1540 Room is the dining room of The DeSoto hotel on Madison Square. The name points to Hernando de Soto's expedition through the Southeast in 1540 and the spice trade that followed. Chef Collin Clemons cooks seasonal Lowcountry menus from local farms, and the hotel says he was named the city's best chef less than a year after opening. Savannah Magazine readers voted it the best fine dining room in the city for 2026.
An inn with a dining room and a separate tavern that keeps its own hours. The inn says the tavern opens daily at 4pm and closes by 11pm, with food during kitchen hours.
A Bay Street wine bar named for its street number. The bar adds that 208 'symbolizes manifesting wealth and abundance' and then admits, 'It's also our address.' Wednesday nights are Bubbles & Blues with singer Laiken Love, and Tuesdays bring five dollar tapas toppers. Readers voted it best wine bar in Connect Savannah (2022) and in Savannah Magazine (2026).
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
45 Bistro has been the dining room of The Marshall House hotel since 2001, the third home of a restaurant Sandy Hollander has run since the mid 1980s. Eat It and Like It reported on September 14, 2026 that it will leave the hotel when the year ends ... the last service is December 31, 2026. The hotel sold on June 1, 2026 and its new owners plan to remake the space in 2027. The team has said it hopes to reopen elsewhere in Savannah. 45 Bistro is open now and has said it will leave The Marshall House on 31 December 2026.
BellyUp Savannah / Over 50
Good places to eat and drink in Savannah, minus the nightclubs. When a spot gets loud later or draws a lot of kids, the card tells you.
The same over 50 spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
21 spots
A Starland wing shop founded in 2011 by Savannah resident Gary Gordon and named for his birthday, May 20th. Savannah Magazine readers voted it Best Wings in 2026, as they did in 2024. A local notes it stays open until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays.
Open late. Go earlier if you want a calmer room.
Katie Bryant and Mark Ekstrom, both from Pennsylvania, opened Auspicious in Sandfly in 2017 as a Sundays-only bakery. In March 2024 they bought the former Paula Deen's Creek House on Whitemarsh Island, announcing it with 'We bought a restaurant, y'all ... a big one'. That building now holds a second bakery counter and their brunch restaurant, Bread & Butter. Sand Cat Coffee on Tybee sells their ice cream, by one account.
Joyce and Jim Shanks opened Bella's in 1993 and named it for Joyce's grandmother, Bella. The recipes came down through the family, including the marinara and alfredo sauces, the manicotti and a pasta and bean soup. The house motto is Bella's own: 'A tavola non s'invecchia' ... at the table, one never gets old. Savannah Magazine readers named it runner-up for Italian in 2026.
Kay Heritage started Big Bon in 2016 as a wood-fired pizza pop-up and grew it into a bodega serving scratch-made bagel sandwiches, Korean-inspired pizza and bowls. The shop calls itself veteran-owned and says it bakes with non-GMO flour and local honey and uses no seed oils. Its site carries a '2026 Georgia Small Business ROCK STAR' badge, and Savannah Magazine readers named it runner-up for Bagel in 2026.
Andrew and Sophie Brochu opened this room with partners Georgia and Dave Baker and Jessica Kimbrough. Andrew came back to the Southeast after more than a decade running Chicago kitchens, and Sophie is a Savannah native who came home after 13 years away ... the two met working in a Chicago restaurant. The site says the place is modeled on the family gatherings Andrew grew up with. Savannah Magazine readers named it best Oysters and runner-up for Fried Chicken in 2026. Walk-ins are welcome and it opens every day at 5.
Carey Hilliard hitchhiked to Savannah from Jesup and opened his first restaurant in 1960 in a converted root beer stand, where he and his wife Kathleen kept curbside service going instead of switching to a drive-thru. The company calls itself Savannah's oldest family-owned restaurant. This Southside room opened in 1976 near Savannah Mall, with tall booths, a neon sign and a banquet hall behind it for 60 to 250 guests. It serves until midnight every day.
Libby Miller and Gay Fortson started Friendship Coffee in 2013 as a wholesale roaster and later opened the cafe on Wilmington Island. It serves locally roasted coffee, pastries baked that day, breakfast and lunch, with recipes the site says are made from scratch daily. There is a small shop of local goods inside. Closed Wednesdays.
A soul food cafe opened by four siblings in memory of their mother, Kimberly, who died in 2021. The venue calls itself the home of the Oxtails and Grit Bowl and says it looks out for homeless families in the community. A local's post about the meatloaf drew one of the bigger food threads of the year, with others chiming in on the oxtails, shrimp and grits, and spaghetti made on Sundays and Wednesdays.
Limani is where the Olympia Cafe family landed. Olympia served Greek food at 5 E. River Street for more than 30 years and closed in mid May 2026; the Varlagas family opened Limani a few blocks east on July 11, 2026, in the former Lizzy's space. The name is Greek for a harbor. WTOC reports a second floor, a balcony, a bar and a bigger kitchen, with head chef Blake Mabry keeping the menu close to Olympia's. The opening night dinner raised money for Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia.
A dessert bar that pairs baking with bartending: cakes, chocolates, coffee drinks and cocktails late into the evening. Rebecca Radovich and Janine Finn opened it in 2007, and the bar says it has won a local best desserts award 16 years in a row. A second, smaller Lulu's is on Whitemarsh Island at 4700 US Hwy 80 E.
Open late. Go earlier if you want a calmer room.
In 1943 a young Sema Wilkes took over a boardinghouse on Jones Street and began feeding lodgers Southern food served family-style. The lodging is gone but the lunch table is not ... guests are seated at large tables for ten and share the platters with strangers. It is lunch only on weekdays, dine-in only, and the house takes cash or checks, with an ATM on site. Savannah Magazine readers named it the 2026 winner for both fried chicken and Southern cooking.
Founder Christine Cutlip built the Shack around one idea ... a Lowcountry boil served as a bag for one person instead of a table-wide spread, with peeled shrimp for anyone who wants less mess. The site lists features on Food Network, Cooking Channel and Travel Channel, including Ali Khan's Cheap Eats.
Savannah Square Pops makes small-batch ice pops named for the city's historic squares. Founders Judd and Mark left careers in law and technology to start it, and Eat It and Like It marked the shop's ten-year milestone in September 2026. None of the pops contain nuts, and there are vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free flavors. The shop also runs tours and pop-making demonstrations.
Kenneth and Vicky Brown founded Sisters of the New South in 2009 on Skidaway Road. The site says the cooking is built on family recipes passed down for generations ... Vicky's sisters helped shape the idea and her mother, Johnnie Mae Bing, guided the kitchen in the early days. A second room is open on the Southside at 8820 Abercorn St., phone (912) 208-8065.
Pitmaster Terren Williams is a Savannah native who cooked in Atlanta kitchens, then spent ten years in Dallas, Texas learning to smoke meat before coming home. His site says he burns a blend of oak and pecan and buys from local farmers. After about three years as a food truck and a short stay on Waters Avenue, Slow Fire is building a permanent room in a former gas station at 37th and Habersham, the old Baby's space, and serves from the truck there Thursday through Saturday in the meantime.
A neighborhood restaurant and wine bar in the Starland District. Ryan Ribeiro and Jason Restivo became partners here in September 2023 ... the site says Ryan had been one of the most loyal customers at Jason's restaurant Atlantic, which closed in 2020. Ryan, who is of Portuguese descent, chose the name, a word for the time spent lingering at the table after a meal. Savannah Magazine readers voted it best wine list in 2026.
Strangebird started in 2019 as a food truck in a 1967 Airstream Ambassador and moved into the restored Streamliner diner car on Barnard Street in July 2023. Chefs Daniel 'Nilo' Aranza and Felipe Vera of the FARM Hospitality team cook what they call casual plates with a Mexican flair ... smokehouse tacos on nixtamalized tortillas, burritos, and a Birria Burger that Eat It and Like It counts among the city's best burgers. The diner car was Sandfly BBQ's downtown outpost before this.
Johno Morisano and chef Mashama Bailey built The Grey inside a 1938 art deco Greyhound bus terminal that they restored. Bailey won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2019, as the restaurant's own site records. Savannah Magazine readers named her Best Chef again in the 2026 Best of Savannah issue.
Kelli Pearson and Kristin Russell opened The Sentient Bean in 2001 at the south end of Forsyth Park, and the cafe's motto is brewing coffee and community since then. All of the coffee is organic and fair trade, the kitchen buys from local farmers, and the shop composts, recycles glass and is an EPA Green Power Partner. At night it turns into a small stage for live music, drag and burlesque shows, film nights, and an open mic on the first and third Tuesday run with Savannah Pride Center.
This is a music venue. It is loud when a show is on.
The room's line is 'Where Soul Meets Seoul'. It was founded by Tanika Hamilton, who was born in Seoul, and Chef Romie Cummings, who cooks from his Gullah Geechee roots. The name looks back to West Broad Street, the old name of this boulevard: the restaurant says it sits 'on ground that once served as the heartbeat of Black commerce, culture, and community'. The menu runs from KTX Chicken and house dumplings to seared shrimp and grits.
This is a music venue. It is loud when a show is on.
Wiley and Janet McCrary spent nearly two decades on the competition barbecue circuit before opening in a strip mall on US 80. The site describes the style as St. Louis-style barbecue. Rachel and Eric Traub and their team run it now. The site cites a Southern Living readers' poll that ranked it first in Georgia and second in the country, and Savannah Magazine's Best Savannah BBQ seven years running.
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