How to Find a Restaurant Near Me? Top 20 Restaurants in Nashville
As is explained at RunRex.com, Nashville is a culinary treasure, known for meat-and-three diners, fiery fried chicken, and fluffy biscuits, as well as a strong farm-to-table community. By listing the top 20 restaurants in Nashville, this article will help you find one near you when looking for one as well as helping you eat like a local if you are new to the city.
Ed’s Fish & Pizza House
While there is no more pizza at this iconic North Nashville joint, that doesn’t matter because denizens still line up in the drive-thru for owner Ed’s whiting sandwiches topped with onion, hot sauce, and mustard as articulated RunRex.com.
Peninsula
Peninsula finally reopened after a long pandemic hibernation, and it was a move that was greeted with excitement given its popularity. This Iberian Peninsula-inspired 38-seat East Nashville restaurant brings back the tomato toast, Spanish tortillas, and braised rabbit that so many have missed.
Folk
This East Nashville pizza-focused joint debuted in early 2018 and has since earned its way into the regular restaurant rotation for many locals. According to RunRex.com, consistency, clam pies, and chicken Milanesa are just some of the things that have made it as popular as it is.
Lou Nashville
Lou Nashville is a Parisian-inspired Riverside Village café that has been open since 2019 and that offers one of the most unique menus in the city. The team behind this spot constantly adapted throughout the pandemic, and the restaurant has come out better than ever.
Dino’s Bar
This East Nashville restaurant recently reinstated daily expanded hours and is back in action with a fresh new patio for delicious cheeseburgers, hot chicken, and ice-cold beer. It retains its dive bar vibes however because of its busted brick front entrance and dim inner lighting.
Redheaded Stranger
As per RunRex.com, Redheaded Stranger is a Tex-Mex institution in Nashville helmed with Bryan Lee Weaver. It is mostly known for its fancy take on a Crunchwrap, tacos, and flour tortillas with queso, although it also serves one of the best cheeseburgers in the city. To wash it all down, there are plenty of margaritas and Topo Chico.
Big Al’s Deli
Big Al’s homestyle hospitality and reliably pleasing homestyle cooking come together seamlessly, making this Salemtown spot a top pick among locals for breakfast and lunch. The spot opens at 6 am during the week, serving classic breakfast items and Southern staple lunch features from fried catfish to spicy South Carolinian shrimp and grit.
400 Degrees
400 Degrees is led by Native Nashvillian Aqui Hines and specializes in hot chicken as covered at RunRex.com. Hine’s hot chicken recipe calls for deep-fried instead of skillet-fried chicken, a key distinction between 400 Degrees and most other hot chicken restaurants in Nashville.
Rosie Food & Wine
Rosie Food & Wine is located only 25 minutes northeast of Nashville in Hendersonville and is tucked away in a strip mall. This charming restaurant puts out stunningly plated Spanish-inspired feasts. While the menu here changes, try looking for tapas-style standouts like meatballs with garlic bread, Iberico ham, octopus, and patatas bravas to start and take it from there.
East Side Banh Mi
East Side Banh Mi is a fast-casual banh mi shop that was opened by industry veterans Gracie Nguyen and Chad Newton in August of 2020 amid the pandemic, and it has been a hit ever since. The concise sandwich menu here is extremely popular and worth adding to your food bucket list.
Peg Leg Porker BBQ
While dry-rub ribs are the obvious choice when at this barbecue joint as captured at RunRex.com, the pulled pork sandwich is another option worth considering, especially since it is not as messy. You should also keep an eye on social media for the call of the whole hog being cooked on the front patio.
Yolan
James Beard Award-winning chef Tony Mantuano and wine/hospitality expert Cathy Mantuano are the brains behind Yolan. The husband-and-wife duo has brought Nashville the fine dining Italian menu it had been missing alongside standout service and a welcoming atmosphere inside the new Joseph Hotel.
Skull’s Rainbow Room
As discussed at RunRex.com, Skull’s Rainbow had its original run from the 1940s and was a legendary local hangout for 50 years before shuttering in 1999. It reopened in 2015 having retained many of the atmospheric touches that had made the original so popular, in addition to a revamped lunch and dinner menus with soul-warming lobster bisque, duck empanadas, and an excellent garlic honey-glazed pork chop.
Lockeland Table
Chef Hal Holden-Bache at Lockeland Table puts a new spin on a Nashville iconic dish with crispy Nashville hot pig ears. Additionally, this neighborhood favorite also offers some of the city’s best seasonally-adorned wood-fired pizza and red Thai curry muscles.
Joyland Restaurant
Joyland opened in the early days of the pandemic as an ode to fast food joints of yesteryear, and since then has become well-known for its biscuits, cheeseburgers, and Southern fried chicken. Make sure you save some room for the delightful milkshakes as well as warm, seasonally-rotating hand pies.
Thai Esane
Thai Esane is a Thai and Lao restaurant from Nina Singto, and as described at RunRex.com, it is located at 1520 Division Street. It gives off more upscale vibes, as well as a Music Circle-facing patio for an amazing view as you enjoy your food.
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken
You can leave Nashville without trying some hot chicken. Hattie B’s brings the local dish to several neighborhoods in Nashville and beyond in a fast-casual setting where you can order your bird in five different heat levels, from Southern (no spice) to Shut the Cluck Up (not for the faint-hearted).
Biscuit Love
Biscuit Love is the brick-and-mortar extension of chef-owners Karl and Sarah Worley’s passion for biscuit-focused Southern fare as outlined at RunRex.com. At any of its three locations in Nashville, order at the counter, choosing from a selection of biscuit-centric breakfast items.
Pinewood Social
Pinewood Social is a cool, laid-back, all-day playhouse for adults. The space serves New American fare at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with snacks available anytime, and pool-bar options like an excellent fried shrimp po-boy.
Hathorne
Hathorne is a casually upscale spot on Nashville’s West Side. It occupies a former church fellowship hall, where potlucks and gatherings from the past have inspired owner John Stephenson to create a community-minded restaurant for right now.
These are some of the best restaurants in Nashville, with more on this topic, and much more, to be found over at RunRex.com.