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.
25 spots
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.
A family-owned Southside pizzeria that has been on Montgomery Crossroad since 2001. A local calls it consistently excellent.
Barnes has cooked on Waters Avenue for over 45 years by its own count. It describes pit-cooked barbecue with a homemade secret sauce and fresh, regional Southern food prepared daily. It is a daytime room that closes at 4.
Eat It and Like It (14 January 2024) calls it 'Bay Street's only dive bar' and 'Savannah's only dive bar located ON the parade route'. It wrote that 'the locals will tell you they try to avoid touristy Bay Street. They don't avoid Bay Street Blues.' The bar had just turned 20, and is known for karaoke and $1 jello shots the owner makes weekly. It opens at 8pm and only four nights a week.
Go early. It turns into a late-night spot later in the evening.
Belford's has been in City Market for more than 30 years by its own count, and pours a champagne brunch every day of the week.
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.
The venue calls itself the oldest restaurant on River Street, open since 1959, in a refurbished 18th century cotton warehouse. It prints a Lincoln Street address because the door sits on the ramp, and adds 'Located On River Street' beside it. The site describes it as locally family owned.
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.
The building at Jones and Jefferson opened in the early 1900s as the Gerken Family Grocery Store. William 'Blocko' Manning and his wife Connie bought it in the early 1930s, and the house history says it is rumored Blocko ran illegal hooch and a speakeasy during Prohibition. The Crystal calls itself one of the first American eating establishments to serve alcohol after repeal ... burgers were 30 cents and draft beer a dime. The Monroe Room is named for Monroe Whitlock, who worked there about 45 years. John Nichols runs it now, and Savannah Magazine readers picked it for the best burger in 2026.
Desposito's is the fish shack under the Thunderbolt bridge, serving since the 1960s. Connect Savannah traces it to a market run by the Walton family that Carlo Desposito bought in 1968 and put his name on; after he died in 1982, Walton Boone ran it with his son David for more than 30 years. Michelle Smith bought it in October 2020, rebuilt it over two years and reopened on August 28, 2023 with a riverside pavilion and room for about 130. The front bar is still lined with beer bottles found during the renovation. In December 2025 it closed after a staff walkout over unpaid wages, and parent company River Street Hospitality set a reopening for January 10, 2026 with new management and a menu it says goes back to fresh, local seafood.
Driftaway has been in Sandfly since 2001, run by the husband-and-wife team of Robyn and Michele Quattlebaum. They call the cooking 'Casual Coastal Cuisine' ... fresh catch specials with some Caribbean influence ... and the motto is 'good food, good company, Savannah style'. There are patios, live music, brunch, and a private room for gatherings.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Fiddler's has been family owned and run since 1999 and belongs to Live Oak Restaurant Group, the Savannah company Ansley Williams started when he co-founded Spanky's on River Street in 1976. The oysters are shucked by hand to order, and the outdoor balcony looks over the river. Savannah Magazine readers named Live Oak the best hospitality group and Williams the best restaurateur in 2026.
Savannah native Mike McMahon opened the Flying Fish in 2007 after years in the seafood business, aiming for local traditional flavors in a relaxed room. It sits on US 80 on the way to the beach with a patio and live music on weekends. Savannah Magazine lists it for families whose children are happy with fried shrimp, the screens and the patio.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Gallery Espresso opened around 1993 and calls itself Savannah's oldest coffee shop. It spent its first ten years in a basement, then moved in 2003 into a circa 1859 building at the south end of Chippewa Square. The walls work as a gallery ... the fall 2026 show is 'The Reckoning' by Mr Mahaffey, up through Halloween. There is seating outside and fireplaces inside.
Goose Feathers has served breakfast, lunch and its own baked goods beside Ellis Square since 1986.
Leopold's has been making ice cream in Savannah since 1919, and Visit Savannah calls the Broughton Street shop a vintage soda shop for a taste of nostalgia. The flavor list carries a full vegan line labeled as such ... vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, mocha, coconut, mint chocolate chip, coffee chocolate chip and peanut butter chippy ... plus five sorbets. There is a second scoop shop on Whitemarsh Island.
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.
Rancho Alegre has cooked Cuban, Caribbean and Spanish food in Savannah for more than 26 years, by its own count. The site calls it a popular place to hear live jazz with a Latin vibe. The menu includes a vegetarian pabellon.
Live music some nights. Go before the band starts if you want to talk.
Savannah Coffee Roasters says it has been roasting for more than 100 years, and its Liberty Street cafe sells the house blends by the cup and by the bag ... Captain's Choice, Swamp Fox Espresso, Tybee Island Coconut. Savannah Magazine readers named it the city's best coffee roaster for 2026.
Eat It and Like It calls it 'THE Savannah dive bar': 'Pinkie's (named for original owner Luis Christopher Masterpolis, more widely known as Pinkie) has been pouring PBRs since 1951.' The same piece corrects the famous story. Jimmy Carter did not announce his run here. On a 1978 visit he slipped out a side door of the DeSoto Hotel, walked the 30 yards over, stood on the bar and thanked Pinkie for his support. A star marks the spot. Savannah Magazine readers voted it Best Dive Bar in Best of Savannah 2026.
Open late. Go earlier if you want a calmer room.
The restaurant stands on the Trustees' Garden, the ten acres General Oglethorpe set aside in 1733 as an experimental garden. Its Herb House dates to 1734 and is said to be the oldest standing building in Georgia; the inn for seafarers opened in 1753. Mary Hillyer restored the building in 1945, and Herbert Traub Jr. and James Casey opened it as a tea room in 1953. In the 1990s Ben Tucker and Emma Kelly ran the Hannah's East jazz club here.
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.
Tortuga's has been family owned in Thunderbolt since 2008, on the Intracoastal Waterway. Its line is 'Southern Fare with a Caribbean Flare'. It serves dinner Wednesday through Saturday, lunch on Thursday and Friday and brunch on weekends, and has a banquet room for private parties.
Trick's is on its third address in two years. It cooked for years out of an old gas station at 2601 Bull Street in Starland, moved to 1902 Bay Street after that property sold in summer 2024, lost that lease at the end of December 2025, and reopened in 2026 at 1218 Waters Avenue at Henry Street. Eat It and Like It says it is cash only and sells until the meat is gone, usually before dinner. No source read here names the wood or the style.
Belinda Baptiste, a self-taught baker, has run Unforgettable Bakery in the Forest Park Shopping Center since 2009. The bakery draws on her Haitian-American heritage and sells breads, cakes and home-brewed juices. The site says it works with local youth, young adults and people without housing. Baptiste was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Bakery in 2023, according to the bakery.
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