and tartines through to salmon tartare and a New York strip with tiny, impossibly crisp onion rings. The lights actually dim at night, which is a nice commitment to the bit.

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Chicken: Chicken Paillard · Best of Nashville
3. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Happy Hour · Best of 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

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

Warm broth arrives first at this seven-table multicourse speakeasy on the Cumberland River, and whatever's in it will probably confuse you before it convinces you. Scallops, paprika, and strawberries, say, or horseradish oil wrapped around aged tuna belly with local melon. The chef's palate is the whole point: combinations that read like a dare on paper land as inevitable on the plate. The New York Times named it to their 2026 Restaurant List.

1. The New York Times 2026 · The Restaurant List

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Benjamin Goldberg, Max Goldberg, and Josh Habiger - Strategic Hospitality

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Benjamin Goldberg, Max Goldberg, and Josh Habiger - Strategic Hospitality

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

The coffee shop that Nashville's coffee scene grew up around, Bongo Java has been on Belmont Avenue long enough that its organic, fair-trade roast turned up on other restaurants' menus before most of those restaurants existed. Breakfast burritos run all day alongside the pour-overs, which makes it less a quick-caffeine stop and more a place where you might accidentally stay for two hours. The Belmont crowd tends to ensure exactly that.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

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

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

Dino's is an East Nashville dive that has been feeding the after-hours crowd since the 1970s, mostly with gooey cheeseburgers meant to talk a hangover out of existing. You can sit at a diner table in the dim main room or out on the covered patio, and the punk rock restroom is considered part of the visit. The bar pours Coors, Shiner Bock, and mezcal, Campari, even Malort, and the line peaks right after the bars close.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville
2. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

The record player in the corner runs through a custom vinyl setup built by local audio obsessives, which tells you something about the attention paid here. This coffee shop sits in the lobby of the Noelle hotel, done up in brass and wood with Eames-style swivel chairs. Sump coffee goes into the cortados and cold drip, and the breakfast sandwiches are substantial enough to make the commuters look smug.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

The meat-and-three is Nashville's quieter religion, and this old-school soda shop on Elliston Place is one of its oldest temples. Red leather booths, a soda counter, fried chicken, whipped potatoes, turnip greens, and pies that have had the same baker for over thirty years. The milkshakes and banana splits bring in a different kind of regular. The New York Times named it among Nashville's 25 best restaurants.

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

The red-drenched dining room and prix fixe menu of "Asian Italian" dishes at this East Nashville spot signal that something genuinely odd is happening here, in the best way. A trio of industry vets serves garlic noodles from a vintage lunchbox and caviar over French onion dip, then hands out red-checked bibs when the gochujang short ribs arrive. The bit never quite tips into exhausting, and the New York Times named it among Nashville's top restaurants.

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

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

Nine feet of coffee shop is apparently all you need. Headquarters is a tiny, eclectic cafe on Charlotte Avenue pulling espresso drinks from local roaster Osa, with a sorghum and cinnamon latte that earns its place on the chalkboard. Baked goods rotate in from several Nashville bakeries. It sits directly across from the Richland Park Farmers Market, which makes Saturday mornings feel suspiciously well planned.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

The garlic bread is the open secret here: brioche baked pretzel-brown with molten creamy cheese at the center, and somehow that's what you'll talk about after leaving a pasta-centric Italian spot. The menu is fusilli alla vodka, rigatoni Bolognese, cacio e pepe, nothing you haven't seen before. One co-owner came up at Catbird Seat, which may explain why the familiar tastes like it means it.

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

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

Whole hog barbecue is the organizing principle here, which means every part of the pig goes into the pit and comes out smoked, pulled, and chopped together. It's a proper Tennessee barbecue joint, loud and casual, the kind of place where the smoke follows you home. The New York Times put it on their Nashville list, and the brisket and jalapeño cheddar sausage give the pork plenty of company.

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

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

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

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

A small espresso counter tucked into the side of a vintage clothing and furniture store, Earl serves coffee through a brick-inlaid window that connects the two spaces. Grab a seasonal flavored drink, then wander the racks next door, which is about as Nashville as an afternoon gets. The grab-and-go cooler stocks bites from a local caterer, worth checking before you leave.

1. The Infatuation The ‘It’ Coffee Shops Across America Right Now