Best Restaurants in Nashville

Yes, Restaurants in Nashville will always have delicious barbecue, spicy chicken, and meat ‘n’ threes—possibly the greatest you’ve ever had. You will, however, be losing out on one of Nashville’s best features—the range and depth of its chef-driven restaurants—if you restrict your culinary explorations to those items. There are James Beard Award finalists and winners popping up everywhere right now, cooking up inventive takes on time-honored Southern cuisine, modern Mediterranean, Japanese kakigri, and classic French cuisine. If you’re only in town for the weekend, it will be difficult to narrow down your list of must-eat restaurants, but these notable places are a wonderful place to start .The top eateries and restaurants in Nashville are listed below.

Audrey

Chef Sean Brock claims he will work in Audrey, the eatery he named after his maternal grandmother until he retires. Yes, he has other eateries and restaurants in Nashville (more on those in a moment), but if you’ve never tried Brock’s food, Audrey’s Kitchen is the place where it all comes together. The native Virginian first moved to Nashville 20 years ago, and at Audrey, he combines the methods he’s learned with ingredients from his Appalachian roots. Audrey is a place where you can drink a $200 bottle of wine and eat oily beans and sour corn while feeling sophisticated. Leave time to listen to Audrey because she cares as much about the experience as the food.

Margot Café & Bar

Margot McCormack is undoubtedly Nashville’s culinary matriarch. Since it has no gimmicks whatsoever, her eponymous dinner-only restaurant in East Nashville has been delighting diners for more than 20 years. She creates dishes with her executive chef based on the freshest ingredients of the day and prepares meals with French influences. Tomato pie or tuna with peach tomato relish may be the end result during the summer. A succulent roast chicken is always in style. Since there is no freezer in the kitchen, dessert options include tres leches cake or a cornmeal cake with fruits, depending on what is available. Service is friendly, inviting, responsive, efficient, but never hurried because servers are just as committed to the restaurant as local patrons. Make a reservation right away.

Drusie & Darr

Nashville paid attention when chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten said he will be in charge of the restaurant at the Hermitage Hotel. The children of the hotel’s former manager, who used to play in the elevators and run around the hotel’s hallways, inspired the restaurant’s name. Drusie & Darr is completely modern, from its décor to its approaches to fine dining, despite all the allusions to nostalgia. You are welcome to order Vongerichten staples, such warm shrimp salad and crispy sushi. Or take a look at the meals that Executive Chef Kelsi Armijo creates with Vongerichten’s assistance, fusing Tennessee ingredients with Asian and European traditions. Observe her working in the renovated open kitchen. Although the restaurant is available every day, dinner is the standout for special occasions.

St. Vito Focacceria

For many years, chef Michael Hanna has desired to build a physical restaurant. The general public has also been waiting, judging by the throngs who make their way to his location in the Gulch. Although there aren’t many seats at the club, the place has a lot of style. His naturally leavened sfincione (Sicilian focaccia pizza) is cooked with fontina cheese inside and is topped with a variety of ingredients that change with each order, such as roasted potatoes (with potato cream), Mortadella, or the traditional toppings of tomato and oregano. There are pastas and salads available as well, including a well-liked dish with wine syrup-cured beets, pecorino, and pistachio salad, if you’re not in the mood for the sfincione. Combine any or all of it with neat amaro.

Henrietta Red

The Catbird Seat and Bastion are all members of the same family as Henrietta Red. As a result, it attracted a regular clientele of locals almost once. In addition, the James Beard Foundation’s commendation of the restaurant and chef Julia Sullivan in 2018 and 2019 has also kept foodies coming back time and time again. Henrietta Red provides something distinctive in Nashville thanks to its raw oyster bar. Sunchoke salad and smoked mackerel toast are just a couple of the shareable dishes on the rest of the compact but thoughtfully designed menu.

City House

Sit down and let the welcoming ambiance and enticing pizza fragrance wash over you. Chef and proprietor Tandy Wilson finally won a James Beard Award for his eccentric Italian-Southern cuisine in 2016 after nine failed efforts to advance to the quarterfinals. He firmly established himself as one of the most well-known chefs in the region after achieving that feat. Meals at City House are best shared, and the inventive, thin-crust pizzas from the brick oven are perfect for doing so. Try to leave room for dessert even though it will be difficult because Rebekah Turshen’s sweets are not to be missed.

The Continental

The Continental is an updated ode to gourmet cuisine, whereas Audrey, Chef Sean Brock’s namesake restaurant, is about experimenting with ingredients and traditions, and Joyland is his take on a fast-food burger and shake. With a luxurious decor, cool décor, attentive service, plenty of martinis, oysters, and a prime rib delivered to you via tableside cart, it harkens back to a period when hotel restaurants were the height of gourmet dining. You can view the flashing neon lights but avoid the crowds (if you want to) since The Grand Hyatt, the hotel that houses The Continental, is located on Broadway but a few blocks from the Lower Broad honky-tonk district. eating at.

International Market

Arnold and Anna Myint are well-known, Arnold in part because to his participation in Top Chef. The siblings created a restaurant of their own across the street from their mother Patti Myint’s that pays homage to her and her work, but in Nashville they are more known for being the children of the late Patti Myint, who owned a Thai restaurant in the city for more than 40 years. The new International Market is a sit-down restaurant with table service for dinner and is an informal lunch spot with a queue resembling a cafeteria. The food is a fusion of classic recipes from their mother (and other family members) with contemporary takes on traditional Thai dishes. Try the fried chicken, Patti’s Pad Thai, and the Patti’s House Salad. You may use impossible meat substitutes in a variety of meals.

Locust

When he worked behind the U-shaped counter at The Catbird Seat, Trevor Moran developed a devoted following because to his thoughtful cooking and artistic presentation. His passion project, Locust, is a dumpling and kakigori (japanese-style shaved ice) shop with a set menu each day and the laser-like intensity that has been his trademark. You’ll feel like you are somewhere that everyone wants to go when you are inside the lovely, minimalist setting. Just a few tables are available at Locust. Once a month, reservations become available, but lunch and dinner are often sold out in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. Setting an alarm will help you find a spot. You won’t regret taking the time.

The Catbird Seat

Although getting a reservation here is no longer as difficult as it once was (you can prepay on Tock for early and late seatings, often the same week you plan to eat), the experience still seems incredibly private. There is a U-shaped seating arrangement of 22 seats around a show kitchen located above the Patterson House. A short corridor and steps lead to the kitchen.Chef Brian Baxter brings his unique perspective to the chef incubator that has previously hosted Will Aghajanian and Liz Johnson, Ryan Poli, Trevor Moran, Josh Habiger, and Erik Anderson. At Baxter’s, local cuisine and a low-country aesthetic are valued. Along with wine pairings, there is a kombucha pairing that uses home-brewed kombucha.

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