Dozen Bakery is a Nashville bakery focused on naturally leavened breads and baked goods. The menu centers on daytime service and retail sales.

Dozen Bakery is the Nashville pastry destination — croissants with actual lamination, seasonal tarts that make you want to plan your visit around them, and bread that makes Saturday morning worth leaving the house for.

Tavern is a Nashville restaurant offering American cuisine in a traditional full-service setting. The menu emphasizes familiar dishes and sit-down dining.

Tavern hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — it's been a Nashville staple long enough that we owe it a proper look.

Sunda is a Nashville restaurant offering modern Southeast Asian–inspired cuisine in a full-service setting. The menu blends regional influences with contemporary presentation.

Sunda brings polished pan-Asian cooking to a beautiful downtown space and delivers a consistently enjoyable experience without quite reaching the top tier. The setting and execution make it an easy recommendation.

Drusie & Darr is a restaurant in Nashville offering contemporary American dishes in a casual, full-service setting. The menu blends familiar formats with seasonal ingredients.

Drusie & Darr is the rare hotel restaurant that functions as an actual destination — sophisticated food, a beautiful room, and service that doesn't coast on the hotel's built-in audience.

Margaux is a restaurant in Nashville offering French-inspired cooking in a full-service dining format. The menu emphasizes composed dishes and sit-down meals.

Margaux hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — French bistro cooking in Nashville is a category worth taking seriously.

Henrietta Red is a restaurant in Nashville focused on seafood-driven dishes with Southern influences. The menu emphasizes seasonal ingredients and full-service dining.

Henrietta Red is the oyster bar and seasonal restaurant Nashville didn't know it needed — Julia Sullivan's cooking is sharp, ingredient-driven, and among the best in the city.

Flamingo Cocktail Club is a cocktail bar in Nashville offering drinks alongside a limited food menu. The concept is bar-forward rather than dining-driven.

Flamingo Cocktail Club is a great bar first and a food destination second, and it's honest about that hierarchy. The cocktails are seriously good; the food supports a long night without embarrassing anyone.

Otaku Ramen is a Nashville restaurant specializing in Japanese-style ramen. The menu emphasizes broth-driven noodle dishes in a casual dining format.

Otaku Ramen is solid, honest ramen in a city where ramen quality has been historically spotty. The broths are properly developed and the bowls are well-built — a genuine step up from most of the competition.

Audrey is a fine dining restaurant in Nashville centered on a seasonal tasting menu rooted in contemporary American cuisine. The experience is structured around multi-course meals served in a formal setting.

Audrey is Sean Brock's most personal and ambitious restaurant — Appalachian fine dining that treats the region's culinary heritage with reverence and the result is extraordinary.

Café Roze is a Nashville brunch institution known for its rosy interiors and an all-day menu that actually backs up the aesthetics. Natural wine, thoughtful daytime cooking, and a room that photographs well and eats even better.

We haven't officially reviewed Café Roze yet — the aesthetics are real, and so is the food.

PennePazze is an Italian restaurant in Nashville focused on pasta and traditional Italian dishes. The menu emphasizes sit-down dining in a casual setting.

PennePazze is earnest neighborhood Italian that gets more right than wrong — good pasta, solid sauces, and an atmosphere that makes it a comfortable regular-rotation option.

Lockeland Table is a neighborhood restaurant in East Nashville focused on seasonal American cooking. The menu emphasizes full-service dining with a community-oriented feel.

Lockeland Table is one of East Nashville's defining restaurants — approachable seasonal cooking built for the community that surrounds it, executed with more ambition than it lets on.

Present Tense is a restaurant in Nashville offering a tasting-menu-driven dining experience with contemporary influences. The format emphasizes structure and reservation-based dining.

Present Tense is a natural wine bar with food that rises to meet the list — one of Nashville's more interesting places to eat and drink if you actually care about what's in your glass.

Fonda on 12th is a Mexican restaurant in Nashville focused on traditional regional dishes. The menu emphasizes sit-down dining and classic preparations.

Fonda on 12th is a 12 South Mexican spot doing familiar dishes with fresh ingredients and a room that makes it one of the neighborhood's most reliable dinner options.

The Farm House is a Nashville restaurant focused on Southern-inspired cuisine built around local sourcing. The menu emphasizes full-service dining.

The Farm House hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — farm-to-table in Nashville keeps raising its own bar and this one's worth covering.

Urban Cowboy Public House is a Nashville restaurant and bar offering American cuisine in a rustic, full-service setting. The menu emphasizes composed dishes.

Urban Cowboy Public House hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — the boutique hotel bar-and-restaurant concept in Nashville is worth covering.

Urban Grub is a Nashville restaurant serving Southern-influenced American cuisine in a full-service setting. The menu emphasizes composed dishes.

Urban Grub has the look of a destination restaurant and the cooking of a restaurant that figured out the look first.

Roze Pony is a casual restaurant and bar in Nashville offering American-inspired dishes in a relaxed setting. The menu emphasizes approachable food and flexible dining.

Roze Pony hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — it's on the list.

Edessa is a Kurdish and Turkish restaurant on Nashville's Nolensville Pike serving authentic halal dishes from the culinary traditions of Anatolia, named after an ancient city in southeastern Turkey known today as Urfa.

Edessa hasn't made it into our official review yet — Kurdish and Middle Eastern cooking in Nashville is an underrepresented category worth exploring.

Stationairy is a Nashville restaurant offering contemporary American dishes in a full-service setting. The menu emphasizes composed plates and sit-down dining.

Stationairy hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — the concept sounds like exactly the kind of thing Nashville's food scene needs.

Germantown Cafe is a long-running Nashville restaurant serving American cuisine with a neighborhood focus. The menu emphasizes full-service dining and familiar formats.

Germantown Cafe is a neighborhood anchor that's been doing it right for years — seasonal Southern cooking in a warm room that makes every visit feel like coming home.

Butcher & Bee is a restaurant in Nashville focused on vegetable-forward, Middle Eastern–influenced cooking. The menu emphasizes shared plates and seasonal ingredients in a full-service setting.

Butcher & Bee is East Nashville's most interesting large-format restaurant — Middle Eastern–influenced cooking in a converted warehouse that serves one of the best brunches and dinners in the neighborhood.

Miel is a French-American restaurant in Nashville's Sylvan Park neighborhood founded by owner Seema Prasad in 2008, with a seasonally driven menu built from locally sourced ingredients and a wine program that's among the strongest in the city.

Miel hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — seasonal American cooking with local sourcing is a standard we're always happy to hold people to.

Bella Napoli is a casual Italian restaurant in Nashville focused on Neapolitan-style pizza and traditional Italian dishes. The menu centers on classic preparations served in an informal setting.

Bella Napoli is Nashville's old-school Italian institution — red checkered tablecloths, the Neapolitan classics, and the kind of unpretentious welcome that makes every visit feel like a Sunday dinner.

Epice is a restaurant in Nashville focused on Lebanese- and Middle Eastern–influenced cuisine. The menu emphasizes composed plates and traditional flavors in a full-service setting.

Epice is Nashville's best Lebanese restaurant — mezze, flatbreads, and Eastern Mediterranean cooking done with the kind of knowledge and warmth that makes every visit feel like a homecoming.

Mason's is the flagship restaurant at the Thompson Nashville hotel in the Gulch — a polished American brasserie with genuine culinary ambition, a serious bar program, and a room that makes hotel dining feel like an actual choice rather than a concession.

We haven't officially reviewed Mason's yet — hotel dining in the Gulch doesn't get more serious than this.

Proper Bagel is a casual Nashville restaurant focused on boiled-and-baked bagels and deli-style offerings. The menu emphasizes daytime dining.

Proper Bagel is living up to its name — hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, and made with the kind of process that produces a bagel worth eating rather than just a round bread product.

Nashville Box is a casual restaurant serving hot chicken in a counter-service format. The menu emphasizes speed and simplicity.

Nashville Box hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — anything focused on Nashville's own food traditions is worth paying attention to.

Swett’s is a long-running Nashville restaurant serving Southern comfort food in a cafeteria-style format. The menu emphasizes traditional dishes and daytime dining.

Swett's is a Nashville soul food institution that means a lot to the city's history and less to your appetite than the reputation suggests.

Lona is a restaurant in Nashville focused on Mexican-inspired cooking with a modern, full-service format. The menu blends traditional influences with contemporary presentation.

Lona hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — it's on the list and moving up.

Elliston Place Soda Shop is a long-standing Nashville diner serving classic American comfort food. The menu centers on burgers, milkshakes, and traditional diner fare.

Elliston Place Soda Shop is a Nashville time capsule — a lunch counter diner that's been serving the same short-order food since 1939 and doesn't need your opinion about it.

Xiao Bao is a chef-driven restaurant in Nashville offering bold, Southeast Asian–influenced cooking in a full-service setting. The menu emphasizes small plates and layered flavors.

Xiao Bao is Nashville's best Chinese restaurant — regional dishes done with real knowledge, a menu that goes well beyond General Tso's, and cooking that rewards the diner who orders beyond the familiar.

Little Miss Mao is a restaurant in Nashville focused on Southeast Asian–influenced cooking with bold, modern flavors. The menu emphasizes composed dishes served in a full-service setting.

Little Miss Mao hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — the concept sounds like something Nashville needed.

Iggy’s is a neighborhood restaurant in Nashville focused on Italian-American cooking with a bar-driven format. The menu emphasizes pasta, small plates, and sit-down dining in an informal setting.

Iggy's has the neighborhood restaurant formula dialed in — unpretentious space, food that punches above its weight, and the kind of regulars-welcome vibe that keeps people coming back.

Etch is a contemporary restaurant in downtown Nashville offering globally influenced American cuisine. The menu is structured around composed dishes in a full-service format.

etc is doing something genuinely its own — a rotating, chef-driven menu in a small space that rewards the curious and punishes those looking for something predictable. It's good, and then some.

Maiz de la Vida is a Nashville restaurant focused on masa-based Mexican cooking. The menu emphasizes traditional techniques served in a casual format.

Maiz de la Vida is Nashville's best Mexican restaurant — masa-forward, regionally specific, and built on the kind of deep knowledge of Mexican cooking that makes every dish taste like it came from somewhere.

Pearl Diver is a tiki and tropical cocktail bar in East Nashville with a full food menu drawing on Hawaiian and Pacific Rim influences, named after both the Japanese ama pearl divers and a classic 1950s Polynesian cocktail.

Pearl Diver is one of East Nashville's most complete nights out — a genuinely great tiki bar that also figured out how to feed you properly, in a room that actually puts in the work.

June is a wine-focused restaurant in Nashville offering a small menu designed to pair with an extensive wine program. The format is intimate and full-service.

June is doing ambitious farm-to-table cooking in Franklin at a level that would make it a destination regardless of its address. This is some of the most thoughtful food in the greater Nashville area.

V Modern Italian is a Nashville restaurant offering Italian-inspired cuisine in a full-service setting. The menu emphasizes pasta and composed plates.

V Modern Italian has the ambition but not the execution — a downtown Italian spot that charges fine dining prices without delivering fine dining results.

Sho Pizza Bar is a Nashville restaurant focused on Japanese-inspired pizza served in a casual setting. The menu emphasizes a narrow, specialized offering.

Sho Pizza Bar is the most interesting pizza in Nashville — a Japanese-influenced approach to the Neapolitan tradition that produces pies unlike anything else in the city.

Pelato is a Nashville restaurant focused on Italian-inspired cooking with a contemporary approach. The menu emphasizes pasta and composed dishes in a full-service format.

Pelato is doing gelato and Italian-inspired food at a level that justifies the cult following. The frozen stuff alone is worth the detour.

5th & Taylor is a full-service American restaurant in Germantown serving seasonal food shaped by Southern traditions. The menu blends classic preparations with contemporary techniques in a traditional dining setting.

5th & Taylor is a Germantown restaurant doing thoughtful American cooking in a beautiful space — one of Nashville's more consistently excellent farm-to-table experiences.

Little Hats Market is a specialty food market in Nashville offering prepared foods and retail items. The menu emphasizes casual, daytime dining.

Little Hats Market is a neighborhood provisions shop doing breakfast and lunch with more care than the format usually gets — the kind of small operation that makes a neighborhood better.

Bastion is a tasting menu restaurant and bar in Wedgewood-Houston helmed by chef Josh Habiger — one of the few Nashville restaurants operating at a genuinely world-class level. There are two ways to experience it: commit to the full tasting menu, or pull up a stool at the standalone bar. Both are worth your time.

The best meal in Nashville, served in a room that somehow doesn't take itself too seriously. This is the one.

Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint is a barbecue restaurant in Nashville serving whole-hog and smoked meats. The menu emphasizes traditional barbecue plates and sandwiches.

Pat Martin's whole-hog BBQ institution is the undisputed real deal — smoke-forward, no-nonsense, and unapologetically Southern. If Nashville BBQ has a standard-bearer, this is it.

The Mockingbird is a Nashville restaurant offering American comfort food with a contemporary approach. The menu emphasizes full-service dining.

The Mockingbird hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — it's on the list.

Rice Vice is a sake-focused restaurant and bar in Nashville offering Japanese-inspired dishes alongside a curated sake program. The menu supports full-service dining.

This one hasn't made it into our review rotation yet — sake and Japanese drinking culture in Nashville is a category worth taking seriously.