In the Where to Eat: 25 Best series, we’re highlighting our favorite restaurants in cities across the United States. These lists will be updated as restaurants close and open, and as we find new gems to recommend. As always, we pay for all of our meals and don’t accept free items.
Alebrije
East Nashville | Mexican
After years as a pandemic pop-up, Alebrije blossomed into a hard-won brick-and-mortar in a hip, but unassuming, East Nashville strip mall. The darkly tinted windows, and minimal signage create an unintentional bit of deception. And once the restaurant is found and a table secured, the menu at Alebrije is another minor deceit: Nothing indicates that the rich carnitas, “corn off the cob” or an asparagus tostada will be some of the best, most elegant bites in town. Pork spare ribs are slathered in a red chile glaze and fall off the bone, and the red snapper tacos arrive crispy and layered with texture and smoky salsa. The chef Edgar Victoria’s version of Mexico City street food is centered on masa, for which he nixtamalizes and grinds his own corn; it appears in many shapes and forms on the menu, from tortillas to sopes to a crunchy topping, and it is excellent in every instance. Lunch and dinner are casual, and while there’s no booze, it’s easy enough to pop next door to Coral Club before or after. ELLEN FORT
604 Gallatin Avenue, No. 203; 615-916-9684; alebrijenash.com
Bastion
Wedgewood-Houston | Tasting Menu
At Bastion, there are two sides to the coin: one, a boisterous drinking establishment with a laid-back vibe and impeccable cocktails, and the other, an intimate fine-dining restaurant with a multicourse tasting menu. And, they share a bathroom. On the fine dining side, overseen by the chef Josh Habiger, a menu of imaginative dishes is prepared by chatty, enthusiastic chefs with eagle eyes and attention to detail. Succulent agnolotti filled with merguez spiced lamb rested in a pool of sherry brown butter sauce. One dish is an absolute bonanza of potato products featuring potato mochi bathed in whey sauce and showered with wavy bonito shavings. When dinner is done, stop in at the “Big Bar,” as the rowdy side is called, for a nightcap and a dose of cool. ELLEN FORT
434 Houston Street, Suite 110; 615-490-8434; bastionnashville.com
Bolton’s Famous Hot Chicken & Fish
East Nashville | Soul Food
Hot chicken, a Nashville specialty, is fried chicken so spicy it can literally cause you pain. (According to legend, that was actually the intention of the chef who invented it.) Bolton’s is no exception, particularly if you order it medium, hot or extra hot, which the staff strongly advises against. In a city where restaurants specializing in hot chicken have become a cliché, Bolton’s is a bit of an odd bird for two reasons: No. 1 it’s a friendly neighborhood restaurant with roots (it opened in the 1990s) that predate the hot chicken craze and No. 2 the best dish is arguably the fried catfish. Order it mild, which, truth be told, is still pretty spicy. BRETT ANDERSON
624 Main Street; 615-254-8015; boltonsfamous.com
Butterlamp
East Nashville | Wine Bar
What should one expect at an establishment that bills itself as a “bread house and wine bar,” anyway? The husband and wife duo of Benjamin and Katie Rose Tyson dreamed up a restaurant featuring this ideal pairing of food groups after they got married. Mr. Tyson is a fine dining chef while Ms. Tyson’s experience is in wine and beverages. Thus, their marriage spawned Butterlamp, a casual but chic wine bar with dishes that reveal complex layers of flavor and technique below an unassuming surface. Plump mussels sit atop an umami oyster emulsion on konbu bread. Pork fat fries bring a deeply porky flavor, cut with a dollop of creamy spicy aioli. An entire section of chilled reds by the glass leads drinkers down a refreshing rabbit hole of choices. And don’t miss the gobsmackingly good vanilla ice cream made from milk steeped with herbs and vanilla beans that have been grilled over a live fire. ELLEN FORT
1101 Chapel Avenue, No. 103; no phone; butterlampnashville.com
The Catbird Seat
Tasting Menu | The Gulch
Catbird Seat first opened in 2011, back before horseshoe bar tasting menu restaurants started growing on trees. One could argue this restaurant helped to propel that very trend. What is now a Nashville institution started another chapter in 2025, when Catbird Seat moved into a new space on the fifth floor of the Bill Voorhees Building. The new chefs, Andy Doubrava and Tiffani Ortiz, are among a handful of duos who have worked within arms’ reach of diners. Their 15-course meals meet the restaurant’s historically high standard: They go to great lengths to enable ingredients to taste even more like themselves, as with a recent dish of halibut plated between a leaf of tempura shiso and a pool of saffron oil made with the fish’s bones. Patterson House, the restaurant’s sibling cocktail bar, also migrated to the South Gulch. And yes, reservations are still hard to get. BRETT ANDERSON
700 Eighth Avenue South, Fifth Floor; 615-810-8200; thecatbirdseatrestaurant.com
City House
Germantown | Italian
Can pizza be Southern? Can Italian food? The answer is a resounding yes, at least when you’re eating at City House. The restaurant, opened by the chef Tandy Wilson in 2007, helped blaze a trail for the pizzeria-as-Italian-American-trattoria at a time when the Germantown neighborhood, now teeming with businesses, was relatively sleepy. It also showed how well Southern ingredients and recipes take to Italian cuisine, with dishes like cavatelli pesto dotted with field peas and cornmeal crusted trout with salsa verde. If it’s tomato season in Tennessee, keep an eye out for a pie inspired by Mr. Wilson’s mother’s favorite tomato sandwich, or one holding morsels of the juicy peaches that ripen around the same time. And always save room for the pastry chef Rebekah Turshen’s refined, down-to-earth desserts. BRETT ANDERSON
1222 Fourth Avenue North; 615-736-5838; cityhousenashville.com
Edessa
South Nashville | Kurdish
Any meal at this Kurdish restaurant should begin with an assortment of dips, ideally including the walnut-studded haydari, along with savory baked items like lavash, which comes straight from the oven, filled with hot air and covered in sesame seeds, and the spinach-and-cheese stuffed gozleme flatbread. From there, you’ll have to make some hard choices. Pide, stuffed cabbage and magnificent lamb stew poured straight from its clay pot? You’ll definitely want a mixed grill of kebabs and an order of cig kofte, the spicy, inscrutably delicious bulgur wheat balls. Yes, it’s a lot of food, so bring friends. That’s what everyone else seems to do at this convivial restaurant in the Little Kurdistan section of Nashville, home to the country’s largest Kurdish population. BRETT ANDERSON
3802 Nolensville Pike; 615-837-2567; edessarestauranttn.net
Elliston Place Soda Shop
Midtown | Southern
As any Nashvillian knows, this isn’t just the home of hot chicken; it’s also a town long fueled by the meat-and-three, a plate lunch consisting of, well, a meat and three sides. Elliston Place Soda Shop is one of the original and finest of the genre, having offered its fried chicken, whipped potatoes, squash casserole and turnip greens since 1939. Despite a recent move — just next door, and bringing along its red leather booths and soda counter — the Soda Shop has maintained its heart, soul and legion of regulars who pack in for old-fashioned milkshakes, banana splits and slices of Linda Melton’s pies. Known as “the pie lady,” Ms. Melton has spent more than 30 years shepherding along the heart and soul of the Soda Shop. Given its sturdy new digs, that heart promises to keep beating. ELLEN FORT
2105 Elliston Place; 615-327-1090; ellistonplacesodashop.com
Fancypants
East Nashville | Asian, Italian, Tasting Menu
Since Fancypants made its debut, it has become clear that though the restaurant tries very hard not to take itself seriously, it is anything but unserious. A trio of industry veterans — the chef Bryan Lee Weaver, the creative director Jake Mogelson and the restaurateur Michael Shemtov — is behind the lush, red-drenched dining room with a prix fixe menu of “Asian Italian” dishes that mostly leave meat behind. Garlic noodles are drizzled with sansho peppercorn oil and fermented honey, then served in a vintage lunchbox; a generous ounce of caviar is served atop a take on French onion dip with potato chips; and cookies made with candy cap mushrooms arrive to the table, both groovy and umami. Diners who order the gochujang short ribs will soon find themselves outfitted in red-checked bibs and offered hot sauce in a bottle labeled with the Piggly Wiggly mascot — a nod to the space’s roots. There’s a risk of overdoing the schtick, but the playfulness that comes along with every facet of the experience at Fancypants reads more refreshing than anything else — a breath of fresh, fun air in a world that needs it now more than ever. ELLEN FORT
921 Dickerson Pike; 615-964-7917; wearefancypants.com
Folk
East Nashville | Italian
Every neighborhood needs a restaurant like Folk, where it feels like no one is trying too hard, though the food and service are impeccable. Warm paper lanterns hang high above the cozy, bustling dining room in East Nashville, and vegetable-forward dishes tease out the best of each season. Yes, the chef Philip Krajeck’s more laid-back follow-up to his first restaurant, Rolf and Daughters, is easy to love. A massive chicken Milanese consistently retains a place on the menu, shifting its accouterments from paper-thin slices of green tomatoes with salsa verde to piperade jus and herbs as summer wanes. Pizzas with bubbled and blistered crusts are also a constant, particularly the signature clam pie studded with littlenecks and bonito flakes. Cocktails lean Italian, as do the wines, which include elegant old-world pours and funky orange wines from newer producers alike. ELLEN FORT
823 Meridian Street; 615-610-2595; goodasfolk.com
Henrietta Red
Germantown | Seafood, Eclectic
These days, Nashville’s landlocked situation is no longer an obstacle for seafood-loving diners and chefs. That’s certainly the case for Julia Sullivan, a Nashville native who has spent time in the kitchens of Per Se and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Here, her menu focuses on the fruits of the sea. A raw bar stocked with oysters from the coasts — including the Gulf — is a focal point of the dining room. Don’t miss Poppy’s caviar, an amped up onion dip that’s topped with Tennessee paddlefish caviar. Named after the chef’s grandparents, Henrietta Red manages to surface of-the-moment flavors with the underpinnings of simple, Southern fare. ELLEN FORT
1200 Fourth Avenue North; 615-490-8042; henriettared.com
Iggy’s
Wedgewood-Houston | Italian
Iggy’s is a pasta-centric Italian place whose most famous dish is garlic bread. How such a conventional-sounding restaurant could also rank among Nashville’s best is easy to understand once you try that bread: a glistening brioche, baked pretzel-brown, with sweet, molten creamy cheese at its center. The co-owner Ryan Poli is a former executive chef at Catbird Seat, Nashville’s standout tasting menu restaurant. That pedigree might explain how a restaurant that serves nothing you haven’t seen before — fusilli alla vodka, rigatoni Bolognese, cacio e pepe — could also be (like the garlic bread) unforgettable. It helps that the food is modest enough to share the stage with wines worthy of equal billing. Iggy’s concise, worldly list was written by Mr. Poli’s brother and partner, Matthew, a gifted sommelier. BRETT ANDERSON
609 Merritt Avenue, No. 101; 615-645-9949; iggysnashville.com
International Market
Belmont | Asian
The struggle of old versus new is seamlessly resolved at International Market, the Thai market and restaurant that has been thriving on Belmont Boulevard since 1975. That’s when Win and Patti Myint opened the doors to Thai food in Nashville, offering this city its first tastes of pad Thai and more. The restaurant’s steam table lunch became a fixture, as did the hospitality of the Myints. Now the restaurant is in the hands of the new generation, the siblings Arnold and Anna Myint. Mr. Myint, a former “Top Chef” contestant, works to expand the understanding of the cuisine as a whole, bringing modern takes to family dishes. With the younger generation at the helm, International Market retains its inimitable spirit. ELLEN FORT
2013 Belmont Boulevard; 615-297-4453; im2nashville.com
Junior
East Nashville | French, Contemporary
Philip Krajeck’s Nashville restaurants have always been of the right-place-right-time sort. It all started with Rolf and Daughters, his rustic Italian debut in 2012, which set him on a path toward his third restaurant, Junior. Expect red leather banquettes and white-tablecloth-covered tables, a snappy U-shaped bar and a shiny kitchen that’s open to the intimate 50-seat dining room — a paean to the romance of restaurants. Technique that skews French pairs with local ingredients to excellent effect: a quail oeuf mayonnaise deploys a boiled quail egg on a cushion of bright green spring onion mayonnaise, draped with o-toro tuna and Cantabrian anchovy, and finished with an herbaceous leaf of lemon balm from the restaurant’s tiny garden. Subtle smoke from a Basque-style woodfire oven with a stone hearth and adjustable grates perfumes the dining room, roasting Bear Creek Farm beef or whole Amish chicken, while diners sip on wines selected by the wine director, Billy Smith, (formerly of Four Horsemen in Brooklyn). ELLEN FORT
907 Dickerson Pike; 615-964-7077; juniornashville.com
Kisser
East Nashville | Japanese
Against the cranes-in-the-sky backdrop of go-go modern Nashville, the ambitions of this lunch-only cafe are refreshingly modest. Leina Horii and Brian Lea, Kisser’s married owners, apply Japanese cuisine’s less-is-more aesthetic to the entire enterprise. The result is an austere restaurant that feels like a refuge, staffed by unrushed employees executing a concise menu of only good options. They include housemade udon, onigiri and salads bursting with fresh produce, as well as inari that eat like cool shrimp-roll sliders, with tofu in place of the bun. Truth is, there isn’t a neighborhood that wouldn’t be richer for the addition of this soulful, personal take on a Japanese teahouse. Another neighborhood — Germantown — recently welcomed Babychan, Ms. Horri and Mr. Lea’s Japanese bakery and cafe, which opened last summer. BRETT ANDERSON
747 Douglas Avenue; no phone; kisserrestaurant.com
Locust
12 South | Seafood
Dining at Locust is like a field trip into the constantly churning, chaotic mind of the Irish-born chef Trevor Moran, whose restaurant opened during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. Since then, like the world around it, the restaurant has evolved greatly. It shifted from its original conception as a dumpling shop to its current iteration, serving dishes like beef tartare wrapped in nori and swordfish in the style of Nashville hot chicken. The fish is possibly the freshest in town, with the chef and his team performing weekly sprints to the airport to retrieve tuna bellies from Japan, or briny Belon oysters from the Irish coast. The restaurant’s dining format will undoubtedly change again soon, as will its menu. One constant? The enthusiastically loud playlists that feature the crew’s favorite albums, from metal to ’90s hip-hop. ELLEN FORT
2305 12th Avenue South; no phone; locustnashville.com
Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint
Downtown | Barbecue
Nashville is a Southern town with the Southern urge to eat smoked meats. With his whole hog barbecue, the pitmaster Pat Martin has zeroed in on the city’s needs on that front. Now with multiple locations, Martin’s has come a long way from its days as a small, nondescript spot in the neighboring burg of Nolensville. The whole hog is smoky, pulled and chopped and mixed to include every morsel of pork flavor. The brisket is tender, the jalapeño Cheddar sausage is spicy and everything that comes out of the kitchen is kissed by smoke. ELLEN FORT
410 Fourth Avenue South; 615-288-0880; martinsbbqjoint.com
Noko
East Nashville | Pan-Asian
Noko’s menu cherry-picks from across Asia to assemble a menu of dishes you probably already love, even if you haven’t seen them offered all in the same place, or in precisely this form. There is a peppy hamachi crudo, an assortment of bao buns and a long list of dishes enriched by contact with wood fire or a hot metal wok, from shishitos and Sichuan green beans to Wagyu brisket and a smoky half-chicken in wasabi-spiked white sauce. The restaurant’s chef, Dung Vo, who opened Noko in 2023 with his partners Jon Murray and Wilson Brannock, has a knack for knowing what will please a crowd in East Nashville, circa now. That will be made clear by the first thing you’ll notice about the place: how hard it is to get a reservation. BRETT ANDERSON
701 Porter Road; 615-712-6894; nokonashville.com
Peninsula
East Nashville | Spanish
The food at Peninsula is shrouded in an air of mystery, beginning with a purposefully vague menu that reads — as is the style at many restaurants — like a haphazard grocery list (“octopus, tamarind, yeast”). A plate will arrive featuring those ingredients, though in exactly what configuration remains an enigma until finally the flavors are revealed bite by bite. The chef Jake Howell’s alchemic approach to ingredients, combined with influences of Basque and Iberian cuisine, results in a singular style that has no real boundaries. Along with his partners, Yuriko Say and Craig Schoen, Mr. Howell has created a restaurant that is both personal and global. ELLEN FORT
1035 West Eastland Avenue; 615-924-1906; peninsulanashville.com
Present Tense
Wedgewood-Houston | Japanese
When Present Tense originally appeared on this list in 2024, it was lauded for its menu of Japanese flavors influenced by the chef Ryan Costanza’s Italian background, with dishes like squid ink noodles with rings of tender squid spiced by nduja and wasabi, and dusted with umami-rich pecorino. Then the 120-seat restaurant went on hiatus, with the promise of reopening in a new space. Now, Mr. Costanza and his partner, Rick Margaritov, have done just that in Wedgewood-Houston, this time with a 40-seat dining room and a chef’s counter. Some of the menu items that made the original remarkable have survived the move, while new ones, like koji half chicken with shoyu au poivre, are already showing star power. The restaurant occupies the front half of a building that’s also home to a nightclub, the Flamingo Cocktail Club, adding a frisson of excitement to dinner. As the night progresses, the hiply dressed pack in for martinis infused with candy cap mushrooms, and oysters with yuzu leche de tigre to start the night. ELLEN FORT
509 Houston Street; 615-626-6835; liveinthepresenttense.com
Silver Sands
North Nashville | Soul Food
“This is how we ate coming up” is the kind of thing you hear in the line that curves from the steam table through the dining room at Silver Sands. A few examples of “this” include saucy beef tips, stewed whole okra spears and fried-to-order whiting and catfish. Sophia Vaughn, the chef and owner of Silver Sands, was preceded in the kitchen of this landmark meat-and-three by her mother and aunt. She wakes up well before dawn to start cooking soul food that is consistently satisfying and often more than that. The salmon croquettes and hot water cornbread (imagine Johnny cakes crossed with gougères) are among the dishes that wouldn’t be out of place at one of the fancy restaurants downtown. BRETT ANDERSON
937 Locklayer Street; 615-780-9900; silversandsnashville.com
S.S. Gai
East Nashville | Thai
Ostensibly, the hardest decision you’ll have to make here is whether to order your chicken fried or grilled. In reality, you can’t lose. Both versions deliver handsomely browned birds, their surfaces covered with flecks of fried shallots and garlic. However you deploy the accompanying sauces — one vinegar-based, the other fish sauce-based, both spicy — the chicken makes for rapturous, messy eating, as was certainly the case when Chris and Emma Biard encountered the chicken that inspired S.S. Gai on a honeymoon trip to Thailand. Their business is found in the Wash, a former East Nashville carwash that has been converted into an outdoor food hall filled with food entrepreneurs polishing their ideas. When you consider its equally flavorful snacks and pounded salads, S.S. Gai is already serving some of Nashville’s most memorably delicious food. BRETT ANDERSON
1101 McKennie Avenue, Bay 3; 615-553-8654; ssgainash.com
St. Vito Focacceria
The Gulch | Italian
The name of the game here is clearly focaccia, but this Gulch restaurant offers way more. The menu at the chef Michael Hanna’s moody, narrow restaurant is anchored by sfincione, the thick, square-cut pizza that’s popular in Sicily. Pillowy focaccia is the base that’s then drenched with sauce and simple toppings. Here, that could mean rich tomato gravy with pepperoni, or potato cream studded with slices of roasted potatoes and lemon — and that’s reason enough to visit at lunch or dinner. But the rest of the menu is a creative outlet for inspired Italian deep cuts, like a wickedly umami “dirty pasta” with noodles made from whole wheat flour and black caper powder and a pan sauce of garlic, olives and tomatoes. Seafood appears frequently, too, often tucked into a conserva or a pasta, or simply served on its own, like bluefin tuna thickly sliced in a pool of olive oil. Always order the focaccia with whipped ricotta and pistachios to start, but never stop there. ELLEN FORT
605 Mansion Street; no phone; stvitonashville.com
Tailor
Germantown | Indian
The grand crystal chandelier in the dining room of Tailor is reason enough to visit the chef Vivek Surti’s homage to modern Indian cuisine, but thankfully, it’s just a bonus. The tasting menu here is an extension of Mr. Surti’s familial hospitality. Dining at Tailor is like an invitation to Mr. Surti’s home, albeit a home with a kitchen full of top flight kitchen equipment and highly trained chefs. Each dish represents Mr. Surti’s passion for sharing his South Asian heritage and Nashville upbringing on the same plate: A classic Southern tomato sandwich features juicy heirlooms slathered with crunchy masala aioli, and a pani puri is filled with chunks of watermelon and its juice. For the final course, Mr. Surti’s chai is served, another family recipe redolent of ginger and cardamom, spicy enough to leave diners’ tongues tingling long after they’ve left the dining room for the night. ELLEN FORT
620 Taylor Street; no phone; tailornashville.com
Xiao Bao
McFerrin Park | Asian
When it opened in 2022, Xiao Bao brought the city the hand-pulled noodles it had been yearning for. But the restaurant, a spinoff of Charleston’s Xiao Bao Biscuit, brought much more than that to its little corner of East Nashville, starting out front with a guard house of sorts, shaped like a giant strawberry. The restaurant is a retro diner complete with a Formica tabletops and red velvet couches for lounging. It’s all a fever dream from the minds of the husband-and-wife duo Joshua Walker and Duolan Li, whose eclectic style guides the menu and the buzzy vibes. Those noodles are topped with brisket, while a luxurious Thai-style fried rice is spicy and buttery and crowned with a mountain of lump crab. At lunch, the la zi spiced smash burger on a bao bun, served with beef fat fries, is a complete showstopper (and nap inducer). ELLEN FORT
830 Meridian Street; 615-239-5553; xiaobaonashville.com
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