What to eat in Nashville
The Southern kitchen at full volume — fiery fried chicken, meat-and-three comfort, and biscuits worth a pilgrimage.
Five dishes. Zero regrets.
Nashville hot chicken
Fried chicken dredged in cayenne-spiced oil and served on white bread with pickles — born in Nashville's Black community in the 1930s. Fiery, shattering-crisp, and utterly uncompromising.
Try it at: Prince's Hot Chicken Shack or Hattie B's Hot Chicken
Meat-and-three
One Southern meat (fried chicken, meatloaf, country-fried steak) plus three homestyle sides — mac and cheese, collard greens, fried okra — on a single tray. Nashville's definitive comfort-food format.
Try it at: traditional meat-and-three cafeterias around the city Find on Google Maps →
Hot fish
Hot chicken's lesser-known cousin: giant fillets of fried whiting drenched in hot sauce with mustard, raw onion, and pickles on white bread. A mess, and proudly so.
Try it at: Bolton's Spicy Chicken & Fish
Scratch biscuits and preserves
Towering, butter-layered biscuits from a 1951 recipe, served warm with homemade jams — called the most legendary biscuits in Tennessee. The platonic ideal of Southern baking.
Try it at: The Loveless Cafe
Goo Goo Cluster
America's first combination candy bar, invented in Nashville in 1912: caramel, marshmallow nougat, and roasted peanuts under milk chocolate. A round, gooey piece of candy history.
Try it at: Goo Goo Chocolate Co. on Lower Broadway
