So, a pianist friend of mine will be examining in Huntsville, Alabama, and has sent the word around asking for recommendations for restaurants. What say you, o southern Dopers? Care to tell of your finest eateries?
God help your friend. I was once taken to what I was assured to be a first rate sushi joint and was served stuff I wouldn’t use for bait. I have yet to find good food in Huntsville and dread every trip to that blighted hole.
Stranger
The Applebee’s was pretty good…
Dreamland Barbecue. Not as good as the one in Birmingham, but still a great rack of ribs.
You astonish me - my impression was that there would be some outstanding cuisine to be had in out of the way diners. No great BBQ joints, chicken shacks or southern fried comfort to be had anywhere? Really?
I can’t help, but I will tell a related story.
In the early 90s I was consulting in Huntsville. We asked one of the locals where a good restaurant was. She sent us to a place she said the locals called Restaurant Row. It was a street full of fast food places.
Living in Huntsville, I can happily recommend Ol’ Heidelberg – fairly authentic (according to the German SO) German cuisine that is really really tasty.
Surin of Thailand and Phuket Thai are also very good.
I’ll second Dreamland BBQ as really bloody good (in fact I think we have to go there for lunch today!). I’m sure I can think of some more eventually too.
Bah! Huntsville is not a bad place to live, really. I’ve lived and worked here for almost two years, and while the culture shock was intense at first, its not a blighted hole under any circumstances!
Besides, we have rockets.
I’ve been to severla good places in Huntsville, but nothing super-special. If you don’t like Angua’s suggestions, just find yourself a Johnny Carrinos or something.
Some of my co-workers love the Old Greenbriar BBQ restaurant, but I’ve never been that impressed with it. My favorite local BBQ is Lawlers, a take-out joint. Dreamland is good for ribs, but I don’t like going there for lunch because I smell like smoke for the rest of the day!
I like Surin of Thailand, too. Downtown there’s The Chophouse and Humphrey’s Bar & Grill. I hear people speak well of Pauli’s Bar and Grill, although I’ve never been there.
Other popular local restaurants are Rosie’s Mexican Cantina, Beauregard’s (Hot Wings) and Tim’s Cajun Kitchen.
Recently, an episode of The Cleveland Show joked that the fanciest restaurant in Stool Bend was the Applebees. I instantly thought of Huntsville.
But, of course, that’s not entirely fair. And in fact, things have changed a bit since I last got mail there. The Jazz Factory is gone, which is kind of a shame because they served a steak over mashed sweet potatoes that blew my socks off. And now they have a Thai restaurant, it seems.
When I get back to town, the first thing I’m looking for is Checkers, which is some pretty decent fast food that I can’t get in Texas – basically burgers and seasoned fries, but mmmmmm.
I never did get into the Bandito Burrito scene, though a lot of the locals are gung-ho about it. Tim’s was terrific – I usually had the boudain. Beauregard’s is great for hot wings, but if you like more nuanced seasoning on your wings, it’s not the place. They also have a Guthrie’s now, which I first saw in Tuscaloosa, that specializes in chicken fingers served with a variant on thousand-island for dipping.
You’ll want Eunice’s Country Kitchen to be a great place for some good-old downhome southern cookin’. But it was crappy the one time I went, and I am given to understand that people go there because people go there, not because the food is edible. What the hell kind of country kitchen can’t get biscuits right?
Eunice died, and the Guthrie’s in Huntsville closed. But if you want fried chicken fingers and some kind of sauce to dip them in, there are a dozen places to get that.
I have friends who are crazy about Bandito, but it doesn’t do anything for me.
Huntsville has a lot of nice chain restaurants now, particularly with the opening of the new Bridge Street shopping center. No need to resort to Applebees.
Banditos is OK – their fish tacos are good. Speaking of Bridge Street, they have a fairly decent Japanese sushi place tucked away down one of the side “streets” and a place serving NY-style thin crust pizza. And for lunch, Jason’s Deli on University Drive and Perimeter Parkway is good.
Pffft. Haters. Ignorant haters, at that.
801 Franklin is excellent upscale dining.
Cotton Row is nice.
Too bad about Jazz Factory. It was one of my favorites.
Also, don’t listen to the hate about Bandito Burrito. There’s nothing wrong with it. Oscar still cooks his stuff by family recipe, and his refried beans are the best I’ve ever had, by far. I particularly recommend his fish tacos and his no carne burritos.
You also have your choice of barbecue in Huntsville. Some people swear by Big Bob Gibson’s. Some people like Greenbriar (and if you have the chicken, you’ll get one of the truly unique barbecue styles of the country here. They serve white sauce, which is a regional specialty associated almost exclusively with north Alabama). There are plenty of others as well.
Phuket, Surin, and Ol’ Heidelberg are also good suggestions.
Huntsville has plenty of good food. Contact me if you want more suggestions.
Whaddaya mean, “haters”?!
Where’s Greenbriars? And any good suggestions for lunch? We’re getting bored of the same-old, same-old in the UAH area…
We used to go to Big Bob Gibson’s all the time when we lived in Decatur, for the BBQ baked potatoes.
Greenbriar is way out I-565 at the Greenbriar exit. There’s the new one, which you can see from the interstate, and the Old one, which is further off the exit.
Angua, have you tried Viet Huong, the Vietnamese place on Old Monrovia Road, in the shopping center with hhgregg? We go there a lot for lunch.
I’d forgotten about that place, and I recall it being really good! Last time we tried to go there though, it was closed at 1pm. 
Will have to give it another try.
Go there all the time. Old Heidelburg isn’t what it used to be. Dreamland is famous, but only OK in my opinion. On the other hand, Rosies is pretty good. Probably the best restaurant in town though is Terra Nova’s, an Italian place east on University. Bauregards and Tim’s Cajun Kitchen, both on Jordan are pretty good though holes in the wall. West end grill off old Madison Pike and Research is a great place for lunch. Plenty of good chain places on University and a couple of places in the new mall area off of research. haven’t eaten there but I hear there are a couple of good places.
Sorry. I was talking about the “Huntsville is a culinary black hole” crowd up there. 
Just checking!
And yeah, haters!