Chattanooga is Tennessee’s Cinderella when it comes to food. It’s often overlooked by two other cities, Nashville and Memphis. Thanks to Black-owned restaurant owners, there’s so much flavor packed in Tennessee’s fourth-largest city. Here are the best Black-owned restaurants in Chattanooga.
Blue Orleans Seafood Restaurant
Consistently ranked in the top 10 best restaurants of Chattanooga, Blue Orleans Seafood should be one of the first restaurants you try in Chattanooga.
Blue Orleans is a love letter to New Orleans and a way for Chef Mike Adams to honor his family. The kitchen magician comes from a lineage of talented cooks — his grandmother, mother, aunt, and father, who was the family’s master chef.
Blue Orleans opened in 2006, one year after Chef Adams evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane damaged their home, personal items, and belongings from the family’s catering business, Mo’ Gumbo. It’s now a Chattanooga staple where people travel from all over to taste authentic New Orleans cuisine from the Big Easy.
- Location: Southside Historic District
- Owner: Chef Mike Adams
- Type of Cuisine: Southern, Creole
- Menu Spotlight: Chicken and Andouille Gumbo, Seafood Gumbo, Po’Boy, Creole Red Beans and Rice with Andouille, Shrimpalaya,
- Before you go: Closed on Sundays and Mondays. Reservations are accepted by calling 423-757-0088.
Chatt Smoke House
Chatt Smoke House offers some of the best barbecue not just in Chattanooga but throughout the South!
The meat is slow-cooked daily using charcoal and hickory wood. The rub, including the sauce, is the chef and pitmaster James Massengill’s original recipe. The love Massengill puts into each bite keeps people coming back for more.
Aside from the sauce and rubs, even the chili and cole slaw are his original recipes.
- Location: E M L King Blvd
- Owner: James Massengill
- Type of Cuisine: American, Barbecue
- Menu Spotlight: Rib Plate, Rib Sandwich, Pork Sandwich, Chili Dog, Chop Wiener Plate
- Before you go: The sauce isn’t on the menu, but if you call beforehand, Massengill will make and sell you a special batch.
Chatterbox Café
Chatter Box Cafe is another fantastic barbecue restaurant in Chattanooga. It’s an extension of owner Brandon Ellis’s love of food and feeding his community.
While the menu constantly evolves to ensure he’s serving the freshest options available, one thing that doesn’t change is the meats he smokes for hours on his hardwood smoker. Ellis spends each morning splitting logs while prepping his smoker. Everything the chef prepares, from brisket to ribs to chicken wings, is cooked low and slow to tender, then seasoned to perfection.
- Location: Meadow Lawn
- Owner: Brandon Ellis
- Type of Cuisine: American, Barbecue
- Menu Spotlight: Brisket, Smoked Wings, Pulled Pork
- Before you go: Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The restaurant does not accept reservations.
Davis Wayne’s
Davis Wayne’s is an upscale, family-owned, meat-and-three restaurant with a full bar. The term meat-and-three means a meat entrée of your choice and three sides. It’s a scratch kitchen that serves soul food with a healthy twist. It’s a fun and entertaining environment packed with great food, lively music, and fantastic service.
While upscale, it’s also an unpretentious atmosphere where the staff makes you feel right at home. Dining out doesn’t get much better than in Davis Wayne, where people can indulge in elevated comfort food.
- Location: Ooltewah
- Owners: Antonia Poland, Cynthia Wood
- Type of Cuisine: Southern
- Menu Spotlight: Slow Cooked Pot Roast, Over Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potato Casserole
- Before you go: The restaurant is closed on Mondays. Reservations are accepted online. Some sides are cooked without meat, so vegetarians can eat them worry-free. Call ahead to make sure.
Plant Power Café And Juice Bar
Plant Power Cafe And Juice Bar is a vegan restaurant offering the largest vegan menu in the Chattanooga area. Offering appetizers, sandwiches, wraps, tacos, hotdogs, salads, and more, owner Aurellia Alexandre wants people to know that good food can be healthy and has the power to reverse bad health and habits.
- Location: Lee Hwy
- Owner: Aurellia Alexandre
- Type of Cuisine: Vegan
- Menu Spotlight: Portobello Mushroom Burger, Philly Cheese Steak Sub, Vegan Fish Sandwich
- Before you go: The restaurant doesn’t accept reservations.
The Flaming Rooster
Edward “Ed” Wickley’s journey began with a dream to bring a unique and exhilarating dining experience to Chattanooga. He wanted to awaken the city’s taste buds in a way they had never experienced before. He did just that by opening The Flaming Rooster — a restaurant that captures the essence of his culinary journey and serves it to a city he loves.
Each bite delivers a taste of Ed’s passion, where flavor and heat dance in perfect harmony.
- Location: South Side Historic District
- Owner: Edward “Ed” Wickley’s
- Type of Cuisine: American
- Menu Spotlight: Tender Plate, Breast Quarter, Whiting Fish Plate, “Oh Hale Naw” Challenge
- Before you go: You pick how spicy you want it, from a sprinkle of heat to “Oh Hale Naw,” as Ed calls it.
Uncle Larry’s Restaurant
When you walk up to Uncle Larry’s Restaurant, you may first notice the sign in the window that reads, “Fish so good it will smack you.”
Owner and chef Larry Torrence will stand behind the statement, and so will his loyal customers.
Torrence opened Uncle Larry’s Restaurant in March 2013 after his wife, Terilynn, and other family members kept encouraging him. He was the designated fish fryer at all their family reunions and now is blessing the rest of Chattanooga with his crispy, crunchy fish seasoned just right.
- Locations: Various
- Owner: Larry Torrence
- Type of Cuisine: American
- Menu Spotlight: In addition to the fried fish, there are Pork Chops, Fried Okra, Fried Green Tomatoes, Turnip Greens, and Macaroni and Cheese.
- Before you go: Online orders are accepted.
Black restaurants in Chattanooga are Tennessee’s best-kept secret. Here is where people will taste an ingredient you can’t learn in culinary school: passion. That’s why Black-owned restaurant owners are creating their own sauces and rubs, splitting their own logs for their smokers, and creating unique experiences you won’t find anywhere else in the world. It’s the ingredient that will keep people coming back to a city with a small-town and welcoming feel.
