Kore
East Nashville
$$
Korean
Kore is a restaurant in Nashville serving Korean-inspired dishes in a full-service setting. The menu blends traditional flavors with contemporary formats.
Kore is a Korean-inspired concept in Nashville that brings the flavors of the peninsula to a format designed for Nashville diners — accessible, flavorful, and worth knowing about.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Junior
Wedgewood-Houston
$$$
American
Junior is East Nashville's best natural wine bar — focused list, serious small plates, and a room that earns the long evening.
The wine list is built on small producers and low-intervention bottles, curated with genuine taste. The small plates are designed to complement the wine, not compete with it.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
Tutti Da Gio
Hendersonville
$
Italian, Pasta
Tutti Da Gio is Italian-American cooking in The Nations done with genuine affection — proper pasta, warm room, the kind of Sunday gravy that reminds you what the category used to mean.
Tutti Da Gio is a family-style Italian restaurant that does what it says — generous pastas, convivial room, and the kind of honest Italian cooking that makes a group dinner feel like it happened in someone's home.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
Joyland
East Nashville
$
American, Burgers, Sandwiches
Joyland is Sean Brock's ode to American fast food, done with the seriousness of a chef who has thought very hard about why a burger should be better than it usually is.
The double smash burger is the point. Crispy edges, properly melted cheese, a bun that holds together. Brock's technical precision applied to a format most kitchens underestimate.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Babychan
Germantown
$$
Cafe, Japanese
Babychan is a Japanese-French all-day bakery and café in Germantown from the team behind Kisser — technique-driven pastries, milk bread, katsu sandos, Japanese lattes, and one of the most exciting daytime concepts to open in Nashville.
The Kisser team's daytime bakery is exactly what Nashville needed — Japanese milk bread, technique-driven pastries, and katsu sandos from a kitchen that knows what it's doing.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
2
Caffe Nonna
Sylvan Park
$$
Italian
Caffe Nonna is an Italian restaurant in Nashville focused on traditional pasta dishes and regional Italian cooking. The menu emphasizes classic preparations in a full-service format.
Caffe Nonna is a Sylvan Park Italian institution — handmade pasta, honest regional cooking, and the kind of neighborhood warmth that makes it feel like dinner at someone's grandmother's house.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Smiling Elephant
Melrose
$$
Thai
Smiling Elephant is small-town good. Nashville stopped being a small town.
The Thai food here would be the best in a smaller city. Nashville isn't a smaller city anymore, and the gap between this and what the city's best Thai kitchens are doing is wide enough to matter.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Sushi Bar
Downtown
Japanese, Omakase, Sushi
Sushi Bar Nashville is a high-energy omakase counter where serious fish gets served in a room that's genuinely fun. One of Nashville's best Japanese dining experiences.
The fish is properly sourced and handled. The progression is intelligent. The room has personality without letting it crowd out the sushi — a harder balance than it sounds.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
Rosepepper Cantina
East Nashville
$$
Mexican
Rosepepper Cantina is East Nashville's neighborhood Mexican institution. The margaritas are the reason to go. The tacos and classics keep up.
The margaritas have won local awards for years and earned them. The tamales and chile rellenos are properly made. The patio on a warm night is one of the best settings in East Nashville.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Blue Aster
Midtown
$$$
Modern American
Blue Aster is a hotel restaurant doing hotel restaurant things — technically proficient, genuinely unexciting, priced above its actual performance.
The cooking is competent without being interesting. Proteins are cooked correctly but lack flavor development. Sauces are applied rather than built. The room is beautiful and doing too much work.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Culamar
Franklin
$$$
Italian, Seafood
Culamar is an Italian coastal seafood restaurant and rooftop bar in downtown Franklin, Tennessee — the sister concept to Culaccino — from chef Frank Pullara, with a focus on fresh oysters, crudo, pasta, and seafood preparations inspired by the Italian coast.
Culamar is the Italian coastal seafood destination that Franklin has been waiting for — a rooftop with real cocktails, a raw bar worth trusting, and pasta that makes the drive from Nashville easy to justify.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
Martha My Dear
East Nashville
$$
Bakery
Martha My Dear is a daytime café in East Nashville doing breakfast and lunch with genuine care. Pastries worth coming for.
The pastry program is the standout — properly made, better than most Nashville café offerings. Breakfast and lunch follow the same standard. A neighborhood spot that earns the return visit.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Degthai
Edgehill
$$
Thai
Degthai is Thai food that pulls its punches. Not bad enough to skip entirely, but not good enough to seek out.
The flavors are recognizable, the curries are inoffensive, and nothing arrives with the heat or depth that makes Thai food worth eating. Nashville has better.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Halls Chophouse
Midtown
$$$$
Seafood, Steakhouse
Halls Chophouse is a steakhouse from Charleston where Williamson County residents come to see and be seen. The steaks are properly cooked. The room does a lot of work.
Top-tier beef handled correctly, polished service, and a room built to impress. A see-and-be-seen steakhouse that earns its place on the expense account circuit.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Brave Idiot
East Nashville
Burgers, Fried Chicken, Hot Chicken
Brave Idiot is a food truck behind No Quarter making some of the best hot chicken in Nashville. Don't let the format fool you.
Chicken thighs with a ridiculously crisp skin, ten heat levels that mean business, and a burger program that's equally serious. Owner Dylan Field knows what he's doing.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse
Downtown
$$$$
Seafood, Steakhouse
Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse is a steak-focused restaurant in Nashville offering prime beef, seafood, and classic steakhouse service. The menu follows a formal dining structure.
Jeff Ruby's is an upscale steakhouse that brings Cincinnati's finest to Nashville — white tablecloths, prime beef, and the kind of old-school service that makes a big dinner feel like an event.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
Peters Sushi Thai
Brentwood
$$
Japanese, Sushi, Thai
Peters Sushi Thai is trying to do two cuisines in one kitchen and not fully succeeding at either.
The sushi is functional. The Thai food is recognizable. Neither side reaches the level available from restaurants focused on one cuisine well.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Barcelona Wine Bar
Wedgewood-Houston
$$
Spanish, Tapas, Cocktail Bar, Wine Bar
Barcelona Wine Bar is a Spanish-inspired restaurant and wine bar offering tapas-style dishes and an extensive wine list. The menu emphasizes shared plates and communal dining.
Barcelona Wine Bar delivers on the Spanish wine and small plates format — a genuinely strong sherry and wine list, solid tapas, and a buzzy room that makes it one of the better group spots in Nashville.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Black Rabbit
Downtown
$$
Modern American
Black Rabbit is a bar and restaurant in Nashville offering globally influenced small plates alongside a cocktail-forward drinks program. The menu is designed for sharing in a low-lit setting.
Black Rabbit is the cocktail bar that remembered to make the food worth eating — a low-lit, globally-influenced small plates spot that earns a second visit.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Milk & Honey
The Gulch
$$
Cafe, Breakfast
Milk & Honey is a tourist magnet in the Gulch with lines full of out-of-towners and food that can't justify the wait.
The biscuits are stale-tasting despite being made fresh. The honey butter arrives melted and congealed. The menu casts wide to catch everyone and impresses no one.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Husk
SoBro
$$$
Fried Chicken, Modern American, Southern
Husk is Sean Brock's Southern cooking restaurant in SoBro — every ingredient must come from the South, and the result is some of the most ingredient-serious, heritage-driven cooking in Nashville.
Sean Brock's Southern cooking landmark — ingredients-first, heritage-obsessed, and still one of the best arguments for what the South's culinary tradition can be.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
2
Lyra
East Nashville
$$
Middle Eastern, Cocktail Bar, Wine Bar
Lyra is Middle Eastern fine dining with a beautiful room and cooking that can't consistently match its own ambitions.
The concept is right and the room is stunning. The kitchen has nights where it delivers something genuinely interesting. It also has nights where it doesn't, and at these prices, the inconsistency is the whole problem.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Butchertown Hall
Germantown
$$
BBQ
Butchertown Hall is a restaurant in Germantown serving Texan- and Southern-influenced dishes with a focus on smoked meats. The menu blends barbecue traditions with full-service dining.
Butchertown Hall is a Germantown beer hall that got the Texas BBQ and craft beer combination right — a sprawling, loud, entirely enjoyable place to spend an afternoon that turns into an evening.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
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