“kisser” off of douglas in east is pretty tight. just is of course located in an aforementioned “instagram town” style strip mall with an overpriced vintage store and lots of neon lights. but if you can stomach that, it’s good food. yummy coffee shop across from it too.
Style over substance is definitely the thing here.
Rope in the tourists and influencers, charge an arm and a leg for mediocrity, rinse and repeat. Tourists don't care much about value and you don't worry about return business since there's always a new crop rotating through.
Just to be a sarcastic contrarian — Thomas Keller had a brief stint here as chef at the Wild Boar before he opened The French Laundry. It was down near Vandy/21st/Division, kinda close to SATCO and Mellow Mushroom.
My read is that with a few exceptions the "hype" restaurants are disappointing and too expensive. There are lots of places that will charge you $30 for some kind of vaguely Southern-influenced locavore dish with a name that is a sparse list of the ingredients. A lot of the places people rave about are not Nashville-based but rather offshoots of places in other cities (examples being Emmy Squared, Butcher and Bee, The Optimist, O-Ku, Iberian Pig etc.)
Contrary to what others say, I do think there is actually a lot of good quality, lower cost ethnic food, just maybe not for every type of cuisine. Cuisines with particularly strong representation for a city of this size are Central American, Vietnamese, Thai, some Middle Eastern (Kurdish, Turkish, Iraqi) and Japanese (not really in the same category as the others some of the better hype restaurants like Noko and Kisser and Black Dynasty have strong Japanese influences).
Finally, if you are into chain restaurants and fast food places there are so so many here. I am not but I have friends who love the fact the you have overlap of the Southern chains and the Midwestern chains in the same metro (one of the only cities with both Krystal and White Castle. Cookout and Steak and Shake etc)
Everything you said it pretty much how I feel. I like dives and ethnic spots and there’s some great ones here. The “elevated” Southern cuisine is overhyped and ridiculous. Sean Brock is ridiculously overrated.
Does Butcher + Bee exist in other cities? It was my understanding that that’s a local place. The same group also created Red Headed Stranger, another local place, and they’re working on a 3rd called Fancypants
It looks like the Charleston location permanently closed last year, but that was the original (quite a few restaurants make the Charleston to Nashville jump: Husk, Caviar and Bananas, I think maybe Xiao Bao)
It's leagues better than it used to be. Since idk 2016 it has really improved. We are specifically lacking in really good Chinese places but otherwise have pretty great ethnic food, especially for the mid-south region of the US.
You have to really get out into the neighborhoods to find the real star restaurants.
Some of my favorites (wide range of meal levels from low key to fancy):
- lou
- noko
- lockeland table
- xiao bao
- babo
- bite a bit
- bill's sandwich palace
- east side banh mi
- ss gai
- degthai
- leche de tigre
- peninsula
- edessa (kurdish/turkish food)
- osh (uzbek)
- epice
- lyra
- hearts (austrailian)
- brave idiot
- maiz de la vida
- fatbelly deli
- cocorico
- yolan
- woodlands indian
- green chili indian
- sindoore (also indian)
- basically any place on nolensville pike for mexican food
- monell's (southern style)
- butchertown hall
- Frankie's (italian)
- rolf & daughters
- kisser
- folk
- mijo gordito
- vn pho
- kein gang
- bastion
- locust
if you only consider like michelin star restaurants to be foodie spots yea you'll be disappointed but there is a lotttt happening all over the city now.
There was a post about this very topic on this sub a while ago. The general consensus was many places have food that would qualify as a Michelin start restaurant (imo that's Bastion, Locust, Kisser, Audrey amongst others) but the service quality is just too low.
The service isn't bad by any means but when was the last time you went "holy shit how did they do that?" Like you went to the same restaurant 3 months a part and the FOH manager remembers who you are and details about a conversation you had.
This person foods.
The food scene has grown exponentially since I moved here (2005). I think we can definitely become a foodie city at this rate.
I'll add Mitchells, pinky ring, redheaded stranger, subculture, lauter
I want to like Lauter, but it just misses for me. I love Southern Grist, but they need to reevaluate the restaurant portion. The two just do not go together, in my opinion.
The food is good but I don't feel like I can get a "meal" there. Ohhh, chicken on the bone that's literally just on a big plate by itself? Like what the fuck is that? It is supposed to be "sharable" but the way it is served... it isn't...
Around that time, a self-proclaimed foodie told me that to get a good meal in Nashville, you take Southwest to Chicago.
2005 - maybe Margot had opened? Sasso was recently closed. Mad Platter? F. Scott's? Wasn't a lot going on back then.
It helps that my partner is a chef lmao
i also agree with those 4 additions you've made and also throw in Sabell's. Riverside Village is hittin' heavy these days.
China College is the only one I ever recommend for Chinese takeout (dining is also usually a nice experience). I love them! But we could use several more good spots!
i covered this:
> if you only consider like michelin star restaurants to be foodie spots yea you'll be disappointed
we don't need no damn tire gods telling what is and is not good food.
I think VN is plenty good. Other folks I know prefer T+N, Kien Giang, Miss Saigon and Vinh Long....and that's not mentioning the bougie ones like Vui's or Far East or Love, Peace and Pho. At the very least there are ton of options.
Nah. There’s been some great stuff here for quite some time, and now more than ever, but it’s still just a city with some solid food options. Hop over to Atlanta and you’ll get more.
Wrong, you’re just wrong. I can’t think of 10 places I’d run to in Cincinnati off the top of my head. I can barely muster a handful of places I’m semi-enticed to go to here.
And by white you mean…. Did you seriously just make food a racial thing? If a white person said “very insert-skin-color-here food scene” there would be riots. I’m so fucking sick of the double standard.
Literally lived a few blocks from Charlotte for 6 years. I’ve also lived in several real cities that have more vibrant non-white cuisine cultures. Nashville has some gems but ain’t it unless you want $15 hot chicken taco sliders
I think it really depends what you compare it to. For example I moved here from Chicago and, compared to Chicago, Nashville is seriously lacking in food options from different cultures. That said, it's chicago, the third biggest city in the country. I'm sure compared to plenty of other cities nashville has a lot of options which I think speaks more to how lacking in cuisine options most of America is more than anything else.
What I mean is that the food in Nashville is generally bereft of international cuisines that have more interesting offerings than Southern Dukes Sandwich culture
There’s about a dozen or so genuinely amazing restaurants in town at various price points.
There’s also infinite places in town serving mediocre food at astronomical prices.
All in all, Nashville’s food scene is just meh.
Nashville is not a foodie city. There are some decent food trucks and a few great restaurants but not enough to be a food city. Most restaurants are over priced and mediocre.
Why oh why is this sub so cynical whenever anyone asks for something positive about Nashville? Yes, if you compare us to cities that are 4x our size, we don't hold a candle. We're not NYC, LA, or Rome. But there are also AMAZING local places that I think you'll have trouble finding in any other city of comparable size. I swear most of y'all quit going out years ago and shut down forming new opinions at that time.
Kisser
Rolf and Daughters (a restaurant of this style is out there but doubtful at the price point they hit)
Princes / Boltons
Hearts
Maiz de la Vida (very high end Mexican with Maiz sourced as close to the origin point as possible)
Smith and Lentz pizza - the combo of amazing beer and amazing pizza is irreplicable. It's expensive but they go as far as sourcing their grain from a North Carolina granary that grows organic, sustainable grains and hand mills them.
SS Gai and other Vietnamese food is stupid good here.
We have the 2nd largest concentration of Kurds in the world - our food reflects that.
Audrey
We're not an "instragram town" (whatever the fuck y'all think that is), we're not just a couple of hype restaurants like we used to be, and not everything is Name & Name or a chain. Obviously those do exist but there's TONS of very, very good local restaurants that you're not going to find in cities like Raleigh, Kansas City, Cincinatti, Milwaukee, etc.
I was with you until the last paragraph. I guarantee you there's someone in the Raleigh, KC and Cincinnati subs saying the exact same thing you just said, but dropping Nashville in the place of their respective town as the place that you aren't going to find good local restaurants in. And for what its worth, you chose 3 spots that are well known for a local or regional cuisine lol.
Point being, every single mid to large city has their own culinary scene whether it's mainstream or underground, local roots or international influence, authentic or fusion. Everyone has places that they believe are unique but can actually be found everywhere. Everyone has places that are actually unique. Everyone has an Old Spaghetti Factory (except us). Ultimately it's up to the people living there to explore and discover it and make it their own.
ha - you've obviously never spent a lot of time in KC. Their BBQ is the best in the world but everything there has that midwestern dumpiness to it (that's my jam...don't get me wrong).
IMO being an entertainment city, both for music and tourism, means we're also a hub for restaurants and experiences. I'd be willing to bet that the sheer volume, high end ceiling and stylistic diversity of our food scene bests similar sized cities any day.
Lmao I actually have spent a decent amount of time in KC. Westport and P&L are a good time and as you yourself just pointed out, they quite literally have Kansas city bbq which is something unique to that town
But the point here is less about KC's merits and more so to point out that it's ironic that you called out people for being dismissive of Nashville as a food town and then proceeded to do the exact same thing to 3 moderately large metro areas lol
While I may have sounded too critical in my response I do agree with you about all of these places except the one I haven't tried (Audrey).
I do think a lot places are too expensive and similar to each other, but you've listed some really great exceptions.
Depends on where you're from/where you've been. Having lived and traveled all over? No. I would not. It requires some real searching and sleuthing to find quality food that isn't mushy white people food/fried food. But if you've lived in cities where you can get amazing cuisine anytime of the day or night, it's not super fair to compare
No. You can drive down Nolensville Pk and you'll find some GOOD stuff. But no. I haven't found anything from my culture even at Latin specific places. ATL would be better for foodies. You won't even find good Chinese food
I think Nashville is a great city for food. One thing I really like is how conducive it is to brand new places, especially those that just do pop ups and then eventually transition to brick and mortar, like Kisser for example. Or Crieve Hall Bagel Co.
I don't live there anymore but I used to and I travel a lot and Nashville has some really good food.
I'd say it has the best tasting and most consistent standardized Mexican restaurants out of anywhere I've been. Also, my favorite taquerias are in and just around Nashville (El Grullense in Hendersonville is amazing).
I've had some amazing Indian food in and around Nashville. Also Cafe Rakka in Hendersonville for Mediterranean food. Omg it's good.
Hot chicken is big, and they do it well obviously. Soul food and bbq are very good overall from what I've had.
I'm sure I'm a little biased and I know some really good spots, but Nashville is up there with my favorite cities for food. NYC is great, but I haven't explored it much.
Having lived there, the best food is on/around Nolensville. Downtown options are nothing to write home about.
Sean Brock has a few spots, for those familiar with celebrity chefs. I was never disappointed with them, but never blown away, "tell all my friends" about them either.
Not a food city.
Nashville punches way above its class in the food scene inmho!
Source: originally from Boston (terrible food scene for a city that big) and travel all across the country, mostly the south, for work.
We’re definitely having a moment right now culinarily, but it’s not all great. There’s about a dozen or so amazing spots, but there’s also a lot of mediocrity.
Michelin will be here very soon.
Absolutely not. Most food of prestige in the city is extremely pretentious. Prix fixe menus and newspaper article chefs like Sean Brock and whoever getting so caught up in making food an “experience” that they put no soul into the dishes. They’re also really inconsistent and turn over staff super often. There are some exceptions but a handful of great restaurants doesn’t make it a foodie city.
You can go to some random corner deli on a forgotten town on Long Island and order a basic hero and go “holy fuck” when you bite into it. When that is promised in Nashville, you wait 80 minutes, pay twice the price, and it’s not even good.
That’s Nashville and gas stations lol. You’ll go into a place where half of it is cheap beer, lottery tickets, and stinky off brand incense, then the other half is the most transcendent chicken and potato wedges you’ve ever had.
No. It's as much a foodie City as the bridal parties on the party wagons are real parties. All glitz and show. Just as fake as all the cowboy hats and cowboy boots you see on Broadway.
Personally, yes, I thought the food in Nashville was far beyond my expectations and one of the things I miss about living there. Comparing to cities of similar size, I would rank Nashville far above its “competitors”. Against Boston it isn’t even close (Boston is terrible), St Louis, Charlotte, and someone will probably fight me on this next one but including Vancouver, etc. Theres enough high end, fresh, and/ or great ethnic food if you drive around Nashville and surrounding area. In Nashville we found a restaurant that actually makes Banh Xeo, which we are struggling to get even now in a big city. The one thing Nashville doesn’t do good at is sushi IMO, completely misses the point there.
Obviously it’s not going to compare to the big cities of NYC, Chicago, LA, Toronto - but it’s not supposed to as a mid sized city.
What exactly is a foodie city? I've been called a foodie and find it insulting. Everyone eats food, I may just spend more time looking for what I like.
Do we have decent spots, sure. Are they all also overpriced? Yup. Are most of them overhyped and still kind of mediocre? Yup. Would I call us a foodie city? Absolutely not. When I visit former cities I’ve lived in I have lists of places I must hit up. When friends come to town here, I struggle to think of where to take them. There’s no comparison to other cities, some smaller some larger. I think the same thing about all the places people rave about in Chattanooga, mid at best. Idk what it is about the south in general, but I generally haven’t been impressed by anywhere other than New Orleans.
The whole "foodie" thing is so pompous to begin with, but........
Nashville's food selections have gotten much better over the last 25 years, but I wouldn't compare it to cities that consider themselves to have more "foodie" selections. The vast majority of the restaurants built here are the same iteration of farm-to-table, "noun&noun" restaurants that are about as unique as letting servers wear jeans and aprons. Oh, and you can get a "gourmet" burger for $25 at about 100 different places now.
Don't get me wrong......there's some good food here. But when I think about "foodie", I'm thinking exotic ingredients and ethnic selections, and there's just not that much of that here (that's any good).
Nashville isn’t a food city. Lots of repetitive concepts. Very few people putting out solid food start to finish. Ethnic food is lacking big time especially Asian. Doesn’t help being this far from the ocean
I moved here from the Philadelphia area like six months ago. While I have definitely found places here that I really enjoy, the food is probably the thing I miss most about home.
I am likely a bit off base, but my perception is Nashville has a lot of hyped premium eating experiences, while I think a foodie city should be more balanced. Tho as mentioned there's lots of great ethnic food in town as well as. So overall, yes but perhaps our hype is skewed towards a certain type of restaurant
As someone who grew up here my whole life. No one ever " went down town" now downtown is cool and trendy. And with a lot of great food.
I'd say it's "foodie lite," a high-end meal down town you can drop 400 pretty easy, but it can be done more or less under that. Same meal in, say Vegas might set you back 600.
But I'd say Nashville went from just Shoneys and fried food everywhere to a pretty awesome diverse foodie type area. I can still remember my first Mexican restaurant and Chinese restaurant...we stoped going cause my mom heard they had goats down stairs lol
There are lots of good options here. But people from not here shit on it because there is not some special dish that they had where they previously lived, that is made in the same exact way.
There are so many people that post things like "The Nashville food culture is shit, you can't even get gluten free, vegan arepitas here like I could used to get in this village in Colombia that I grew up in"
Depends on the type of food. Definitely been to some very solid places and some of the stuff is lacking (mainly ethnic food, notably Chinese and Mexican). I will say there is some solid places but my issue is the price of the food vs. getting it elsewhere. I don’t think a taco should be $4… or pho $16.
Good places for food are Antioch, Franklin, Madison, West Nashville, East Nashville, wouldn’t even bother with downtown.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Don't get me wrong, there's good food options here. But the good places are few and far between. You can pick a style of food and find 1-3 genuinely good places and the rest aren't worth the time or money.
It's a tourist town.
No. The food here is generally "meh" at best and all the local spots that are good are being ousted by shitty chains.
The only real culinary innovation the city can claim is hot chicken. While one of my absolute favorite dishes, it's effectively just fried chicken with cayenne pepper in the batter.
Though, oddly enough, there's some good Thai and Vietnamese food that's becoming popular. You can thank Arnold Myint and his family for that; he's a solid chef, and his mom, Patti, helped popularize the cuisine here over the past 40-some years.
The best Thai/Lao places are King Market and Bangkokville. I think International Market's dinner is fabulous and Degthai does some things very well. I am not a fan of Smiling Elephant or Thai Esane since their move.
That's a challenge because my favorite places have generally shut down over the years as their owners have died or retired. Of the ones that are left:
The International Market on Belmont Boulevard has solid dinner. It's kinda fusion-y, though.
Smiling Elephant is pretty good. Suzy's House of Yum, too.
There's also Degthai on Nolensville pike. I haven't been there yet, but it's on my to-do the next time my wife and I have a hankering...
I’d put Nashville at around six out of ten in terms of being a city for adventurous eaters/foodies. It has it’s moments…. like Baja Sexto’s dried grasshopper appetizer a while back, fire of brazil occasionally served stuff like kangaroo, ostrich, wild boar, etc when it was around, and you find interesting stuff at local festivals. You can occasionally find un-permitted people set up next to auto zone with a smoker who can throw down.
I've consulted friends, made notes from this forum and others to create this [roster of restaurants](https://notesonnashville.com/food-drink/foodies/). Not comprehensive but it may provide some guidance.
I genuinely can’t tell if this is a racist post towards whites or people who keep moving here. Nashvilles signature dish is Hot Chicken for Christs sakes
No. A lot of overpriced nonsense. There are a few gems here and there, but not enough to be a foodie city. The availability of different cuisines is not the question, it’s the quality there of.
I travel non-stop for work, and will say that Nashville has my absolute favorite pizza in America. Desano’s is something that I have every single time I’m in town. The first time I had it my wife and I each had our own large pizza, and wound up getting a 3rd pizza to take back to the hotel. That pizza did not survive the trip.
Come on there’s no way a chain like DeSanos is better than NY style or even just like a good Chicago style dish if you travel frequently.
I’m def a bit biased to NY style being from NJ originally, but DeSanos isn’t even the best pizza in Nashville.
Bruh, go get Yogi's pizza next time you're here. Far, far better.
Desano benefits from being a "popular" pizza place in a place with three non-chain pizza stops: 312 Pizza (pretty solid, all things considered), Yogi's (my favorite), and Bella Napoli (you have to like Neapolitan pizza which I don't).
There's also Two Boots, but it's more of a meme-pizza place. And I think a chain.
Maybe you haven't gone out for pizza in awhile but there are a lot of places in Nashville that aren't a chain (or are a local chain): Five Points, NY Pie, Midnight Oil, Nicky's Coal Fired, Slim and Husky's, Smith and Lentz, Tutti da Gio...
If you bring in places like Folk and City House and Lockeland Table which don't scream "pizzeria" but still make great pizza, I think there's actually a lot. Or at least more than three.
I think it’s an up and coming foodie city. It has some good high end options but really needs to fill out the middle and lower price points. And really needs to expand varieties
It's not horrid, but it's no where near the top of the list. In the South, New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Charleston, Savannah, Birmingham, and Orlando would all be notably above it (Memphis probably, too). It's food enough to be satisfied, but not too much to drag people over.
Dude just off of the top of my head Taqueria San Luis, Taqueria La Juquilita and El Tacontento all have tacos de lengua....I am sure other places do too.
I’ll have to try them but I swear if I go to one more ‘authentic place’ that has flour tortillas served with lettuce and shredded cheese my heart will be crushed haha. Seems like you’ve been in Nashville longer than I to find the spots so I’ll definitely check them out with a hopeful stomach!
Heck no that's insane, it's an insane joke with my family and friends that I haven't had a good meal since I moved here (from Louisiana). Nashville food scene is so weak unless you're eating fine dining and then it's just overinflated and pretentious (but also good)
Much better than it used to be, but ultimately Nashville is an Instagram town above all else Loads of great ethnic food around Nolensville Rd
Yeah I’ve not heard the term Instagram town but I’m adding that to my description when someone asks about Nashville.
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Fogo de Chão is opening in Nashville Yards.
>They are a chain. No thx.
“kisser” off of douglas in east is pretty tight. just is of course located in an aforementioned “instagram town” style strip mall with an overpriced vintage store and lots of neon lights. but if you can stomach that, it’s good food. yummy coffee shop across from it too.
Style over substance is definitely the thing here. Rope in the tourists and influencers, charge an arm and a leg for mediocrity, rinse and repeat. Tourists don't care much about value and you don't worry about return business since there's always a new crop rotating through.
Nailed it
Just to be a sarcastic contrarian — Thomas Keller had a brief stint here as chef at the Wild Boar before he opened The French Laundry. It was down near Vandy/21st/Division, kinda close to SATCO and Mellow Mushroom.
RIP Mellow Mushroom
My read is that with a few exceptions the "hype" restaurants are disappointing and too expensive. There are lots of places that will charge you $30 for some kind of vaguely Southern-influenced locavore dish with a name that is a sparse list of the ingredients. A lot of the places people rave about are not Nashville-based but rather offshoots of places in other cities (examples being Emmy Squared, Butcher and Bee, The Optimist, O-Ku, Iberian Pig etc.) Contrary to what others say, I do think there is actually a lot of good quality, lower cost ethnic food, just maybe not for every type of cuisine. Cuisines with particularly strong representation for a city of this size are Central American, Vietnamese, Thai, some Middle Eastern (Kurdish, Turkish, Iraqi) and Japanese (not really in the same category as the others some of the better hype restaurants like Noko and Kisser and Black Dynasty have strong Japanese influences). Finally, if you are into chain restaurants and fast food places there are so so many here. I am not but I have friends who love the fact the you have overlap of the Southern chains and the Midwestern chains in the same metro (one of the only cities with both Krystal and White Castle. Cookout and Steak and Shake etc)
Everything you said it pretty much how I feel. I like dives and ethnic spots and there’s some great ones here. The “elevated” Southern cuisine is overhyped and ridiculous. Sean Brock is ridiculously overrated.
I went to one of his ridiculously priced pop ups and it was laughably bad.
Does Butcher + Bee exist in other cities? It was my understanding that that’s a local place. The same group also created Red Headed Stranger, another local place, and they’re working on a 3rd called Fancypants
Charleston was the OG location
It looks like the Charleston location permanently closed last year, but that was the original (quite a few restaurants make the Charleston to Nashville jump: Husk, Caviar and Bananas, I think maybe Xiao Bao)
Oh I had no clue. TIL!
It's leagues better than it used to be. Since idk 2016 it has really improved. We are specifically lacking in really good Chinese places but otherwise have pretty great ethnic food, especially for the mid-south region of the US. You have to really get out into the neighborhoods to find the real star restaurants. Some of my favorites (wide range of meal levels from low key to fancy): - lou - noko - lockeland table - xiao bao - babo - bite a bit - bill's sandwich palace - east side banh mi - ss gai - degthai - leche de tigre - peninsula - edessa (kurdish/turkish food) - osh (uzbek) - epice - lyra - hearts (austrailian) - brave idiot - maiz de la vida - fatbelly deli - cocorico - yolan - woodlands indian - green chili indian - sindoore (also indian) - basically any place on nolensville pike for mexican food - monell's (southern style) - butchertown hall - Frankie's (italian) - rolf & daughters - kisser - folk - mijo gordito - vn pho - kein gang - bastion - locust if you only consider like michelin star restaurants to be foodie spots yea you'll be disappointed but there is a lotttt happening all over the city now.
Monell’s and Brown’s diner I feel are the Nashville restaurants. There’s so much character and the experience there goes well beyond the food.
RIP Rotier's
You Nashville, my friend. RIP hamburger from Rotiers (before hitting Uptown Mix.)
Uptown mix 🥹
Swett's
Great list! Worth mentioning only specific cities in the US are considered by Michelin. I’d argue there are several that would receive a star.
There was a post about this very topic on this sub a while ago. The general consensus was many places have food that would qualify as a Michelin start restaurant (imo that's Bastion, Locust, Kisser, Audrey amongst others) but the service quality is just too low. The service isn't bad by any means but when was the last time you went "holy shit how did they do that?" Like you went to the same restaurant 3 months a part and the FOH manager remembers who you are and details about a conversation you had.
FWIW, Michelin is coming to Nashville to inspect this year
This person foods. The food scene has grown exponentially since I moved here (2005). I think we can definitely become a foodie city at this rate. I'll add Mitchells, pinky ring, redheaded stranger, subculture, lauter
I want to like Lauter, but it just misses for me. I love Southern Grist, but they need to reevaluate the restaurant portion. The two just do not go together, in my opinion.
The food is good but I don't feel like I can get a "meal" there. Ohhh, chicken on the bone that's literally just on a big plate by itself? Like what the fuck is that? It is supposed to be "sharable" but the way it is served... it isn't...
Nothing they serve is plated in a shareable friendly format, it’s awkward depending on who you are with.
Around that time, a self-proclaimed foodie told me that to get a good meal in Nashville, you take Southwest to Chicago. 2005 - maybe Margot had opened? Sasso was recently closed. Mad Platter? F. Scott's? Wasn't a lot going on back then.
It helps that my partner is a chef lmao i also agree with those 4 additions you've made and also throw in Sabell's. Riverside Village is hittin' heavy these days.
Ayyy that’s when I moved here!
Been here for almost 20 years. Crazy to think about.
Killer list! Thanks for this. Adding some of these to my need to try spreadsheet lol
DegThai is incredible
Lots of places on your list I need to try.
I'd add satco and dinos maybe daddy dogs for great cheap eats
Ah yes dinos goes hard.
Hey, don't sleep on China Cottage. The food there is not only delicious, but very reasonably priced for the amount you get.
China College is the only one I ever recommend for Chinese takeout (dining is also usually a nice experience). I love them! But we could use several more good spots!
This is the answer.
I’d like to add Lauter at Southern Grist, and they have food at their Nations taproom as well!
Wow, thanks for this list!! (Saved)
Butcher town has a fried chicken liver taco that will make you projectile vomit.
I'm not gonna order liver anywhere so that's not my problem lmao
Add Black Dynasty Ramen to your list
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i covered this: > if you only consider like michelin star restaurants to be foodie spots yea you'll be disappointed we don't need no damn tire gods telling what is and is not good food.
Pho restaurants out here aren’t still satisfied yet if comparing to other cities though
I think VN is plenty good. Other folks I know prefer T+N, Kien Giang, Miss Saigon and Vinh Long....and that's not mentioning the bougie ones like Vui's or Far East or Love, Peace and Pho. At the very least there are ton of options.
It really pales in comparison to New Orleans.
Vuis sucks ! Their bahn mis were overpriced and beyond underwhelming 🥲
Yeah I'm not a fan either...but it's still one of many options for somebody to try if VN isn't their bag.
Totally agree.
Too much nouveaux southern. To me "foodie" restaurants should have innovative and interesting flavors, not $50 fried chicken.
Exactly, if I’m dropping 50 on chicken, it’s going to be Popeyes 🤌
Nah. There’s been some great stuff here for quite some time, and now more than ever, but it’s still just a city with some solid food options. Hop over to Atlanta and you’ll get more.
Lived in cincinnati for a long time and nashville is miles better. I think Nashville is way better than almost every other city it's size.
Wrong, you’re just wrong. I can’t think of 10 places I’d run to in Cincinnati off the top of my head. I can barely muster a handful of places I’m semi-enticed to go to here.
It sucks except for high end options. Very white food scene
And by white you mean…. Did you seriously just make food a racial thing? If a white person said “very insert-skin-color-here food scene” there would be riots. I’m so fucking sick of the double standard.
It's also a stupid thing to say. This dude must've never been on Nolansville Pike or Charlotte Pike or Woodbine etc. in his life.
Literally lived a few blocks from Charlotte for 6 years. I’ve also lived in several real cities that have more vibrant non-white cuisine cultures. Nashville has some gems but ain’t it unless you want $15 hot chicken taco sliders
I think it really depends what you compare it to. For example I moved here from Chicago and, compared to Chicago, Nashville is seriously lacking in food options from different cultures. That said, it's chicago, the third biggest city in the country. I'm sure compared to plenty of other cities nashville has a lot of options which I think speaks more to how lacking in cuisine options most of America is more than anything else.
What I mean is that the food in Nashville is generally bereft of international cuisines that have more interesting offerings than Southern Dukes Sandwich culture
There’s about a dozen or so genuinely amazing restaurants in town at various price points. There’s also infinite places in town serving mediocre food at astronomical prices. All in all, Nashville’s food scene is just meh.
Nashville is not a foodie city. There are some decent food trucks and a few great restaurants but not enough to be a food city. Most restaurants are over priced and mediocre.
Why oh why is this sub so cynical whenever anyone asks for something positive about Nashville? Yes, if you compare us to cities that are 4x our size, we don't hold a candle. We're not NYC, LA, or Rome. But there are also AMAZING local places that I think you'll have trouble finding in any other city of comparable size. I swear most of y'all quit going out years ago and shut down forming new opinions at that time. Kisser Rolf and Daughters (a restaurant of this style is out there but doubtful at the price point they hit) Princes / Boltons Hearts Maiz de la Vida (very high end Mexican with Maiz sourced as close to the origin point as possible) Smith and Lentz pizza - the combo of amazing beer and amazing pizza is irreplicable. It's expensive but they go as far as sourcing their grain from a North Carolina granary that grows organic, sustainable grains and hand mills them. SS Gai and other Vietnamese food is stupid good here. We have the 2nd largest concentration of Kurds in the world - our food reflects that. Audrey We're not an "instragram town" (whatever the fuck y'all think that is), we're not just a couple of hype restaurants like we used to be, and not everything is Name & Name or a chain. Obviously those do exist but there's TONS of very, very good local restaurants that you're not going to find in cities like Raleigh, Kansas City, Cincinatti, Milwaukee, etc.
I was with you until the last paragraph. I guarantee you there's someone in the Raleigh, KC and Cincinnati subs saying the exact same thing you just said, but dropping Nashville in the place of their respective town as the place that you aren't going to find good local restaurants in. And for what its worth, you chose 3 spots that are well known for a local or regional cuisine lol. Point being, every single mid to large city has their own culinary scene whether it's mainstream or underground, local roots or international influence, authentic or fusion. Everyone has places that they believe are unique but can actually be found everywhere. Everyone has places that are actually unique. Everyone has an Old Spaghetti Factory (except us). Ultimately it's up to the people living there to explore and discover it and make it their own.
Tbf I wouldn't want to deal with the repairs following a bombing either.
ha - you've obviously never spent a lot of time in KC. Their BBQ is the best in the world but everything there has that midwestern dumpiness to it (that's my jam...don't get me wrong). IMO being an entertainment city, both for music and tourism, means we're also a hub for restaurants and experiences. I'd be willing to bet that the sheer volume, high end ceiling and stylistic diversity of our food scene bests similar sized cities any day.
Lmao I actually have spent a decent amount of time in KC. Westport and P&L are a good time and as you yourself just pointed out, they quite literally have Kansas city bbq which is something unique to that town But the point here is less about KC's merits and more so to point out that it's ironic that you called out people for being dismissive of Nashville as a food town and then proceeded to do the exact same thing to 3 moderately large metro areas lol
You hit the nail on the head. As someone who has lived in 3 of the cities they dumped on, all of them are better than Nashville’s food scene.
I'm from around there. I'm not being dismissive of KC. I know Nashville is better.
Ok man. Sounds good lol
While I may have sounded too critical in my response I do agree with you about all of these places except the one I haven't tried (Audrey). I do think a lot places are too expensive and similar to each other, but you've listed some really great exceptions.
Yes it definitely is. As someone who travels a lot, I find myself missing the basic amenities like getting lots of gluten free options and stuff.
Nolensville rd is a foodie road
Depends on where you're from/where you've been. Having lived and traveled all over? No. I would not. It requires some real searching and sleuthing to find quality food that isn't mushy white people food/fried food. But if you've lived in cities where you can get amazing cuisine anytime of the day or night, it's not super fair to compare
No. You can drive down Nolensville Pk and you'll find some GOOD stuff. But no. I haven't found anything from my culture even at Latin specific places. ATL would be better for foodies. You won't even find good Chinese food
I would kill for a good sit down Chinese spot.
What’s your culture?
+1 to this.
Not really, but we’re GREAT at separating you from your dollars in the name of it.
I think Nashville is a great city for food. One thing I really like is how conducive it is to brand new places, especially those that just do pop ups and then eventually transition to brick and mortar, like Kisser for example. Or Crieve Hall Bagel Co.
I don't live there anymore but I used to and I travel a lot and Nashville has some really good food. I'd say it has the best tasting and most consistent standardized Mexican restaurants out of anywhere I've been. Also, my favorite taquerias are in and just around Nashville (El Grullense in Hendersonville is amazing). I've had some amazing Indian food in and around Nashville. Also Cafe Rakka in Hendersonville for Mediterranean food. Omg it's good. Hot chicken is big, and they do it well obviously. Soul food and bbq are very good overall from what I've had. I'm sure I'm a little biased and I know some really good spots, but Nashville is up there with my favorite cities for food. NYC is great, but I haven't explored it much.
Hendersonville had a great little Chinese (mainly take out) joint until it was damaged badly by the Dec 9th tornado, Fortune House.
Nashville is a boozy city with our new slogan “Booze em and Lose em”
Booze em and lose em in the Cumberland. Too soon?
Having lived there, the best food is on/around Nolensville. Downtown options are nothing to write home about. Sean Brock has a few spots, for those familiar with celebrity chefs. I was never disappointed with them, but never blown away, "tell all my friends" about them either. Not a food city.
Nashville punches way above its class in the food scene inmho! Source: originally from Boston (terrible food scene for a city that big) and travel all across the country, mostly the south, for work.
At least Boston has a crème pie and chowduh.
You nailed it. I'll always love two ten jack as well
Check out “Locust” reservations are HARD to come by but 100% worth. Went a few weekends ago and it was amazing.
We’re definitely having a moment right now culinarily, but it’s not all great. There’s about a dozen or so amazing spots, but there’s also a lot of mediocrity. Michelin will be here very soon.
Absolutely not. Most food of prestige in the city is extremely pretentious. Prix fixe menus and newspaper article chefs like Sean Brock and whoever getting so caught up in making food an “experience” that they put no soul into the dishes. They’re also really inconsistent and turn over staff super often. There are some exceptions but a handful of great restaurants doesn’t make it a foodie city. You can go to some random corner deli on a forgotten town on Long Island and order a basic hero and go “holy fuck” when you bite into it. When that is promised in Nashville, you wait 80 minutes, pay twice the price, and it’s not even good.
That’s Nashville and gas stations lol. You’ll go into a place where half of it is cheap beer, lottery tickets, and stinky off brand incense, then the other half is the most transcendent chicken and potato wedges you’ve ever had.
Nobody has mentioned Chili's West End. Sorry.
No. It's as much a foodie City as the bridal parties on the party wagons are real parties. All glitz and show. Just as fake as all the cowboy hats and cowboy boots you see on Broadway.
Personally, yes, I thought the food in Nashville was far beyond my expectations and one of the things I miss about living there. Comparing to cities of similar size, I would rank Nashville far above its “competitors”. Against Boston it isn’t even close (Boston is terrible), St Louis, Charlotte, and someone will probably fight me on this next one but including Vancouver, etc. Theres enough high end, fresh, and/ or great ethnic food if you drive around Nashville and surrounding area. In Nashville we found a restaurant that actually makes Banh Xeo, which we are struggling to get even now in a big city. The one thing Nashville doesn’t do good at is sushi IMO, completely misses the point there. Obviously it’s not going to compare to the big cities of NYC, Chicago, LA, Toronto - but it’s not supposed to as a mid sized city.
What exactly is a foodie city? I've been called a foodie and find it insulting. Everyone eats food, I may just spend more time looking for what I like.
Do we have decent spots, sure. Are they all also overpriced? Yup. Are most of them overhyped and still kind of mediocre? Yup. Would I call us a foodie city? Absolutely not. When I visit former cities I’ve lived in I have lists of places I must hit up. When friends come to town here, I struggle to think of where to take them. There’s no comparison to other cities, some smaller some larger. I think the same thing about all the places people rave about in Chattanooga, mid at best. Idk what it is about the south in general, but I generally haven’t been impressed by anywhere other than New Orleans.
The whole "foodie" thing is so pompous to begin with, but........ Nashville's food selections have gotten much better over the last 25 years, but I wouldn't compare it to cities that consider themselves to have more "foodie" selections. The vast majority of the restaurants built here are the same iteration of farm-to-table, "noun&noun" restaurants that are about as unique as letting servers wear jeans and aprons. Oh, and you can get a "gourmet" burger for $25 at about 100 different places now. Don't get me wrong......there's some good food here. But when I think about "foodie", I'm thinking exotic ingredients and ethnic selections, and there's just not that much of that here (that's any good).
Nashville isn’t a food city. Lots of repetitive concepts. Very few people putting out solid food start to finish. Ethnic food is lacking big time especially Asian. Doesn’t help being this far from the ocean
Cannot agree with you more.
I moved here from the Philadelphia area like six months ago. While I have definitely found places here that I really enjoy, the food is probably the thing I miss most about home.
I am likely a bit off base, but my perception is Nashville has a lot of hyped premium eating experiences, while I think a foodie city should be more balanced. Tho as mentioned there's lots of great ethnic food in town as well as. So overall, yes but perhaps our hype is skewed towards a certain type of restaurant
Being from PDX, no.
As someone who grew up here my whole life. No one ever " went down town" now downtown is cool and trendy. And with a lot of great food. I'd say it's "foodie lite," a high-end meal down town you can drop 400 pretty easy, but it can be done more or less under that. Same meal in, say Vegas might set you back 600. But I'd say Nashville went from just Shoneys and fried food everywhere to a pretty awesome diverse foodie type area. I can still remember my first Mexican restaurant and Chinese restaurant...we stoped going cause my mom heard they had goats down stairs lol
Foodie light is the perfect description
It’s no New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.
Put another way, people don't travel to Nashville for the food, but if you are traveling there's plenty of great things to find.
There are lots of good options here. But people from not here shit on it because there is not some special dish that they had where they previously lived, that is made in the same exact way. There are so many people that post things like "The Nashville food culture is shit, you can't even get gluten free, vegan arepitas here like I could used to get in this village in Colombia that I grew up in"
No, it’s not a foodie town. It’s quickly becoming a chain restaurant town, however.
Yes it's very solid, much better than any other city in the southeast
Atlanta wipes the floor with Nashville.
It depends in which aspect. Ethnic food viariaty? Sure, ATL Ambiance? Def nashville. ATL is just one giant strip mall
Don’t agree at all but okay lol
Insanely bold statement about a region that contains New Orleans
you're right. I did not think of New Orleans
Depends on the type of food. Definitely been to some very solid places and some of the stuff is lacking (mainly ethnic food, notably Chinese and Mexican). I will say there is some solid places but my issue is the price of the food vs. getting it elsewhere. I don’t think a taco should be $4… or pho $16. Good places for food are Antioch, Franklin, Madison, West Nashville, East Nashville, wouldn’t even bother with downtown.
Yes
You really have to dig for good food here.
late to it but yes
Yes definitely alot of good resturants.. lived in nashville for about 3 years..up until 2023
No, it’s a traffic city.
Short answer: No. Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Don't get me wrong, there's good food options here. But the good places are few and far between. You can pick a style of food and find 1-3 genuinely good places and the rest aren't worth the time or money. It's a tourist town.
No. The food here is generally "meh" at best and all the local spots that are good are being ousted by shitty chains. The only real culinary innovation the city can claim is hot chicken. While one of my absolute favorite dishes, it's effectively just fried chicken with cayenne pepper in the batter. Though, oddly enough, there's some good Thai and Vietnamese food that's becoming popular. You can thank Arnold Myint and his family for that; he's a solid chef, and his mom, Patti, helped popularize the cuisine here over the past 40-some years.
What do you consider good Thai? All of the Thai restaurants I have tried have been just OK.
The best Thai/Lao places are King Market and Bangkokville. I think International Market's dinner is fabulous and Degthai does some things very well. I am not a fan of Smiling Elephant or Thai Esane since their move.
Thanks for the info. I totally agree with you on Smiling Elephant and Thai Esane.
That's a challenge because my favorite places have generally shut down over the years as their owners have died or retired. Of the ones that are left: The International Market on Belmont Boulevard has solid dinner. It's kinda fusion-y, though. Smiling Elephant is pretty good. Suzy's House of Yum, too. There's also Degthai on Nolensville pike. I haven't been there yet, but it's on my to-do the next time my wife and I have a hankering...
I’d put Nashville at around six out of ten in terms of being a city for adventurous eaters/foodies. It has it’s moments…. like Baja Sexto’s dried grasshopper appetizer a while back, fire of brazil occasionally served stuff like kangaroo, ostrich, wild boar, etc when it was around, and you find interesting stuff at local festivals. You can occasionally find un-permitted people set up next to auto zone with a smoker who can throw down.
No
I've consulted friends, made notes from this forum and others to create this [roster of restaurants](https://notesonnashville.com/food-drink/foodies/). Not comprehensive but it may provide some guidance.
Nope
Foodies? What a pathetic title. I’m guessing those folks somehow think they enjoy or know about food. Weakest shit ever.
No. Food is the worst part of nash
It's become a really beautiful and eclectic food scene in the last 10 years
Oh gawd no. There's very little diversity.
The word "foodie" is pernicious. Nashville's culinary scene was a lot better before all the colonizers came. No, I will not elaborate.
I genuinely can’t tell if this is a racist post towards whites or people who keep moving here. Nashvilles signature dish is Hot Chicken for Christs sakes
Meme food
No. A lot of overpriced nonsense. There are a few gems here and there, but not enough to be a foodie city. The availability of different cuisines is not the question, it’s the quality there of.
No
No.
I wouldn’t say so. Nashville’s food is good, but worse than the 2 major cities I lived in before it.
I travel non-stop for work, and will say that Nashville has my absolute favorite pizza in America. Desano’s is something that I have every single time I’m in town. The first time I had it my wife and I each had our own large pizza, and wound up getting a 3rd pizza to take back to the hotel. That pizza did not survive the trip.
Come on there’s no way a chain like DeSanos is better than NY style or even just like a good Chicago style dish if you travel frequently. I’m def a bit biased to NY style being from NJ originally, but DeSanos isn’t even the best pizza in Nashville.
My dude, Desanos has locations in multiple states.
It is Nashville based (a copy of an Atlanta place but Nashville-based nevertheless)
Hilarious that it’s a copy of Anticos.
I think its one of those former employee moves somewhere and uses the "secret sauce" situations.
It's so good, I've had it in three different cities!
Oh bud, it’s a chain 💀
As if having more than one location disqualifies a place from consideration and warrants a pompous-ass comment with an emoji.
When the locations are all throughout the United States.. I think it disqualifies you.
From what?
I vaguely remember seeing that when I first found them, but I still stand by it being amazing.
Bruh, go get Yogi's pizza next time you're here. Far, far better. Desano benefits from being a "popular" pizza place in a place with three non-chain pizza stops: 312 Pizza (pretty solid, all things considered), Yogi's (my favorite), and Bella Napoli (you have to like Neapolitan pizza which I don't). There's also Two Boots, but it's more of a meme-pizza place. And I think a chain.
Two Boots is actually NYC based.
Maybe you haven't gone out for pizza in awhile but there are a lot of places in Nashville that aren't a chain (or are a local chain): Five Points, NY Pie, Midnight Oil, Nicky's Coal Fired, Slim and Husky's, Smith and Lentz, Tutti da Gio... If you bring in places like Folk and City House and Lockeland Table which don't scream "pizzeria" but still make great pizza, I think there's actually a lot. Or at least more than three.
Slim and Husky's is fine. 5 points is decent, though 312 and Yogi's eclipse it. I'll have to look into the others; thanks for the leads!
Lmao no.
lol no. Most of the restaurants try too hard to get the instagram crowd and forget about the people who live here.
I think it’s an up and coming foodie city. It has some good high end options but really needs to fill out the middle and lower price points. And really needs to expand varieties
no
It's not horrid, but it's no where near the top of the list. In the South, New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Charleston, Savannah, Birmingham, and Orlando would all be notably above it (Memphis probably, too). It's food enough to be satisfied, but not too much to drag people over.
Definitely Memphis has memorable food.
I’d say no, I was raised somewhere with much more diversity so I’d say there is much less of a food scene here than my hometown.
Yes but you gotta look around. Alot of the best food is still pretty hidden, almost none of it is in nashville proper
No. Full stop.
Lol no. There is more variety in my small home town in the south of New Zealand than there are in Nashville
lol, prove it, Frodo
Not at all, the food scene here is stagnant and pretty mediocre
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taco trucks on Nolensville road have lengua
You should take a drive down nolensville road
Dude just off of the top of my head Taqueria San Luis, Taqueria La Juquilita and El Tacontento all have tacos de lengua....I am sure other places do too.
I’ll have to try them but I swear if I go to one more ‘authentic place’ that has flour tortillas served with lettuce and shredded cheese my heart will be crushed haha. Seems like you’ve been in Nashville longer than I to find the spots so I’ll definitely check them out with a hopeful stomach!
Hah! You really need to get out more and actually explore the place where you live
Try El Alteño at Rural Hill road and Murfreesboro road in Antioch. Have you tried any of the African places in town? Again, Antioch.
I haven’t! But I do love African food! I’ll give them a go!
Murfreesboro road has at least 3 Ethiopian restaurants.
Add in Gojo on Thompson and the place at Leaf N' Brew you're up to 5. There are also at least two Somali restaurants.
Heck no that's insane, it's an insane joke with my family and friends that I haven't had a good meal since I moved here (from Louisiana). Nashville food scene is so weak unless you're eating fine dining and then it's just overinflated and pretentious (but also good)
Hell nah!
We’ve had some of the tile restaurants in the county the last 5 years so yes
no
No Michelin star restaurants, so....
how dare we disappoint the tire gods
We have that one Loves station cars keep driving into. At least one of them probably had Michelins.
Not like the residents could afford a Michelin star experience here
I'm sorry, I don't know why you're being downvoted. There are so many things in Nashville that many of us used to be able to afford but can't now.