3 Best Restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama

Owner-chef Frank Stitt is a James Beard Award winner and an American culinary icon. Using farm-fresh ingredients and applying French technique to his native Southern cuisine, Stitt became a sensation when he opened his restaurant in 1982. Straightforward but sophisticated dishes such as pan-seared scallops with butter-braised fennel or the kitchen’s famous stone-ground baked grits with Parmesan, mushrooms, country ham, and fresh thyme are served in a romantic, candlelit atmosphere. Seats are so coveted that reservations are accepted a month in advance.

Southern food prepared fresh daily is the standard at this little, homey restaurant that dates to 1928 and was the inspiration for Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. Owners have changed over the years, but the famous fried green tomatoes and Southern cooking endure. Daily specials might bring green tomato Parmesan or okra and green tomato fritters. Plain fried green tomatoes, fried chicken (livers too), fried catfish, country-fried steak, sweet-potato soufflé, and various pies and cobblers are always on the menu.

Authentic soul food joins creative Southern home cooking at this cozy little Avondale-district hole-in-the-wall with worn floors and tables so close together you’ll get to know your neighbors. Don’t miss the slow-cooked pulled “pork and greens” served over grits or the “SAW’s bowl,” piled with corn bread, braised pork cheeks, green beans, caramelized onions, and slaw. Chicken marinates in sweet tea before being fried for one sandwich. Even sweeter is the old-fashioned banana pudding.