Highest-rated Southern restaurants in Tallahassee by diners

Written by:
May 13, 2025
Mohamed-Kareem Mohamed // Shutterstock

Highest-rated Southern restaurants in Tallahassee by diners

When you travel below the Mason-Dixon Line, you'll find some of the most mouthwatering, comforting cuisine in the U.S.: Southern food.

Southern dishes are a vital part of American cuisine, from hushpuppies to ham hocks and beignets to barbecue. It's impossible to define a classic Southern meal, but a solid one starts with the sharp savory flavor of pimento cheese dip, followed by the delicious crunchiness of fried chicken or a spicy Louisiana étouffée, culminating with a sugary slice of chess pie that's best washed down with a tall glass of sweet tea.

What's unique about Southern fare is that multiple ethnic and cultural groups have influenced it. Spanish staples, such as potatoes and cocoa, are in many Southern dishes; the Acadians, who traveled to Louisiana from Nova Scotia and later became Louisiana Creoles, contributed their seafood to many Southern meals; African ingredients—okra, sorghum (an ancient grain), and black-eyed peas—became a part of the cuisine through the forced labor of enslaved people; French cooking methods, like braising and sautéing, are used for many Southern recipes; and Native Americans introduced corn to Southern recipes, yielding dishes like succotash and grits.

The Southern culinary scene is an explosion of cultures. To find out where you can sample some Southern offerings, Stacker compiled a list of the highest-rated Southern restaurants in the Tallahassee area using data from Yelp as of May 2, 2025. Businesses were selected using Yelp's ranking system, which calculates an adjusted rating value that takes into account the number of ratings as well as the rating score itself. Only restaurants with at least 20 reviews tagged as "southern" on Yelp within a 10-kilometer radius of Tallahassee were included. As a result, some restaurants featured may serve other food items.

Read on to find the perfect spot to get a taste of the South near you.

#10. Bojangles

- Rating: 3.0/5 (38 reviews)
- Price level: $
- Address: 1350 East Park Ave. Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Chicken Shop, Southern, Breakfast & Brunch
- Read more on Yelp

#9. Guthrie's of Tallahassee

- Rating: 3.5/5 (90 reviews)
- Price level: $
- Address: 1818 West Tennessee St. Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Fast food, Chicken Shop, Southern
- Read more on Yelp

#8. Guthrie's

- Rating: 3.6/5 (32 reviews)
- Price level: $
- Address: 2550 North Monroe St. Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Chicken Shop, Southern, fast food
- Read more on Yelp

#7. Lindy's Fried Chicken Inc

- Rating: 3.6/5 (38 reviews)
- Price level: $
- Address: 1231 East Lafayette St. Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Southern, American, Chicken Wings
- Read more on Yelp

#6. Willie Jewell's Old School Bar-B-Q

- Rating: 3.7/5 (124 reviews)
- Price level: $$
- Address: 5442 Thomasville Road Ste 6 Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Barbecue, Sandwiches, Southern
- Read more on Yelp

#5. 4 Rivers Smokehouse

- Rating: 3.9/5 (264 reviews)
- Price level: $$
- Address: 1817 Thomasville Road Ste 100 Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Barbecue, Smokehouse, Southern
- Read more on Yelp

#4. Earley's Kitchen

- Rating: 4.2/5 (45 reviews)
- Price level: $
- Address: 1458 South Monroe St. Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Southern, Soul Food, Breakfast & Brunch
- Read more on Yelp

#3. Mimi's Table

- Rating: 4.4/5 (153 reviews)
- Address: 1311 Miccosukee Road Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Italian, French, Southern
- Read more on Yelp

#2. Backwoods Crossing

- Rating: 4.5/5 (678 reviews)
- Price level: $$
- Address: 6725 Mahan Drive Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: Southern, New American, Cocktail Bars
- Read more on Yelp

#1. Lucilla

- Rating: 4.6/5 (259 reviews)
- Price level: $$
- Address: 1241 East Lafayette St. Tallahassee, Florida
- Categories: New American, Spanish, Southern
- Read more on Yelp

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