Alabama Dining
 

Just a few restaraunts you may wish to try when you are in Alabama:

Birmingham:

Cobb Lane...When it is open, this is a great, quaint restaraunt located on southside. The BEST She Crab Soup anywhere bar none !!! Limited selection but lots of atmosphere. Majority of the restaraunt is outdoors under the trees with wrought iron railing surrounding you. Longstanding restaraunt who does mostly catering & parties now.

Hot & Hot Fish Club-A wonderful restaraunt with all the trimmings. Very classy inside with very good food. Reservations necessary.

Highland Bar & Grill-White linen dining. One of the top restaraunts in the south. Excellent food a bit on the pricy side but fine dining. 5*

Tuscaloosa:

Dreamland BBQ-This place is all about ribs, ribs and more ribs !! Go to this location for it is the original one but they have them in Birmingham, Mobile, Muscle Shoals and soon Huntsville. Big Meaty Ribs, great for football games, family reunions and big parties!

Gulf Shores:

Lamberts-Home of the thrown rolls. This is southern food taken by waiters & waitresses out of pots & pans and put right on your plate. Good southern cooking. You may wish to duck for the rolls go flying over your head and you catch them when you order bread.

Florence:

Dales Steak House-One of the best steaks you will ever eat especially if you like Dale's Steak Sauce. This is a quaint, darkly lit, romantic restaraunt with excellent service specializing in steaks! They have other items on the menu but the steaks are superb!!! Try the tenderloin.

Dothan:

Conestoga steak House-Small informal restaraunt also with great steaks. If your down in SE Alabama, you need to try this one if your in the mood for beef.

Huntsville & Madison:

Luciano's Italian-Nice Italian restaraunt. Good choices on the menu.

Sister Gooch's-A house turned into a restaraunt. Worth a look. Food is good. Located in Madison.

Humphrey's-In historic downtown Huntsville. A newcomer to the scene. Good atmosphere.

Hey SimpleManToo thanks for the posts.

I know some restaurants in Charleston, SC that are going to have a problem http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/wink.gif w/your statement of:

A biz partner of mine wants to do that "golf trail" in AL, if we go we'll make sure to look up your suggestions.

Let me give a few of my favorites when I visit my brother.

Birmingham: G, in downtown area. Try the green tomato soup. (It's also an Idine eatery.)

Bottega is a great Italian place. It's in a converted bank. One side is more sports bar, the other fine dining.

Huntsville: Jazz Factory, on the square. Hands down one of the best places I've ever eaten. It's billed as San Francisco style cuisine. The head chef is from Alexandria, Egypt and combines some great flavors.

Tokyo, for sushi. Chef Leo is great.

Huntsville Dreamland is now open. Very, very crowded, even for takeout.

How is the hole in the wall Greebrier in Huntsville these days??? We used to be there a few times a week when I was visiting Integraph.

couple of notes: Dreamland Florence is closed as is very very very unfortunately is Sister Gooch in Madison.

Greenbrier; well, haven't been in about 10 - 12 years, so couldn't tell ya; still seem to be lots of cars there. That's the new location on I-565. Old location is better


I'll start a list to be added to later for places in Alabama....

refer to my bbq posts on that thread

Tuscaloosa:

Bob Baumhauer's for wings (in Huntsville, B'ham and Mobile)

known locally as 'The City', The City Cafe in downtown Northport. The one and only place I stop if I'm in town at lunchtime. Don't be discouraged by the line out the door or crammed inside! You order from the list, they bring it to you in usually a coulple of minutes. If you eat all your meat and three veggies for under $4, you can have another meat and 3 veggies for used to be like $1.50. And I have eaten with someone who couldn't quite finish the 3rd plate!

Depalma's, downtown on Univ. DH is still in search for compairable Italian food, mainly calzones, in Huntsville area with casual atmosphere. Cafe' Venice across the street is good Italian as well.

Cypress Inn, on the River. Linen napkin place. Nice variety for the town, cosistantly the best dish is their catfish, which can also be found at their 'sister' restaurants 15th St Diner (near campus), Northport Diner in Northport and Taylorville Diner off of I-20/59) Nice family diners.

Waysider for breakfast, used to serve breakfast late

Birmingham:

Bright Star, downtown Bessemer, just a couple of minutes off I-59/20. Greek family owned, love the fish and salads

Niki's West Steak & Seafood Restaurant, voted best "Meat N Three". Worth the short drive off of I-65 just north of malfunction-junction

Athens: Dub's burgers downtown on the square

Mobile: The Original Oyster House is good family seafood

Huntsville:

Chef's Table, sit at the bar and watch them cook, good food

Ol' Heidelberg is good Bavarian food

Rosie's for Mexican

Cricket's in Madison for buffalo wings

since Sister Gooch is closed, Pauli's in Madison, they have a web site with menus

I'll add my 2 cents, since no one has addressed Anniston/Oxford.

Zack's Mesquite Grill - the only place for steaks in the area, although I have not been displeased by the grilled seafood here either. Fried green tomatoes are ok. It looks like the fried pickles are off the menu, too bad! Zack himself is a real hoot.

The Victoria - wonderful atmosphere (there is a haunted room upstairs) and a decent menu -rack of lamb has been succulent both times. Watch out for the wine menu. I ordered a bottle from memory (company paid last time) for my wife and when I got the bill, found it cost more than the room for the night http://www.flyertalk.com/dining/ftdining_forum/eek.gif

If you ever find yourself in Montgomery, try Sinclair’s. I have eaten at the Cloverdale location on the east side of town. It is not fancy or expensive, but the food is good.

Yes, the restaurant was once a Sinclair gasoline station. One can still see where the two garage doors were for the service area.

Parking is located in the back of the restaurant.

Have since been to Luciano's in Huntsville, a decent Italian place on Airport Rd, reservations help

Next to Jazz Factory, downtown Huntsville, is Pauli's Chophouse and another restaurant my mom likes for lunch. Haven't tried the Chophouse yet, but friend's say it's good like the Pauli's in Madison. Pauli's also has a gourmet wine store next to the restaurant in Madison. Reservations are good for Pauli's too, they serve dinner only.

Simp McGee's in Decatur (dinner only); haven't been in a few years, but haven't heard that it's not still good. Curry's used to do dinner too, but now they're only lunch; downtown. If you're travelin' on I-65 Mon-Fri, The Casual Gourmet serves lunch. Priceville/Decatur exit, west of I65 just pass by the fast food places, it's in a shopping center. It's an 'entree to go' and catering place.

Huntsville - Decatur
 

Papou's Greek Cuisine
100 Southside Sq
Huntsville

Don't go! We ordered simple appetizers and it took them 45 minutes to get the food to us. The place was half empty at the time.

Simp McGhee's
Bank Street
Decatur

Had a good experience and then a very poor one. I went with a client who is allergic to shellfish. She asked if she could have the fried green tomatoes without the crabmeat topping. She was told no, everything was premade. I asked what types of lettuce were in the salad and got a blank look like I was insane. Iceburg sir! It went down from there.

Went to the BHM location, very tasty sauce! Ordered a half slab of ribs, not falling-off-the-bone, but very good. The banana pudding was fantastic! ^ ^ ^ ^

I must hit these places on their off days. Last week, I visited Dreamland in Huntsville, and it was a vastly better experience. The ribs were very tender, and I ended up using a ton of towels. Again, the banana pudding was fantastic. I'm going to try and hit DL in Tuscaloosa on Thursday.

I'll second the Ol Heidelburg in Huntsville. Great German food with an emphasis on southern German dishes.

Jim'N'Nicks barbecue in Birmingham.

Sadly, both are closed - although the Victoria is scheduled to reopen. Zack passed away around the end of 2008 and it doesn't look like anyone will take over. One of the Victoria's owners declared bankruptcy and the other owners donated the hotel to Jacksonville State U. The hotel is open and a couple from B'ham has been hired to run the restaurant. Stay tuned.

Jacksonville has a couple independents with promise. Cooters Browns is the place for ribs and Stephen Landers has opened Efina's for Italian. I've heard good things but haven't been up to try it yet, but can personally testify to Cotter Borwn's ribs and barbeque.

I'm going to do some college visits with my son next week. Any recent updates for Tuscaloosa, B'ham, Montgomery, Auburn and places in between. I'm more of a cheap eats guy than fancy dining.