Explore our curated restaurants, hotels, bars, and wineries in Knoxville.
Accolades in Knoxville
Five restaurants in our guide hold a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, and two wine programs are exceptional. Osteria Stella in Old City and Lilou Brasserie in Downtown Knoxville hold those exceptional programs, and J.C. Holdway in downtown also holds the Spectator award.
Osteria Stella in Old City is a Northern Italian osteria with an exceptional wine program and a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. The all-Italian list has 190 selections, with 1,800 bottles of Italian-focused inventory under Wine Director Aaron Thompson and a sommelier team. Cooking is Milan-inspired and uses local produce. The list also holds a World's Best Wine Lists Awards WBWL 3-Star.
Lilou Brasserie in Downtown Knoxville is a Classic French Brasserie with an exceptional wine program and a temperature-controlled wine cellar. Service is sommelier-led, with an extensive wine list, craft cocktails, a la carte and prix fixe formats, and in-house bread and pastry. It holds a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence (2026), a World's Best Wine Lists Awards WBWL 2-Star, and Wine Enthusiast Best Wine Restaurants.
J.C. Holdway in downtown serves wood-fired Southern cooking with seasonal Tennessee ingredients from an open kitchen. Chef-owner Joseph Lenn brings Italian technique to Southern ingredients. The wine program is curated and sommelier-led, with craft cocktails, a la carte and prix fixe formats. Awards include a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence (2026), a Michelin Plate (2025), and a James Beard Award Semi Finalist (2026).
Old City holds seven venues in our guide, the highest neighborhood count. Potchke in Old City is a modern Jewish deli with a Michelin Plate, Kaizen in Old City is Knoxville's only izakaya, and Southern Grit in Old City serves Southern and lowcountry-inspired cuisine with craft cocktails and weekend brunch mimosa bottles.
Potchke in Old City is a modern Jewish deli serving matzo ball soup with chili oil and sandwiches on fresh challah in a sunny, kitschy room. The wine program is minimal and the format is a la carte. It holds a Michelin Plate (2025) and a James Beard Award Semi Finalist (2026).
Kaizen in Old City is Knoxville's only izakaya, serving playful pan-Asian fusion small plates in a casual, communal atmosphere. Craft cocktails, sake, and whiskey are the drinks. The name points to continuous improvement, and the room is part of Old City's dining and bar corridor.
Southern Grit in Old City is a bar serving Southern and lowcountry-inspired cuisine. Craft cocktails are served with the food, and the bar also pours craft beer, whiskey, and conventional wine. The weekend brunch in Old City features mimosa bottles.
Osteria Stella in Old City and Lilou Brasserie in Downtown Knoxville hold the two exceptional wine programs. Stella in Old City has an all-Italian list of 190 selections and 1,800 bottles of Italian-focused inventory under Wine Director Aaron Thompson. Lilou Brasserie in Downtown Knoxville has a temperature-controlled wine cellar, an extensive wine list, craft cocktails, and sommelier-led service.
Knoxville has zero Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide, and the Michelin star total is zero. Those citywide figures cover all twelve restaurants in the guide. A Michelin Plate is not a star and does not change these citywide star figures.
Five restaurants in our guide hold a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. Osteria Stella in Old City, Lilou Brasserie in Downtown Knoxville, and J.C. Holdway in downtown are three of them. Stella and Lilou have exceptional wine programs, and Holdway's program is curated and sommelier-led. The latest award year on each of these restaurants is 2026.
J.C. Holdway in downtown and Lilou Brasserie in Downtown Knoxville both list prix fixe and a la carte. Holdway's cooking is wood-fired Southern American, with a curated, sommelier-led wine program. Lilou's cooking is Classic French Brasserie, with an exceptional wine program, a temperature-controlled cellar, and sommelier-led service.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Knoxville
Selected entries from the current guide for Knoxville.
Knoxville, United States
Nine years into its run on Union Avenue, J.C. Holdway has become a reliable measure of how good a mid-sized American city's dining scene can get. Chef-owner Joseph Lenn fuses Southern ingredients with Italian technique in an open kitchen that has held a Michelin Plate since 2025 and consistent Opinionated About Dining recognition. The biscuits alone justify the detour.
Knoxville, United States
Osteria Stella brings serious Italian cooking and a 190-selection wine list to Knoxville's Old City, with a $$ price point that covers dinner for two without the ceremony of destination dining. Wine Director Aaron Thompson and a three-person sommelier team manage 1,800 bottles of Italian-focused inventory, with corkage set at $25 for those bringing their own. Dinner only.
Knoxville, United States
Lilou Brasserie on South Gay Street holds a 2-Star Accreditation from the World of Fine Wine & Lifestyle Awards, placing it among a small tier of accredited dining destinations in Knoxville. The brasserie format, rare in East Tennessee, brings a European-inflected approach to a city more commonly associated with Southern and Appalachian cooking traditions. For visitors seeking a more formally considered meal in downtown Knoxville, it occupies a distinct position in the local dining scene.
Knoxville, United States
Potchke brings deli culture to downtown Knoxville's Gay Street corridor, earning a Michelin Plate in 2025 — a signal that the format has found serious footing in a city better known for barbecue and hot chicken. Expect the deliberate pacing and layered flavours that define the deli tradition, at a price point that keeps the room accessible without softening the ambition.
Knoxville, United States
CAVA sits on Kingston Pike in West Knoxville, positioning itself within a city that has grown increasingly serious about where its ingredients come from. The fast-casual Mediterranean format places it in a different tier than Knoxville's white-tablecloth destinations, but its sourcing commitments give it relevance beyond its price point. A practical, ingredient-aware option for the Kingston Pike corridor.
Knoxville
Selected entries from the current guide for Knoxville.
Knoxville, United States
The Tennessean Hotel sits at the edge of World's Fair Park on Henley Street, 82 rooms earning a Michelin Key in 2024. The Drawing Room restaurant anchors the food and drink program with locally sourced Southern cooking and Tennessee whiskey, while the connected Maker Exchange space adds a community dimension rarely found at this price tier.
Knoxville, United States
A Michelin Selected hotel on Knoxville's Cumberland Avenue, Graduate by Hilton Knoxville places guests within walking distance of the University of Tennessee campus and the city's Fort Sanders neighbourhood. The property belongs to a category of design-forward collegiate hotels that treat campus culture as an aesthetic brief rather than a demographic afterthought — a positioning that earns it recognition across Tennessee's growing hospitality circuit.
Knoxville, United States
The Oliver Hotel occupies a converted early-20th-century building on Union Avenue in downtown Knoxville, positioning itself in the growing tier of independent design hotels that read as alternatives to both national chains and the city's larger historic properties. Its address places guests within walking distance of Market Square and the Old City, Knoxville's two most active dining and drinking corridors.
Knoxville
Selected entries from the current guide for Knoxville.
Knoxville, United States
A neighborhood craft brewery on Knoxville's west side, Abridged Beer Company operates where the city's independent drinking culture meets a low-pressure taproom format. The address on Lockett Road puts it outside the Market Square circuit, drawing a local-first crowd that tracks rotating taps rather than tourist trails. For craft beer in Knoxville, it occupies a distinct position in the city's growing independent scene.
Knoxville, United States
Balter Beerworks anchors the Broadway corridor of downtown Knoxville, where the city's craft beer scene has matured into a genuine local institution rather than a tourist overlay. Positioned among Knoxville's most serious drinking addresses, it draws the same crowd that has pushed Tennessee's independent brewing industry into national conversations about regional American craft beer.
Knoxville, United States
Positioned on Market Square at the heart of Knoxville's most concentrated block of dining and drinking, Cafe 4 draws a crowd that spans post-work professionals and weekend visitors moving between the square's bars and restaurants. The address alone places it inside one of East Tennessee's most active public spaces, where the energy of the square does as much atmospheric work as the room itself.
Knoxville, United States
Central Flats and Taps occupies a stretch of North Central Street that has become one of Knoxville's more interesting corridors for neighborhood drinking. The format combines flat-style social space with a rotating tap selection, positioning it closer to the craft-forward neighborhood bar than to a polished cocktail room. It draws a regular local crowd rather than a tourist circuit.
Knoxville, United States
Dead End BBQ on Sutherland Avenue sits in the kind of Knoxville neighbourhood where regulars arrive by habit rather than algorithm. The format is direct smoke-and-community: a West Knoxville address that pulls from surrounding residential streets as much as from the broader dining circuit. It occupies the lower-key end of the city's barbecue options, where the room matters as much as the rack.
Knoxville, United States
A bar and kitchen at 421 Union Ave in downtown Knoxville, Fred's Around the Corner sits in a city where the drinking scene has quietly diversified beyond its honky-tonk roots. The name signals neighborhood familiarity rather than destination ambition, positioning it within Knoxville's growing tier of casual-but-considered venues where the kitchen and the bar program carry equal weight.
Knoxville, United States
On South Central Street in Knoxville's Old City, Kaizen occupies a stretch of the city's most concentrated dining and bar corridor. The name signals a philosophy of continuous improvement, and the address places it squarely within a neighbourhood that has become the reference point for Knoxville's independent food and drink scene. It warrants attention from anyone building an itinerary around the city's best blocks.
Knoxville, United States
On South Gay Street, Maple Hall occupies a room that reads as a serious cocktail address in a city better known for beer halls and barbecue. The programme leans toward technique-driven drinks in a format that sits comfortably between Knoxville's craft-bar scene and the kind of precision mixing more common to Nashville or Asheville.
Knoxville, United States
Northshore Brasserie sits on South Northshore Drive in west Knoxville, positioned within a corridor that has quietly become one of the city's more consistent dining destinations. The brasserie format signals a commitment to a certain kind of unhurried, mid-to-upscale dining that Knoxville's suburbs have increasingly embraced. For visitors working through the city's restaurant scene, it belongs on the planning list alongside the urban core options.
Knoxville, United States
A bar anchored on East Jackson Avenue in Knoxville's Old City, Pilot Light sits within a neighbourhood that has long functioned as the city's counterculture corridor. Without the name recognition of Nashville's cocktail scene or Asheville's craft infrastructure, Knoxville's serious drinking spots operate at a lower decibel level — and Pilot Light is among the addresses worth finding.
Knoxville, United States
This listing is retired after a June 2026 status audit.
Knoxville, United States
Pretentious Beer Co operates at 131 S Central St in Knoxville's Old City, positioning itself among the Tennessee city's most deliberate craft beer destinations. The name is a wink at the seriousness with which the program approaches its pours, placing it in a tier of bars where the beer selection is the editorial statement. It sits in a compact but competitive local scene that includes Abridged Beer Company and Balter Beerworks.
Knoxville, United States
On South Central Street in Knoxville's Old City, Southern Grit draws a loyal crowd that returns not for novelty but for consistency. The kitchen works within the Southern comfort tradition, and the room has the unhurried quality that regulars tend to claim as their own. It sits comfortably in Knoxville's mid-tier dining scene, where neighbourhood identity matters as much as the plate.
Knoxville, United States
Stock & Barrel occupies a prime address on Market Square in downtown Knoxville, placing it at the center of the city's most active social corridor. The space leans into the industrial-casual register that defines the square's bar scene, making it a reliable anchor for anyone working through Knoxville's downtown drinking circuit alongside spots like Balter Beerworks and Cafe 4.
Knoxville, United States
On the second floor of Market Square, The Brass Pearl occupies one of Knoxville's most active social addresses. The bar draws a consistent crowd to its perch above the plaza, where the programming and drink list reflect the broader shift in Tennessee's mid-sized cities toward serious cocktail culture. For visitors working through downtown Knoxville, it reads as a reliable upper tier option in a neighbourhood that rewards exploration.
Knoxville, United States
On a residential stretch of Kenesaw Avenue, The Plaid Apron represents a strand of Knoxville dining that takes Tennessee's larder seriously while drawing on techniques with roots far beyond Appalachia. The kitchen's approach places local sourcing inside a framework of precision cookery, making it a reference point for how the city's independent restaurant scene has matured over the past decade.
Knoxville, United States
A Market Square fixture in downtown Knoxville, The Tomato Head has built its reputation as the go-to address for gatherings that call for something more considered than a chain and more relaxed than a white-tablecloth room. Located at 12 Market Square, it sits at the social center of the city, making it a natural anchor for celebrations, casual milestones, and the kind of meals that benefit from a familiar, well-worn setting.
Knoxville
Selected entries from the current guide for Knoxville.
No venues found.
Continue exploring
