Best Burgers in Nashville: Diners and Bars

The best burgers in Nashville live in the shadow of hot chicken, but they have deep roots. Brown’s Diner, set in a converted trolley car near Hillsboro Village, has served cheeseburgers since 1927. Newer burger kitchens and bars cluster in East Nashville, the Gulch, Germantown, 12 South and around the honky-tonks of Lower Broadway.

Nashville’s food identity rests on hot chicken and the meat-and-three, a Southern diner format where you choose one meat and three sides from the day’s list. The burger mostly belongs to bars and old diners, where it comes with a cold beer and, often, live music in the next room. Brown’s is the city’s reference point: a family-run counter whose plain cheeseburger comes with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and American cheese.

Burgers in Nashville: key facts

• Neighborhoods to explore: Hillsboro Village and Midtown, East Nashville, the Gulch, Germantown, 12 South and Lower Broadway.
• Oldest burger counter: Brown’s Diner, serving cheeseburgers since 1927.
• Local food culture: hot chicken and the meat-and-three diner share the menu space with burgers.
• When locals eat: many burgers are ordered in bars around live music sets.
• Getting around: most neighborhoods are a short drive or rideshare from downtown.
• Currency: US dollar (USD); Tennessee sales tax and the tip both come on top of the menu price.

Every guide we publish on Nashville is dated and lists only venues, addresses, prices and ratings we could verify. For other cities, browse all our burger restaurant guides.