The honest answer changed around 2015 and has continued improving every year since. Nashville was not an easy city for plant-based eating in 2010. It is a reasonably good one in 2025, with a cluster of serious fully vegan restaurants, strong vegetarian options scattered through every neighborhood, and vegan-friendly dishes at enough mainstream restaurants that you can eat well here without planning every meal around specialty spots.
The Fully Vegan Restaurants
Avo (Charlotte Pike, OneC1ty development) opened in 2015 as Nashville’s first fully vegan restaurant and remains one of the best. The kitchen is plant-based and naturally gluten-free, which is a combination that typically produces timid food but doesn’t here. The lentil-walnut burger, pad Thai kelp noodles, and the chocolate tart are the dishes people mention most. The avocado margarita is worth ordering once. The OneC1ty location puts it slightly removed from the tourist radius, which keeps the crowd more local.
The Southern V on Buchanan Street near Germantown runs 100% vegan Southern comfort food. Hot chick’n sandwich, BBQ jackfruit nachos, vegan mac and cheese, and chick’n and waffles are the core menu. This is the restaurant you bring skeptical carnivores to because it’s operating in familiar territory they can’t dismiss. The BBQ jackfruit nachos in particular convert people who assume vegan food is a compensation exercise.
The Wild Cow (1100 Fatherland St, Five Points in East Nashville) has been serving vegetarian and vegan food with a local/organic sourcing commitment since before East Nashville became fashionable. The menu rotates with the season, the nachos are reliable, and the taco sampler gives you a fair range of what the kitchen does. It’s been here long enough to have regulars who predate the neighborhood’s gentrification.
Sunflower Cafe in Berry Hill has operated since 2012 with gourmet veggie burgers, wraps, rice bowls, and vegan BBQ. The Berry Hill location means it serves the music industry crowd that works in the neighborhood’s recording studios, which gives it a clientele that isn’t especially interested in being defined by dietary preference.
Graze in East Nashville is the sister restaurant to Wild Cow, operating as a full-service bistro and bar with brunch and dinner service. The bar program makes it a viable dinner-and-drinks destination rather than a lunch-only spot.
Vegan-Friendly Mainstream Options
Several Nashville restaurants that aren’t specifically vegan have become reliable stops for plant-based eating. The Pharmacy has a falafel burger that holds up against its beef counterparts. Five Points Pizza builds vegan pies without treating the request as a hardship. Mas Tacos Por Favor offers fried avocado tacos that are satisfying in a way that doesn’t require any apology for the absence of meat. BE-Hive Deli produces seitan products sold at local stores and runs a deli counter that serious plant-based cooks treat as a supply source.
The Remaining Gap
Late-night vegan options remain thin. The restaurants that stay open past 10pm are almost universally meat-focused, which means planning a late night in Nashville as a strict vegan requires either early dinner or significant compromise. Broadway and the honky-tonk scene offer essentially nothing. This is the one area where the food scene still lags behind cities like Austin or Los Angeles.
Sources
- Avo Nashville, avonashville.com
- The Southern V menu and location, thesouthernv.com
- The Wild Cow via Nashville Scene food coverage
- Sunflower Cafe Berry Hill via restaurant website
- Graze Nashville via Eater Nashville
- Mas Tacos Por Favor at 732 McFerrin Ave