The Best Places to Eat and Drink in Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Under-the-Radar Business Magnate · Best of Nashville · Wesley Keegan

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

The Iberian Pig is a fine-dining Spanish restaurant on Overton Street that treats ham as a legitimate afternoon activity. From 4 to 6 every day, the bar serves a board of jamón and cheese with pickles and funky mustards, plus a cheap sangria, so you can feel European on a Tuesday. Dinner runs more formal, and the burnt Basque cheesecake with black garlic dulce de leche is the dessert that talks you out of ordering something safe.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Happy Hour: Jamón Happy Hour · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Fancy Dessert: Burnt Basque Cheesecake · Best of Nashville

The Loading Dock is a coffee shop that lost its lease, went looking for a new home, and came back in the Buchanan Arts District with more room than before. Expect fun coffee creations next to the classics, High Garden teas, local art and plants for sale, and seating spread across two floors and a patio. Nashville Scene gave it Best Comeback, which is a fair category for a place that refused to just become condos.

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

The Optimist is a polished seafood restaurant on Nashville's Adams Street, the kind of place where the wood-roasted oysters arrive before you've decided how much of the bill you're willing to think about. The room leans nautical in a restrained, postmodern way, and the menu rotates often enough that regulars can't coast on habit. Outside, a seasonal bar called Jacqueline serves cocktails when the weather cooperates. Nashville Scene named it Best High-End Seafood in 2025.

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

The Southern Steak & Oyster is a downtown Nashville steakhouse and raw bar, the sort of place where the menu leads with oysters and the wine list leads with your expense account. It's the flagship of a family restaurant empire that has since passed to the founder's daughters. Nashville Scene gave it a Best of Nashville nod for Best Ballsy Real Estate Move, after the family locked in a 20-year lease extension.

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

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Seasonal Coffee Concoctions · Best of Nashville

Up-Down is an arcade bar in East Nashville, which means you can lose to a teenager at a cabinet game and then order a drink about it. Retro movies play on the walls, theme nights come around regularly, and the rooftop has its own bar and a skyline view. Nashville Scene named it Best Arcade Bar in 2024. The crowd skews toward grown-ups reclaiming their childhoods, quarters optional, regrets not.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Arcade Bar · Best of Nashville

Upbeet is a fast-casual counter in the Gulch where you build a grain bowl or smoothie assembly-line style, like a sandwich shop that has taken a vow of wellness. Everything is organic and gluten-free, and dairy shows up only if you ask for the cheese. The menu flags allergens plainly, so the person at the table with seven restrictions can finally order without a ten-minute interrogation of the server.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Option for Diners with Dietary Needs · Best of Nashville

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

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best (Mostly) Unchanged Bar · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best Bellevie Hang · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Cookie: Brownie Cookie · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2025 · Best South Nashville Sweets · Best of Nashville

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

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best OG Craft Beer Emporium · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Dive · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Bar for Babies (and the People Who Have Them) · Best of Nashville

Drusie & Darr is the Hermitage Hotel's dining room, a Jean-Georges Vongerichten production that took over from the old Capitol Grille without scaring the regulars off. The vaulted rathskeller ceiling is now painted in pinks and peaches, and the open kitchen has a wood-fired oven doing smoky things to pizzas and vegetables. Dinner here is a proper hotel-restaurant occasion, and the ladies' room is aggressively pink.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Restaurant · Best of Nashville

Game Terminal is an arcade bar in Berry Hill with more than 200 games, nearly 100 of them pinball machines that cost a single token each, plus rows of others that cost nothing at all. You buy tokens at the door, order a drink, and lose track of time while a low-key birthday party unfolds two machines over. Trivia Tuesdays are on the calendar. Nashville Scene named it Best Arcade Bar in its 2023 Best of Nashville.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Arcade Bar · Best of Nashville

Golden Pony is a cocktail bar in East Nashville's Highland Yards, done up in midcentury modern with a bohemian streak and a queer-centric bent. The drinks are bespoke, the snacks are there to keep you upright, and the room is cozy enough for a first date or a long overdue catch-up with an old friend. Nashville Scene named it Best New Bar in 2023, and the bathroom mirrors keep getting mentioned, so budget a minute for them.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best New Bar · Best of Nashville

Lakeside Lounge is a neighborhood dive in East Nashville with real cocktail training behind the bar, a frozen scotch-and-honey drink among them, plus darts and cheese fries. The TVs might be showing Terminator 2 and a dog show at once, and nobody blinks. The bartenders will debate your favorite Nicolas Cage movie, so pick a side first. Nashville Scene gave it Best Bar in 2023, and the menu spells espresso with an X.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Bar · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Shot: Espresso Martini Shot · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Brunch · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Uzbek Restaurant · Best of Nashville

The Cafe at Thistle Farms is a daytime counter-service cafe on Charlotte Pike, run by a nonprofit that employs women survivors of trafficking, addiction, and prostitution, so the sandwich arrives with a mission statement attached. A teacup chandelier hangs overhead, and the menu leans toward BLTs, breakfast bowls, and a case of cakes. Nashville Scene named it Best Cafe in its 2023 Best of Nashville, if that helps you decide on lunch.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Cafe · Best of Nashville

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

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Irish Latte · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Carryout Supper for Weeknights · Best of Nashville

Bill's is a counter-service sandwich shop in Lockeland Springs that took over a beloved bakery's space after a stretch as a pop-up, and the menu rotates, so you're ordering on faith. Expect big, sloppy sandwiches, from meatloaf under a coat of sauce to roasted pork on focaccia, plus fried duros sold as Cheddy Ranch Puffs. Nashville Scene named it Best Sandwich Shop in 2024, so bring napkins and no plans for the afternoon.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Silver Lining · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Sandwich Shop · Best of Nashville

Black Rabbit is a casual downtown Nashville spot with a menu built around one slightly awkward fact about its name. The signature order is the Rabbit Roll, a griddled terrine of sliced rabbit tucked into a buttery roll with Swiss, mustard, and pickled onions. It's a slider, technically, and the Nashville Scene named it the city's best in 2024. Order it knowing that your inner child may file a complaint.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Slider: Rabbit Rolls · Best of Nashville

Cal's Country Kitchen is a meat-and-three on Dickerson Road, run by a son who shut down his own chicken-in-a-waffle-cone operation to take over his mother's old spot. The original sign made the move too, which is the kind of loyalty you can't fake. The menu lives on a handwritten board that changes daily, so plan on a line and a lunch you can't fully predict. Nashville Scene gave it Best Comeback in 2024.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Comeback · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Revival of a Local Staple · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Contemporary Indian Restaurant · Best of Nashville

Edessa Burger & Pizza is a casual counter spot on Nolensville Pike, from the people behind the Kurdish and Turkish restaurant Edessa. The signature is a seasoned burger wrapped in pizza-dough bun, which settles an argument nobody should have to have at dinner. Nashville Scene gave it a Best of Nashville nod for decadent bite. Come hungry, wear stretchy pants, and plan to skip the salad.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Decadent Bite: Pizza Burger · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Fried Thing: Bavarian Pretzels and Beer Cheese · Best of Nashville

K&S World Market is an international grocery on Charlotte Pike, and the drink aisle is where it gets away from you. Cans and bottles in shapes and colors you can't read line the shelves, from yogurt-and-melon Calpico to grape juice with actual pulp in it. Some come with gelatin bits that pop in your mouth, which is a fine surprise if you were braced for a normal Tuesday. Nashville Scene named it Best Non-Boozy Drink Selection in 2024.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Non-Boozy Drink Selection · Best of Nashville

K&S World Market is a sprawling international grocery on Nolensville Pike, and the drink aisle is where it gets away from you. Cans and bottles in shapes and languages you can't read, from fermented-milk soda to grape juice with the pulp left in, plus the occasional drink with little gelatin pieces that pop in your mouth. Nashville Scene gave it Best Non-Boozy Drink Selection, which seems fair given the competition is mostly water.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Non-Boozy Drink Selection · Best of Nashville

Leche de Tigre is a Peruvian counter tucked inside The Wash, the Nashville food hall where you can order a ceviche and carry it to a seat near the car-wash bays. The lomo saltado sandwich, sirloin and huancaina on buttery French bread, stays neatly contained, which is not a given in this city. Pair it with fries and a beer, order casually, and bring your own napkin discipline anyway.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Sandwich: Lomo Sandwich · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Hot Sauce · Best of Nashville

Leche de Tigre is the Peruvian counter tucked inside The Wash in Smyrna, which means you order at a window and then carry your food toward a beer like you're leaving a gas station with a very good plan. The lomo saltado sandwich keeps its sirloin, onions, and huancaina tidy on buttery French bread, a rare feat in a city of sloppy sandwiches. Ceviche and fried rice are there for the second visit, and the first one comes with fries.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Sandwich: Lomo Sandwich · Best of Nashville
2. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Hot Sauce · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Spot to Emulate 'The Bear' Season 1 · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Spot to Emulate 'The Bear' Season 1 · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Base for Tuna Tartare: Seaweed Sourdough · Best of Nashville

Sabell's is a brightly colored bungalow in Riverside Village that works as both a bar and a casual restaurant, with a dog-friendly patio and a salad-and-cocktail menu that skips the tweezers. There are no reservations and the volume stays low enough that you can finish a sentence. Kids are welcome until happy hour ends at 6, after which it belongs to adults, with za'atar fries. Nashville Scene named it Best Place to Eat Without the Kids.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Place to Eat Without the Kids · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Butcher and Provisions · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Weekend Meal to Emulate a Texas Roadhouse Steak Night Experience · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Burrito: Mission Burrito · Best of Nashville

The Yorkshire Deli is a British tea room in Kingston Springs, about half an hour from downtown Nashville, and it commits to the woodland-fairy bit with seasonal blooms everywhere you look. You email ahead to book one of four tea experiences, which come with scones, clotted cream, and finger sandwiches. There's a Mad Hatter tea party for kids, dress-up props included, and Nashville Scene named it a Best Worth-the-Drive Treat.

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Worth-the-Drive Treat: Afternoon Tea · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2024 · Best Cold Brew · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Hot Chicken · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Hot Chicken · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Hot Chicken · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Hot Chicken · Best of Nashville

615Chutney is an Indian restaurant on Highway 70 South where the headliner is a robot named Singam, who rolls out curries and rice on a stack of shelves, wears electronic cat ears, and meows on approach. Only the half-booth, half-table seats get the robot service, so regulars know to ask when they sit down. Nashville Scene gave Singam Best Food-Serving Robot in 2023, which is a category I did not know I needed.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Food-Serving Robot · Best of Nashville

Bare Bones is a neighborhood butcher shop in the Nashville neighborhood of The Nations, where you go for good cuts of meat and leave with a tub of pimento cheese you didn't plan on. They pickle the pimentos themselves, which is why the spread runs sharp and zippy, and it won Nashville Scene's Best Pimento Cheese in 2023. Grating cheese by hand is a good way to lose a knuckle, so buying theirs is just self-preservation.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pimento Cheese · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Civilized Way to See a Show · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Franklin Restaurant · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Fried Rice · Best of Nashville

Dumpling House is a casual neighborhood spot in Hillsboro Village where the dumplings are made fresh and the dress code is whatever you walked in wearing. The pan-fried chicken and coriander ones get the most talk, though the menu has plenty of company. It reads like a place you could have been going to for years, even if tonight is your first visit. The Nashville Scene gave it Best Dumpling Menu, which is a very specific honor to hold.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Dumpling Menu · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Rice Bowl: Chicken Hai Nam · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Marg/Queso Combo · Best of Nashville

Flat Tire Diner is a no-frills breakfast and lunch spot in Old Hickory, the kind of place where the wait for a table is part of the experience and the staff turn tables so briskly you forget you stood there. Bread for the sandwiches and burgers is baked in-house, and the French toast gets a corn-flake crust and a pile of fresh fruit. Nashville Scene once named it the Best Reason to Go to Old Hickory, which is a narrow field, admittedly.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Reason to Go to Old Hickory · Best of Nashville

Gabby's is a no-frills burger counter that was smashing patties onto a hot griddle back when that wasn't yet a personality trait for every new restaurant in town. The menu stays short: grass-fed burgers, hot dogs, fries, and shakes, with a secret menu named after regulars, though you'll have to know the password. Nashville Scene gave it a Best of Nashville for Best Burger. Order at the counter, wear whatever you like.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Burger · Best of Nashville

Gio's Chicago Pizza is a deep-dish operation run out of a commissary kitchen in the Nations, which makes it a little like finding Chicago hiding in a warehouse. The chef came up through fine dining and a suburban Chicago pizzeria, so the deep dish arrives properly tall and heavy. There's also a thinner tavern-style pie cut into squares, for those who think a knife and fork are overkill. Nashville Scene named it Best Deep Dish in 2023.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Deep Dish · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pairing · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pairing · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Fried Potato Dish: Crazy Fries · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Expansion · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Tea · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best tongue-in-Cheek Tiki · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pasta Dish: Lamb Ragu · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Caribbean · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Milkshake: Cold Brew Milkshake · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Milkshake: Cold Brew Milkshake · Best of Nashville

Killjoy is a small nonalcoholic bottle shop in East Nashville, shelves lined with zero-proof spirits, wines, and beers. Since nothing in the building will get anyone in trouble, you can taste before you buy, which is how you find out if alcohol-free sparkling rosé is for you. It also hosts trivia nights, book clubs, and dating events, so the name is doing a lot of ironic work. Nashville Scene gave it Best Proof That Zero-Proof Isn't Boring.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Proof That Zero-Proof Isn't Boring · Best of Nashville

Killjoy is a small, sparkly bottle shop where every spirit, wine, and beer on the shelves has had the alcohol removed, which makes it legal to sample before you buy. That's handy for deciding whether a nonalcoholic sparkling rosé is your thing. It also hosts trivia nights, book clubs, author talks, and dating events, all sober. The name is a joke the place keeps telling by being good company. Nashville Scene gave it a Best of Nashville nod.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Proof That Zero-Proof Isn't Boring · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Day-to-Night Taproom · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Day-to-Night Taproom · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Late-Night Bar · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Christian Pop-Up: Saint Nicky's · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pulled-Pork Sandwich · Best of Nashville

Pinky Ring Pizza is a casual pizzeria in Madison, set up in a former Sir Pizza, which means the building already knew what it was getting into. The pies run from pepperoni and a New York-style cheese to stranger company like lamb with pistachio pesto, or one topped with dill pickles. There's garlic focaccia, a deep beer list, and half-and-half ordering for the undecided. Nashville Scene gave it Best New Pizza in 2023.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best New Pizza · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Fried Thing: Lumpia · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Farmer's Market: West · Best of Nashville

Savarino's is a small Italian bakery in Columbia, Tennessee, where the cannoli, sfogliatelle, and bomboloni come out of a family operation that started in a Walmart shopping center and now sells to the public only on Fridays and Saturdays. Plan accordingly, because showing up on a Tuesday gets you a locked door and a lesson in wholesale. Nashville Scene named it the Best Reason to Go to Columbia, which is a narrow field, but still.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Reason to Go to Columbia · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Shabu Shabu · Best of Nashville

Soy Cubano is a small, counter-service sandwich spot in a McKennie Ave strip, built around one thing: the Cuban. It arrives cut into neat triangles, with a thin toasted roll, two kinds of pork, Swiss, pickle, and the yellow mustard doing its job. It's a casual, order-at-the-register, wear-whatever kind of lunch, and it's the kind of place where precision is the whole personality. Nashville Scene named it Best Cuban Sandwich in 2023.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Cuban Sandwich · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Gen-X-Family Discovery That Has Been Around for Years · Best of Nashville

Spread is a small specialty market in Germantown, built for the moment you open the fridge and find only mustard and regret. The shelves hold tinned fish, odd spices, and condiments you'll swear you'll use, plus a short wine list and sourdough loaves baked in-house. The refrigerated case does the rest with charcuterie, cheeses, and marinated olives, and the staff will talk you into a whole dinner without anyone turning on a stove.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Way to Avoid Messing Up Your Kitchen for Dinner · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Place to Literally Look Down on Bachelorettes · Best of Nashville

The Wash is an all-outdoor food hall where several independent kitchens cook side by side, which makes it the cure for the family argument over Peruvian, pho, Cuban, or fried chicken. Everyone orders from a different window and nobody has to concede anything. It's built around takeout, so the move is a drink at the neighboring Bay 6 while you wait, then home to your own air conditioning. Nashville Scene named it Best Takeout Destination in 2023.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Takeout Destination · Best of Nashville

Tiff's Treats is a warm-cookie bakery on 12th Ave N, the kind of place where the smell reaches you about a block before the sign does. Cookies are baked fresh and priced like a small treat, not a meal. At the end of the day, the leftovers go into discounted bags through the Too Good to Go app, which Nashville Scene once singled out as the city's best anti-food-waste option. Late shoppers, take note.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Anti-Food-Waste Option · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Gyoza: Wagyu Gyoza · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pierogies · Best of Nashville

Urban Cowboy Public House is a casual East Nashville restaurant, the kind where you can walk in wearing whatever you slept in and no one blinks. The kitchen turns out a cheese plate of stracciatella, a word meaning "little rags" that sounds like an insult but describes cream and mozzarella scraps. It's the dish people post about, which is how you know the cheese is doing a lot of the marketing here.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Cheese Thing: Roberta's Stracciatella · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pairing · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Pairing · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Reason to go to Murfeesboro · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Farmer's Market: East · Best of Nashville

Assembly Food Hall is a food court with better lighting and local vendors, stationed at Fifth + Broadway so you can look at Lower Broad without being swallowed by it. It's where Nashvillians bring out-of-town guests to observe the neon chaos from a safe distance. Everyone in your party can find something they want to eat, which is rarer than it sounds. There's usually a band playing acoustic covers at you, free of charge and not optional.

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Place to Take a Friend Who Wants to Go to Broadway · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Broadway Bar that Doesn't Feel Like Broadway · Best of Nashville

1. Nashville Scene 2023 · Best Connection Between Two Hot Neighborhoods · Best of Nashville