Eat your way around Nashville

Just say “Nashville,” and a few words likely come to mind. Music? Sure. Hot chicken? Probably. Bachelorette parties? You better believe it. But Music City’s roots run deeper and the flavor options span wider than ever before, thanks to restaurants opening faster than a bachelorette can say “woo.”

I wasn’t raised in Nashville—I’m from just about 90 miles south, over the Alabama line—but my family’s roots run deep below the Tennessee soil. I started a food blog 15 years ago when I moved away to Dallas on a whim (what was I thinking?). But seven years ago, I found my way back to Nashville to be closer to family (it’s a story straight out of a country song). I have been fully on fire with the city’s culinary glow-up ever since. Here are some of the current highlights.

Housed in a former church with soaring ceilings and original windows in East Nashville—my favorite food neighborhood—is Bad Idea. Don’t let the name fool you, because getting a reservation here is one of the best ideas I made in the last year. In a town bubbling with new openings, Colby Rasavong (a 2022 StarChefs Rising Chef Award recipient) and advanced sommelier Alex Burch are shaking things up with French-accented Laos-inspired food and a diverse, 3,000-bottle wine list housed in a custom cellar. The star of the show is the splurgy Norwegian King crab feast, which requires seven days notice and an up-front deposit to prepare. It’s a family-style four-course dinner with crab-centric dishes like fried crab knuckles, steamed crab legs, crab chawanmushi, and crab rice that serves four people (or more). Yes, please.

What to order: Start with small plates like pain perdu (an indulgent couple of bites slathered with Kaya jam and caviar), a vegan-friendly soup (layered with sunchoke, apple butter, and black sesame), or a scallop-stuffed crepe with nam prik (which provides a pleasant punch of spice). Shareable mains come with all the fixings—the “Pad Pa” fried red snapper is a crowd favorite. My next goal? That Norwegian King crab feast.

Many longtime locals lament the old Nashville that went away during the boom of the two thousand teen years, when the city crept up the charts as a top-ranking worldwide tourist destination. I miss the old Nashville, too, but I welcome the new restaurant options (while also crying about some that have disappeared). Chef Philip Krajeck’s Rolf & Daughters combines the best of both worlds. It opened in 2012, bringing an exciting new industrial-chic vibe to Germantown (before the masses moved in). But it has also stood the test of time with crowd-pleasing dishes that highlight whole-animal butchery, seasonal produce, and rustic pastas.

What to order: Open with the sourdough bread slathered in seaweed butter, then snag a few small plates. Current standouts include the radicchio with mandarin, yuzu, turnip, and blue cheese or the dry-aged beef tartare (a surprising take on the classic, stepped up with stracciatella and beech mushroom). A couple of my main dish favorites: the sage-spiced agnolotti with squash and brown butter (plus a cheese-lover’s approved dose of aged Parmesan) or the pastured chicken, topped with preserved lemon and garlic confit. It could almost make you forget that this town does fried and hot chicken so well. Almost.

In this town, you can throw a hot buttered biscuit and find a honky-tonk, concert, or live music in some form—which I love—but for something a little bit different I submit to you Bar Continental, from Appalachian-born celebrity chef Sean Brock, who played a major role in spinning Nashville’s dining scene into the culinary destination that it is today. With his latest passion project, Bar Continental, Brock takes the phrase “sound bar” to the next level as he goes beyond his laser focus on Southern food and ingredients (reserve a table at June or Audrey for that). This no-reservations, Japanese-inspired, kissa-style listening room is just a short stroll from the city’s bright-light studded honky-tonk strip and checks all of the boxes for a great night out in Nashville. The food here is as pure and lovely as the sound, with different “playlists” (as they call the menus) on tap every day.

What to order: The oysters, whatever the preparation, will be good. Specials rotate on a nightly basis: Currently, you’ll find half-price burgers on Mondays, beef stroganoff on Tuesdays, wing night on Wednesdays, Tokyo pizza night on Thursdays (with some of the best pizza you’ll find in the city), and steak au poivre on Fridays.

At Peninsula Nashville—a 38-seat East Nashville restaurant that reminds me of my college summer abroad in Spain—the natural light and romantic painted tile bar will transport you from the streets of Nashville to the Iberian Peninsula. It’s a tapas-type experience with a gin and tonic menu that provides eight unique options that just might make even the most skeptical a fan. The best move is to order one of everything, along with a G&T or a carefully chosen wine pairing. For a solo dinner, I love to snag the corner seat at the bar, but when it comes to a date night, I go for one of the small, intimate tables.

What to order: The menu changes, but there’s always a broth to begin with (from tomato-jammy broths to a maitake one with pine notes). For an easily shared meal, look to the traditional Spanish tortilla or the octopus du jour. In tomato season, there’s a flavor-packed tomato-studded toast that is truly life-changing.

Let’s start here with breakfast, y’all. If you’ve got biscuits on the brain during your time in Music City, there are likely a couple ultra-popular (and also, solid) places you happened upon at first Google. But for a locals hang that’s potentially less brimming with fringe-dripped bachelorettes, cross over the Cumberland River to East Nashville’s no-frills diner, Nashville Biscuit House. This Southern food spot gives me all of the nostalgia from the kitschy walls to the familiar flavors, taking me right back to my grandmother’s dining room table after church on Sundays growing up in Alabama. It’s open Thursday to Monday and serves breakfast all day, so no worries if last night got a little out of hand on Lower Broadway. A proper breakfast (and maybe some IV fluids) always has me back in my cowboy boots (yes, I’m a proud boots wearing local) in no time.

Note: There is a drive-thru lane, but don’t expect fast food service, just homestyle comfort food in the convenience of your car while you plug into your morning meeting or favorite Nashville playlist.

What to order: The biscuits and sausage gravy, which come balanced for a proper Southern smother ratio and just the right kick from the sausage. French toast here might look run of the mill, but it’s light and very good. The country fried steak and homefry bowl are also solid orders.

A few years back when TV host and Momofuku chef-restaurateur David Chang took a deep dive into this city’s iconic fiery fowl, he said that the hot chicken at Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish made him hallucinate. For me, it was the first and only hot chicken to make me cry (and I have a high heat tolerance). The hot chicken recipe is said to come from a departed forefather of the fiery fowl process, Bolton Polk. After Polk’s passing, his nephew, Bolton Matthews, carried on his name and his hot chicken recipe, opening Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish in 1997. It’s still done consistently well today, even since owner Bolton Matthews passed in 2021. His wife, Dollye, continues to honor his legacy of spreading the gospel of hot chicken alongside ribs, fish, and Southern (also some spicy) sides in this no-frills East Nashville space.

What to order: Get the hot chicken (or catfish) set to your preferred heat level. My advice—stick with medium or below unless you’ve really been training for a hot chicken gauntlet. The sides are also stars here, with mouth-cooling potato salad, baked beans, and mac and cheese.

I know what you’re thinking: Nashville is landlocked, why is she sending us for seafood? But hear me out. There’s some island flair at Red Perch, a fast-casual seafood spot from husband-and-wife duo Cameron and Nicole Payne, who met and married in Hawaii before making Nashville home. It’s comforting, coastal casual cuisine that will keep you coming back in any season.

What to order: The fish and chips are worth the trip, but I’m also a fan of the fish filet, juicy cheeseburger, poke bowls, soul-warming clam chowder, and Nicole’s family recipe for lumpia.

Better yet: Bring a friend or grab a takeout box, and just order one of everything.

At Robert’s Honky-Tonk Grill, life feels simpler, even amid the Lower Broadway madness—as long as you can snag a seat at a table or a spot at the bar. No table or booth reservations here (nor free parking, so catch a rideshare). The bar menu is small yet solid. Besides, I think everything tastes better with a side of genuine Nashville talent and people-watching.

What to order: Go for the famous and wallet-friendly Recession Special—a fried bologna sandwich, chips, Moon Pie, and an ice cold PBR for just $6. The 100% Angus beef burgers are also a solid move, as are the standard bar bites like the basket of cheese curds or onion rings.