Highest-rated Southern restaurants in Grand Rapids by diners

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

Highest-rated Southern restaurants in Grand Rapids 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 Grand Rapids 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 Grand Rapids 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.

#5. Forty Acres Soul Kitchen

- Rating: 3.9/5 (370 reviews)
- Price level: $$
- Address: 1059 Wealthy St. Southeast Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Categories: Southern, Soul Food
- Read more on Yelp

#4. Carolina Lowcountry Kitchen

- Rating: 4.0/5 (277 reviews)
- Price level: $$
- Address: 2213 Wealthy St. Southeast Ste 120 East Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Categories: Southern, Seafood, Bars
- Read more on Yelp

#3. Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar

- Rating: 4.3/5 (686 reviews)
- Price level: $$
- Address: 140 Ottawa Ave. Ste 100 Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Categories: Southern, New American, Breakfast & Brunch
- Read more on Yelp

#2. The Candied Yam

- Rating: 4.4/5 (139 reviews)
- Price level: $
- Address: 2305 44th St. Southeast Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Categories: Southern, Soul Food, Comfort Food
- Read more on Yelp

#1. Wing Kingz

- Rating: 4.6/5 (47 reviews)
- Address: 1604 Diamond Ave. Northeast Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Categories: Chicken Wings, Southern, Burgers
- Read more on Yelp

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