Before Paula Deen became the celebrity chef you may have grown up watching on the Food Network, she had much humbler beginnings here in Savannah, Georgia. Paula Deen opened up The Lady & Sons restaurant after her catering business, The Bag Lady, began to grow. After releasing two of her first cook books, her restaurant started growing in popularity.
Today, the Lady & Sons is known for being her flagship restaurant and is a popular tourist attraction in the area. The Lady & Sons’ menu features southern comfort food favorites served up as an all-you-can-eat family meal. This restaurant has an award-winning history dating back to the 90’s, but is it really worth the hype?
Food
First off, ordering food here is a little different. There’s a set price per person based on the number of main dishes that your group orders. For example, The Albany comes with two main dishes and four sides, and The Georgia comes with four main dishes and four sides. Regardless of the option you choose, it’s all-you-can-eat.
Since the menu is setup as an all-you-can-eat family meal, our party had to agree on a few main dishes and sides. For our main dishes, we chose The Best Ever Fried Chicken and chicken and dumplings. Then for our sides, we got buttered white rice, broccoli casserole, cream potatoes and baked mac and cheese.
To hold us down while we waited for our food, we were served cheese biscuits. These bad boys had a heavenly texture, were perfectly warm and were packed with rich flavor. They were such a hit, we went through almost three baskets of them. No regrets!
The Best Ever Fried Chicken had the perfect amount of breading, seasoning and crunch. Most importantly, it wasn’t very greasy. Definitely worthy of the name, our group went through a couple plates pretty quick.
On the other hand, the chicken and dumplings were a bit too salty for us. It was a bit disappointing, but with so much food sitting in front of us, we really weren’t bothered by it.
All of the sides were extremely filling and tasty. If this were a contest, the creamed potatoes were clearly the frontrunner. The rest of the sides were good but I wasn’t about to waste the limited amount of space in my stomach on broccoli casserole and rice.
While most of the meal was shared, the desserts are individualized. There were three options, Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, banana pudding and seasonal cobbler. Our favorite was the Ooey Gooey Butter Cake.
It’s important to know that since this is a buffet style meal, there are no take-home boxes allowed. Therefore, it’d be best to come with a big appetite. Luckily, dessert was the exception to this rule, because we were too full by the end to eat our dessert in the restaurant.
Helpful hint: if you take your cake to go, throw it in the microwave at home for a few seconds. You’ll thank me later.
Ambience
The dining room has a very family-oriented atmosphere with several long tables for large groups. Most of the tables in the restaurant have a view of the outside. This is great for natural lighting and people watching, giving it a nice southern homestyle feel.
Also inside The Lady & Sons is Paula Deen’s gift shop. Here you’ll find all kinds of cooking utensils, décor and fun souvenirs from all her product lines.
Bottom Line
If you’re in the mood for southern comfort food, The Lady & Sons is a great choice. Since the meals are all-you-can-eat, it’s definitely worth going with a big appetite. Although some items we tried fell short, the fried chicken, cheese biscuits and desserts were home runs.
The restaurant is located in downtown Savannah north of the historic district. It’s in a great central location right across from City Market and two blocks from Broughton St., which has many places to shop, eat and drink.
The Lady & Sons has become a main staple of Savannah and offers a number of perfected southern comfort food classics.
If I had to make one critique, I would say that the restaurant’s interior could use a refresh. Otherwise, this restaurant is ideal for anyone in the mood for some classic southern cooking.