The Resy Hit List: Where In Nashville You’ll Want to Eat Right Now
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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
- The Mother of All Brunches: For all the things the mother figure in your life did for you, say thanks with a reservation for a nice brunch on May 10 for Mother’s Day. There’s still time to score seats at places she’ll love, like 1 Kitchen, which will feature multiple buffet stations plus live jazz and a DJ, or City Winery, where the buffet will be accompanied by a mimosa bar. It’ll be “pinkies out” at White Limozeen for their special mother/daughter high tea service, complete with a department store-style photo session. Halls Catch and the Hermitage Hotel will also offer special brunches, with the former featuring a raw bar and a sushi station, plus optional bottomless bloody marys and mimosas, while the latter leans into timeless elegance with chef carving stations and live music.
- Changing of the Guard: Celebrity chef Christian Peroni is still the culinary inspiration behind Ella’s on 2nd in SoBro, but day-to-day operations at the cozy Italian spot in The Hyatt Centric have a new experienced hand at the helm: acclaimed chef Zane Dearien, previously of Pastaria. We’re looking forward to Dearien’s brand of “heritage soul fire cooking” using regionally-sourced seasonal ingredients, thus adding a new layer of inspiration to the spring menu at Ella’s.
- Bogotá Comes to Nashville: Usually, Sushi | Bar welcomes a dozen diners at a time into one of their intimate dining rooms for an interactive omakase experience where the meal is as much theater as it is a culinary treat. The proximity of the chefs to the diners makes the restaurant a wonderful place to showcase the talents of guest chef Álvaro Clavijo from El Chato, the #1 rated spot on the list of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants. The Bogotá-based chef will offer three seatings a night on May 18 and May 19 for a “a chef-led, close-range experience.” Guests are invited into a space where the line between kitchen and dining room disappears, and each dish is presented with clarity, intention, and presence. Reservations are only available through Resy for Monday and Tuesday night, so don’t get left out in the cold and miss out on this hot night of Colombian cuisine.
New to the Hit List (May 2026)
Mangia Nashville, Nicky’s Coal Fired, The Treehouse, Two Hands Nashville.
1. Henley Midtown
Henley’s design is inspired by the refined hospitality of a traditional Southern manor, beginning with a sidewalk patio that serves as a modern interpretation of a classic veranda. The bar program is a key focus, featuring single-barrel whiskeys and craft cocktails. In the main dining room, the modern American brasserie menu offers fun takes on Southern cuisine, integrating regional staples with global techniques and seasonal ingredients. For private events, a clubby snooker room provides an intimate, versatile space at the rear of the restaurant. For a unique experience, take a trip down the Rabbit Hole, a semi-private chef’s table tucked behind a concealed bookshelf door.
2. Fishmonger Neuhoff Nashville
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.
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. The Treehouse East Nashville
The menu at The Treehouse is as whimsical as the eclectic thrift store decor elements that add charm to the quintessential East Nashville hangout. And by whimsical, we mean that the kitchen is liable to make up a dish on the spot based on whatever fun ingredients came through the back door of the kitchen that day or depending on the mood of whoever’s doing the cooking. Bold flavors are the unifying constant, with creative plating as the final flourish on every dish. Fun cocktails and generous happy hour pricing make it a popular spot for hospitality workers, so you may see the person who served you lunch somewhere else earlier sitting next to you at the bar for dinner.
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. Mangia Nashville 8th South/Melrose
Often, Italian dining in Nashville feels overly formal and stuffy; at the other end of the spectrum, sometimes it’s just reheated fried cutlets covered with red sauce and Parm. Mangia chef and owner Nick Pellegrino has a much appreciated third way, bringing the joy of a raucous family dinner to his weekly service at Mangia Nashville, where the strangers who were seated next to you might become the caboose of the joyful conga line the chef leads, serpentining around the dining room between courses. This doesn’t mean the chef isn’t serious about his seasonal Italian cooking; he just wants to make sure guests have fun while they’re enjoying his food! At the end of six courses, you’re bound to leave with a smile on your face, some extra spring in your step, and a to-go box filled with zeppoles.
11. Two Hands Nashville The Gulch
In a city where breakfast can often be the heaviest meal of the day, Two Hands has introduced the wonderful finesse of Australian cafe culture. In addition to a fantastic selection of specialty coffee drinks, the menu at this breezy bar/restaurant changes from hour to hour, progressing from sweet pastries and a transcendent smashed avocado toast with pickled shallots and Fresno chiles for “brekky” to healthy veggie and protein bowls for lunch and an internationally-inspired dinner menu of main dishes. If the entire table is game, a prix-fixe dinner option allows diners to pick between multiple apps, mains, and desserts to create their own three-course experience.
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. January Franklin
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.
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. Nicky’s Coal Fired The Nations
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.
Book now on Tock.
20. Boqueria – Nashville Downtown Nashville
Inspired by the traditional markets in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas, Boqueria offers a sophisticated social dining experience at the Fifth + Broadway retail and entertainment complex. The menu features a diverse range of tapas, from citrus-marinated olives and classic tortilla Española to elevated plates like crispy brussels sprouts tossed in a jamón Ibérico vinaigrette. For larger groups, the restaurant provides prix fixe “Feast” menus and seasonal seafood paellas. A specialized pre-theater menu features quick-fired dishes to accommodate diners attending performances at the nearby Ryman Auditorium, Bridgestone Arena, or the newly opened Pinnacle. Whether visiting for a cocktail at the central bar or a full culinary tour of the Iberian Peninsula, guests find a stimulating atmosphere that bridges Spanish tradition with Nashville’s downtown energy.
