The American South is comprised of some 16 states plus the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By that definition, everything from the northeastern border of Delaware to the tip of the Florida Keys and west to El Paso, Texas, can be considered Southern.
It’s hardly surprising that a region that ranges that far and wide, with immense variations in geography, climate, and cultural background — native American, Black, English and Scottish, Spanish, French, German, and more — has developed a lot of different kinds of food through the generations, based on the available products, economic status, and ethnic heritages of each region. (Here are 20 iconic Southern foods every American should try.)
That said, the South today, collectively, is home to some of the best chefs and most innovative (or respectfully traditional) restaurants in the nation — with their cooking often enriched in recent decades by the cuisines of newcomers from Mexico, Central America, the Middle East, and various corners of Asia. From a culinary point of view, the Southern states have managed to retain a strong sense of proud regional identity without remaining insular — and that’s good news of those of us who like to eat real food, open to the world but with authentic roots, unflavored by trend and hype.
To assemble a list of the best restaurants in the South, 24/7 Tempo consulted reviews and ratings on a wide range of websites, including Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Food & Wine, and Eater, as well as numerous local and regional sites. In order to come up with a manageable number of entries that included as many of the region’s top restaurants as possible, we limited our choices to 11 states, eliminating Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia from consideration (though two D.C.-adjacent places in Virginia are included).
We have also filtered out barbecue restaurants. There are so many of them, in every corner of the South, and they are often so good, that they would likely take over this list at the expense of other worthy places. They are a subject for a story of their own. (In the meantime, here’s a roster of the best barbecue joint in every state.)
It should be noted that many of the places on this list serve Southern food, either traditional or with a contemporary gloss, but some are more international in tone. All are worth trying.
Here are the 35 best restaurants in the South:
Acre (Auburn, AL)
Promising “fresh, modern cuisine inspired by our Southern heritage,” this rustic-chic establishment in eastern Alabama, about 30 miles from Columbus, GA, offers such fare as “gas station” boudin balls with spicy mustard sauce, crispy baked sweet potato with goat cheese butter and fermented chile honey, and clove-spiced Maple Leaf duck breast with pumpkin dumplings.
Bottega (Birmingham, AL)
While his landmark Highlands Bar & Grill remains temporarily closed, pioneering modern Southern chef Frank Stitt continues to oversee his French bistro, Chez Fonfon, and this bustling trattoria where “the American South meets the Italian countryside.” Expect such offerings, largely based on local ingredients, as Joyce Farms beef tongue tonnato style, cappelletti with Gulf lump crabmeat and Belle Meadow spinach, and dry-aged pork chops with Harvest Farm broccoli and salsa verde.
Hot and Hot Fish Club (Birmingham, AL)
Imaginatively blending Southern and international cuisines into an idiom of its own, Chris and Idie Hastings and their Fish Club team have come up with such original fare as ham hock ravioli, grilled black grouper with black rice and roasted beets, rabbit pot pie, and seven-layer carrot cake — and won a James Beard Award in the process.
Conifer (Bentonville, AR)
“[F]ocused on relationships between local Northwest Arkansas farmers and the community,” chef Matt Cooper’s 100% gluten-free restaurant boasts a menu that changes not only seasonally but “even hyper-seasonally.” Specialties might include such things as apple salad with radishes, pickled shallots, and blue cheese; sweet potatoes with hummus, crispy garbanzos, and tahini; and Bansley pork with purple hull peas and pear chutney.
The Hive (Bentonville, AR)
Culturally speaking, Bentonville is best-known for the Moshe Safdie-designed Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, opened by Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton. There’s a smaller contemporary art museum at the 21c Museum Hotel — but the place is also a hive, as it were, of culinary culture, thanks to this restaurant led by chef Micah Klasky. His three-meals-a-day menu items range from a cheesy egg and sorghum sausage breakfast sandwich to a griddled lunchtime pimento cheese sandwich with bacon jam to such dinner dishes as roasted squash soup with créme fraîche and sumac and pan-seared sea bass with spiced cannellini beans and chorizo broth.
Norman’s (Orlando, FL)
Arguably the most famous and influential Floridian chef and certainly one of the best, Norman Van Aken — who has been hailed as the found father of New World Cuisine and Florida’s culinary icon — has opened and closed a number of restaurants over the years, but has a new home with this glamorous place on Orlando’s so-called Restaurant Row. Samples of his cuisine? Blue crab beignets with yuzu aïoli, “Down Island” French toast with Curaçao-scented foie gras and passion fruit caramel, and banana-leaf fish gumbo with crawfish and andouille dirty rice.
The Surf Club (Surfside, FL)
Chef Thomas Keller, whose French Laundry in the Napa Valley and Per Se in New York City are considered among the country’s very best restaurants for their contemporary French-influenced fare, goes in another direction altogether in his beautiful coral-and-blue-hued dining at the Four Seasons Hotel in this beachside community bordering Miami. Here, the menu offers a very elevated interpretation of the “continental” cuisine that used to be common in American restaurants — things like oysters Rockefeller, fettuccine Alfredo, Dover sole meunière, and roast chicken with thyme juice for two (plus sides including creamed spinach, green beans amandine, and buttermilk-whipped potatoes) — all of it done with a Kelleresque attention to quality.
Five & Ten (Athens, GA)
Acclaimed chef Hugh Acheson’s flagship restaurant is dedicated to what he describes as “an open interpretation of Southern food, melding Georgia cookery with French and Italian influences.” Examples? Whitefish rillettes with shrimp and buttermilk crackers, chicken cordon bleu with Swiss cheese and serrano ham, steak frites with chimichurri and horseradish aïoli, and honey-chamomile sorbet with sorghum.
Bacchanalia (Atlanta, GA)
At the top of the Atlanta dining scene since it opened 30 years ago, Bacchanalia -— which shares quarters with the popular Star Provisions market, kitchen shop, and café — features an eclectic menu based on the world’s cuisines and the region’s raw materials. A sample meal might include foie gras terrine with pickled roots and herbs; turbot with miso, bok choy, and ginger; smoked ricotta with winter squash and pumpkin seeds; and Summerland Farm honey ice milk with meringue.
Miller Union (Atlanta, GA)
Chef Steven Satterfield and GM/sommelier Neal McCarthy named their contemporary Southern restaurant for Atlanta’s 19th-century Miller Union Stockyards. The restaurant’s interpretations of regional fare include things like field pea and peanut salad with tomatoes and peppers, grilled pork loin with collard greens and roasted apple, and pear-rosemary shortbread tart with vanilla pastry cream.
The Grey (Savannah, GA)
Chef Mashama Bailey, who worked at Aquagrill and Prune in Manhattan before heading south (where she’d lived as a child), became an overnight star when she opened this lively restaurant in the shell of a once-segregated Greyhound Bus station. Her tradition-based but highly original menu offers things like okra with ground nut sauce, salted fish croquettes with lemon aïoli, lamb heart with burnt bread and beets, and sweetbreads with ham hock vinaigrette.
Common Thread (Savannah, GA)
Ryan and Joanne Williamson, who own FARM in nearby Bluffton, SC, launched this offshoot in 2021 in the city’s historic Krouskoff House. Vegetables and seafood, with international accents, figure prominently on the menu. Sample dishes: red snapper crudo with Fresno pepper and citrus/vanilla vinaigrette, Carolina Gold rice with smoked swordfish and crème fraïche, and chicken with piri piri marinade and collard greens.
610 Magnolia (Louisville, KY)
Brooklyn-born Korean-American chef Ed Lee is one of the most prominent and respected restaurateurs in the South, both for his activism — his organization LEE, which stands for Let’s Empower Employment, promotes jobs and diversity in the food service industry — and his culinary skills. He was guest chef at the White House state dinner for South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol in April — and displays his talents all year long at this establishment. The nightly tasting menu evolves constantly, but in the past has included such creations as chanterelle hummus with trout roe and pickled ramps, halibut with squash terrine and roasted corn, and fig tart with salted white chocolate and sherry vinegar caramel.
Commander’s Palace (New Orleans, LA)
A Crescent City essential, this “haute Creole” restaurant, owned by the Brennan family — local restaurant royalty — since 1974 (but first opened in 1893), has been the proving ground for such renowned chefs as Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme. Today, Meg Bickford is in charge of the kitchen, and standards are as high as ever. Among the current menu items are beef tartare with cornmeal-fried oysters, classic turtle soup with sherry, Louisiana wild white shrimp with barbequed red onions and Creole cream cheese grits, and sugarcane pecan tartlet.
Dooky Chase (New Orleans, LA)
This iconic establishment, opened in 1941, was a meeting place in the 1960s for Martin Luther King and his associates, and has long been a mainstay of the city’s Black community. It has also been a lodestar for anyone looking for first-rate Creole food and other Southern fare. Longtime proprietor Dooky Chase (son of the founder) died in 2016 and his widow, Leah, followed three years later, but the place is still owned by their family and still serving impeccable BBQ shrimp, crawfish étouffée, Southern fried chicken, praline bread pudding, and other irresistible dishes.
Galatoire’s (New Orleans, LA)
This legendary Bourbon Street grande dame, founded in 1905 by French immigrant Jean Galatoire, is an expression of the highest standards of traditional Creole cooking. It’s the place you want to order shrimp rémoulade, oysters en brochette, duck and andouille gumbo, crab-stuffed eggplant, and other old-style delights. The steaks and chops are also first-rate, and for dessert, the sweet potato cheesecake with caramel sauce and candied spicy pecans is hard to beat.
Pêche Seafood Grill (New Orleans, LA)
As its name suggests, seafood is front and center in this superb addition to the New Orleans dining scene from Donald Link (whose excellent Cochon is a meat-centric parallel). The menu draws inspirations from the Gulf Coast but also from Latin America and Spain. Smoked tuna dip, catfish with pickled greens and chili broth, fried oysters with pickled corn and kimchi aïoli, and whole grilled local fish are some of the possibilities — and there’s grilled chicken and a hanger steak for those not seafood-inclined.
Doe’s Eat Place (Greenville, MS)
There are about a dozen offshoots of this legendary eatery, most of them franchises, ranging across six states. This Mississippi Delta original is the best of them, though, for its lived-and-eaten-in atmosphere (it opened in 1941 in what had been Dominick “Doe” Signa’s family grocery store) and its brief, no-nonsense menu offering not much more than broiled shrimp, Mississippi-style tamales, and pan-fried steaks with home fries and garlic bread on the side.
Weidmann’s (Meridian, MS)
Established as little more than a dining nook in the Union Hotel in 1870 by a Swiss cruise-ship chef named Felix Weidmann, who moved it to its current location in 1923, this Mississippi institution has had a number of owners over the years, and was extensively renovated in 1999. Its traditions remain intact, however, from the handmade crock of peanut butter with crackers on every table (a legacy from WWII, when butter was in short supply) to the fried green tomatoes, crawfish diablo, catfish Belvedere, and boudin-stuffed pork chops that join more modern dishes on the menu.
City Grocery (Oxford, MS)
This 29-year-old local landmark, opened by Louisiana-born chef John Currence, skillfully expands the definition of Southern food with such dishes as brown butter sweet potato latkes, pork belly salad with butternut squash and buttermilk/honey vinaigrette, fish and chips made with beer-battered Mississippi catfish, and roasted chicken with mushroom and leek velouté.
Cúrate (Asheville, NC)
The husband-and-wife team of Félix Meana and Katie Button (the chef) — who met while working at Ferran Adrià’s fabled elBulli in Catalonia — have brought the burgeoning restaurant town of Asheville a true taste of Spain with this restaurant in a renovated 1920s bus terminal. That means things like jamón ibérico and other cured meats from Spain, tapas ranging from patatas bravas to stuffed piquillo peppers to Galician-style octopus, a few more substantial dishes like charcoal-grilled trout and pork cheeks with white beans, and some Spanish desserts
The Lantern (Chapel Hill, NC)
Andrea Reusing deftly turns North Carolina ingredients into pan-Asian fare at this longtime Chapel Hill favorite. Fiery Japanese eggplant salad, pork and chive dumplings, coconut-braised pork shank, lemongrass tofu with rice noodles, and warm native persimmon pudding are typical menu items.
The Fearrington House Restaurant (Pittsboro, NC)
Paul Gagne, who’d served as sous-chef under longtime Fearrington House kitchen boss Colin Bedford, succeeded him last year — and obviously learned his lessons well. The seasonal fixed-price menu at this upscale dining room at Fearrington House Inn, in the planned community of Fearrington Village, draws on local products and French techniques. Some sample constituents of the menu: cured and smoked lamb loin with sweet potato and sherry, North Carolina catfish with Earl Grey and potato butter, NY strip with romesco sauce and black sesame, and — a Fearrington House essential — Valrhona coeur de Guanaja soufflé.
Poole’s Diner (Raleigh, NC)
Opened in the mid-1940s as Poole’s Pie Shop, this contemporary Southern diner, now in the hands of celebrated Raleigh-area chef-restaurateur Ashley Christensen, tempts customers with a menu of “reimagined comfort food” — which translates to such things as caramelized onion tart with Benton’s bacon and gruyère, crudité salad with seeded toast and tonnato sauce, short rib pot pie with roasted root vegetables and a croissant pastry crust, and warm apple cobbler with peanut butter ice cream.
St. Roch (Raleigh, NC)
Crawfish hushpuppies, crsip frogs legs with fish sauce caramel and crushed peanuts, blue crab claws with black garlic vinaigrette, ‘gator bolognese with housemade ricotta gnocchi, dirty rice with duck leg confit and chorizo…. You can tell from the menu here that chef-owner Sunny Gerhart — who worked under Ashley Christensen at her acclaimed Poole’s Diner (see above) — draws on many influences in his cooking and likes forthright flavors, and his restaurant has become a Raleigh must.
F.I.G. (Charleston, SC)
A self-style neighborhood restaurant that nonetheless draws diners from far and wide, F.I.G. (which stands for “Food Is Good”), with co-owner Mike Lata overseeing the kitchen, specializes in Southern fare (yelloweye snapper and Carolina Gold rice bowl with popper sorghum, broiled Steamboat Creek oysters, Lady Edison country ham with mustards and honeycrisp apple) with some detours to the Mediterranean like ricotta gnocchi with lamb bolognese and bouillabaisse with white shrimp and brown rice.
The Ordinary (Charleston, SC)
This “Southern seafood hall and oyster bar,” located in an old historic bank building, was launched in 2012 by chef Mike Lata of F.I.G. and that restaurant’s co-owner, Adam Nemirow. There are certainly Southern-style dishes on the menu (including oysters from both Carolinas, okra and tomato gumbo with blue crab meal and andouille, white shrimp rice) but there are other accents here, too — like New England fish chowder, steak tartare, and Thai-style rock shrimp larb.
Chez Nous (Charleston, SC)
When veteran critic Alan Richman wrote about this “pint-sized, convivial, neighborhood restaurant” (as it calls itself) for Air Mail, he proposed that it “might well be the most appealing small restaurant in America.” With room for a maximum of 36 guests at a time (six of those at the bar), Chez Nous offers a tiny daily-changing menu — just two appetizers, two main dishes, and two desserts per evening. The culinary inspirations are the South of France, northern Italy, and northern Spain, and the specifics, as prepared by chef Jill Mathais, might include such straightforward dishes as vitello tonnato, chilled shrimp and squid with herb sauce, duck with black currant sauce, culotte steak with pepper and tomato sauce, and chocolate olive oil cake — all impeccably prepared.
Motor Supply Company Bistro (Columbia, SC)
The building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, that now houses this eclectic modern bistro was once home to a (why are we not surprised?) a motor supply shop. Today, South Carolina-born chef Wesley Fulmer dispenses not motor parts but such dishes as seared diver scallops with parsnip purée, fried oyster salad with romaine and cornbread croutons, and Heritage Farm pork chops with sweet potato, chorizo, and cider-braised greens.
Yolan (Nashville, TN)
Tony Mantuano was chef at the Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning Spiaggia, Chicago’s best Italian restaurant, for 35 years before “retiring” to Nashville to open this superlative establishment. The menu runs from radicchio with fennel, persimmon, pistachio, and gorgonzola to gnocchi with white truffles and ricotta to guinea fowl with polenta — all of it first-rate and very Italian-tasting.
The Barn at Blackberry Farm (Walland, TN)
The elegantly appointed dining room in a converted vintage barn at this renowned resort property serves multi-course menus of “Foothills Cuisine” based largely on Appalachian gredients. Chef Cassidee Dabney’s creations might include wood-grilled cauliflower and sweet onions with basil vinaigrette, Blackberry Farm cheese dumplings with grilled garden peppers, North Carolina mountain trout with oyster mushrooms and dilly beans, wood-grilled sweetbreads with beef-fat whipped potatoes, and peanut and chocolate sundae with peanut toffee and crispy meringue.
Mama Chang (Fairfax, VA)
Acclaimed Chinese chef Peter Chang has Sichuan-focused restaurants in a number of locations around Virginia and Maryland (plus one in Stamford, CT), but Mama Chang is his flagship — more upscale than the others and featuring home-style recipes inspired by his grandmother, mother, wife, and daughter, with an emphasis on not only Sichuan but also Hunan and Hubei cuisines. You’ll find beef chow fun and Peking duck here, but also lamb and fish ball soup, steamed fish with fresh chiles and vermicelli, braised pork belly and tea egg, and other far less common dishes.
Syd’s PigFish Café (Norfolk, VA)
Mississippi-born chef Sydney Meers closed his popular restaurant Stove in Portsmouth in 2018, but returned with this colorful, eccentric place three years later. The quirky menu lists such dishes as “My Infamous Cheese Tray” (a choice of cheeses with crackers, hamburger relish, and country ham salad), “Most Wonderful Mixed Green Salad” with smoked tomato and golden beets, “Fish o Rama” with black-eye pea grits and jumbo Gulf shrimp, and house-aged strip steak “with a slice of our pimento cheesecake sided with my d-lish sauce.”
The Inn at Little Washington (Washington, VA)
The restaurant at chef Patrick O’Connell’s elegant little luxury hotel remains the only establishment in the metropolitan D.C. area with three Michelin stars — the guide’s highest accolade. Sometimes called “the Pope of American Cuisine,” the self-taught O’Connell is known for such imaginative creations as carpaccio of big-eye tuna and swordfish with wasabi sorbet, chartreuse of savoy cabbage and Maine lobster with caviar beurre blanc, and Long Island duck breast with figs braised in Madeira.