05 February 2026
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Nashville has long been a destination for great music and Southern cuisine and within recent years, the food scene has become equally cutting edge. With a variety of deeply rooted communities and a growing interest in food, the city has experienced an influx of cuisines, chefs and restaurateurs looking to join in on the city's growing popularity, building on the many layers of Nashville.
Nashville Hot Chicken — the deep-fried delicacy liberally coated in an astonishingly spicy cayenne pepper oil — is one such layer. Though the dish has been a staple in the Black community since the 1930s, it rose to popularity in the last couple of decades as tourism grew. It’s arguably the signature dish of Nashville, with variations of the peppery poultry found on menus all over the city. The spicy chicken appeals not just to locals, but to visitors seeking an authentic taste of the city’s cuisine.
But in tandem with the rise in popularity of hot chicken — and Nashville as a tourist destination — has come a demand for a greater variety of cuisines and flavors. Case in point: the Central Asian flavors found at Uzbegim, a restaurant specializing in authentic Uzbek cuisine with origins in Islamic China through to the Middle East. At the restaurant, Uyghur-style hand-cut noodles and charred lamb kebabs are thrilling diners hungry for a new dining experience. In a distinct shift from classic Southern food, Uzbegim’s menu includes dishes like vinegred, a classic Russian salad of boiled egg, potato, carrot, green peas and beets that can be paired with manti, steamed dumplings stuffed with lamb and onions and served with tangy yogurt sauce.
The dichotomy in Nashville’s culinary offerings is a natural evolution, according to Nashville native and Chef/Owner of International Market, Arnold Myint, who has watched the city’s dining landscape change over the last few decades. “I think American-Southern cuisine has evolved beyond just biscuits, hams and fried chicken,” says Myint. “The world has become much more connected, and thus we are now redefining what Southern cuisine is and will be.”
That’s not to say that fried chicken has fallen out of favor; Myint’s juicy, Thai-style version is marinated with five spice and garlic, and served with sticky rice and cucumber salad, along with nam jim jaeow (chile dipping sauce). But when it opened in 1975, International Market was Nashville’s first gateway to Thai cuisine, bringing the cooking of owner Patti Myint (Arnold’s mother) to a small corner of Belmont Boulevard. Today, Patti’s cooking lives on in a new location across the street, helmed by Arnold and his sister, Anna Myint, though it’s no longer the only Thai establishment in town.
“Our food vocabulary is evolving,” says Arnold Myint. “Maybe there’s a lot of fried chicken overall, but also there’s a fried chicken in east Nashville [at SS Gai] and ours at International Market that change the idea of what fried chicken is. We’re still honoring the familiar, but with more global influence.”
Since reopening the family restaurant in 2022, the Myint siblings’ mission has been to educate and foster community through Thai food, opening those flavors up to new guests while maintaining the tight-knit Nashville community that has supported it for decades. Since it reopened, International Market’s beloved steam table lunches have given way to more experimental and authentic Thai dishes in the evening, though regulars still flock to the restaurant for plates of pad see ew (stir-fried noodles), fried rice and curries at lunch.
That confluence is on full display at Tailor, where MICHELIN Guide Inspectors say Chef Vivek Surti has “crafted a showpiece of his Indian heritage and Southern upbringing,” in a dinner party-style atmosphere. A prime example is the restaurant's take on a regional favorite, the tomato sandwich, elevated with a distinctive masala onion aioli. Then there’s MICHELIN-Starred Locust, Chef Trevor Moran's compact, Japanese-influenced spot where seafood reigns supreme but the chef’s Irish upbringing shows up in small ways, like the offering of Guinness on tap. On Moran’s constantly evolving and eclectic menu you're apt to find dishes like beef tartare with smoked egg rice rolled in sheets of nori and served with plenty of caviar.
Moran, one of the founding chefs of MICHELIN-Starred The Catbird Seat, has been cooking in Nashville for almost two decades, watching its explosive growth first-hand. “I think there has been a vast change [in Nashville] and there’s way more on offer,” says Moran, “but why I like the food scene is because we haven’t forgotten about the places that started it all, and they’re still on everyone’s lips. The places that were popular here first are still the ones we go to.” That includes Nashville mainstays like Arnold’s Country Kitchen, which remains in demand for its dedication to the heart and soul of Southern cuisine, serving stick-to-your-ribs, down-home comfort meals like pork chops or brisket, and sides like turnip greens studded with cubes of tender, smoky pork.
The city has cemented its place as a culinary destination for everything from onigiri at Kisser to Sicilian sfincione (a thick focaccia-like pizza) at St. Vito Focacceria and green chili cheeseburgers at Redheaded Stranger. But the future continues to shine bright for Nashville’s dining scene, with more restaurant openings on the horizon. As the city grows, so does the craving for bold flavors, authentic cuisine and experimentation.
“I put things out at the restaurant that I feel are lofty — things that I eat that are normal in California or New York City — and then I am surprised to see people love it and support it here,” says Myint. “There is a demand for it, we have a supply for it, and we are grateful for it.”
Hero image: Food collage: ©Mary Craven/International Market | ©Victoria Quirk/The Catbird Seat | ©Arnolds/Arnold's Country Kitchen | ©Michael Hanna /St. Vito Focacceria
