The Best Restaurants in Tallahassee, Florida
Most people might not think of Tallahassee when reflecting on Florida’s intricate culinary offerings, preferring instead to stick with the numerous restaurants of Orlando, Miami, or the numerous eateries that pepper the Florida Keys. When visiting Florida’s capital city, however, travelers and hungry patrons will be treated to a metropolis of first-rate dining options around every corner.
From upscale Italian restaurants to unassuming Southern markets, these eateries will leave visitors a newfound appreciation for Tallahassee’s diverse lineup of restaurants, each better and more memorable than the last.
Il Lusso
When most people think of Tallahassee’s restaurants, they might instinctively call to mind seafood shacks, BBQ joints, or casual dining experiences that specialize in traditional Southern staples. Il Lusso, on the other hand, brings an entirely unique experience to Tally’s culinary scene.
A high-end Italian restaurant, there’s no end to the flavorful menu options one can order at Il Lusso, from fresh seafood appetizers like charred octopus and fried calamari to dry-aged wagyu beef and a 24 oz cowboy ribeye. If you feel like mixing and matching dishes, you can always choose a half-order of pasta with your steak or seafood dinner, with some of Il Lusso’s best pastas taking the form of lobster mezzaluna, squid ink mafaldine, or bucatini alla carbonara.
Backwoods Crossing
There’s farm fresh–and then there’s Backwoods Crossing-levels of fresh. Taking homegrown ingredients to an entirely new level, Backwoods Crossing grows and supplies almost every ingredient found on its menu, whether talking about herbs and spices, freshly-cultivated fruits and vegetables, or farm-raised protein options.
The perfect dining choice for those who love seafood, Southern food, meats, or fresh vegetables, everyone can find something to love about Backwoods Crossing’s eclectic menu. After you’re finished eating, feel free to take a stroll through Backwoods Crossing’s garden area, marveling at some of the many plants and herbs that you only just finished eating moments ago.
The Edison
Like all major cities, Tallahassee has experienced its fair share of changes over the years, with some areas of the city seeing some significant transformations since Tallahassee’s foundation. When looking at the entire scope of the city, this characteristic is not more expressly illustrated than that of The Edison in Cascades Park.
Converted from Tallahassee’s historic electric power plant, The Edison’s old-school architecture is only one reason to visit this superb Florida gem. In addition to its carefully-renovated interior, it also has a ton of worthwhile menu options, including Key West lobster guacamole, a sizable charcuterie board, several different flatbreads, and a Jacksonville strip steak that’s simply electrifying.
Wakulla Springs Lodge
A gorgeous hotel dating back to the 1930s, The Lodge at Wakulla Springs also deserves praise for its delectable hotel restaurant. Offering a cozier atmosphere emblematic of the ‘30s themselves, eating at The Lodge is like stepping back in time to the days of swing jazz, stylish fedoras, and energetic screwball comedies.
Positioned alongside the shores of the mysterious (yet beautiful) Wakulla Springs, The Lodge offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner within the hallowed halls of its Edward Ball Dining Room, ensuring every hungry patron receives their hearty supply of Southern cuisine. After dining, it’s certainly not a bad idea to burn off some calories by walking along the beach or booking a scenic river cruise through the springs’ lush jungle waterways.
Hayward House
Housed within the former fan-favorite restaurant Andrew’s, Hayward House pays an ample amount of respect to Tallahassee’s eventful history, including plenty of meticulous homages to its immediate predecessor. With one eye looking back to the past, Hayward House also manages to reach ahead towards the future, infusing all sorts of creative ingredients into its vast dinner, lunch, and cocktail menus.
Combining home-cooked Southern cuisine and fresh seafood with international dishes gathered from all over the world, even the pickiest eater can find something to enjoy at Hayward House, be it blackened redfish, crispy chicken wings, or a mountain of poutine capable of damming up Niagara Falls.
The Hawthorn Bistro & Bakery
Dining in Tallahassee doesn’t have to be exclusively built around sitdown eateries and fancier restaurants. In fact, some people might prefer getting their food on the go, cramming their faces with coffee and pastries as they take in some of the many sights around Tally. For those people, we recommend stopping in at The Hawthorn Bistro & Bakery, one of the finest cafes in Florida’s capital city.
A major step above carbon copy coffee shops like Starbucks and Dunkin, The Hawthorn Bistro takes pride in their delicious breakfast and lunch offerings, including heaping breakfast sandwiches and farm-fresh quiches. If you don’t have time to sit down and eat, be sure to order a fresh-baked pastry or a loaf of bread to accompany your dinner later–trust us, it’s well worth it.
Bradley’s Country Store
Okay, yes, technically Bradley’s Country Store is just that–a country market lying on the outskirts of Tallahassee. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss some of Bradley’s phenomenal dishes, such as their world-famous sausages and their almost legendary homemade grits.
Since opening its doors in 1927, Bradley’s Country Store has been a dependable source of Southern fare for nearly a century. With many of its most famous recipes remaining unchanged since the store’s construction, guests can chow down on some of Bradley’s most cherished dishes, including smoked sausage sandwich and country-milled grits that will leave you on the verge of tears (of happiness, of course).
Midtown Caboose
Every city has their specialty sandwich, be it the pastrami reuben of New York or the world-famous cheesesteaks of Philadelphia. In an interesting twist, Tallahassee has several mouthwatering sandwiches capable of stuffing dining patrons, many of which can be found at Midtown Caboose.
In this casual, train-themed eatery, the unexpected is the name of the game, allowing for plenty of unique menu items. See, for example, some of Midtown Caboose’s specialty burgers, many of which come with bold ingredients like sauerkraut, hot pastrami, mac and cheese, wasabi aioli–even peanut butter and jelly! Rather than being limited to just burgers alone, Midtown Caboose also boasts larger salads, wraps, appetizers, sandwiches, and a handful of desserts to wrap up your meal.
Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille
Given its unique geographic location along the Panhandle, Tallahassee has never shied away from its major debts to classic Southern dishes and the overarching influence of Cajun and Creole cooking. In fact, rather than ignore these influences, restaurants like Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille liberally incorporate them into their one-of-a-kind, flavor-steeped menu.
As with each of its sister locations throughout Florida, Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille retains the core components found in New Orleans-style Cajun recipes, as seen with practically every dish found on Harry’s lunch and dinner menu. Whether choosing gumbo, a shrimp po boy, shrimp-n-grits, or decadent jambalaya, Harry’s manages to bring all the hopping tastes of the Big Easy to Florida’s state capital.
Wahoo Seafood Grill
Tallahassee might be about 20 miles from the nearest beach, but that doesn’t prevent the city’s local restaurants from gathering locally-sourced seafood fresh from the ocean. While each of Tally’s seafood restaurants help illustrate this point, nowhere can this phenomenon be more clearly defined than Wahoo Seafood Grill.
More so than anywhere else in the city, Wahoo prides itself on delivering fresh seafood dishes to their patrons, butchering each of their fish and seafood orders on-site daily. In addition to Wahoo’s Happy Hour deals extending throughout the day, Wahoo also has fantastic daily specials from Monday through Thursday, including $17 all-you-can peel-and-eat shrimp every Tuesday and $1 oysters every Thursday.
