With CMA Fest descending upon Nashville, and the road to
Bonnaroo passing through Music City, we figured it's as good a time
as any to release our revised and updated list of Nashville's
best restaurants. Whether you're into line dancing or noodling,
a believer in Faith Hill or St. Vincent, we can all agree upon
eating locally, right? With no lack of culinary talent in town
and new restaurants popping up everywhere from Downtown to
Murfreesboro, Franklin, Clarksville and East Nashville, it was no
easy task narrowing down our favorites and shuffling the category
winners. Without further ado, here is our list of the
Top 100 Nashville restaurants. New additions to the Top 100
(not necessarily new restaurants) include The
Catbird Seat, Giovanni, Gojo
Ethiopian, Kayne
Prime, The
Smiling Elephant, Suzy
Wong's,
Table 3, Tavern,
Bolton's,
The Pharmacy, and PS Noodle
Pot.
Other fantastic newcomers capturing our attention and appetites
of late include Edley's
Bar-B-Q (bushwhackers and bbq, oh my!), AM@FM, Gloria's
Korean Kitchen, Pepperfire,
Urban
Grub,
The Southern and
Jim's Original Coney Island.
(dolsot bi bim bap from Gloria's
Kitchen)
All in all it's been an eventful year in Nashville dining. We've
witnessed the arrival of possibly the most ambitious restaurant the
city has ever seen in The
Catbird Seat, which was named one of GQ's
10 Best New Restaurants in America. Along with The Catbird
Seat, City
House and the
Capitol Grille garnered James Beard nominations. A few
scattered food
trucks have transformed into a veritable fleet, serving
everything from cheese-stuffed gourmet burgers to jambalaya, hot
chicken and Korean bbq tacos. East Nashville continues to gain
momentum with the likes of Five
Points Pizza and Nashville's finest beer garden at
The Pharmacy. As the dining scene grows more diverse and
ambitious while diners become more adventurous, it's still
reassurring that enthusiasm for hot chicken and the meat 'n threes
remains as steady as ever, if not increased.
Hot Hen from Fleet
Street Pub
Spicy Lo Mein from PS Noodle
Pot