The Best Places in Downtown 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

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

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

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

1. The Infatuation #17 · The Best Restaurants 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 The Best Coffee Shops 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

Urban Cowboy Bar is a cocktail bar on the second floor of downtown's Arcade, where the taxidermy, neon, and leaded glass have clearly been arranged by someone who owns a good lamp. The drinks are carefully made, and the pizza comes by the slice, which keeps the evening from getting too serious. Looking down over the Arcade gives the room a big-city feel, and Nashville Scene named it Best Bar Spinoff in 2025.

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

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

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

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 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

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 Downtown Lunch You Forgot About · 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

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

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