The Resy Hit List: Where In Nashville You’ll Want to Eat Right Now

One of the first tenants of the revitalized Neuhoff District that has converted a former meat processing facility into some of the hottest dining destinations in Nashville, Fishmonger kicked off restaurant offerings with a bang. A spin-off from a popular Atlanta seafood restaurant, Fishmonger combines the vibe of a casual seaside fish shack with stylish industrial decor that could be home to a tech startup. The menu changes frequently, but you’ll always find market oysters and smoked fish dip on offer. The dish everyone raves about is the blackened grouper sandwich, a delicate filet of fish with a spicy crust courtesy of the grill. It’s served with Fishmonger’s signature “Florida sauce,” a creamy umami-rich condiment that pairs perfectly with the fish.

This Nashville edition of Ford Fry’s Atlanta original cheekily refers to itself as a “fish camp,” but that’s selling the experience extremely short. The former warehouse features a soaring dining room, expansive outdoor patio, and a sultry upstairs cocktail lounge, hardly what you’d expect from a seafood shack. Oysters are always a wise starter choice, sourced from all around the continent and served with a set-up of saltine crackers, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, mignonette, and fresh-grated horseradish. Add some smoked fish dip, shrimp, poke, ceviche, or even a whole lobster to create a shareable platter for the table. The larger dinner menu relies on the wood-fired hearth to add a kiss of smoke to many of the fish dishes, especially those from the Gulf Coast and New England.

Stretching along Broadway on the ground floor of the luxurious Grand Hyatt, Prime + Proper acts as the front door to the newest major entertainment district in the city, Nashville Yards. Immediately upon stepping into the hallway between the reception desk and the dining room, guests understand what makes this a special steakhouse among a multitude of upscale downtown meat markets. The walls are lined with bottles of rare wines on offer. Various cuts of USDA Prime beef and imported wagyu are displayed at different points of the dry-aging process, meticulously cared for by an in-house team of talented butchers. The extra aging concentrates flavors and changes the texture of the meat to create a dining experience like no other.

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.

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.

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.

Despite the restaurant’s name, Fancypants doesn’t take itself too seriously. How can it be when it is located in a former Piggly Wiggly supermarket, and the menu states, “No dress code, but please wear pants?” The kitchen continues to evolve its service model, offering a new à la carte experience available every night, instead of just on Sundays. The prix fixe “Chef’s Full Night Out” option is still available and definitely should be considered for a hungry group. The kitchen will cover the table with their favorite dishes from the menu and top it all off with a wood-fired steak and sides for the whole crowd to share. Beyond that centerpiece slab of beef, most of the featured dishes at Fancypants are vegetable-forward and expertly prepared with culinary influences from around the globe.

Along with a few other local heroes, six-time Beard award nominee chef Daniel Lindley has been an integral part of turning the Germantown neighborhood into a dining destination when he moved here from Chattanooga to open 5th & Taylor, his homage to the traditional family Sunday supper. While some of the dishes — like cheddar biscuits, chopped salad, beer can chicken, and pot roast — read like classic Americana, 5th & Taylor gives them thoughtful, local sourcing and modern cooking techniques. The dining space adds more drama with soaring ceilings, the exposed bricks and the buttresses of the former warehouse, and a stunning statue of Nashville’s namesake, General Francis Nash, astride his horse hovering over the middle of the dining room.

From the black-and-white penny tile floor to the pressed tin ceiling and everywhere in between, this cozy Greenwood restaurant is the epitome of the Parisian bistro experience in Nashville. Tables are placed close enough together that diners can eschew the menu and choose their entrees based on what they see on nearby plates. Bistro fans can probably guess the menu anyway, since it’s filled with classics ranging from escargot and a prototypical French onion soup to entrees like beef Bourguignon and steak frites. The beverage selection skews heavily Gallic, including imported beers, classic Parisian cocktails, and a wine list that highlights the major viticultural regions of the country. A new “How We Dine in France” experience paces guests through a leisurely set menu meal with wine pairings and a few dish choices along the way.

Among the many excellent new(ish) omakase, Sushi|Bar rises to the top of the list in several ways. Restaurant staff set the mood immediately by sitting guests in a sultry, retro music lounge to enjoy a complimentary cocktail while all parties arrive for their seating. The assembled group is then whisked into a theater of culinary performance. A dozen diners sit at the bar in front of a trio of talented chefs who take everyone through a 17-course tasting of precisely cut and artfully assembled nigirizushi featuring a parade of exquisite fish. Internationally sourced from locales like Spain and New Zealand, the finest of Sushi|Bar’s ingredients hail from the world-renowned Toyosu Market in Tokyo. Beverage pairing options include Champagnes, Japanese whiskies, and rare sakes.

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.

Lockeland Table has been open for 14 years, but it fits so well into the neighborhood that it feels like it’s been anchoring its corner of the neighborhood forever. Lockeland Springs residents have frequented the building since the 1930s, through past lives as a grocery store, hair salon, and photo studio. Now they drop in for “Community Hour” for slices and snacks along with drink specials, all of which benefit the neighborhood schools. Many stick around for dinner afterwards to enjoy the empanada of the night or a pizza out of the gorgeous wood-fired grill, which is as much an art piece as a cooking vessel. The house specialty — a strip steak with garlicky chimichurri sauce — never rolls off the menu. In a wonderful new development, Lockeland Table now serves pop-up lunches the first Friday of every month.

This West Side bistro has been a neighborhood anchor for nearly 20 years, pairing breezy hospitality with a serious commitment to the craft of running a hyper-seasonal, environmentally conscientious restaurant. The former butcher shop has been converted into a lovely dining spot with alfresco options and a standalone barn for special events like wine classes taught by the brilliant beverage staff or special dinners that focus on sustainable seafood, underutilized ingredients, whole-animal cookery, items from the restaurant’s gardens, and other intentional efforts that Miel undertakes to minimize waste while maximizing the flavors on the menu. Most diners probably don’t realize that they are doing good by eating well at Miel, which is precisely the point.

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January, the signature restaurant at Southall Farm & Inn, is the epitome of “seed-to-fork” philosophy in Middle Tennessee. The kitchen ensures resort guests and visiting diners feel the connection to the surrounding 325-acre estate that contributes ingredients to the daily-changing menu. Chefs consult weekly harvest logs to create new dishes based on the freshest ingredients from Southall’s gardens, greenhouses, and orchards. What the Michelin Green Star-winning kitchen can’t produce on site, they source as locally as possible, including honey, heritage vegetables, and proteins purchased from within a short drive away. Diners can experience this seasonal focus through a refined multi-course tasting menu or curated à la carte options, often served within view of the fields and gardens where the ingredients originated.

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It can be difficult to stand out in the already crowded restaurant scene in the rapidly growing Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood, but Pastis became an anchor tenant in the former May Hosiery Mill building the minute the front door was opened. Recreating a Parisian Metro vibe thanks to hundreds of subway tiles alongside classic bistro ambiance like a zinc bar, tin ceiling tiles, inviting banquettes, and hand-painted mirrors, Pastis transports diners to France by way of Manhattan. The menu is also filled with bangers — a craveable steak sandwich served on French bread with caramelized onions and melted Gruyère for lunch, and all the frites (steak, mussels, and lobster) for dinner. For a landlocked state, the Tennessee outpost of Pastis features excellent seafood, from oysters, scallops, and tuna on the appetizer list to trout, salmon, and branzino as main dishes.

Tony and Caroline Galzin have been restaurant pioneers in The Nations neighborhood for more than a decade, and they have worked hard to ensure that Nicky’s Coal Fired remains a community hub for families and visitors to the growing culinary destination that has grown up around them. They earn their customers’ loyalty through a fanatical commitment to hospitality and quality, especially in the form of those beautiful blistered crusts on the pizzas that emerge from the massive infernal 800° coal-fired pizza oven that Tony named “Enrico” after his great-grandfather, who immigrated to America from the Lazio region of Italy. Additional nods to the old country include an impressive variety of amari and Italian wines to accompany more than a dozen pizza options and housemade pasta dishes.

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