The Best Restaurants & Bars in Nashville
Attaboy
Hip speakeasy serving off-menu craft cocktails with unique ingredients in dimly lit, trendy digs.
City House
(615) 736-5838
City House is my favorite restaurant in Nashville. Always has been, can’t see why it won’t always be. It’s that good. Chef/Owner Tandy Wilson won a well-deserved James Beard Award for Best Chef SouthEast in 2016 so I'm glad to see my opinion is widely shared. Perfect for a casual 1x1 Tuesday night dinner or a big group Saturday night feast. Don't miss the belly ham pizza (I recommend it with the optional egg on top) and if they have some sort of cake on the dessert menu, go ahead and pre-order it. Reservations book up fast. Pro Tip: Sunday Supper. Best night of the week to try this place out in all its glory and experience something a little different. Menu is always changing with the season and whims of the kitchen. Only downside, they don’t have the normal menu that night...so no Belly Ham Pizza.
Cupcake Collection
(615) 244-2900
The perfect snack for eating while you walk around Germantown and explore one of Nashville's most delicious neighborhoods. Mignon Francois and the start of her bakery have an origin story that you just need to read to believe. She started the business with $5 and has grown it into a cupcake empire one homemade treat at a time with shops in Nashville and New Orleans. They keep the flavors classic and the taste homemade and while you don't want to miss their signature sweet potato cupcake (with absurdly good cream cheese frosting), I recommend the sweet lemonade flavor for something a little different.
Dozen Bakery
(615) 712-8150
My favorite bakery and a true carb-lover heaven! Pies. Sourdough. Baguettes. Croissants. Cookies. Kouign Amman pastries (don’t google them, just go buy one)... they have it all and it’s ALL THE BEST. This is where I go on weekend mornings for egg-in-a-hole (only served Saturdays and Sundays) or an egg sandwich with pesto. During the week you can often find me here working on my laptop with an iced coffee or one of their house-made juice seltzer drinks! Some of the best restaurants in town are smart enough to serve their bread and it makes a big big difference!! Just go there and get one of everything to be happy and carb drunk and thank me later!
Eliiston Place Soda Shop
(615) 327-1090
Diner, Classic Soda Shop, Historic - Casual Dining
Henrietta Red
(615) 490-8042
GORGEOUS interiors. Light, fresh and satisfying menu that always leaves me wanting more. Books up fast so you’ll want a reservation but there is some walk in seating available. Great cocktails including fancy shmancy jello shots (available at the bar only.) DIVINE burger and superb crab cake. AMAZING crudo and a big fresh oyster menu. Really this one is hard to beat and important not to miss. Lotta hype but it lives up to it. For what it’s worth, it was one of Bon Appetit’s Best New Restaurants of 2017! Well deserved, I’d say!
Joyland
(615) 922-4934
Master of all things southern food AND fine dining, Sean Brock opened this fast food paradise in 2020 during one of the hardest times in East Nashville's history and right after a tornado took down buildings just next door. The food is delightful, uplifting, playful and exactly what we all need to get to feeling good! Inspired by Japanese convenience store details and always pushing the creativity envelope this is not your average fast food joint. I recommend whatever milkshake flavor they have as a special with a burger and fried chicken in a sandwich or on a stick!
Mas Tacos Por Favor
(615) 543-6271
Mas Tacos started as a food truck called Mas Tacos Por Favor and people practically chased it down the street chanting as much. Owner Teresa Mason opened her brightly-colored brick and mortar on the edge of Cleveland Park in 2010 followed by the addition of a bar in 2016. You'll still often find hordes of taco-devotees standing in line out the door, but the line always moves quickly and if you get tired of waiting, you can go through the door on the left and order a drink from the bar while you wait for the crowd to die down. Make it a paloma! And be one of the people who help the line move along by bringing cash, as this is a cash-only establishment. You'll eat like a glutton for $20 or less- try coffee horchata, a fried avocado taco, chicken tortilla soup, sweet plantains drizzled with sweetened condensed milk and elote, elote, elote!
Penisula
(615) 679-0377
Cuisine of the Iberian Peninsula in the heart of East Nashville.
Rolf and Daughters
Essential Nashville food to start your trip.
Slim & Husky's
(615) 647-7017
Old school hip hop music videos projected on the walls, communal tables and friendly hollering from the staff will greet you at this Buchanan Arts District hotspot. We’re obsessed with the inventiveness of this pizza concept: fast, casual and build-your-own, but with no sacrifice of quality and flavor. Choose the SLIM or the HUSKY depending on your hunger, and design your own toppings, or go with one of their cleverly-named pre-made recipes… Both the white and red sauces-based pizzas are worth trying here. The drafts beer selections and tunes will have you lingering long after you’ve polished off your ‘za.
Two Ten Jack
(615) 454-2731
Two Ten Jack leaves you wanting for NOTHING! Wonderful happy hour, cocktails, beer, wine, sake, vegan food, vegetarian food, some of the highest quality sushi in town, gluten-free options, plenty of meat, beautiful patio, and knowledgeable servers who will get you up to speed on Japanese ingredients. Go by yourself for a big bowl of ramen at the bar or with a group to share plates of practically anything else on the menu. Don't miss the garlic noodles with crab butter... One bowl is rarely enough. Added perk: Jeni's Ice Cream is a stone's throw away. Pro Tip: Reservations at Two Ten Jack are strongly recommended for large groups or weekends.