Once Upon a Time in France
East Nashville
$$$
French
Once Upon a Time in France is a Nashville restaurant focused on French-inspired cuisine. The menu emphasizes composed dishes served in a full-service setting.
Once Upon a Time in France is a 12 South French bistro that earns its whimsy — solid bistro classics, a welcoming room, and wine that makes a Tuesday dinner feel cinematic.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Santo
Wedgewood-Houston
$$
Mexican
Santo is Latin American cooking in Nashville with real ambition. The menu moves across Central and South American traditions with a cocktail program to match.
The small plates are the strength — bold flavors, proper technique, designed for sharing. The bar program is one of the stronger Latin-focused spirits lists in the city.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Pelican & Pig
East Nashville
$
Modern American
Pelican & Pig is a restaurant in Nashville offering wood-fired American cooking in a full-service setting. The menu emphasizes seasonal ingredients and shared dining.
Pelican & Pig is a neighborhood restaurant in East Nashville that punches well above its weight class — locally-sourced, seasonally-driven cooking in a room that feels like it's been there forever even though it hasn't.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
Edley's Bar-B-Que
12 South
$$
BBQ
Edley's is Nashville BBQ done at chain scale. The food is solid. The ambition stops there.
The ribs have decent smoke. The pulled pork is reliable. The sides are better than most chain BBQ operations bother with. None of it reaches the level of the city's serious pit masters.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Biscuit Love
The Gulch
$$
Breakfast, Fried Chicken, Southern
Biscuit Love is Nashville brunch tourism in restaurant form. The bonuts are genuinely good. The wait, the crowd, and everything else are not.
The bonut — biscuit doughnut with lemon mascarpone — is the one thing worth the trip. The biscuits themselves are adequate. The rest of the menu is brunch food designed to appeal to everyone, which means it deeply appeals to no one.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Maru Sushi & Grill
East Nashville
$$
Japanese, Omakase, Sushi
Maru Sushi & Grill is a Nashville restaurant serving sushi and Japanese-inspired dishes in a casual, full-service setting. The menu blends traditional sushi offerings with cooked items.
Maru Sushi & Grill covers the Japanese standards competently — a solid neighborhood option when the sushi craving hits and you don't want to drive downtown.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Etch
SoBro
$$$
Cocktail Bar, Mediterranean, Modern American, Seafood
Etch is Deb Paquette's downtown flagship — a globally-influenced fine dining restaurant that's been one of Nashville's most consistently excellent tables for over a decade. Serious cooking, warm room, no unnecessary ceremony.
Deb Paquette's flagship is one of Nashville's most dependable fine dining experiences — inventive without veering into precious territory, polished without the starch. This is what serious cooking looks like.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
The Iberian Pig
The Gulch
$$$
Spanish, Tapas
The Iberian Pig is a Nashville restaurant focused on Spanish-inspired cuisine, particularly tapas. The menu emphasizes shared plates and full-service dining.
The Iberian Pig brings Spanish charcuterie, pintxos, and Iberian wine culture to Nashville — executed well enough that you'd be happy ordering your way through the menu on a slow Friday night.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Peninsula
East Nashville
$$
Spanish, Modern American
Peninsula is a tasting menu restaurant in East Nashville helmed by chef Jake Howell — Southern ingredients, global technique, Michelin Recommended, and a structured dining experience that earns every minute of its length.
One of Nashville's best restaurants and Michelin Recommended — a modern Southern tasting menu that delivers the kind of meal you'll be talking about weeks later.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
1
Five Points Pizza
East Nashville
$$
Pizza
Five Points Pizza is a Nashville pizzeria focused on New York–style pizza sold by the slice or pie. The menu emphasizes casual dining and takeout.
Five Points Pizza is the standard-setter for Nashville pizza — proper dough, quality toppings, and the kind of consistency that turns first-timers into regulars. This is just genuinely great pizza.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Limo Peruvian Eatery
East Nashville
$$
Latin American, Peruvian
Limo Peruvian Eatery is bringing one of the world's most interesting cuisines to Nashville with uneven results. The ceviche earns it. The rest is a work in progress.
The ceviche and the lomo saltado are the kitchen at its best — properly made, genuinely representing what Peruvian cooking can be. The broader menu is more variable and the pricing can outrun the execution.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Yolan
SoBro
$$
Italian, Pasta
Yolan is Tony Galzin's fine dining Italian restaurant inside the Joseph Hotel in SoBro — classically trained technique, exceptional handmade pasta, a serious Italian wine list, and one of the most beautiful dining rooms in Nashville.
Tony Galzin's fine dining Italian inside the Joseph Hotel — exceptional handmade pasta, classical technique, and one of the most beautiful dining rooms in Nashville.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
2
Saint Anejo
The Gulch
$$
Mexican
Saint Anejo is a rooftop bar that happens to serve food. The margaritas work. The food exists to keep you seated.
The rooftop view is the product. The Mexican-inspired menu is functional without being interesting. Order the margaritas and calibrate your food expectations accordingly.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
5
Folk
East Nashville
$$$$
Modern American, Pizza, Wine Bar
Folk is a Michelin Recommended wood-fired pizza and pasta restaurant in East Nashville from the team behind Rolf and Daughters — perfectly blistered sourdough pies, handmade pasta, natural wines, and a room that has become one of the neighborhood's defining experiences.
The pizza and pasta restaurant East Nashville deserved — perfectly blistered clam pizza, handmade pasta, sourdough with seaweed butter, and a room full of people genuinely happy to be there. Michelin Recommended.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
2
Pinewood Social
SoBro
$$
American, Breakfast, Cocktail Bar
Pinewood Social is a bowling alley, pool bar, and restaurant in one building, and it actually earns all three simultaneously.
The breakfast and daytime menu are better than the format requires. The cocktail program is genuinely good. The bowling and pool are the draw for groups, but the food holds up independently.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Turkey and the Wolf Icehouse
East Nashville
$$$
American, Deli, Sandwiches
Turkey and the Wolf Icehouse is Mason Hereford's full-service expansion of the famous New Orleans sandwich shop. The collard green melt is still the best sandwich in the room.
The collard green melt proves a vegetarian sandwich can make a table of carnivores stop caring. The bar program is natural wine and good cocktails. The whole room has the personality of a kitchen that genuinely loves what it's doing.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Pastis
Wedgewood-Houston
$$$
French
Pastis is the Nashville outpost of Keith McNally's iconic New York French bistro — red banquettes, zinc bar, steak frites, moules marinières, and a room built to make every night feel like a Tuesday in Paris.
Nashville's best French bistro — steak frites, moules, a proper wine list, and a room with actual Parisian energy.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
2
International Market
Belmont
$
Thai, Vietnamese
International Market is a Thai restaurant near Belmont University with roots dating back to 1975. The restaurant blends longtime lunch traditions with a full-service evening menu centered on contemporary Thai cooking.
International Market is a Nashville institution — a Thai cafeteria in a strip mall that's been serving some of the city's most honest Thai food for decades, without caring whether anyone outside the neighborhood knows about it.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Bourbon Steak
SoBro
$$$$
Modern American, Seafood, Steakhouse
Bourbon Steak is a modern steakhouse in Nashville offering beef-focused dishes alongside contemporary sides and a full bar program. The menu blends classic steakhouse elements with updated presentations.
Bourbon Steak is Michael Mina's JW Marriott steakhouse that forgot it was a hotel restaurant — dry-aged steaks, serious bar program, and service that earns the price tag.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
O-Ku Sushi
Germantown
$$
Japanese, Sushi
O-Ku is upscale Japanese from Charleston in 12 South. Good fish quality, beautiful room, cocktails that earn the visit independently.
The sashimi and nigiri use solid product for a non-coastal market. The rolls are inventive without losing the seafood under the toppings. The cocktails and the room make this a full evening.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Redheaded Stranger
East Nashville
$$
Mexican, Tacos
Redheaded Stranger is a casual Nashville restaurant focused on Tex-Mex–inspired tacos and comfort-driven dishes. The menu emphasizes counter-service dining.
Redheaded Stranger is a neighborhood bar first and a restaurant second, and it's honest about that hierarchy. Cold beer, solid bar food, and the East Nashville attitude that goes with it.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
Hawkers Asian Street Food
East Nashville
$$
Chinese, Fusion, Thai, Vietnamese
Hawkers Asian Street Food is a casual restaurant in Nashville serving dishes inspired by Asian street food traditions. The menu emphasizes shared plates and counter-style accessibility.
Hawkers is the Asian street food chain that kept the soul of street food — bold, affordable, and genuinely delicious in a way that most chains can't pull off.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
4
Peg Leg Porker
The Gulch
$$
BBQ
Peg Leg Porker is a Nashville barbecue restaurant focused on smoked meats and Southern sides. The menu emphasizes traditional barbecue served in a casual setting.
Peg Leg Porker is a Nashville BBQ institution built by a pitmaster who knows what he's doing — dry-rubbed ribs, Tennessee whiskey, and a room that smells like smoke from the parking lot.
Chef:
Awards:
James Beard
Nashville
3
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