The Best Places to Eat in Memphis

If you have ever been to New York City or New Orleans, dining can be an experience if you know where to look and who to talk to. When you arrive in New York City you get the dibs on the hot, trendy spots to eat. It is the same thing in New Orleans, where Cajun cooking rules the day. In Memphis, a city with a diverse pallet, food reviews are usually based on the dining habits of the writer. If they enjoy Italian food then obviously they will write with a bent towards that cooking style. The problem with Memphis is, you have great restaurants run by awfully talented chefs who bring their cooking styles to Memphis to make a melting pot of high quality of cooking over the standard fare found in other cities.

So rather than go by cooking style, I'm going to look at it in reference to location. The eating districts of Memphis are, downtown, Overton Square, and East Memphis. No disrespect to eateries in Cordova or Hickory Hill, Raleigh or Parkway Village, but the reality is that the best food in the city is in one of those three areas.

Downtown is my favorite hot spot to eat. With a diverse collection of places to eat you can find almost any eatery for the right price. The premiere spots in the city are the Rendezvous and the Butcher Shop. With the Rendezvous, which was featured in the Firm with Tom Cruise, diners get a scrumptious plate of bbq that is served on a read and white plastic tablecloth. At the Butcher Shop, one of the best steakhouses in the city, diners will receive a premium steak and meal for a nice penny. On the lower scale, Gus' Famous Fried Chicken will make you slap your mother it is so good. Not as expensive as the Rendezvous and the Butcher Shop, Gus' sits on Front Street with a yellow sign, beckoning hungry people from all over the city to stop by and eat the best friend chick in the city.

Near Overton Square, a unique offering of dining options is rampant. From Café Ole to the Soul Fish Café, you can find just about anything for any price in this Midtown district. With Overton Square the home of eclectic options, a visitor to the Square will find a movie theatre that serves beer, the best Italian restaurant in the city in Grisanti's on Poplar Avenue, and the strangest Asian places in the world that serves would could be everything that anyone has ever retrieved from a body of water on Madison Avenue.

In East Memphis, Grisanti owner Ronnie Grisanti's son Frank has opened his own Italian hotbed with Frank Grisanti's in the Embassy Suites Hotel. Additionally, Folk's Folly is a remarkable site for a thick, well-cooked steak. Located near the Clark Tower, Folk's Folly is a Memphis tradition. And of course, what would any review be without a mention of a local Ruth's Chris steakhouse.

There is obviously good food all over the city. You can find a great meal wherever you go. But when it comes to the best in the city, nothing compares to the Sunday Brunch at the Peabody Hotel. The most exquisite hotel in the city, the Peabody has slept presidents and dignitaries, entertainers and other notables. Atop the Peabody Hotel, overlooking the city skyline in one direction and the Mississippi River in the other, the Sunday Brunch is a best of fare for around $40. With table's assigned specific items, such as the seafood table, the roast beef table, as well as others, the Peabody Brunch is an impressive array of food and high class ambiance for anyone that wants to take the short, elevator ride to the top of the hotel. With champagne to drink, the Peabody Brunch is something every Memphis should experience.

When it comes to dining, Wolfgang Puck meets Johnny Grisanti, and Emeril meets the Sunday Brunch in Memphis. With a wide variety of culinary dishes, people new to Memphis will find the dining an adventure and the meals fascinating and appealing.

You will be glad you did.