Best Burgers in Nashville (2026): 10 Spots to Try

The best burger in Nashville in 2026 is the smashburger at Bad Luck Burger Club, a food truck parked full-time outside Honeytree Meadery in East Nashville. Right behind it: Schulman’s $9 double cheeseburger, the grilled bar burger at Dino’s and the purple Dreamburger truck. Notice a pattern? All four are in East Nashville, which holds five of my ten picks. If you’re staying downtown, walk to NADC Burger in the historic Arcade, ranked 42nd on the World’s 101 Best Burgers 2026 list. The prices I could verify run from under $8 to $18.49, before sales tax and tip.

How I ranked Nashville’s best burgers

This ranking cross-checks published critics and lists rather than leaning on one night out. My sources were The Infatuation’s two Nashville guides (The 18 Best Burgers in Nashville, September 17, 2026, and The Best Smashburgers in Nashville, May 4, 2026), the World’s 101 Best Burgers 2026 list, the NashToday Burger Bracket and local reporting from the Nashville Scene, Axios Nashville, WhatNow Nashville and WSMV.

Where the critics split, I broke ties on two things. Is the burger the point of the menu, or a side act? Can you actually get one on an ordinary weeknight? That is why a 9.1 lunch-only bao sits below an 8.8 truck.

Every spot was checked as still operating in 2026. Two famous names are missing for that reason: Burger Up in 12 South closed on August 1, 2026, and Rotier’s closed in 2021. You won’t find Google ratings here either. I could not verify them. Hours move a lot in this city, so check each spot’s site or Instagram before you go.

Nashville’s best burgers at a glance

All ten picks, with their neighborhood and the burger to order.

Chart of Nashville burger ratings from The Infatuation, out of 10: Present Tense 9.4 (Sunday nights only), Xiao Bao 9.1, Dino’s 8.9, Bad Luck Burger Club 8.8, Charmers 8.8 and Schulman’s 8.7. The axis starts at 8. (Chart: Burger Breton, data from The Infatuation (Nashville guides of May 4 and September 17, 2026, and individual reviews))

1. Bad Luck Burger Club: the best smash burger in Nashville

Bad Luck Burger Club makes the best smash burger in Nashville. It topped The Infatuation’s smashburger guide of May 4, 2026, and The Infatuation rated it 8.8/10 in December 2025.

The trick is upside down: the pickles go under the patty, not on top. The patty has crispy edges and sits on a slightly sweet potato bun with diced onions and a mustardy Thousand Island-style sauce. Get the “lucky tots” too, tater tots with pickle de gallo and spicy nacho cheddar.

Andy Atkins and Cody Driggers have run Bad Luck as pop-ups, trucks and walk-up windows since 2020. On July 1, 2026, WhatNow Nashville reported that its first brick-and-mortar would open at 501 Gallatin Avenue, in the old Porter Road Butcher space: 1,255 sq ft with a covered patio. No opening date yet. Until then, go to the truck. It also knocked out Cledis in the NashToday Burger Bracket.

• Address: food truck outside Honeytree Meadery, 918 Woodland St, Nashville, TN 37206 (East Nashville)
• Order: the smashburger and lucky tots
• Links: badluckburger.club · Instagram @badluckburgerclub

Want to try the smash technique at home? My colleague Julia’s Shackburger copycat recipe walks through it gram by gram.

2. Schulman’s: a $9 double cheeseburger in a neighborhood bar

Schulman’s serves a thin-patty double cheeseburger with special sauce for $9. It was The Infatuation’s number one in its 18 Best Burgers guide of September 17, 2026, rated 8.7/10.

It’s a neighborhood bar, opened on October 5, 2023, in the former Southern Grist brewery on Porter Road. Bill and Shannon Miller run it with their sons Blake, Jordan and Will through Icon Entertainment & Hospitality. The name honors David “Skull” Schulman, a fixture of Printer’s Alley downtown.

Why second and not first? Bad Luck builds a whole business around one burger, and its pickles-under trick is something you won’t find elsewhere in town. Schulman’s is still the burger I’d send a first-timer to who wants a bar stool and a beer with it.

• Address: 1201 Porter Rd, Nashville, TN 37206 (East Nashville)
• Order: the double cheeseburger ($9)

3. Dino’s: a classic burger in East Nashville’s oldest dive bar

Dino’s is where you go for a classic, no-frills Nashville bar burger. The Infatuation rated it 8.9/10 and ranked it fourth in its September 2026 guide.

Grilled beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles. That’s it, and that’s the appeal. Dino’s bills itself as East Nashville’s oldest dive bar, and Anthony Bourdain filmed there for Parts Unknown in 2016. Alex Wendkos, a longtime regular, bought the place in 2015 and restored the grill and the room.

• Address: 411 Gallatin Ave, Nashville, TN 37206 (East Nashville)
• Phone: (615) 226-3566
• Link: dinosnashville.com

4. Dreamburger: a world-ranked smash burger from a purple truck

Dreamburger is one of two Nashville burgers on the World’s 101 Best Burgers 2026 list, at 71st. Burgerdudes had already ranked it 23rd in the world in September 2024.

Owner-operator Cole Meierstein runs it from a purple truck outside Vinyl Tap, in the Eastwood part of East Nashville. The Dreamburger is a double smashed patty with melted onions, American cheese and pickles on a butter-toasted bun. The detail that sets it apart is the “dreamsauce”: a smoked mayonnaise made from whole Roma tomatoes smoked over hickory.

• Address: food truck outside Vinyl Tap, 2038 Greenwood Ave, Nashville, TN 37206 (East Nashville)
• Links: dreamburgernash.com · Instagram @dreamburgernash

5. Gabby’s Burgers & Fries: grass-fed burgers, lunch only

Gabby’s Burgers & Fries is the best lunch burger in Nashville, and lunch is the only time you’ll get one. It opens Monday to Friday 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and closes on Sunday.

Doug Havron, a former food-service executive, opened it in 2009 in Wedgewood-Houston. The menu is a family album: the double burger is named after his daughter Gabriella, the single (Seamus) after his son, the veggie burger (Coreen) after his wife. Patties are 5 oz of grass-fed beef.

The Congress Burger, with bacon, mushrooms and Swiss, costs $18.49. Police, firefighters, military and teachers get 20% off, “except politicians”, says the house.

• Address: 493 Humphreys St, Nashville, TN 37203 (Wedgewood-Houston)
• Phone: (615) 733-3119
• Link: gabbysburgersandfries.com

6. Brown’s Diner: the oldest burger joint in Nashville

Brown’s Diner is Nashville’s oldest burger joint. It opened in 1927 in old mule-drawn trolley cars, according to Atlas Obscura, on Blair Boulevard near Hillsboro Village and Music Row.

The cheeseburger is a thin seared patty, still pink in the middle, with American cheese and Duke’s mayonnaise. Curious what “pink in the middle” means in degrees? Our burger patty internal temperature guide has the numbers.

Jim Love ran Brown’s for 47 years. In 2021 Bret Tuck, co-founder of the Edley’s barbecue chain, took it over. Then, in early January 2026, Vince Gill released an EP named after the place: 50 Years From Home: Brown’s Diner Bar. Not many burger joints get a country record.

• Address: 2102 Blair Blvd, Nashville, TN 37212 (Hillsboro-Belmont)
• Order: the cheeseburger

7. Charmers: a cheap smash burger by the Cumberland River

Charmers serves the cheapest burger on this list: a double smash for under $8, on a patio facing the Cumberland River. The Infatuation rated it 8.8/10 in March 2026.

The team behind the restaurant Peninsula opened this bar in the Neuhoff complex in Germantown on December 26, 2025. The Gribiche Burger stacks two smashed patties with white American cheese, chopped onions, pickles and sauce gribiche, a French egg-and-caper sauce you rarely see on a burger. Salt-and-vinegar curly fries come with it.

• Address: Neuhoff, 1316 Adams St, Nashville, TN 37208 (Germantown)
• Order: the Gribiche Burger (under $8)
• Link: Instagram @charmers.nashville

8. NADC Burger: the best burger near Broadway and downtown Nashville

NADC Burger is the best burger near downtown Nashville, and the highest-ranked name with a Nashville address on the World’s 101 Best Burgers 2026 list, at 42nd. It sits in the historic Arcade, on two levels with a mezzanine and a mural by Josh “ODD” Snodgrass.

Michelin-starred chef Phillip Frankland Lee and pro skateboarder Neen Williams founded NADC in Austin in 2022. The double cheeseburger has two thick patties of full-blood American wagyu, smashed grilled onions, American cheese, house sauce, pickles and jalapeños on a toasted potato roll. Fries are cooked in beef tallow.

WhatNow Nashville announced the Arcade location on January 29, 2026, as NADC’s first Nashville brick-and-mortar. I could not confirm the opening date or the prices, so check the hours before you walk over from Broadway.

• Address: The Arcade, 223 4th Ave N, Nashville, TN 37219 (Downtown)
• Order: the double cheeseburger and tallow fries

The Arcade on 4th Avenue North in downtown Nashville, the historic covered arcade that now houses NADC Burger, a few blocks from Broadway. The photo dates from 2010, before NADC opened. Photo: Isaac777, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21805480 (Photo: Isaac777, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21805480))

9. Xiao Bao: a smashburger in a bao, lunch only

Xiao Bao’s burger bao is the most original burger in Nashville. The Infatuation rated it 9.1/10 in August 2025, higher than anything above it here.

Inside the bao: a smashed patty, American cheese, a garlic-ginger-scallion paste and Korean chili. So why ninth? It’s one lunch item on a pan-Asian menu, not a burger restaurant, and you can’t get it at night. Worth a detour, not a plan.

• Address: 830 Meridian St, Nashville, TN 37207 (East Nashville)
• Order: the burger bao, at lunch

10. Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint: wagyu burgers and 100 beers

Jack Brown’s is the Germantown pick for a wagyu burger and a long beer list. Every burger is 100% American wagyu, and the bar pours more than 100 beers.

The chain started in Virginia, founded by Aaron Ludwig and Mike Sabin, and opened in Germantown on June 5, 2015. The Classic Jack comes with caramelized onions, “JB sauce”, American cheese and garlic pickles. It’s a chain, which is why it closes the list, but a dependable one.

• Address: 1123 3rd Ave N, Nashville, TN 37208 (Germantown)
• Order: the Classic Jack
• Link: jackbrownsjoint.com

Best burgers in East Nashville and other neighborhoods

East Nashville is the best neighborhood for burgers in Nashville, with Bad Luck Burger Club, Schulman’s, Dino’s, Dreamburger and Xiao Bao all within a short drive of each other. If one is closed, The Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden at 731 McFerrin Ave is a solid backup, open daily from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Street scene in East Nashville, the neighborhood with five of the ten best burger spots in Nashville (photo from 2010). Photo: Stephen Yeargin, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://www.flickr.com/photos/56871496@N00/4449041884 (Photo: Stephen Yeargin, CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/56871496@N00/4449041884))

Germantown has Charmers and Jack Brown’s. Downtown has NADC Burger in the Arcade and a second Pharmacy at Fifth + Broadway. Wedgewood-Houston has Gabby’s at lunch and, on Sunday nights only, the burger at Present Tense, chef Ryan Costanza’s izakaya at 509 Houston St, which The Infatuation scored 9.4.

Map of Nashville’s best burger neighborhoods: East Nashville (Bad Luck Burger Club, Schulman’s, Dino’s, Dreamburger, Xiao Bao), Germantown (Charmers, Jack Brown’s), Downtown (NADC Burger), Wedgewood-Houston (Gabby’s) and Hillsboro-Belmont (Brown’s Diner). (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0)

Nashville burgers and Tennessee: where to go next

Nashville’s burger scene leans hard on the smash style. Tennessee has more. In Memphis, read my colleague Alex’s visit to Hog & Hominy and its John T burger. For another Southern city ranked with the same method, see my guide to the best burgers in Dallas. All our city guides live on the Restaurants hub, and everything we publish on the city is on our Nashville burger page.

Nashville burger FAQ

Where can I eat the best burger in Nashville?

The best burger in Nashville is the smashburger at Bad Luck Burger Club, a truck parked outside Honeytree Meadery at 918 Woodland St in East Nashville. Schulman’s, Dino’s and Dreamburger, also in East Nashville, complete my top four.

What is the oldest burger joint in Nashville?

Brown’s Diner, at 2102 Blair Blvd, is the oldest burger joint in Nashville. It opened in 1927 in old mule-drawn trolley cars and still serves a thin seared cheeseburger with Duke’s mayo.

What is the best smash burger in Nashville?

Bad Luck Burger Club makes the best smash burger in Nashville, ranked first by The Infatuation’s smashburger guide in May 2026. Dreamburger and Charmers’ Gribiche Burger are the strongest alternatives.

Which Nashville burgers appear in world rankings?

Two Nashville burgers are on the World’s 101 Best Burgers 2026 list: NADC Burger at 42nd and Dreamburger at 71st. Burgerdudes also ranked Dreamburger 23rd in the world in September 2024.

Where can I get a burger near Broadway and downtown Nashville?

NADC Burger in the Arcade, at 223 4th Ave N, is the best burger near Broadway. The Pharmacy Burger Parlor also has a location at Fifth + Broadway.

Which Nashville neighborhood is best for burgers?

East Nashville is the best neighborhood for burgers, with five of the ten spots in this guide. Germantown, just north of downtown, comes second with Charmers and Jack Brown’s.

How much does a burger cost in Nashville?

The burger prices I could verify in Nashville range from under $8 at Charmers to $9 at Schulman’s and $18.49 for Gabby’s Congress Burger. Sales tax and tip are added on top of menu prices.

What is Nashville Burger Week and when is it?

Nashville Scene Burger Week is an annual burger event with $8 specials. The 2026 edition ran July 6 to 12, 2026, with more than 60 restaurants, bars and food trucks. For more burger deals, see our roundup of National Cheeseburger Day 2026 deals and the fast-food items coming back in 2026.

Are Burger Up and Rotier’s still open?

No. Burger Up in 12 South closed permanently on August 1, 2026, after 16 years, as WSMV reported. Rotier’s on Elliston Place, famous for its cheeseburger on French bread, closed in 2021 after 75 years.

Which Nashville burgers are only served at certain times?

Gabby’s Burgers & Fries is open for lunch only (Monday to Friday 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.), and Xiao Bao serves its burger bao at lunch only. Present Tense in Wedgewood-Houston serves its burger on Sunday nights only.

Sources

• The Infatuation, The 18 Best Burgers In Nashville (September 17, 2026) and The Best Smashburgers In Nashville (May 4, 2026)
• World’s 101 Best Burgers 2026
• WhatNow Nashville on Bad Luck Burger Club at 501 Gallatin Ave (July 1, 2026) and NADC Burger at the Arcade (January 29, 2026)
• WSMV, Burger Up closure (June 16, 2026)
• Axios Nashville, Vince Gill honors Brown’s Diner (January 7, 2026); Atlas Obscura, Brown’s Diner
• Nashville Scene, Burger Week 2026
• Nashville Post, Schulman’s opening; The Daily Meal, Dino’s Bar
• Official sites of Gabby’s, Dino’s and Jack Brown’s Germantown