Lin NormanI’ll admit it. After my third straight day of eating nothing but traditional Southern fare and Nashville hot chicken, my palate was begging for a different kind of heat.
I was desperately craving the complex, vibrant spices you can only get from a phenomenal bowl of curry or perfectly blistered wok-tossed noodles.
So, I grabbed a few friends, and we made it our mission to eat our way through Music City to find the best Asian restaurants. The result is this cheat sheet to the most spectacular Asian gems in town!
And if you’re in the mood to try culinary fare from other regions, check out the other top restaurants in the city.
How much does eating at an Asian restaurant cost in Nashville?
Enjoying an Asian meal in Nashville typically runs between $10 and $20 for casual lunches. Trendy mid-range dinners hover around $20 to $40, while premium sushi experiences easily exceed $50 per person.
| Dining Tier | Estimated Cost (Per Person) |
| Casual Takeout & Delis | $10 – $20 |
| Trendy Mid-Range Dining | $20 – $40 |
| Upscale Sushi & Omakase | $50+ |
1. Hawkers Asian Street Food
Website: https://eathawkers.com/
Address: 626A Main Street
Contact: (615) 600-4762
Schedule:
- Sun-Wed 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM
- Thurs 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM
- Fri-Sat: 11:00 AM – 12:00 AM
Sharing a massive spread of savory bites makes dinner an interactive event. At Hawkers Asian Street Food, you order a bunch of small plates for the table, moving naturally between dishes like Malaysian curry laksa and Korean twice-fried wings.
Tearing into the warm, flaky roti canai and dunking it into the rich curry sauce is an experience you won’t forget! I recently grabbed a table here before a concert, and that buttery bread completely blew my mind.
Pro tip: pairing their fiery noodles with a cool sake cocktail balances the heat beautifully.
Just keep in mind that plates arrive exactly when they are ready rather than all at once.
Customer Reviews
I’ll definitely go back
I chose this place after searching for ramen. The aesthetic appeal of both the food and restaurant interior is fantastic. My bibimbap and fried tofu were really good, particularly the tofu. Something about the texture had me eating the entire serving of tofu despite being overfull 🙂 I’ll definitely go back during my next visit to Nashville.
- Eva Johnson | Google Review
The food was absolutely AMAZING!!
I wish I could give 100 stars for this place!!! We visited here for my birthday weekend and let me share that Kylee made me feel like royalty! She is such a vibe! The food was absolutely AMAZING!! We had the Pad Thai, the Hong Kong Wonton, and the Sichuan wontons. The GM-Vic was so accommodating and knows how to make his guests feel at home and cared for. If you are visiting or live here, you can’t go wrong with them! Thank you for making our first experience in your establishment an unforgettable one!
- Jennifer Hearn | Google Review
2. Noko
Website: http://www.nokonashville.com/
Address: 701 Porter Road
Contact: (615) 712-6894
Schedule:
- Tue-Thurs 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Fri-Sat 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- Sun 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM, 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Noko’s centerpiece is arguably its massive wood-fired grill, which they use to infuse traditional Japanese and Korean ingredients with deep, charred flavors.
Executive Chef Jon Davenport designs a menu where even simple vegetable plates arrive with bold, memorable tastes.
Instead of stiff, formal service, the staff works together to make you feel like an old friend sitting down for dinner. Plus, the room’s Japanese-inspired minimalist design creates a serene backdrop while you sip on a whiskey cocktail.
Unfortunately, scoring a table on short notice is notoriously difficult, requiring guests to book their reservations several weeks in advance.
You will also want to prepare for a higher final bill, as locals often save these tables for birthdays and anniversaries.
Customer Reviews
I loved everything else I ordered!
SO good! Came here on a snow day because we figured we’d actually be able to get a reservation and we did. Everything was amazing. What I liked least was the brookie, it was too chocolatey for me. I’m not sure you could go wrong with anything though. I loved everything else I ordered!
- Justine Vild | Google Review
Definitely recommend and will definitely be returning
Noku is a phenomenal restaurant! The dishes are well crafted and elegant. My favorite small dish is definitely the Beef Dumplings. I wish I ordered a second plate of them. For the main course, we really enjoyed the Sea Bass. The sea bass was cooked brilliantly, with a good crisp towards the skin and had a refreshing slaw salad underneath. I definitely recommend and will definitely be returning with my wife and next time some friends too. Kendahl was a wonderful server and made the experience for us that much more enjoyable.
- Andrew Fallis | Google Review
3. Steam Boys
Website: https://www.steamboys.com/
Address: 412 Harding Place, Suite 105
Contact: (615) 679-9144
Schedule: Daily 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM
At Steam Boys, you get Chinese comfort food where the fluffy bao buns take center stage!
There’s no hiding behind fancy culinary titles here, as their kitchen relies on techniques learned directly in China to fold and steam every dumpling.
Plus, you know they’re the real deal when they brew real tea for their boba instead of relying on a powdery mix.
However, while the bao flies out the door, their soup dumplings can sometimes miss the mark on flavor and texture. Additionally, you might experience sudden sticker shock when basic add-ons drastically inflate your fast-casual tab.
Customer Reviews
I enjoyed the experience!
Great food and atmosphere. Got the lunch combo with noodle and dumplings. The soup had the right taste and the noodle perfect texture. Dumplings were juicy, with the skin being slightly too thick for my liking but overall I enjoyed the experience! Definitely coming back.
- Ruth Zhou | Google Review
The food was delicious
So I was driving around looking for something different to eat, I rode by Steam Boys at 412 Harding pl. I gotta say the staff are amazing, also the food was delicious. The only thing was some of the noodles in the veggie soup ware hard! I will definitely be going back.
- Lovely World | Google Review
4. Xiao Bao
Website: https://xiaobaonashville.com/
Address: 830 Meridian Street
Contact: (615) 239-5553
Schedule: Thu-Mon: 11:00 AM – 10:30 PM
Xiao Bao’s menu is built around a literal travel scrapbook, featuring flavors you rarely find under a single roof. You can jump between thick, chewy hand-pulled noodles and rich, deeply spiced Thai curry bowls all in one sitting.
Swirling a glass of natural wine while digging into a creative, cross-cultural plate just feels right when you want to try something totally new.
Grabbing a table for a spontaneous night out is surprisingly easy, since they always keep space open for walk-ins. But if you decide to stay home, watch out for the massive delivery app markups that may make takeout way more expensive.
You might also notice the portion sizes jumping around a bit, which can be a bummer when you’re paying top dollar for those premium noodle dishes.
Customer Reviews
Will be going back to try more
This place surprised us. We tried the fried mochi dumplings, pulled noodles, Okonomiyaki (pancake), & crab fried rice. The food was really good (first time we had tried most of it) , & the service (Cole) was excellent. Will be going back to try more. Very much recommend this place.
- Will Warstler | Google Review
Will return!
Unassuming on the outside- but magical on the inside! We loved this place on our visit to Nashville. My friends and I love to share different plates and try different dishes so this place did not disappoint. The standout dishes for us were the crab rice, their hand pulled noodles, and the Pad kra Pow! They also had a great selection of drinks and we really like the local kombucha they had available. Will return!
- Sadie Waters | Google Review
5. Sunda New Asian Nashville
Website: https://www.sundanewasian.com/nashville
Address: 592 12th Avenue South
Contact: (615) 610-7566
Schedule:
- Mon-Thurs 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- Fri-Sat 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM
- Sun 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Sunda New Asian leans into deep-rooted Filipino heritage with high-end ingredients to create dishes that feel totally fresh. The staff here makes you feel incredibly well taken care of from the moment you sit down to the final course.
A friend recently celebrated her birthday here, and watching our server deliver a towering dessert to the table completely stole the show! Grabbing an interactive sushi roll also adds a fiery element of surprise to the already vibrant, club-like room.
Navigating premium downtown restaurants usually means embracing steep pricing, and this spot definitely falls into the expensive splurge category.
Another thing to watch for is the energetic dance music pulsing through the dining room, which can sometimes make an intimate conversation nearly impossible.
Customer Reviews
If you enjoy Asian fusion, this place is definitely for you
I could eat here weekly. I’ve never experienced this type of service. He was extraordinary. Very polite, timely, and very knowledgeable on the menu. He took his time in explaining each section and provided recommendations from each. Our party had the roti tacos, two of the crispy rice options, oxtail potstickers, and a sushi roll. My favorite was the oxtail potstickers but everything was delicious. The flakiness of the roti made the tacos a little weird to eat but the flavor was worth it. If you enjoy Asian fusion, this place is definitely for you.
- Diona Gardner | Google Review
The Crazy Rice was the highlight
The service was truly top-notch and the ambiance was lovely! The Crazy Rice was the highlight—amazing flavor and perfectly grilled chicken, though the shrimp was a bit tough.While the oxtail was tender, it was a bit mushy, and the roti taco was too oily and over-topped. I also found the lime zest in the strawberry lemonade quite overpowering. What made this experience 10/10 was the service. My server was personable, efficient, and extremely knowledgeable about the food and drinks. But overall, for the price I was expecting a bit more precision in the food and drink execution.
- TD D | Google Review
