100 Best Restaurants in the South

What to Order: The Crudo

Chef Matt Bolus calls his brand of cooking fresh and uncomplicated, but there’s some cloaked modesty there. Everything about this industrial-chic 40-seater blends functionality, novelty, and a little “I’m with the band, but I’m not the rock star” attitude. In the Crudo, simple slices of cobia are dotted with pickled strawberries, pea tendrils, and Marcona almonds. For his Tomato Galette, Matt envelops lemony ricotta in a toasted cornmeal crust, and piles on heirloom tomatoes—a twist on tomato pie without any pretension. Much like Nashville these days, it’s all familiar—but new.

404 12th Avenue South; the404nashville.com/kitchen

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What To Order: Florida White Shrimp and Duck Meatball Pho.

Chef Edward Lee’s flagship restaurant is Louisville’s most sought-after reservation in town. And each plate showcases his ability to combine bold personality (something he’s developed a deserved reputation for) and the best of the seasons with a global perspective on Southern traditions. Go for this twist on traditional pho, with butter-and-fish-sauce poached shrimp and spiced duck meatballs bobbing in a rich broth of chicken, duck, and beef bones scented with burnt ginger, toasted coriander, cloves, and star anise. Sriracha gelee takes the place of the noodles. And it all mingles with fresh Thai basil, cilantro puree, and chili oil.

610 West Magnolia Avenue; 610magnolia.com

What To Order: Acre Shrimp & Grits.

The menu at this gem of a find on The Plains changes almost daily, producing an ever-revolving roster of highlights from chef David Bancroft. This past summer, the Cast Iron Hereford Ribeye for Two was a stunner, with pecan-smoked crackling butter, sweet creamed corn, and fried okra. One near-constant dish is the shrimp and grits, which features sweet shrimp with deep fried Gouda grits, arugula, pickled red onion, and lemon butter.

210 East Glenn Avenue; acreauburn.com

What to Order: No Menu Monday. On the last Monday of every month, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman go totally off script and create a multi-course $45 prix fixe menu. The theme changes each time, from a porcine ode to an all-vegetable rundown. No Menu also means diners aren’t told what they are eating when dishes arrive at the table, making each course a food lover’s guessing game: is that rhubarb in the ketchup? Black pepper and honey in the gelato? At the end, handwritten menus are passed out to decode the experience.

712 West Brookhaven Circle; andrewmichaelitaliankitchen.com

What To Order: The five-course Prix Fixe menu ($85).

After more than 20 years in business, chef Anne Quatranno’s flagship restaurant still sets the bar for hospitality. The five-course tasting menu gracefully highlights the flavors of the South through dishes such as North Georgia rainbow trout, with fennel from Anne’s own farm, brown butter, and almonds, or beautiful white shrimp from the Georgia coast with pork belly, romesco, and basil. I’m always smitten with the cheese course, with its selection of Southern standouts, such as Many Fold Farm “Brebis” and Sequatchie Cove “Dancing Fern.”

1198 Howell Mill Road, NW; starprovisions.com/bacchanalia

What to Order: Rainbow Trout with Buttermilk Consommé and Watercress

1471 West Millers Cove Road; blackberryfarm.com

What to Order: Lamb Saddle. Chef Billy Allin, who really shines through his inventive work with produce and great meats, isn’t afraid to play around with flavors. The Middle Eastern-inspired saddle of lamb (big enough for two), served with cracked wheat, cucumber, and minted yogurt, manages to portray a global perspective without sacrificing his Southern sensibility.

155 Sycamore Street; cakesandalerestaurant.com

What To Order: Anything from Double H Farms.

A few years back, chef Tyler Brown put his money where his mouth is and, well, bought the farm. A 245-acre farm in Dickson County, Tennessee, approximately 30 minutes west of downtown Nashville. Okay, technically, he didn’t. The money men behind The Hermitage Hotel did. But Tyler wears his farmer hat about as often as he wears his chef whites. As a result, the menu is stacked with the fruits of his (and his team’s) labor, including roasted and pickled beets, burgers of Double H Farms beef, and succotash.

231 Sixth Avenue North; capitolgrillenashville.com

What To Order: Boquerones, a simple preparation of anchovies, pipérade, quail egg, and olive oil. Or try the Setas, an elegant display of maitake mushrooms with smoked pear butter, a farm egg, Manchego, and fresh herbs.

3011 Gulden Lane; casarubiadallas.com

What To Order: 7-to-11-Course Tasting Menu.

This is dinner theater, plain and simple. In an austerely white dining space, chef Trevor Moran delivers immaculate courses to diners at a U-shaped counter surrounding the open kitchen. With only 32 positions, the Catbird Seat is a hard table to snag. (New spots open each day for reservations 30 days out.) But for modernist cooking with real personality, there’s nothing like it.

1711 Division Street, thecatbirdseatrestaurant.com

What To Order: Berkshire Pig Head Carnitas.

At this meat-centric, Texas-style brasserie, you can’t go wrong with the roasted pig head. It arrives at the table—snout, ears, and all—crisp and fatty atop a wooden plank. For anyone who loves a proper pig pickin’, this is your tableside porcine dream. Wrap the rich and smoky meat in fresh tortillas, pile on crunchy bits of skin, and top with radishes and roasted tomatillo salsa. Plan to come with friends—this dish is meant to be shared.

1530 Main Street; cbdprovisions.com

What To Order: Tomato Pie.

Chef Vivian Howard, perhaps best known for her PBS show A Chef’s Life, treats Southern staples with reverence, curiosity, and finesse. Her tomato pie, a vision of seasonal greatness, comes with charred vegetables, sweet corn, and a basil vinaigrette. Her fried collards are genius in their simplicity: flash fried and sprinkled with sea salt. You get the essence of collard in a single wispy bite.

120 West Gordon Street; chefandthefarmer.com

What To Order: Steak Frites or Trout Amandine.

Chef Frank Stitt’s French bistro, with a boules court out back, ranks as my favorite hometown drop-in spot. I like to grab a seat at the bar, order the steak frites (a fork-tender study in perfection) or the trout amandine in brown butter (crisp and tangy, bistro fare at its best), get a carafe of wine, and catch up on my own thoughts (and my Instagram feed). If I’m really indulging, I add in a slice of the 7-layer coconut cake, encased in fresh coconut shavings and dressed with crème anglaise.

2007 11th Avenue South; fonfonbham.com

What To Order: Whatever is on the Menu du Jour.

This hideaway of a restaurant, tucked in a quiet residential strip downtown, offers two appetizer, entrée, and dessert options each day. When I was there, the tidy radish salad, crisp and peppery, gave way to rosy wild salmon atop a satiny pool of melted leeks, and finished with classic profiterols. As I sat downstairs in the compact restored house, glass of rosé in hand, with light streaming through the open windows, I might as well have been in a bistro in the south of France.

6 Payne Court; facebook.com/cheznouscharleston

What To Order: Grilled Chesapeake Oysters with mezcal lime butter, and the Red Chile Pozole.

Influences from France to western Africa have long informed how Southerners eat. Today, it’s Vietnam and Latin America that are most shaping the modern South. At Cinco y Diez, chef/owner Hugh Acheson, an outspoken proponent of the all-inclusive table, highlights the vibrant Latin traditions through a soft-focus Southern lens. And executive chef Whitney Otawka transforms the Southern pantry into a fiery amalgamation of cross-cultural flavors. Oysters from Chesapeake waters sizzle with tangy mezcal lime butter. In the pozole, chunks of silken pork bathe in a red chile broth with Anson Mills hominy, escarole, and fresh radish slices.1653 South Lumpkin Street; cincoydiezathens.com

Read more about Cinco Y Diez

What to Order: Belly Ham Pizza. Tandy Wilson gets a lot of credit for giving Nashville its current reputation as a food town. His inventive antipasti (bresaola with blueberries and pecorino; scrapple with pepper sauce), fresh pastas, and brilliant cocktail list (e.g., the Junior, a mix of moonshine, créme de violette, and Dr. Enuf soda) puts a progressive twist on Tennessee staples. The Belly Ham pizza, a simple showcase of house-cured ham with mozzarella, Grana Padano, oregano, and chile flakes, blows my mind every time.

1222 Fourth Avenue North; cityhousenashville.com

What to Order: Fried Livers with Pepper Jelly and Toast. Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski, revered as Louisiana’s pork kings, buy whole hogs and make use of every part they can. They’ve built a cult following around hogshead cheese, cracklins, trotters, fried pigs' ears, and every type of sausage possible. And I love it all. But I swoon for the fried livers. Sometimes chicken, sometimes rabbit, the rich and nutty nuggets come perched on toast, swathed in pepper jelly, and finished with shaved onion, fresh parsley, and mint.

930 Tchoupitoulas Street; cochonrestaurant.com

What To Order: Cheerwine Vinegar Pie with Corn Cob Jelly Cream.

At a place called Comfort, you expect a certain type of food: Pork chops, veggie plates, fried green tomatoes. And the restaurant does all of those exceptionally well. But it’s the Cheerwine twist on vinegar pie, a traditional Appalachian dessert, that still has me hollering. Add in a dollop of corn cob jelly cream and a two-fingered pour of George T. Stagg whiskey—it’s the best way to end a night in Virginia.

200 West Broad Street; comfortrva.com

What To Order: Oyster & Absinthe “Dome.”

Tory McPhail, 2013 winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: South, doesn’t shy away from tradition. But he has decidedly put his own mark on the menu of this NOLA institution. For example, try the bourbon-braised fig-and-foie gras beignets with a chicory coffee mist. The rich Oyster & Absinthe “Dome,” a medley of Gulf bivalves poached with bacon, artichokes, tarragon, absinthe, and cream under a pastry shell, masterfully combines the Crescent City tradition of fresh seafood and the town’s delicious cocktail history.

1403 Washington Avenue; commanderspalace.com

What to Order: Speckled Trout.

Michael Stoltzfus’s menu changes regularly, including the $23 prix fixe lunch (possibly the best deal in town). But on one visit, I fell hard for the speckled trout served with burst cherry tomatoes, perfectly cooked pattypan squash, and a fluttering of Brussels sprouts leaves, finished with delicate satsuma butter.

2800 Magazine Street; coquettenola.com

What to Order

: Atlantic Beach Pie. Chef Bill Smith honorably carries the torch for this beloved destination restaurant, where he and his team continue to be the standard bearers for classics such as shrimp and grits and Hoppin’ John, and have arguably influenced just about every kitchen in the South. But it’s the Atlantic Beach Pie that causes eyes to roll back in heads each and every time. With its saltine cracker crust and lemony sweetened condensed milk filling, this throwback dessert borders on tacky in that made-every-year-by-Aunt Sue-for-the-family-reunion kind of way. Nothing short of delightful.

610 West Franklin Street.; crookscorner.com

Note: Get the recipe for Crook's Corners phenomenal Shrimp and Grits.

What To Order: Pulpo a la Gallega.

At Katie Button’s Spanish tapas-style restaurant, this Galician-style octopus, cut in medallions that are tender as a butterbean, arrives warm with sea salt, olive oil, Spanish paprika, and a puree of Yukon Gold potatoes.

11 Biltmore Avenue; curatetapasbar.com

What To Order: Artisan Meat board.

Craig Deihl is hands down the best in the South—possibly the country—at curing meats. If you don’t eat another thing at Cypress, stop by to stuff your gullet with salumi and charcuterie: rosy Crespone salami with pockets of silken fat, mortadella studded with peppercorns and pistachios, marbled bresaola, Ossabaw hog lardo, fennel-flecked spreadable salami, spicy ’nduja, and on and on. Splurge for the Motherboard ($42), which gets you a little sample of most everything Craig has in stock. It’s worth it, even if you develop a case of the meat sweats. Trust me.

167 East Bay Street; magnolias-blossom-cypress.com

What to Order: Fried Green Tomato Plate. Taylor Bowen Ricketts certainly doesn’t bow to cliché, but her rendition of this Southern classic, served with comeback sauce (a tangy Mississippi staple akin to rémoulade), reminds you why folks across the nation rightfully associate fried green tomatoes with the South.

117 Main Street; deltabistro.com

What To Order: Roasted Cauliflower.

Alon Shaya, one of the Crescent City’s golden boys, produces some serious pies at Domenica, from a classic Margherita to the Roasted Carrot pizza, with goat cheese, red onion, Brussels sprouts, beets, and hazelnuts. But it’s the surprisingly decadent whole roasted cauliflower with whipped goat cheese and sea salt that’s garnered something of a cult following among food lovers in New Orleans and beyond.

123 Baronne Street; domenicarestaurant.com

What To Order: Carolina Gold Rice Heritage Chicken Porridge.

I like to think of Edmund’s Oast as a stylish gastropub with righteous charcuterie. But that almost undersells it. The craft beer program is unparalleled in South Carolina, with some 40-odd beers on tap, including a handful made in-house, and over 30 bottled options. The cocktail program is relentlessly ambitious. And dishes like the buttermilk fried wings, the pickled shrimp on rye bread, and the roasted-and-smoked chicken with cornbread pudding demonstrate the kitchen’s finesse with classic grub. But it’s the outliers—creamy spiced turnip custard, lemony chicken porridge with poached shrimp, braised lamb meatballs with apricots—that make me want to return.

1081 Morrison Drive; edmundsoast.com

What to Order: Grilled Chorizo Meatloaf. Under the guidance of Brian Somershield, a Frank Stitt acolyte, this kitchen turns out thoughtful interpretations of modern Mexican fare, such as the grilled meatloaf, made with a robust chorizo, served atop Cotija cheese-mashed potatoes, and crowned with ranchero, a piquant tomato-based sauce spiced with chiles.

2211 Second Avenue North; elbarriobirmingham.com

What To Order: Fried Chicken Po-Boy with hot sauce and pimiento cheese. Or the Grassroots Chicken with hoe cakes, spaghetti squash, okra, and sorghum.

999 Peachtree Street NE., Suite 140; empirestatesouth.com

What To Order: Dean’s Tortilla Soup and Dr. Pepper Braised Short Ribs.

2121 McKinney Avenue; fearingsrestaurant.com

What To Order: The three- ($95) or four-course ($105) tasting menu.

At this rural North Carolina inn, reminiscent of a French or English farmhouse, the menu echoes the pastoral sophistication of the overall estate. For example, a tomato salad might come adorned with lemon pickled watermelon and a parsley financier. Chicken and sweet corn ravioli mingles with chanterelles, cucumbers, and fresh lima beans. It’s a winning example of farmhouse chic.

240 Market Street; fearrington.com

What To Order: Ricotta Gnocchi & Sea Island Grass-Fed Beef Bolognese.

Jason Stanhope has taken the kitchen reins from Mike Lata, a Charleston culinary icon and James Beard Award winner—and he’s doing him proud. F.I.G., a spot known for food cooked with technical precision and fueled by excellent ingredients served at their peak, remains a must-visit in Charleston. Often, when I’m in town, I’ll pop into the bar area for a nightcap of the ricotta gnocchi—affectionately referred to as pillows of love—even if I’ve already eaten dinner elsewhere. It’s that good.

232 Meeting Street; eatatfig.com