Savannah’s Food Scene: A Mostly Vegetarian Review

* I’d like to preempt this post with my standard picky eater acknowledgement. I am picky about food. It’s annoying, but I’m an adult with texture issues *shrug emoji* I try to keep this in mind when reviewing restaurants. As I review Savannah’s food offerings, you may see me complain but still regard the restaurant highly. My opinions are genuine, and I have not been compensated for these reviews.

I love to eat. It’s a given that when I travel my goal is best summarized as eat all of the things. Typically, I stick to eating all of the vegetarian things, but Savannah had my questioning my lifestyle choices. There was one less than stellar meal, one meh meal, and everything else ranged from great to amazing. Three days isn’t enough to experience everything Savannah’s food scene has to offer, but we (two of my friends and me) definitely tried.

We pulled up to our rental apartment some time after 7. After getting everything settled, we started walking with no particular destination in mind. Going nowhere turned into walking over a mile to the riverfront. We wandered for a bit, and then something magical happened. A guy coming out of a restaurant asked if he could take his drink out and the hostess said YES. You can legally drink alcohol outside down at the riverfront. We confirmed the restaurant’s vegetarian friendliness and went for it.

Lizzy’s Tequila Bar & Grill

417 E River St, Savannah, GA 31401

Lizzy’s was our first step into Savannah’s food scene. It was colorful, clean, and generally lively. The drinks were good, and the wait was long. Apparently we stumbled in around the same time as a large party. We waited for close to an hour for our food. Thankfully, the food was good, and our server was nice. I had the spicy mango margarita and a cheese quesadilla with rice and black beans. The margarita was good, not too strong, and just spicy enough to be appealing. The quesadilla, was damn good. There was regular melty cheesy goodness and creamy queso blanco goodness. Now I don’t know why restaurants never thought about putting the white cheese dip inside the quesadilla, but I’m glad that Lizzy’s did. I’d definitely go there again.

Clary’s Cafe

404 Abercorn St, Savannah, GA 31401

Sweet mother of breakfast! Someone described Clary’s Cafe as a key player in Savannah’s food scene if you’re looking for breakfast. While I don’t recall who that someone was, I can say they were right. Clary’s felt like home. The space was a classic family diner, and the food reminded me of those Saturday morning breakfasts my Mom cooked from time to time. My veggie omelette was pretty tasty, and would have been perfect if the veggies had been sautéed a bit more before going into the mix. The potatoes were tender, and the biscuit was Grandma’s kitchen level great. That’s saying a lot because good biscuits are hard to come by these days. Go back? You bet I will; preferably on a day when I can go back to my room and pass out from the -itis.

Green Truck Neighborhood Pub

2430 Habersham St, Savannah, GA 31401

I’m really not sure how we ended up at Green Truck. I think it might have been a “We’re hungry, what’s close that has a vegetarian option…or two” decision. The restaurant was very…typical. It wasn’t necessarily memorable, and I can’t say I’d be bothered to go back. The meal wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. I was hungry hence, there is no picture of said food. I had an arnold palmer that tasted like it was made with unsweetened tea. Again not bad. I wasn’t looking for liquid diabetes, but I did expect just a bit more sweetness.

Meal wise, I went with the Might Veg minus the onions and peppers and added cheddar cheese. It really needed a bit more in the seasoning department, and we’re talking salt here, nothing fancy. The nail in the mediocrity coffin was the homemade ketchup. It wasn’t good, and by not good I mean of the three of us NO ONE liked the stuff. Ketchup is one of those things that you don’t necessarily need to mess with, but people continuously try to get innovative with it. Regardless of my thoughts on ketchup, I ate naked fries which were pretty good. Green Truck is basically “the place with the wack ass ketchup” in my mind now. Given the sheer size of Savannah’s food scene, I think you’re okay if this is one you don’t get to try.

Goose Feathers Cafe & Bakery

39 Barnard St, Savannah, GA 31401

Goose Feathers was one of those unintended meals. We left the apartment with our mouths all set for some Narobia’s Grits & Gravy. Welp! Narobia’s said not today you won’t. They were closed for vacation because like a lot of the stars of Savannah’s food scene, they’re small and locally owned.

This left us searching for options. Like any good group of millennials we pulled over and commenced to searching the Google and the Yelp. After some discussion Goose Feathers won. Now this place I liked! I may was strongly influenced by the fact that they make sandwiches with croissants.

Goose Feathers isn’t an a huge restaurant, but it’s not cramped. Don’t worry if there’s a line when you arrive. They move quickly. You get a menu while you’re in line, and then place your order at the counter. You may receive some of your order at the counter, but they’ll bring most of it to your table. My egg croissant was good, but the potatoes…the potatoes were life giving. If you haven’t figured this out by now, I have a serious thing for potatoes (go judge ya mama). They were seasoned well, and the rosemary was just the right touch. They were especially good when dipped in sour cream. I cleaned my plate, and the next time I’m in Savannah I wouldn’t mind grabbing a bite at Goose Feathers.

Sisters of the New South

2605 Skidaway Rd, Savannah, GA 31404

Sisters of the New South is a classic meat and three, and they serve the food that Southern girls dream about. The restaurant itself is a throwback hole in the wall type of place, and the food is served cafeteria style. There are actually 3 other locations aside from the one we visited. When you search for places to eat this place comes up repeatedly for a very good reason. The food is amazing!

How amazing? It was so amazing that I ate chicken for the first time in about 3 years. Y’all, this chicken was so good I didn’t even need hot sauce. I put hot sauce on just about everything, and for me to be 100% okay without it…well that says something. The mac and cheese was incredible. It wasn’t too cheesy nor was it too dry. There was also this hint of smokiness to it that gave it that bit of oomph. See also the sweet potatoes. They were just the way I like them, fall apart soft and not overly sweetened.

Then friends there’s this peach cobbler. Oh man was that cobbler good! The peaches were nice and tender, the spice level was right, and there was just a the right amount of yummy crust. It was so good that we made a video about it. A really hilarious video that I suggest you watch. There’s no question that I’ll be going back to Sisters of the New South when I visit Savannah again.

Two Cracked Eggs Cafe

202 E Bay St, Savannah, GA 31401

Our last meal was definitely our worst. We left at 7 AM, not a great time to find breakfast on a Sunday. We planned to head to Clary’s again, but they didn’t open until 8. After some searching, we found Two Cracked Eggs Cafe. Yelp listed it as $$, so I wasn’t expecting bargain basement prices, but I wasn’t expecting $4.59 for a side of under seasoned, roasted potatoes either.

The restaurant is near the riverfront and has a view of the river from the back tables. Because of this, I can only assume that their prices are necessary due to the cost of rent. Inside it looked like your standard stereotypically hipster-ish restaurant. We’re talking right down to serving water in small glass milk bottles, and having those obnoxious “vintage” light bulbs.

The Food

We perused the “pricey for what it is” menu. That menu notes that they do not poach eggs. This is strange because they offer a few “benedict” options. I realized that they were made with scrambled eggs. Call me a purist but eggs benedict = poached egg, and if you do anything else I can’t trust you. As an aside, I don’t like runny eggs of any kind, but I do believe in respecting the classics.

Now we’ve established that I was little mad before our food even showed up. 2 of us had the country style eggs. This was basically scrambled eggs, onions, and barely seasoned roasted potatoes (which they had the nerve to call home fries) all sprinkled with cheese. This wasn’t horrible, so much as it was bland. Bland food is a sin, and no one will convince me otherwise.

The country style eggs came with the biggest biscuit I have ever seen. I do not subscribe to the concept that bigger is better, and this biscuit is why. This wasn’t a good biscuit; it was a big biscuit shaped lie. The texture was wrong, and it was just way too much bread for any one person. Is it mean to say that this place is an embarrassment to Savannah’s food legacy?

I’ll end with this: Savannah’s food scene is a well written ode to Southern cuisine. The city owes me nothing! I look forward to going back, and trying more restaurants. Savannah also reminded me that travel is an opportunity to discover new foods. I’ve made the decision that I’ll generally remain vegetarian, but I’ll be flexible when traveling if full veg meals aren’t readily available. Don’t sleep on Savannah as a travel destination. The food alone is worth the trip.