The best restaurants in Nashville

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The best restaurants in Nashville

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HathornePhotograph: Hathorne

Nashville's best restaurants range from hot chicken to fantastic Middle Eastern food

In Nashville, the food reflects the population, which is ever-changing as folks from different cultures move into the city. Once known just for hot chicken and BBQ, Nashville is now home to fantastic Middle Eastern, Mexican and Portuguese cuisine, and so, so much more (but don’t worry, the hot chicken is still great). 

Here you’ll find everything from breakfast tacos to yakitori skewers to die for, and the best part? Much of the ingredients used are fresh AF and likely only grown a few miles away, owed to Tennessee’s climate and agricultural history. This is the good stuff. Here are the best restaurants in Nashville right now. 

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Best Nashville restaurants

This 'modern Middle Eastern' restaurant offers a great happy hour, fresh baked breads and a vegetable-heavy menu—oh, and an ice cream sandwich for grown-ups. 

Creative interpretations of a cross-section of Middle Eastern traditions and spices make sure your brain and palate won’t be bored. The baba ghanoush served in its own skin (being that of the eggplant) is filling and better than the boring dips sometimes served elsewhere. The aforementioned sweet treat is made with pistachio ice cream and sesame seed cookies. The outdoor patio is an East Nashville oasis.

With just 24 seats and a nationwide reputation, Bastion remains possibly the most in-demand restaurant in Music City. Your online-only reservation requires a deposit by credit card, so it is a commitment, too. 

Local chef Josh Habiger has worked at a number of lauded restaurants (including The Catbird Seat, also on this list). At Bastion, he creates an environment that is innovative but not intimidating—a rare feat indeed. Here’s how it works: you select your desired ingredients from a paper menu, you sit back and relax until the food is served alongside an explanation about the dish concocted just for you. At the bar, you can actually watch your food being prepared—an experience worth the price of admission alone.

Open from early morning to late night, Pinewood is a community hangout with a coffee shop and a bar, a bowling alley, two small outdoor pools, a co-working area with lots of outlets and—oh, yeah—a restaurant, all inside a converted trolley barn space with access to free parking. It sounds like a hodgepodge of things that don't go together but, instead, Pinewood is the go-to for locals, visitors and even music celebs, with delicious cocktails and a menu that satisfies but doesn't overwhelm. Don't skip the fried broccoli.

It might look like your Lyft dropped you off at a doctor’s appointment instead of a night out, but don’t worry: there's charm galore inside this medical office park, not to mention wood-fired pizzas, fresh pastas and gelato worth forgetting all about Whole 30.

James Beard award-winning chef Gerard Craft developed a menu of solidly delicious Italian dishes. Watch the cooks stretch that pizza dough right in front of you while you sip on an aperol spritz. Or feast on the refreshing citrus, rosemary and olive salad while admiring the magnificent city view. Don’t forget to order dessert (and a lot of it). 

As much food performance art as dining, The Catbird Seat is a one-of-kind culinary experience. Twenty-two diners seated around a U-shaped bar feast on more than nine courses, paired with wines or non-alcoholic beverages. Reservations open 30 days in advance.

Chefs change every year or so here—management calls the space a 'chef incubator.' The current team is made up of Will Aghajanian and Liz Johnson, who aren’t afraid to push the envelope. Each course is a mini work of art, sometimes with tastes and textures you wouldn't expect (or choose), but somehow, it all works. The experience of watching these plated masterpieces evolve in front of your eyes is part of the fun.

When Julia Jaksic moved from New York to Nashville, she noticed the city didn’t have any all-day cafés, places you could wander into at 9am or 3pm and order whatever your palate was craving at the moment. It took Music City a couple of months to catch on but, now, the pretty, serene East Nashville restaurant is the local to-go. The rose bowl, with quinoa and black lentils, is a neighborhood favorite, but you can’t go wrong with any of the elevated salads, egg dishes or sandwiches. There’s a full (marble-topped) bar for the cocktail of your choice, and the option to add CBD oil to your lattes and other beverages.

This small, bright restaurant in East Nashville serves a menu of Iberian (that’s Spanish and Portuguese) dishes that changes every week. Belly up to the bar for a handcrafted cocktail… or some of the best non-alcoholic shrubs in the city. The environment is friendly but not obsequious. Specific dishes are hard to call out because they change with frequency, but the small plates are made with a minimum number of ingredients, so they are simple—yet delicious.

Expect two restaurants at a single location. From 7am-3pm, the corner is home to one of East Nashville’s most popular all-day breakfast spots, Sky Blue. Em’s bowl—a biscuit-topped bowl of home fries and eggs—is a legendary neighborhood hangover cure. On Friday through Monday nights, Setsun sets up a pop-up wine bar in the Sky Blue space with an emphasis on natural wines.

Some notes: Sky Blue doesn’t take reservations so you’ll likely have to wait for a table (especially on weekends), but you’ll get to chat with neighborhood locals while on queue. Setsun does, however, accept reservations. 

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

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Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

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