If restaurants could have astrological signs, Bastion's would be Gemini. That’s because this Wedgewood-Houston spot has two very distinct sides: a rollicking, come-as-you-are bar with nachos and punch bowls, and a small dining room that’s serving one of the best and most well-thought-out tasting menus in Nashville. While the menu changes, you can count on a minimalist style of cooking that’s confident without being showy.

Noko is our surest, most set-it-and-forget-it dinner recommendation we can make in Nashville. They serve ridiculously good Japanese wood-fired plates and crudos that have never let us or anybody we know down. It’s as good for a solo meal at the bar as it is for a birthday throwdown when you’re also trying to accommodate that picky friend who went through a “white foods only” phase.

What the menu at Locust lacks in length, it makes up for with some of the most interesting dishes in the city. Run by a former chef of The Catbird Seat, this small but mighty dumpling and kakigori shop in 12 South makes perfectly crisp dumplings doused in chili oil, chewy noodles, and fluffy cups of shaved ice that have inspired a local cult following. Is there sake? Of course there’s sake, and you can count on the sake sommelier to make sure the selection keeps you on your toes.

Sure, it might seem hard to get a table at Kisser—this walk-in-only Japanese spot in East Nashville is roughly the size of a two-car garage and is only open four days a week for lunch. But after that, you’re in for a near-tranquil lunch fueled by rice balls and grilled 24-hour, sake-marinated yellowtail collar. Wash everything down with some sushi rice ale made in collaboration with Harding House Brewing Co. and finish your meal with blissful spoonfuls of miso creme brulee.

Iggy's, a new-wave Wedgewood-Houston Italian spot, refuses to take themselves too seriously. Sure, they have the classics like spaghetti agile e olio and a gorgeous bolognese, but it’s also a place where you’ll see a large graffiti mural of a pasta maker, plenty of cheetah-print chairs, and couples sharing giant swirls of soft serve. Order some cream cheese-stuffed brioche that arrives to the table like a garlic-laden Holy Grail—primed to fill whatever Nashville-pothole-sized void you’ve got.

Sophomore projects are rife with pressure, but with Kase, the Noko team breezes through the follow-up with finesse. This omakase restaurant hits that sweet spot between formal and informal, while being almost suspiciously cheap for the quality you’re getting. While Kase is definitely for special occasions, the $75 price point makes it so accessible you’ll want to go all the time—if only getting a reservation wasn’t so difficult.

We’ve tried Alebrije’s Mexican dishes at random pop-ups or when their food truck has been parked in front of a bar, and thought, “hey, this is pretty good.” Turns out “pretty good” got an upgrade to “holy sh*t” when they found a permanent location in East Nashville. Nobody in Nashville is serving Mexican food at this high of a level. Masa reigns supreme here, and it’s found in just about every dish on the menu.

A wine bar that serves Lao food in an old converted East Nashville church every day until 1am? That’s Bad Idea, which is actually a great idea for a restaurant. The space is gigantic and decked out in colorful couches, the dishes like jiggly scallop-mousse-stuffed crepe are interesting and delicious, and the bottles on the natural wine list pair well with everything. This is also one of the better late-night options in town, especially if you’re looking for something like a $16 plate of katsu.

People (cough cough, food writers, cough cough) love to describe just about any restaurant with a few couches and a kick-your-feet-up kind of vibe as a “dinner party.” And that’s just what we’re about to do. Because Tailor, a Germantown spot serving South Asian American plates, actually is a dinner party. And it’s a hell of a good one. The space is cool yet approachable, the pacing of the dishes and conversation feel natural, and the food stands out in Nashville’s sea of Southern cooking.

Folk makes some of the best pizza in Nashville. This East Nash spot, which is from the same people behind Germantown’s Rolf & Daughters, serves naturally leavened pies with an exceptionally tasty sourdough crust. But they also make phenomenal Italian-adjacent mains and apps that are perfect for a big group meal. The pizza is the main event here, and the littleneck clam pie—as they say in colloquial parlance—is the sh*t.

There are a ton of hot chicken names you might recognize—Prince's, Bolton's, Hattie B's—but our top pick in the city right now comes from a West End spot that’s only gotten better with time. Red’s doesn’t do bone-in birds, but we’ll forgive them, as they’ve perfected the breading-to-meat ratio on the tenders and boneless thighs, resulting in a nice crispy exterior. Plus, the hot chicken crunchwrap deserves its own religious sect.

Like the 30,000 people who came for a bachelorette party on Broadway and decided to stay, chef Sean Brock left his Charleston restaurants and decided to open a handful of spots in Nashville—the best of them being Audrey. The concept is an ode to his Appalachian grandmother, and it’s like the MoMA meets a rustic mountain cabin inside—clean, sleek, and minimalist, but also warm.

Everyone has that special taco spot. The one you swear by to get you through a long day of work, a hangover, or a breakup with your pilates studio (it’s not you … it’s definitely them). Maiz de la Vida is that taqueria for us. Permanently parked in front of Chopper Tiki, you’ll find the pinnacle of taco construction: a soft corn shell that can hold any and all toppings without falling apart.

When we walk into Peninsula, our heart rate slows down by a few bpms. That’s because this East Nashville Spanish spot is the perfect place to linger among flickering tea lights and slices of tortilla. The plates are small, but deliver big in flavor and texture. The menu is a document of few words—it’ll read “beet” or “endive” with a couple of other ingredients. What the menu doesn’t come with, though it should, is a disclaimer: “WARNING: DISHES MAY CAUSE SQUEALS OF GLEE OR EVEN HAPPY TEARS."

In the world of new age wine bars, few have mastered the formula of interesting wine + amazing bread + cozy interiors like East Nashville's Butterlamp. We’ve been here in the early afternoon to snack on oysters and fries at the bar, reveling in a space that fulfills that middle ground between a coffee shop and bar. We’ve stopped by for a moody dinner full of slices of bread topped with poached tomatoes and fermented marigold in the candlelight.

Bourbon Steak is a high-end chain with outposts in LA, Miami, and DC. What’s specific to this location—and what makes it our top steakhouse in Nashville—is the 360-degree view you’ll get from its perch on the 34th floor of the JW Marriott Downtown. While the view is indeed incredible, the food gives it some stiff competition. Most of the steaks are poached in butter before they’re seared, and you can especially taste that richness in any of the eight cuts of wagyu.

The smoked beef and squash curry at International Market is better than a year’s worth of therapy (and we’re talking in-network, work-through-our-daddy-issues therapy). The five-spice braise mingling with Thai basil, coconut milk, and kaffir lime leaf is wholly cathartic, and lighter plates like Chinese broccoli dotted with tiny tofu croutons make for better support systems than some of our closest friends. Beyond that, it’s just a fun place to be.

When it comes to meat-and-threes, it’s hard to get any better than Arnold’s in the Gulch. After a brief hiatus in 2023, it reopened with the same cafeteria line and steaming trays of Southern classics that hit the spot for a quick but really filling lunch. Our go-to picks are the home-cooked fried chicken, hearty roast beef, creamy mac and cheese, perfectly al dente black-eyed peas, and cornbread with a super satisfying blister on the crust. No tray is complete without some classic chess pie.

If you want to start exploring all of the greatness bubbling up on Nolensville Pike, Edessa is the best place to start. The Turkish and Kurdish restaurant is located in an unassuming strip mall in Little Kurdistan and the food here puts on a show. Hunks of meat hang from a rack medieval-style, and pillowy bubbles of lavash bread are thrown right from the oven onto your table. There’s rarely a miss and it's an elite spot for a group dinner of excellent dips and mountains of meat.

Shotgun Willie’s recently opened in Madison, and it’s our pick for the best barbecue in the Nashville area right now. Highlights include devastatingly tender American wagyu brisket, juicy Texas hill country sausage, and the frequently sold-out salt and pepper ribs—a masterful rendition of perfectly seasoned slabs. And no tray is complete without flavor-packed sides like the creamy dill potato salad, tangy baked beans, and crumbly jalapeño cornbread.

This East Nashville spot is one of the better places to get Chinese food in town—you can always count on their pork belly bao buns and fried dumplings with lemongrass pork. While Xiao Bao works great for lunch when you want to forget that Google Sheets exists and just focus on a bowl of hand-pulled noodles with chili cumin brisket, it’s also worth stopping by for dinner and Sunday brunch.

Despite the name, you’re not coming to The Butter Milk Ranch for riffs on arguably the best wing dipping sauce in history—you’re here for the pastries. Head to this daytime spot for a morning meal of ricotta and herb soft scramble with chili crunch and a basket of biscuits and gravy. But your mission to partake in the finest sugary breakfast treats will be incomplete if you don’t stop at the bakery case.

Fried chicken? Nashville has as much of that as we do musicians who show up with a guitar and dream. But make it extra crispy, loaded with Thai flavors, and served with a healthy dose of tamarind fish sauce, and you’ve got something in a league of its own. Suddenly, you won’t be able to resist skipping your mid-day work meeting to plop down for lunch outside S.S. Gai, one of six food and drink vendors at a refurbished car wash (aptly named The Wash).

The focaccia pizza from St. Vito has us Googling different cloud terminology to accurately describe it. We’ve settled on a combo between “stratus” and “cumulus,” because this dough is about as airy and puffy as it can get. Come with a group and order the pizza party, which allows you to sample all of their different rotating slices—the best we’ve tried comes draped with porchetta and topped with burrata and chili oil.

Commercial jingles and extremely epic foods tend to wedge themselves into our brains for weeks. The fried eggplant from King Tut’s, a food truck on Nolensville Pike, is an example of the latter, and we're thrilled to have it occupy our headspace. Get that and some ultra-crispy and herbaceous falafel that’ll become permanent additions to your lunch rotation.