Eating in Savannah, Georgia

Our trip to Savannah and Charleston lacked planning.  For someone who has an extremely organized life, vacations for some reason tend to be last minute.  All activities are made typically the week of or after we arrived.  All food events though are planned almost immediately after booking flights. 

One of the places that kept coming up in my searches was The Olde Pink House. Almost every review I read had the comment "best meal we ate in Savannah".  I don't get too much weight to food reviews unless they have to do with the service but I couldn't resist.  Plus as I mentioned yesterday I love old houses and this restaurant is set in a very old house in Savannah.

Ordering here was pretty easy.  I had several favorites in mind and the waitress came over and recommended all of my top picks. I was sold.   Mr. J and I wanted to share two appetizers. We started with the BLT salad appetizer which apparently was also on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" by Aaron Sanchaz on the Food Network.  I don't know about ever ate but it was my favorite part of the meal.  Blue cheese dressing covered fried green tomatoes placed on shredded greens and thick strips of bacon.  It came with steak knives for the bacon.

The second appetizer was their take on shrimp and grits.  It was steamed shrimp on a cheese polenta cake served with warm mushroom gravy. 

My dinner was the pork tenderloin with maple glaze, collard greens, and sweet potato casserole.  All of the flavors were amazing, cooked perfectly and played nicely together.  I seriously loved this dish.

Mr. J ordered crab stuffed grouper.  He liked it.  I am not a huge fan of white fish and I don't like crab so I didn't sample this dish. I kind of wonder now if he ordered this meal on purpose knowing I wouldn't want any.

Our second big meal of Savannah was at the Wilkes House.  I first heard about this place on the plane.  Their were two gentleman chatting across the aisle about where to eat and of course I completely eavesdropped on the conversation.  On the way to our hotel the taxi driver also said this is where we had to eat - a local favorite - where the line wraps around the block.

They are only opened at lunch time.  Ordering is simple.  They have a handful of large tables that seat ten.  When you are seated the table is full of Southern food dishes and sweet tea.  You help yourself to as much as you want.

My plate was reminiscent of Thanksgiving.  We also got two huge platters of fried chicken. I had a drum stick even though it isn't on my plate.  Southern food is salty.  I was puckering over a few of the dishes.  The sweet potatoes and mac and cheese were my absolutely favorites.  I had seconds of those before calling it quits.

The meal also comes with a choice of dessert.  The day we went it was banana pudding or blueberry cobbler.  We each got one. I thought the banana pudding was fantastic.  The blueberry cobbler was good too but nothing special.  

Our table was all visitors to the city.  It was fun hearing about what they had done during there time in Savannah.  It was funny that the three other couples at our table were all from places Mr. J and I travel from work.  Small world.   

I would highly recommend bother of these restaurants and they would be on our list if we ever go back again.

On a complete differently note, there were so many places, including The Wilkes House that were cash only. Beware!  For someone who operates only with credit cards this was a completely new experience for me.