THE SOUTH
The Best Restaurants in Savannah, Where the Restaurants Are Continually Raising the Bar
By Eric Barton | Oct. 3, 2025
Joe & Vera’s
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Several times a year I turn the long haul between Miami and Asheville into an excuse to spend a night in Savannah. It’s not just a rest stop—it’s a ritual.
The city’s food scene has a gravitational pull, the kind that justifies tacking a night onto an already endless drive. I don’t come back for the same dishes, either. Savannah is one of those rare places where the dining landscape shifts fast enough that it feels like cheating to eat at the same table twice.
So every trip I chase what’s new, even if it means passing up an old favorite. On my most recent swing through town, two more restaurants proved themselves worthy additions, a reminder that Savannah’s dining scene keeps expanding well beyond its reputation as a tourist town with pralines and fried chicken.
Here then are my favorite spots in town, the best restaurants in Savannah.
Brochu’s Family Tradition
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Former Roister chef Andrew Brochu took his talents here and now turns out fried‑chicken dinners that have earned national buzz. His chicken is crisp-skinned, brined, and nearly legendary among insiders. It’s comfort upgraded, illustrated in the meal above: chamomile-spiced fried thighs, charred breast, and chicken salad.
Best for: Fried chicken that belongs in the national conversation
Bull Street Taco
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You won’t find many tourists meandering the streets of the charming Starland neighborhood, which is maybe why this gem of a restaurant feels like it’s built for the locals. The staff is glad you’re there, the patio is sunlit and social, and the margs are tart and potent. Everything I ordered here, and there was a lot, was spot-on, but highlights included these three tacos: spicy carnitas tacos that are spiked with pickled pineapple; the baja fish that’s crispy and kicked up with tomatillo buttermilk crema; and the tuna poke tostada that’s a study in how sushi-grade fish can steal an entire table's attention.
Best for: Margaritas, tacos, and the sense you’re in on a local secret
Clary’s Café
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Open since 1903, Clary’s is Savannah’s grease‑spattered breakfast anchor—cheesy omelettes, thick biscuits, and coffee cups that never seem empty. Regulars sit across from tourists looking for the “Midnight in the Garden” feel. It’s greasy, it’s early, and it’s the kind of greasy that sticks to your ribs.
Best for: A hangover-curing breakfast that feels neighborhood-true
Coastal 15
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From the first floor of the Bohemian Hotel, Coastal 15 opens its garage doors wide to the Savannah River, so the breeze cuts through while you pick at Virginia oysters and a Georgia-style gumbo that actually packs heat. The chef, unbothered by menu limits, put together a veggie risotto for my wife, which felt as thoughtful as it was creamy. Between the view, the spice, and the generosity, it’s a rare hotel restaurant that feels like it belongs to the city outside its walls.
Best for: Southern-inspired dishes, craft cocktails, and river views
Common Thread
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Overseen by Brandon Carter (James Beard semi‑finalist Best Chef: Southeast 2025), the six‑course menu is globally spiked—kimchi oysters, smoked Carolina Gold rice, mushroom barbecue. The dining room feels like a hushed soirée in a Victorian mansion, and the early‑week prix fixe hits both heart and highbrow. It was a Bon Appétit Top 50 launch in 2022, and it still punches.
Best for: A multi-course meal with Southern roots
Desposito’s
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Across the Thunderbolt bridge, this waterfront seafood market–turned-restaurant still peddles thick-cut crab cakes, peel‑and‑eat shrimp, and creamy lobster mac‑n‑cheese. Ownership remains in the family of Carlos Desposito, the dockworker who bought the spot in the ’60s. It’s low-key, open-air—solid seafood without the pretense.
Best for: Seafood by the docks without the pretense
Elizabeth’s on 37th
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In the dining room of a c.1900 Victorian, Elizabeth Terry—1995 James Beard Best Chef: Southeast—built her iron-clad reputation on standbys like pecan-crusted redfish, rich crab bisque, and shortcake the size of your head. You’ll pick from a prix fixe menu that’s $125 per person, with optional wine pairings starting at $75. The linens stay pressed and the menus largely unchanged, because this is about maintaining the standards of old Savannah. Dining here is gracious, genteel, and reliably Southern.
Best for: Elegant, slow-paced dining in an old Savannah mansion
Flock to the Wok
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In the part of town where you expect to find tourists wandering around looking for their ghost tour, you might expect this American-style Chinese spot to be less than stellar. But it’s crowded almost always with SCAD students and locals who know this is the place for noodles, stir frys, and, before or after, a drink downstairs in the speakeasy. If there’s a better spot in Savannah to soak up all the bad decisions you made at Abe’s on Lincoln, I haven’t found it yet.
Best for: Chinese comfort food that’s good and hearty
The Grey
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Inside a Streamline Moderne Greyhound station, Chef Mashama Bailey—the multiple James Beard Award winner (Best Chef: Southeast 2019, Outstanding Chef 2022) and Chef’s Table star—refashions Southern cuisine. Plates like foie gras and grits or smoked collards with wild sorghum jus echo her Edna Lewis–inspired sensibility. Service is slick, the space is Art Deco calm, and every dish tells a rearranged Southern story.
Best for: Bold Southern cooking in a handsome space
Husk Savannah
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Chef Sean Brock‑inspired Southern cooking—you’ll taste it in the fried chicken that makes you rethink every other fried bird. Sides rotate with what local farms drop off; the menu is straightforward but thrilling if the chicken skin is properly blistered. Compliment with local craft beer or a mint julep and you’re doing Savannah right.
Best for: Elevated Southern cooking with flair
Joe & Vera’s
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Tim Fitzgerald, who once mixed martinis as head bartender at Per Se in New York now runs this polished cocktail lounge on Broughton. The drinks lean classic but clever: a nitro espresso martini on tap, a deft chocolate negroni that my wife deemed the best cocktail of her life. The food side of the menu is small but sharply executed, with oysters, steak frites, and just about the perfect after-dinner cheese plate. With cocktails priced around 10 bucks, it feels like a New York pedigree dropped into Savannah, only friendlier.
Best for: Deftly made cocktails before, after, or with dinner
Local 11Ten
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Chef Jake Rogers takes fresh ingredients largely from local farms and creates dishes that elevate them in ways that are both simple and complicated: chilled squash and saffron soup that’ll cut through the stifling heat of a Savannah summer day, a lamb skewer with a spicy chermoula rub, and swordfish with a hashtag of grill marks above a corn succotash. The wine list knows how to pair and the cocktails are polished. It’s sneaky expensive, but splurge-worthy.
Best for: A polished seasonal meal when you’re in the mood to dress up your palate
Mrs. Wilkes' Dining Room
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Lunch at long communal tables hasn’t changed since 1943: bowls of fried chicken, yams, greens, and hot water cornbread arrive on rotation. Plates aren’t ordered—they’re served—and you pass the platters until you’re tapped out. It’s a midday rite, and they’re polite about your third helping. The only thing that’s changed since ‘43 is the price, now clocking in at $35, but it ought to be done at least once for anybody who’s a fan of Southern cooking.
Best for: Communal lunch that feels like a ritual, not a meal
The Public Kitchen & Bar
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Oysters on the half‑shell rub elbows with bison burgers and seasonal cocktails—this is seafood meets gastropub with a side of neighborhood vibe. Housed in an 1860s storefront, it’s where locals gather after work and stay for fall‑off‑the‑bone ribs or shrimp and grits. Nightly music and a river‑street buzz give it the sort of ambiance that doesn’t feel like you’re “trying.”
Best for: A mix of seafood, riffs, and local energy
Savoy Society
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Owned by Joshua Holland, who’s running the kitchen, and Matt Garappolo behind the bar, Savoy Society redefines Southern hospitality in a lounge setting. Think open-faced pimento cheese toast with house pickles, stone-ground grits studded with local greens, and seasonal small plates meant for sharing over expertly crafted cocktails at Matt’s station. Holland and Garappolo even channel the energy of Savannah staples like Pinkie Masters and Diplomat Luncheonette in a refined, late-night setting—Savannah’s city-energy hub without pretense.
Best for: Late-night small plates and cocktails in a lounge setting
Vic’s on the River
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Inside a restored cotton warehouse overlooking the Savannah River, Vic’s deals in upscale Southern plates with just enough polish to impress the in-laws. The shrimp and grits come in a Rosemary BBQ sauce and applewood smoked bacon, the fried green tomatoes have a panko crust with parm and smoked cheddar grits, and the pecan pie somehow still feels like a discovery. Service is crisp, the live piano leans nostalgic, and the whole thing hums like a Savannah postcard in motion.
Best for: Upscale Southern plates with river views
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