Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint
EatBerry Hill#11 of 50

Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint

Nashville, Tennessee

Photo: Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint

Whole-hog barbecue cooked over hickory in a cinderblock pit, the way West Tennessee has done it for generations. Pat Martin brought that tradition to Nashville, and it's a revelation — the shoulder meat pulls apart in your hands, the bark is black and crackling, and the cornbread is made in a cast-iron skillet that probably hasn't been washed since opening day.

Insider tip

The whole hog plate with a side of redneck tacos. The banana pudding is an institution — get it before it runs out.

Get Directions
See all 50 picks in Nashville

More in Nashville

You might also like

Prince's Hot Chicken Shack
EatEast Nashville

Prince's Hot Chicken Shack

The place that started it all. Prince's has been serving Nashville hot chicken since the 1940s, and everything else in town is a footnote. The heat levels are real — medium here would be extra-hot anywhere else. The room is no-frills, the wait can be long, and none of that matters once you bite in. This is ground zero.

Audrey
EatEast Nashville

Audrey

Sean Brock's love letter to Southern Appalachian cooking, served in a converted house with a garden out back that supplies half the menu. This isn't nostalgia food — it's painstaking research into heirloom ingredients and forgotten techniques, plated with a precision that makes every course feel like a thesis defense. The tasting menu is the move.

The Hermitage Hotel
StayGermantown

The Hermitage Hotel

Nashville's only Beaux-Arts hotel, open since 1910 and still the most elegant room in the city. The lobby ceiling alone is worth a visit — barrel-vaulted stained glass that makes you stand a little straighter. The rooms have been updated without losing the gravitas. The men's restroom downstairs won an award. No, really.

Eat picks elsewhere

More eat we love

EatEast Austin · Austin, Texas

Veracruz All Natural

A food truck that became an institution. The migas taco — scrambled eggs with crispy tortilla strips, pico, cheese, and avocado — is the breakfast taco against which all others in Austin are measured. Reina and Maritza Vazquez built this from nothing, and every bite tastes like someone's putting their whole self into it.

EatGreenpoint · New York, New York

Casa Enrique

A Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant in Long Island City that feels nothing like a Michelin-starred restaurant. The mole is a week-long project and tastes like it. The enfrijoladas are the quiet star of the menu. The margaritas are perfect. And the price point — for this level of cooking — is shockingly reasonable. Cosme gets the press. Casa Enrique gets the love.