Best Italian Restaurant in Nashville: Twirl Your Fork at Bria Bistro Italiano

The founding team of Bria Bistro Italiano have devised a menu of Italian fare that includes classic ingredients; housemade mozzarella, ribbons of pasta, and rich sauces. These dishes are crafted to pair well with its extensive wine list and house-designed cocktails. Here are a few must-try dishes from its repertoire:

• For an appetizer, try the fried olives with a panko crust and a side of apricot jam scented with smoky bacon.
• Next, share a bianco flatbread topped with shrimp or chicken, plus three cheese: parmesan, provolone, and a ricotta with herbs and lemon.
• For an entree, select the fiochetti, housemade ravioli stuffed with short rib, herbed goat cheese, and shallots.

And of course, dessert: classic tiramisu or deep fried cookie dough nuggets served with gelato, which the eatery calls cookies and cream.

Honorable Mentions

Amerigo’s Italian Restaurant

Chefs use locally sourced ingredients in classic and modern Italian dishes served in a warm, wood-trimmed dining room.

Coco’s Italian Market and Restaurant

The kitchen does its best to replicate the owner’s old-country dishes, crafting everything from the burrata to the lasagna in house with ingredients straight from Italy, which customers can also procure from the on-site market.

Best West End Nashville Restaurant: Enjoy Elevated Comfort Food at The Tin Angel

Home to Centennial Park, the West End is known for its music festivals, its food, and a full-size replica of Greece’s Parthenon. A must-see neighborhood, it’s always got something going on.

Tin Angel co-owner Rick Bolsom once shared with Nashville Lifestyles his philosophy on food: "Make it good, make it interesting, and try to avoid getting weird for weird's sake." What’s important to him, when it comes to his restaurant’s menu of upscale American food, is comfort.

To that end, through his restaurant’s fare, he’s trying to create a rare pairing of bygone comforts with forward-thinking cuisine. So with each season, his chefs experiment with locally sourced ingredients to create a new menu, using such items as grass-fed beef and locally grown vegetables.

That blend of comfort and creativity extends to the restaurant’s interior, which features a freestanding fireplace, refurbished pub tables, brick archways, and local artwork beneath a pressed-tin ceiling, which gives a nod to the building's historic roots.

Best Vegan Restaurants in Nashville: Find the Freshest Food at The Wild Cow

While you won’t find any meat products at this long-beloved vegetarian eatery, you also won’t find a microwave or a freezer. This is because the kitchen staff makes just about everything in house, from the sauces to the sandwiches, from whole, unprocessed and fresh-as-possible ingredients. For an idea of what they have on offer, here are some appealing options from the menu.

• For an appetizer, buffalo tempeh strips, tossed in a zesty sauce.
• The taco salad, fully loaded with pinto and black beans, veggies, housemade salsa, on a bed of spinach and lettuce.
• The far eastland bowl, organic brown rice topped with sesame seeds, daikon-carrot slaw, peanut sauce, and kale sauteed in garlic.
• Portabella mushroom tacos, with kale, quinoa, sliced almonds, and sun dried tomatoes.

Honorable Mentions

Try these dishes at these other great vegetarian and vegan venues.

Graze

The szechuan brussels, tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce with roasted peanuts; chickpea bay cakes, a vegetarian spin on crab cakes made with tofu, cashews, and hijiki seaweed; cashew mac and cheese with seitan chorizo.

Grins Vegetarian Cafe

The superfood wrap stuffed with quinoa, avocado, edamame, and other veggies; breakfast tacos made with scrambled tofu, veggie chorizo, and cashew-lime crema.

Woodlands Indian Vegetarian Cuisine

The baigan bhartha, mashed roasted eggplant simmered with tomatoes and onions; samosa chaat, dumpling filled with chickpeas and fragrant sauces fried until crispy.

Best Indian Restaurant in Nashville: Try Everything at the Lunch Buffet at Taj Indian Restaurant

Taj Indian Restaurant is well known for its expansive lunch buffet, but can also command long lines at dinnertime. Given its vast menu, it might be tough to make a decision about what to order. So we’ve got a few suggestions for you.

• Paneer pakora appetizer: two words—fried cheese.
• Fish tikka masala: first broiled in the tandoor, then simmered in a tomato-cream sauce.
• Chicken makhni: tandoor chicken cooked in a sauce rich in tomatoes and butter.
• Gajar halwa: a sweet pudding dessert made with carrots.