2025 Centurion Award winner
Arnold's Country Kitchen
Best Meat-and-Three in Nashville · Nashville, TN
Best Meat-and-Three in Nashville · Nashville, TN
Arnold's Country Kitchen has served Nashville's definitive meat-and-three since Jack and Rose Arnold opened it in 1982, and the family still runs it — son Kahlil Arnold now works the kitchen. Diners grab a tray and move down a cafeteria line, calling out a meat and three sides while roast beef, fried green tomatoes, turnip greens, and chess pie disappear as fast as they're set out.
The plainspoken downtown lunch counter earned a James Beard Foundation America's Classics award — the honor reserved for beloved, locally owned restaurants with timeless appeal — and it remains a place where construction crews, office workers, and visiting chefs all stand in the same line.
Each Centurion Award is a dated record tied to one year’s evaluation — earned annually, never carried over. Open a year for the full citation and verification details.
Awards run one calendar year and renew only if the business clears the bar again. Selection is by published criteria, never for sale.
Visit Arnold's Country Kitchen
This page is the standing record for Arnold's Country Kitchen (2025). It was not bought, voted on, or sponsored — only winners are published, and an award that stops holding up is revoked, not quietly removed. For hours, bookings, and live reviews, go straight to the business itself.
If you’ve put in the years, you may already clear the bar. Evaluation is free, private, and never for sale.