East Nashville has the best food. That’s the answer most people who live in Nashville and eat seriously will give you, and the national food press has largely agreed for the past decade. But the fuller picture is more useful than a single winner.
East Nashville: The Strongest Concentration of Excellence
The restaurants in East Nashville have generated more national press than any other neighborhood in the city. Lockeland Table, The Wild Cow, Rosepepper Cantina, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, and Ugly Mugs coffee have each developed loyal followings. The neighborhood’s success with food comes from a combination of lower rents (historically, though that’s changing), an adventurous customer base, and a culture that rewards risk-taking from chefs. James Beard nominees from Nashville reliably come from East Nashville and its adjacent areas. The dining ranges from serious farm-to-table cooking to excellent tacos at a food truck, and the neighborhood’s brunch scene on Sundays has developed a cult following that produces long waits at multiple spots.
Germantown: The Argument for a Different Winner
Anyone who has eaten at Rolf & Daughters, Henrietta Red, or City House might push back on East Nashville’s primacy. Germantown’s restaurant density relative to its size is arguably the highest in the city. These are restaurants that would anchor any neighborhood in any American city. They’re not Nashville-good, they’re good. The clientele skews older and wealthier than East Nashville, which supports higher price points and more ambitious tasting menus. If the question is where to find Nashville’s single best meal, Germantown is as strong a candidate as East Nashville.
12 South: Strong, but Skews Toward Brunch and Casual
12 South has excellent food, Biscuit Love launched here, Edley’s Bar-B-Que is a staple, Urban Grub delivers a solid upscale casual experience, but the neighborhood’s food culture is more oriented toward brunch and approachable dining than destination-level cooking. It’s consistently good without being consistently surprising.
The Gulch: High-End but Uneven
The Gulch has some excellent spots, 404 Kitchen, Otaku Ramen, alongside a higher density of hotel restaurant mediocrity and chain outposts than the other neighborhoods. Its proximity to downtown ensures a constant flow of expense-account diners, which supports ambitious food but also rewards reliable over inventive.
Downtown / Broadway: Skip It for Food
The food on Broadway itself is almost universally the weakest food in Nashville relative to what the city is capable of. The market is tourists eating once and never returning, and the menus reflect that. The blocks immediately adjacent to Broadway in SoBro offer better options, Husk, Pinewood Social, but the Broadway strip itself is for drinks and music, not food.
Midtown: The Underrated Option
Midtown has a serious food scene that tourists often miss entirely. The Catbird Seat set a Nashville-wide standard when it opened, and the broader Midtown/Demonbreun corridor has continued to develop. It’s the neighborhood that industry people and Vanderbilt staff eat in, which means the quality-to-price ratio tends to be good without the Instagram crowds of 12 South.
The Verdict
For a single meal with no other priorities: Germantown or East Nashville. For a week of eating well across diverse neighborhoods: start in those two, add Midtown for dinner one night, 12 South for brunch once, and don’t bother eating on Broadway itself.
Sources
- Frommers, “Neighborhoods in Brief in Nashville”: frommers.com
- Redfin, “14 Popular Nashville Neighborhoods” (February 2025): redfin.com/blog/nashville-tn-neighborhoods/
- NashvilleGuru, Neighborhoods guide: nashvilleguru.com
- AptAmigo, Nashville Neighborhood Map & Guides: aptamigo.com