Three Nashville restaurants are among Bon Appetit's contenders for their Hot 10 List of the best new restaurants in America.

Bastion, Henrietta Red and Martin's BBQ mothership downtown made the grade and were three of 50 finalists for the honor. We at Bites can take a dim view of lists due to the sheer volume of them out there, but the Bon Appetit list is one of the best, in no small part due to the rigor that the staff puts into it. Editors Julia Kramer and Andrew Knowlton spend months hopscotching the country to try the contenders (for some insight, here's the BA Foodcast on last year's list). Here's what they said this year:

On Bastion:

Order the tasting menu on the restaurant side: Expect barley and black garlic wrapped in tiny celery root "tacos" and other intricate plates prepared before your eyes behind the open counter. The clever menu gives you the option to order as many (or as few) courses as you want. Try at least five dishes, unless you plan on ending the night next door on the bar side, where there is exactly one food item served: a massive tray of gooey, gorgeous nachos.

On Henrietta Red:

Go here to find out why everyone is talking about Nashville as America’s new culinary destination. The latest proof is chef and Nashville-native Julia Sullivan’s temple to all things seafood, named for her grandmother and her grandfather, Edgar, a redhead. With this Germantown neighborhood hangout, Sullivan and her business-partner/sommelier Allie Poindexter have shown that Nashville has way more to offer than honky-tonks and bologna sandwiches.

On Martin's BBQ's downtown location:

It was at his original location in Nolensville, TN (the newest location in downtown Nashville is his sixth) where we first tasted what he called “redneck spaghetti,” basically whole hog meat picked from the belly in long strands. At his latest, you’ll get Martin’s signature West Tennessee-style whole hog (cooked in one of four cinder-blocked pits) plus killer wings, live music, and over 30 types of beer. The sprawling space is ginormous—500 seats over a multilevel 13,000-square-foot former warehouse space. It’s like a BBQ-themed amusement park, and we can’t wait to go back.

Outside of the Nashville places — all three worthy spots, especially as Bastion and Henrietta Red are our best reviewed places in the last year — this is a list worth squirreling away for the next time you're traveling.