Discovering the Best BBQ in Nashville

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Tennessee is famous for having some pretty damn good BBQ, especially in Memphis. But if you can’t get to Memphis, Nashville has plenty of options to experience tasty Southern BBQ. Much like my quest to find Nashville’s best hot chicken, I equally wanted to find the best BBQ in Nashville.

So far, we’ve visited four BBQ joints in the Nashville area and we’ll definitely be adding more when we return (if you have any recommendations for us to add to our list, please drop us a comment below!). Each BBQ joint we’ve visited has their strong suits and I can’t say that we had a bad meal at any spot!

In this post, I break down each BBQ joint in terms of the meats we tried, the sides, and the ambiance/hospitality. While the meats are really the stars of the show, sides and Southern hospitality are equally as important to me in making sure the whole experience is worthy.

Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint

410 4th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37201
https://www.martinsbbqjoint.com/

First up on the list is Martin’s – a BBQ joint that will likely be on most BBQ fanatics’ must-eat-at lists!

We showed up to Martin’s in Downtown Nashville a few minutes before opening and queued up in line. I highly suggest coming right at opening so you don’t have a long wait. The friendly staff took our order and off we went!

Meats

At Martin’s, we decided on an order of the ribs and brisket and they were both solid choices! The ribs were moist with a great smoke flavor and a tasty dry rub, which is the style of ribs that we prefer. I can definitely say these are the best ribs we’ve had in Nashville thus far.

The brisket at Martin’s also takes our top spot for brisket in Nashville. Awesome flavors and incredibly moist and juicy! For added flavor, their Jack’s Creek BBQ sauce is available on every table and I highly recommend a few drops with the brisket for flavor enhancement.

Sides

Mac and cheese is one of my favorite side dishes, so we had to give it a try here to compare it to all the rest we had in Nashville. The mac was nice and creamy and had a good cheese crust on top! We also got the hush puppies which were crispy on the outside, and warm and fluffy on the inside.

I wish we had also gotten extra sides of green beans and baked beans to try, but I’ll save that for the next visit!

Ambiance

The staff taking our order were super friendly and the servers were also very welcoming and chatty! We sat in the main dining area but I wish we would have wandered out to the beer garden for better lighting. The Downtown location is also centrally located and is the perfect jumping off point to explore and sightsee in the city.

Peg Leg Porker

903 Gleaves St, Nashville, TN 37203
https://peglegporker.com/

Next up is Peg Leg Porker, located in The Gulch neighborhood of Nashville. Peg Leg Porker gets its name from founder Carey Bringle, who lost a leg to cancer at a young age – hence the “peg leg” name. Here, they focus primarily on ribs and pulled pork for their meat offerings (though they do have half chicken and sausage options as well).

We visited on a quiet Wednesday afternoon (after the lunch rush) and had plenty of seating options available to us.

Meat

Not wanting to go overboard (we were also on a hot chicken mission the same afternoon we visited), we just went with one half rack of ribs to share. We enjoyed the dry rub-style of ribs and thought the seasoning was really good! I do wish there was a bit more of the smoke flavor coming through and our ribs were a little on the dry side.

Overall, it was still a good rack of ribs but Martin’s edges them out slightly.

Sides

The sides at Peg Leg Porker were all delicious! We tried the mac and cheese which was very creamy and made in a shells and cheddar style. I loved the smoked green beans and the pork rinds were fantastic. I’m not usually a big pork rind fan, but these were delicious! Really crispy and loved the seasoning. Exactly what you would expect with “porker” in the restaurant name.

Ambiance/Hospitality

Ambiance was as much as you’d expect from any BBQ joint – rugged and casual, and I enjoyed having the patio seating available to eat our meal outdoors.

The staff here was unfortunately the least welcoming of all the BBQ joints we visited. The girl taking our order seemed less than thrilled to be there and I did not feel a lick of hospitality. Of course, we were there for the food primarily but I would request more smiles for our next visit (because I really would like to try their pulled pork!).

Edley’s Bar-B-Que

2706 12th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37204
https://www.edleysbbq.com/

Edley’s covers a variety of BBQ styles – “a tribute to all things Southern,” in their words, and takes our top spot for best BBQ in Nashville!

On our visit, we rolled in around noon on a Friday to the 12th South location and it was bustling. We were luckily offered a spot at the bar where we could not only enjoy a drink, but also get our food ordered without having to wait in the main food line!