The 100 Best Restaurants 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. Esquire Seaweed Martini · The Best Martinis in America
3. USA Today Restaurants of the Year

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

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

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

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

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. Esquire #9 · The Best New Restaurants in America
3. The New York Times The Restaurant List

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 Infatuation #18 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Nashville Right Now

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 Infatuation #11 · The Best Restaurants 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

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

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

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

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

1. The Infatuation #20 · The Best Restaurants In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Photogenic Dish: Trout · 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 Happy Hour · Best of Nashville
3. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Chicken: Chicken Paillard · 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

1. The Infatuation #17 · The Best Restaurants 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 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants 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 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

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 38 Essential Restaurants in Nashville

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore, and Emanuel Reed

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore, and Emanuel Reed

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Clinton Gray, Derrick Moore, and Emanuel Reed

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

Butcher & Bee is a Middle Eastern-leaning, mostly meatless sit-down restaurant on Main Street, and it adds a 2.2 percent charge to every check to fund staff health insurance. The kitchen takes seasonality seriously enough that August arrives as tomatoes in everything, cocktails included. The "Order Like a Pro" option hands the menu to the cooks, a relief if you hate choosing. Nashville Scene has named it Best Restaurant.

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

Close Company is a cocktail bar in the Neuhoff District, a Nashville outpost of New York's Death & Co., set in a big, open, colorful adaptive-reuse space. The menu favors familiar drinks with a twist, like a Bitter Melon Negroni, and the Wray & Ting pairs Jamaican rum with grapefruit soda. Food comes out of a cubby counter you retrieve it from yourself. Ordering a vodka tonic here is a bold way to announce yourself. Nashville Scene named it Best New Bar in 2025.

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

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New 'Cue · Best of Nashville

Haraz is a Yemeni coffee shop in East Nashville, part of a chain that has grown from one Dearborn storefront to dozens of locations. The draw is mufawar, a cardamom-infused coffee served hot or cold, plus Turkish coffee and a short pastry case with sweet and savory options. Order at the counter and ask questions, because the staff will happily explain anything unfamiliar. Nashville Scene named it Best Overlooked Coffee Shop.

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

Spicy Boy's is a casual Cajun counter-service joint in Cleveland Park, the sort of place where you order at the register and eat with plastic forks. The gumbo is a smoky, densely layered stew that has talked more than one regular out of their stated plan to branch out. The Nashville Scene has handed out Best of Nashville nods for the gumbo, a rum-heavy Painkiller, and a root beer float, so dessert is covered.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Float: Root Beer Float · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Gumbo · Best of Nashville
3. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Frozen Drink: Painkiller · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best New Lunch Spot · Best of Nashville

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Southeast · Mailea Weger

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

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Brewery for Last-Minute Gatherings · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Under-the-Radar Business Magnate · Best of Nashville · Wesley Keegan

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Fancy Sushi · Best of Nashville

All Or Nothing is a bagel shop built around a wood-fired oven and a pun: "All" for everything, "Nothing" for plain, both sourdough. It began as a folding table and a pizza oven outside a drum shop and has since graduated to an Airstream. Order at the window, expect schmears made in-house, and watch a summer series hand the griddle to local food trucks. It has won Best New Bagel Spot and Best Chef Series from the Nashville Scene.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Chef Series: Camp Bagel · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best New Bagel Spot · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Old Nashville Hangout · Best of Nashville

Chopper is a tiki-ish cocktail bar that swapped the grass skirts for robots, with Star Wars characters turning up in the barware and the drinks billed as "lab tested," as if a bar had a lab. Mai tais and rum runners get their own spin alongside a rotating seasonal menu, and the coffee drinks tend to be the interesting ones. A taco truck usually parks out front, so dinner is basically handled.

1. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Symbiotic Food Truck/Bar Relationship · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Old-School Dessert: Chocolate Malt Cake · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Seasonal Donuts · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Coffee-on-the-Go · Best of Nashville

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

Frankies is a pizza and sandwich spot on Cherokee Avenue that treats cheese like a serious hobby. The stracciatella arrives with red-onion agrodolce, pistachios, and a drizzle of olive oil good enough that they now ship it around the country. There's a fennel sausage sandwich, and the pizza has collected a few Nashville Scene Best of Nashville nods. Casual, counter-ish, and best approached with a plan to share, if you're the sharing type.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best New Pizza · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Cheese Thing · Best of Nashville
3. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best New Sandwich: Fennel Sausage Sandwich · Best of Nashville

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

Green Chili is a casual Indian spot in a Rivergate strip, beneath Vietnam Veterans Boulevard, across from a Hooters and next to a church that used to be a Circuit City. It's easy to miss, which is how Nashville Scene ended up naming it the Best Tucked-Away Indian Restaurant. The servers will joke with you about the spice levels, and the owners also run the Japanese steakhouse in town, so apparently they just know hospitality.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Tucked-Away Indian Restaurant · Best of Nashville

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

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

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

Halls Catch is a seafood restaurant on West End with a dining room dressed in iridescent fish-scale walls and a wave sculpture on the ceiling, which is a lot of commitment to a theme. The better trick is the back bar, tucked down a short hall, where walls of windows open onto a downtown skyline from an angle almost nobody sees. Nashville Scene named it Best Hideaway Bar with a View in 2025, so the secret is now technically printed.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Hideaway Bar with a View · Best of Nashville

Harriet's Rooftop is a bar on the 19th floor of 1 Hotel, where the designers apparently decided the Nashville skyline could use some competition from a lot of plants. Charred-wood accents and clusters of soft seating break the big space into smaller corners, and the outdoor bar keeps fire pits going for chilly nights. Expect hotel-rooftop prices, and it holds a Nashville Scene Best of Nashville nod for rooftop design.

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

Hometeam Pizza is a casual pizza spot on Alabama Avenue where the ranch gets nearly as much attention as the slices. The co-owner built it from sour cream, mayonnaise, and buttermilk, then fussed with the spices until it came out pourable but not runny, which is a standard most bottled versions never attempt. Nashville Scene named it Best Ranch Dressing, and her husband says it's what she gets complimented on most, after the kids.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Ranch Dressing · Best of Nashville

Honeytree is an East Side meadery, which means you're drinking fermented honey in a taproom instead of ordering a flight and pretending to know what a Viking would have wanted. Mead tends to run sweet, and the ginger candied in house is what pulls their Sweet Baby Ginger back toward something you could drink at a normal pace. It won a Best of Nashville from the Scene for exactly that. Dress is whatever you wore to work.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Mead: Sweet Baby Ginger · Best of Nashville

A Victorian mansion that once housed Nashville's mayor now houses a Southern restaurant with a commitment so strict on local sourcing that the menu can change daily. Wood-burning ovens do heavy work, meaning plenty of smoked, grilled, and barbecued dishes done in the classic style. Tables downstairs look out over the vegetable gardens, which, given how directly those gardens inform your plate, feels less like a view and more like disclosure.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Restaurant · Best of Nashville
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Inglewood Lounge is an East Nashville bar where the booths are tucked away and the lighting forgives everyone, which is the whole pitch for a first date. There's a covered patio, a dance floor for when things go well, and a bar menu with a piri piri chicken sandwich you can take to go when they don't. The U-shaped parking lot makes the exit easy. Nashville Scene voted it Best Place for a First Date in 2025.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Place for a First Date · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Breakfast Burrito · Best of Nashville

Margot is a neighborhood cafe and bar in East Nashville, the kind of dinner spot where the staff has clearly been to school for this and then politely hidden the diploma. It's been running for ages without turning fussy, which in this city is its own small feat. Nashville Scene gave it Best Service Staff, and the evidence is that nobody at your table ever feels processed.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Service Staff · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Breakfast Bagel · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Specialty Sandwich · Best of Nashville

Music City Tea is a loose-leaf Chinese tea shop in an unassuming house in Murfreesboro, with shelves and tables crowded with pouches, bins, and tins. The owner sits you down and pours round after round through a gaiwan while explaining oolong versus green versus black, so plan on an hour and a mild caffeine tremor. Nashville Scene named it Best Intro to Tea in 2025, and you'll probably leave with a colorful gaiwan of your own.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Intro to Tea · Best of Nashville

Punk Wok is a casual sushi counter tucked into a corner of the Sylvan Supply complex on Charlotte, the kind of spot that predates the recent flood of sushi openings and has never felt the need to mention it. Happy hour runs three hours, every day, with half-price maki, nigiri, and sashimi and $2 domestic beers. Nashville Scene gave it Best Happy Hour in 2025, which the math on that deal mostly explains.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Nepalese/Bhutanese Restaurant and Grocery Store · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Cozy Pizza Spot · Best of Nashville

Schulman's is a neighborhood dive bar dressed as the finished basement of your friend's cool parents, with stained glass lampshades, a lacquered bar, and leather booths that have seen things. The martinis run twelve dollars, there's a double cheeseburger and a pickle beer, and the backyard is built for smokers holding frozen margaritas. Nashville Scene named it Best New Bar in 2024.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best New Bar · Best of Nashville
2. The Infatuation The 21 Best Bars In Nashville

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

Sperry's Mercantile is a gourmet market and prepared-foods shop out in Bellevue, where the casseroles are fancy enough to bring to a dinner party and pass off as your own. Beyond the grab-and-go case you'll find a wine section, full meat and seafood counters, and a dining room next door. There's also a drive-thru for breakfast and lunch, a thing the Belle Meade original has the good sense not to attempt.

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Grab-and-Go Expansion · Best of Nashville