The Resy Hit List: Where In Nashville You’ll Want to Eat in March 2026
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There’s no question we hear more often: Where should I go eat? And while we at Resy know it’s an honor to be the friend who everyone asks for restaurant advice, we also know it’s a complicated task. That’s where the Resy Hit List comes in.
Consider it your essential resource for dining in Nashville: a monthly-updated guide to the restaurants that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Three Things In Nashville Not to Miss This Month
- Butcher & Bee Resets: After a decade of success, Butcher & Bee is not resting on their laurels. The dining room has gotten a new coat of paint, better lighting, updated furniture, and most dramatically, a completely rebuilt back bar featuring custom cabinetry from a local craftsman. The Mediterranean- and Middle Eastern-inspired menu has been updated too. Maintaining an emphasis on vegetables, the kitchen reaches to new regions for inspiration, resulting in dishes like green garlic chimichurri on fried potato cash rolls. Adventurous diners can try the “Roll the Dice With Spice” game of culinary risk: a plate of bite-sized spanakopita tarts comes to the table — and one of them packs an extra-spicy punch.
- How Music City Does Brunch: Nashville is known as Music City, USA, and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development has just launched an initiative called “Tennessee Sound Bites” to promote the important bonds between music and the culinary arts. So it definitely makes sense that Ella’s by Christian Petroni, located in the Hyatt Centric, has started a new Live Music Brunch series every Saturday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Enjoy performances by local tunesmiths while dining on ricotta pancakes, tiramisu French toast sticks, prosciutto Benedict, eggs in purgatory, and more.
- Midday Meal at Audrey: Chef Sam Jett of Audrey has brought lunch service back to his Appalachian-inspired East Nashville restaurant, refining the menu to offer exciting new dishes separate from dinner and brunch offerings. Seasonal ingredients are at the forefront of most dishes, and interesting fermentation techniques offer a nod to traditional Appalachian food preparation methods. Tangy fermented and grilled bread with pumpkin butter is a delightful way to kick off the meal. Small vegetable-forward plates can be combined to create a meat-free meal or shared as family-style side dishes for the table. Live-fire cooking takes center stage, featuring proteins such as flank steak, trout, barbecued chicken, and a popular cheeseburger grilled over hickory wood. Housemade root beer steeped from burdock root and sarsaparilla makes for a refreshing beverage option or the base of a root beer float for dessert.
New to the Hit List (March 2026)
Butchertown Hall, Halls Catch, Sadie’s, Two Ten Jack.
1. Pastis – Nashville Wedgewood-Houston
Years after the first rumors of a planned Nashville outpost of the famous NYC bistro, the dream has become a reality. The ambiance is boisterous and buzzy, with the sounds of contented diners and clattering forks bouncing off the subway tiles and tin ceiling. Tables are set close together to magnify the convivial vibe, as diners inspect nearby meals to decide what to order from the list of bistro classics. Oysters are always a good choice for starters, served with spicy cocktail sauce and tangy mignonette. From there, pick from Parisian standbys like a croque monsieur or madame, steak frites with your choice of beef cuts, salade Niçoise or a trio of excellent fish options: trout amandine, grilled branzino, or salmon served with a beurre blanc.
2. Fancypants East Nashville
Although the team at Fancypants recently celebrated their first anniversary since opening in 2024, they haven’t lost any of their sense of humor. The restaurant’s website still reads: “No dress code. Wear pants.” The mostly vegetable-centric menu still gently pokes fun at pretentious fine dining traditions, and the option remains to add “chef’s big ass wood grilled steak” to a selection of the kitchen’s current favorites to create a unique dining experience. Most diners opt for some variation of the tasting menu, but on Sundays, the kitchen offers more á la carte options to allow for experimentation. A well-curated list of wines by the glass, beers by the can, and whimsical cocktails complement a visit to Fancypants.
3. Sadie's Edgehill Village
Tucked away in Edgehill Village between the tourist corridors of Midtown, 12 South, and Music Row, Sadie’s is popular with both local diners and informed visitors. The quirky details of the interior design include mismatched light fixtures and tables set close together to create a homey vibe. Small mezze plates of Mediterranean classics are easy to combine into a grazing lunch or as appetizers to complement a large-format dinner dish like braised lamb shank or whole roasted chicken. The popular weekend brunch augments Sadie’s usual Middle Eastern lunch offerings with classic breakfast sandwiches, avocado toast, and egg dishes. A full bar adds a little extra festivity to the meal thanks to creative cocktails and thoughtfully crafted mocktails.
4. Philippe Chow Nashville Nashville
Food is theatre at Philippe Chow, the latest outpost of the NYC-based, Beijing-inspired restaurant. From the iconic Peking duck carved tableside with pancakes and plum sauce to the grand presentation of a torched baked Alaska, dinner here is a feast for your senses. Guests dress to impress, lest they be overshadowed by the opulent interior of the architecturally stunning dining space. The private dining room is particularly impressive, and if it’s not booked on busy nights, management opens it up for overflow seating. Known for superior service and hospitality, this is an excellent option for celebratory dining or any occasion you want to make a little more special.
5. Drusie & Darr by Jean-Georges Downtown
Nashville is blessed with many impressive hotel restaurants, but none continue to resonate with locals quite like like Drusie & Darr at the Hermitage Hotel. Jean-Georges Vongerichten is a master at creating cuisine that combines seemingly humble dishes such as a simple egg salad on toast with upgrades like a heaping dollop of caviar sourced from Petrossian especially for his restaurant empire. Wood-fired pizzas benefit from local produce toppings and luxury ingredients like black truffle or manchego cheese imported from Spain. The dining area is accented with pastels and jewel tones, and the dramatic vaulted arches of the rathskeller design focus the sounds of conversations at individual tables.
6. Two Ten Jack – Nashville East Nashville
In addition to being one of the best ramen spots in town, Two Ten Jack is notable for introducing the Japanese izakaya pub experience to Nashville. The word literally translates to “stay-drink-place,” and the menu is designed to lead diners through leisurely enjoyment of beers, highball cocktails, wine, and sake paired with small bites like blistered shishito peppers or dumplings followed by bento boxes built around kushiyaki skewers cooked over infernally-hot Binchōtan charcoal, or poke over steamed rice. A bowl of savory steaming ramen is the natural conclusion to the menu progression, but carb lovers can opt instead for a chasu donburi finale with crispy pork belly over steamed rice.
7. Butcher & Bee – Nashville East Nashville
Butcher & the Bee sits at a fascinating crossroads between time-honored Southern food and Middle Eastern cuisine, emphasizing locally-sourced seasonal ingredients accented with deeply flavorful international spices. Drawing on ancient traditions of many cultures, “The Bee” (as many fans call it) manages to create something entirely modern. A seat at the large chef’s bar offers a peek behind the curtain to see talented staff members carefully prepping and cooking individual dishes, and it’s a more entertaining show than most sporting events in Nashville lately. The whipped feta and fermented honey dip is a creamy, tangy, sweet, and savory masterpiece of an appetizer that is a non-negotiable must-try. In fact, clever diners sometimes craft an entire meal out of nothing but the dips and small plates. And we salute them.
8. Halls Catch Midtown
Scrupulously adhering to a freshness rule demanding a 48-hour limit from the ocean to the plate, Halls Catch changes up the menu frequently based on the availability of the best ingredients. The vast variety of seafood presentations represents a global reach by the kitchen, from elegant sushi and crudo raw dishes to a Southern fish sandwich and shrimp & grits, to a classic New England butter-poached lobster roll. Inspired by their landlubber neighbors and corporate cousins at Halls Chophouse, the restaurant also features A5 Japanese wagyu, tender filets, and a massive cowboy rib eye. Based out of Charleston, both Halls restaurants are steeped in Southern hospitality and high-touch service. Live music in the lounge every night (except Sundays) augments the ambiance during dinner service.
9. 1 Kitchen Nashville SoBro
“Luxury sustainability” is the guiding principle of the 1 Hotel in SoBro, and this belief that guests can feel pampered without leaving too big of an impact on the planet extends into the property’s signature restaurant, 1 Kitchen. Under the guidance of former “Top Chef” contestant Chris Crary, local and seasonal fare rule, yielding dishes with more than 75% of the ingredients sourced from within 200 miles. A monthly “Supper that Sustains Us” series recognizes the specific growers, foragers, ranchers, and purveyors behind the menu and features them in highlight dishes. Vegans and vegetarians have plenty of choices alongside American wagyu beef and pasture-raised lamb for avowed carnivores. “Luxury” also extends to a list of rare whiskeys available by the pour that rivals any collection in town.
10. Tantísimo Nashville
What happens when a Californian with Mexican heritage meets a Nashvillian while they’re both working in the kitchen of one of the most acclaimed restaurants in the country? In the case of Ana Aguilar and Josh Cook, they combined the dedication to local ingredients they learned from their time at Husk with their passion for Latin flavors to create Tantísimo. Aguilar’s family recipes are the basis for many dishes on the menu, accented by influences from across Latin America. The restaurant sources from local farmers and purveyors to create four seasonal menus per year. The self-proclaimed “Mexicana-owned Spanglish Shop” operates as a cafe for breakfast and lunch before transforming into a sultry spot for shared plates and creative cocktails in the evening.
11. The Southern Steak & Oyster SoBro
Forget your preconceived notions of “Southern food” when you enter the front door of this popular SoBro steak and seafood restaurant. The menu hops borders to showcase the commonalities and differences between regions that fit within the restaurant’s motto of “South of Somewhere.” Texas barbecue and steaks are cooked over hickory on a live fire wood grill. A different sort of barbecue makes an appearance in the form of a Worcestershire and butter sauce served over New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp. Other regional cuisines featured on the menu include Latin American, Lowcountry, and Gulf Coast seafood dishes. A rotating selection of “shucked-to-order” oysters from ports around the South ensure the freshest possible options for slurping.
12. Redheaded Stranger McFerrin Park
There must be something really special for a humble Tex-Mex taqueria to earn Bib Gourmand recognition from Michelin, but the almost constant line of people waiting on the sidewalk to get into the Stranger suggests there is definitely magic happening inside the diminutive diner. The vibrant dining room buzzes with guests enjoying creative crunchwraps, tacos with housemade flour tortillas, and delightfuly messy green chile cheeseburgers courtesy of chef/owner Bryan Lee Weaver, the culinary mind behind Nashville fine-dining faves Butcher & Bee and Fancypants. The cozy outdoor patio adorned with strings of hanging red pepper lights completes the vibe and makes for an ideal spot to share some well-crafted margaritas and an order of tater tot nachos with friends.
No reservations. Find more info here.
13. Lockeland Table Lockeland Springs, East Nashville
Few restaurants capture the soul of their neighborhood like Lockeland Table. Always a popular gathering spot for Lockeland Springs residents, the restaurant especially comes alive during “Community Hour,” where locals catch up and a portion of the proceeds supports area schools. Those staying for dinner are treated to Southern staples with international accents like a NY strip steak finished with chimichurri or crispy pork belly paired with soy-chile green beans. After years of mastering wood-fired pizzas, the kitchen has decided to mix things up a little bit by pausing their pies while they play with new dishes in the oven, offering a kiss of smoke and fire to new options like chicken wings, scampi-style oysters, and even French onion soup.
14. Husk Nashville Rutledge Hill
Since first opening in 2013, Husk has been home to a procession of several executive chefs who each have put their own spin on the restaurant’s philosophy of farm-to-table evangelism. The fact that the food has remained uniformly excellent through all those years and leadership changes stems from the consistent overarching commitment to Southern ingredients and an imaginative mash-up of Lowcountry cuisine and down-home country cooking. The constantly changing “Plate of Southern Vegetables” menu item is often the highlight of the menu, featuring produce at the absolute peak of freshness and ripeness. Whether as a shareable set of side dishes for the table or a standalone entree to keep for yourself, that particular order represents Husk’s soul on a platter.
15. Butchertown Hall Germantown
The famous barbecue traditions of the Hill Country region of Texas arose from German roots as part of a large migration of immigrants seeking refuge from political unrest and religious persecution during the middle of the 1800s. Some of these new Texans were former butchers, and the best Hill Country joints still sell spicy smoked sausages and smoked meats on grease-stained sheets of butcher paper. Butchertown Hall combines the influences of European beer halls with Texas smokehouses to great effect. Proper smoked brisket is a rare find in Middle Tennessee, but they do it right at Butchertown Hall, and it appears as a nacho topping, stuffed into housemade tortillas as tacos, or sold by the pound.
16. Mercado Wedgewood-Houston
From the team behind Nashville favorites Butchertown Hall and Liberty Common, Mercado draws influences from its sister restaurants in the best of ways. The “Texas meets Baja” gestalt of Butchertown appears here in the form of homemade tortillas, craveworthy queso, small-batch guacamole, and entrees grilled over live fire ranging from 30-day aged rib eye fajitas to salmón asado. The 12-hour oak-smoked beef brisket is a particular standout. The casual elegance of Liberty Common is evident in the vibe of Mercado’s fourth-floor oyster bar, Ramone’s. The open deck perched high above the burgeoning Wedgewood-Houston area offers sweeping vistas of the neighborhood stretching all the way to the downtown skyline. Now enclosed for comfort during the winter, it’s always oyster season at Ramone’s.
17. Miel Restaurant & Bar West Nashville
Whether you’re enjoying a cocktail and a special off the happy hour menu at the popular marble bar or ordering a bottle of wine off one of the best-curated lists in town to accompany a meal of farm-fresh fare, it’s hard to believe that this restaurant was once a neighborhood butcher shop. The kitchen has a particular facility with seafood, often featuring less familiar fish that don’t show up on many menus. With advance notice, Miel also offers large-format dishes like roasted pig’s head or a full bone-in rib loin along with special curated dinners like personalized seafood boils. A private standalone dining space called “The Barn” is home to frequent wine classes and special thematic dinners.
Book now on Tock.
18. Audrey McFerrin Park
After the departure of founding chef Sean Brock, many wondered whether Audrey would maintain his previous focus on rustic Appalachian-inspired food. With the naming of long-time Brock kitchen lieutenant Sam Jett to the role of executive chef, the East Nashville restaurant remains in steady hands. Jett’s culinary interests are rooted in Appalachia, as are those of new general manager Hannah LaFary, who focused on the region as part of her rural sociology studies. Audrey’s menu continues to evolve seasonally and intentionally at brunch, lunch, and dinner to ensure that frequent diners can find new discoveries on every visit. The menu of ingredient-driven dishes specifically calls out the farmers and purveyors who are integral to Audrey’s success, and the kitchen shows great respect for their beloved suppliers.
19. Kisser East Nashville
Waits of up to an hour are a testament to the popularity of Kisser, a tiny Japanese newcomer in Cleveland Park. Hungry diners happily line up before the restaurant’s lunch-only service begins, eager for a taste of its celebrated cuisine. Husband-and-wife chef team Brian Lea and Leina Horii work with masterful precision in the kitchen, elevating Japanese comfort food to a whole new level. Rice dishes, salads, noodles, and a chicken katsu sandwich on toasted milk bread are all standouts, but the spectacular Japanese Breakfast is the perfect showcase of the chefs’ talents. This dish features miso-marinated fish, three different vegetables, a rolled omelet, soup, and furikake rice, and is only available on the weekend.
No reservations. Find more information here.
20. Fonda on 12th – Nashville 12 South
For many years, New York City was the only home to chef Roberto Santibañez’s acclaimed Fonda restaurants. Nashville became the lucky first city outside of New York to welcome a new location, a group that has since expanded to include a fifth restaurant in the trendy Ginza District of Tokyo. Santibañez’s menus reflect both the seasonality and regionality of Mexican cuisine. Small plates encourage experimentation, including a surprising variety of seafood dishes for a landlocked state, and the specialty of the house is a list of homestyle baked enchiladas. Those delightful enchiladas also appear during brunch service alongside egg dishes like migas and chilaquiles divorciados, so you can enjoy them at almost any time of day.
