Alabama? Places along the way to Chattanooga

If you stop in Bham for lunch, there are a lot of good options.

El Barrio is downtown, would be pretty easy to get to. It is one of my favorite restaurants right now. Really good Mexican fusion restaurant. I highly recommend getting the chorizo queso and the chorizo meatloaf entree.

Couple of other good options that will be pretty close to the interstate/pretty quick to get to:

Chez Fon Fon (get the burger)
Bottega Cafe
Brick & Tin
Paramount Bar
Carrigans Public House
Trattoria Centrale


If you aren't in a big hurry, here are some good places around Bham that are good as well:

-Avo/Dram - really good bison or lamb burger (also get the Parmesan truffle fries with side of rosemary ketchup)
-Brat Brot - new German beer garden that opened. Bierock and the currywurst were both very good
-Saw's BBQ (or Soul Kitchen or Juke Joint) - really good bbq but the sweat tea fried chicken sammich is awesome. Saw's BBQ doesn't have the fried chicken sammich, just bbq.
-Five
-Johnny's Restaurant (Meat & 3)
- Salem's Diner (really good philly)
-Taco Mama
-Jim Davenport's Pizza Palace

Solid list.

I'd throw in Saw's Soul Food and Melt in Avondale. Both are solid lunch options. Hattie B's never disappoints either.

Mr. Bill's in Tuscaloosa.

It's comfort food, but it comes out hot, and its good.

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Fyi, on our way back we will be stopping in the Boaz area to visit some friends.

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Hope you like meth and Hispanics (not necessarily in that order).

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I've just gotten tired of the Pizitz

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Same. Eli's is good, but everything else is very meh and overpriced.

As for Saw's Soul Kitchen being small, there are usually tables open in the alley between it and Post Office Pies. I usually just grab it to go on my way to the house.

The taco truck on 1st and 14th is my favorite place downtown

(Not knocking downtown options, just am that big of fan of the truck)


Lots of good options in this thread

I agree that it is expensive, but it is definitely one of the best burgers in town.

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The burger at Foodbar is significantly better. Afraid you are paying for atmosphere and name at Fon Fon.

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100% disagree here. I've been to Foodbar a couple times and have been very underwhelmed. Burger wise, I'm paying the same amount as FonFon, and it is not nearly as good IMO.


I will say, if I had to rank my Birmingham Burgers, this would be it:

1. Sammy's Sandwich Shop (totally worth the risk of maybe getting shot)
2. Saw's Juke Joint or Soul Food
3. Chez FonFon
4. Jack Brown's (I completely concede the burgers are too small and too expensive for their size. I get a double every time. I can understand why they wouldn't be a favorite because of that. They are very tasty though, which is what I'm ranking)
5. Al's (I don't know what it is about it, but their bacon cheeseburger is great. It isn't fancy, not nice, but it is addicting).


If Fancy's still had the chorizo burger, I may have included them in there. Them, Paramount, Foodbar, Hamburger Heaven Jumbo burger, and Hotbox are all pretty close to me, but are all so different it is hard to rank them.

Though it’s hard to rank such different styles. Should rank “traditional” burgers and non traditional.

I ate at Soho Social a few weeks ago, and their burgers are on par with many of the places you've listed. Sammy's and Chez FonFon are still my favorites, but I would definitely go back to Soho Social for their burger.

I also recently had a burger at Skycastle, and it was one of the worst ones I've ever had.

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Skycastle is just garbage

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I went when they first open and had quail that was absolutely amazing. Every other time I've been back has been a let down.