Delicious - Nashville 2025

These would be the best restaurants in most American cities. Nashville just has five that are better.

The DAF list is five restaurants. This one is thirteen. The gap between them is real — none of these are here by default, and a few have earned their way up and back down over time, which is how a living rating system works. Rolf and Daughters has been one of the most consistent restaurants in Nashville for years and still doesn't get enough credit for it. Folk does something with a wood-fired oven that most places can't replicate with a full kitchen. Henrietta Red remains the definitive version of what it set out to be. Husk has had its ups and downs but is back operating at a level that earns its place here. Yolan is the most underrated fine dining room in the city. Tailor is one of Nashville's most creative and technically accomplished restaurants — Vivek Surti's Indian-rooted tasting menu is unlike anything else in this market. If a restaurant is on this list, it's worth planning around. That's the bar. Everything here clears it.

Babychan

Germantown
$$
Cafe, Japanese
Delicious

Babychan is a Japanese-French all-day bakery and café in Germantown from the team behind Kisser — technique-driven pastries, milk bread, katsu sandos, Japanese lattes, and one of the most exciting daytime concepts to open in Nashville.

babychan

City House

Germantown
$$
Italian, Modern American, Pizza
Delicious

City House is Tandy Wilson's Germantown restaurant — Italian technique, Southern ingredients, in-house charcuterie, wood-fired pizza, and a place that has been shaping Nashville's food identity for over a decade.

city-house

Folk

East Nashville
$$$$
Modern American, Pizza, Wine Bar
Delicious

Folk is a Michelin Recommended wood-fired pizza and pasta restaurant in East Nashville from the team behind Rolf and Daughters — perfectly blistered sourdough pies, handmade pasta, natural wines, and a room that has become one of the neighborhood's defining experiences.

folk

Henrietta Red

Germantown
$$$
Oyster Bar, Seafood, Southern
Delicious

Henrietta Red is Julia Sullivan's oyster bar and seasonal restaurant in Germantown — one of Nashville's most important chefs running a vegetable-forward kitchen alongside one of the city's best raw bars.

henrietta-red

Husk

SoBro
$$$
Fried Chicken, Modern American, Southern
Delicious

Husk is Sean Brock's Southern cooking restaurant in SoBro — every ingredient must come from the South, and the result is some of the most ingredient-serious, heritage-driven cooking in Nashville.

husk

Kase x Noko

East Nashville
Fusion, Japanese, Omakase, Sushi
Delicious

Kase x Noko is an intimate omakase bar in East Nashville from the Noko team — Japanese-focused with torched salmon, uni, toro hand rolls, and an electric green pandan cocktail in the smallest bar in Tennessee.

kase

Noko

East Nashville
$$
Fusion, Japanese, Modern American
Delicious

Noko is a wood-fired Japanese-Southern small plates restaurant in East Nashville — robata cooking, precise raw preparations, a strong sake and whisky program, and some of the most focused Japanese-influenced cooking in the city.

noko

Pastis

Wedgewood-Houston
$$$
French
Delicious

Pastis is the Nashville outpost of Keith McNally's iconic New York French bistro — red banquettes, zinc bar, steak frites, moules marinières, and a room built to make every night feel like a Tuesday in Paris.

pastis

Rolf and Daughters

Germantown
$$$
Italian, Modern American, Pasta, Pizza
Delicious

Rolf and Daughters is Philip Krajeck's Michelin Recommended Germantown pasta and small plates restaurant — handmade pasta with serious texture, wood-fired dishes, one of Nashville's best wine lists, and a restaurant that has been shaping the city's serious dining identity for over a decade.

rolf-and-daughters

The Patterson House

The Gulch
$$$
Cocktail Bar
Delicious

The Patterson House is Nashville's original serious cocktail bar — now in a new location in The Gulch, with seasonal menus, hand-cut ice, no standing policy, and the bartenders who changed what Nashville thought a cocktail bar could be.

the-patterson-house