More Maps

These Atlanta Restaurants Feature Fireside Dining on the Patio

Bring on the Beer From These Breweries and Brewpubs Around Atlanta

The Best Bets for Ramen Around Atlanta

More in Atlanta See more maps

16 Meat and Threes Around Atlanta to Fill Your Plate Full of Southern Comfort

Southern proteins like fried chicken or country fried steak and three starchy vegetables on one heaping plate

by Sarra Sedghi Updated Jun 14, 2023, 11:15am EDT

View as Map

by Sarra Sedghi Updated Jun 14, 2023, 11:15am EDT

Magnolia Room Cafeteria

Comfort food comes best in a formula: mix a protein with some sides, and make sure it’s served via a tray, styrofoam container, or a really big plate. Structure is key, and counter service or cafeteria-style is the best service. Such are the laws of the meat and three, one of the greatest dining treasures to emerge from the American South.

For those unaware, or who haven’t spent enough time in the South, the “meat and three” is a restaurant, buffet, or diner with a menu listing a choice of Southern proteins like fried chicken, country fried steak, meatloaf, or beef tips and two to three starchy vegetable sides, such as bacon-soaked collards, lima beans, or mac and cheese. Yes, in the South, mac and cheese is considered a vegetable. Atlanta has plenty of such establishments offering the ultimate Southern feast to check out, too.

Don’t see a favorite meat and three listed? Send Eater the details via the tipline.

Read more: Defining the Southern Diner and Delightful Atlanta Diners Serving Everything From Patty Melts to Fried Catfish

Read More

Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Carzell's Kitchen

Billed as the “best soul food in Powder Springs,” Carzell’s Kitchen is a small counter-service operation that packs a serious punch. The menu is not lacking in options for a meat and three, including proteins like chicken livers, pork chops, grilled whiting, and chop sirloin with gravy. Meats can come seasoned with salt and pepper, garlic, lemon pepper, or blackened. Choose two vegetable sides for your plate, including black-eyed peas, collards, fried okra, yams, or fried cabbage. The plate also comes with two cornbread muffins or a dinner roll. Like any good meat and three, there’s even a Southern vegetable plate. Make sure to order banana pudding for dessert or the peach cobbler, if it’s on special that day.

Open in Google Maps

3217 New MacLand Rd #140, Powder Springs, GA 30127

Visit Website

The Beautiful Restaurant

Established in 1979, the Beautiful Restaurant on Cascade Road delivers exactly what’s promised: crispy fried chicken against a metal backdrop and vibrantly colored vegetables. Here, the portions are huge and all the recipes are classic. Oh, and it’s also really good.

2260 Cascade Rd SW, Atlanta, GA 30311

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Q's Restaurant

Q’s Restaurant is absolutely worth the travel and traffic down to East Point. Favorites at this cafeteria include daily specials like rip tips, oxtails, fried pork chops, and cube steak with sides of mac and cheese and green beans washed down with a blend of tea and lemonade.

1599 White Way, Atlanta, GA 30344

Q Time

This Southern food cafeteria in West End serves up soul-soothing comfort dishes. Order the baked chicken and gravy with collard greens and mac and cheese or Salisbury steak with green beans and rice and peach cobbler for dessert. Q Time is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

1120 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30310

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Pile Up Your Plate at These Buffets and Cafeterias Around Atlanta

K & K Soul Food

Those in search of meats like neck bones, chicken gizzards, and pigs feet should definitely hit up Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway landmark K&K Soul Food. The turkey wings are a hit here, as are the pork chops, country-fried steak, and fried whiting paired with daily sides like black eyed peas, collards, and candied yams.

Open in Google Maps

881 Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy NW, Atlanta, GA 30318

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Busy Bee Cafe

Busy Bee Cafe is small and usually super busy, but that shouldn’t deter anyone from grabbing food from this historic restaurant institution on the edge of Vine City. In business since the 1940s, Busy Bee serves some of Atlanta’s best fried chicken alongside an assortment of other meat and three staples. Save room for a slice of key lime pie.

810 Martin Luther King Junior Drive Northwest, Atlanta, GA 30314

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Annie Laura's Kitchen

Order Southern meat and three fare via the drive-thru window at this Riverdale staple. Pair fried chicken, oxtails, fried catfish, roast turkey, and pigs feet with traditional sides like collards, limas, field peas, yams, and cornbread.

6814 GA-85, Riverdale, GA 30274

Also featured in:

Kenley's Catering And Restaurant

Only open on weekdays, Kenley Waller’s eponymous restaurant is a local favorite for downtown residents and Georgia State students seeking meals filled with comfort foods. Lunch here offers plenty to choose from, including a variety of meat and three platters.

75 Piedmont Ave NE #152, Atlanta, GA 30303

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Mary Mac's Tea Room

Mary Mac’s Tea Room is known for its meat and three fare, including fried chicken, cube steak, and roast turkey paired with sides like fried green tomatoes, the popular yeast rolls, cornbread dressing, and fried okra. Mary MacKenzie first opened Mary Mac’s Tea Room in 1945. At the time, it was one of 16 tearooms in Atlanta.

224 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Eats

Few places like Eats exist anymore on Ponce. And, for locals and regulars, it’s hard to pass up this Atlanta landmark restaurant which offers classic meat and three (or four) options on its menu starting at around $10 a plate. The jerk chicken here is the mainstay.

600 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Sonya's Southern Cuisine

Located on Main Street in Forest Park, owner Sonya Jewsome offers hearty meat and three options on the menu at her eponymous restaurant. Expect smothered pork chops, oxtails, fried chicken, and catfish paired with vegetables choices like rutabagas, collards, green beans, and mac and cheese. Meals come with a cornbread muffin, too.

Open in Google Maps

759 Main St, Forest Park, GA 30297

Visit Website

Also featured in:

38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta, Summer 2023

Rays Southern Foods

Located in the International Discount Mall complex, Ray’s merges soul food and barbecue on the menu, creating the best of both worlds in a meat and three. Order plates of chopped chicken, smoked wings, catfish, or brisket with a choice of one or two sides, including Southern green beans, collards, candied yams, and fried corn.

Open in Google Maps

4150 Jonesboro Rd NE Building B #800, Forest Park, GA 30297

Visit Website

The Colonnade

This is an Atlanta classic, where the food is pure Southern comfort and the people-watching is some of the best in town. Opened in 1927, the Colonnade has a loyal following among the over-60 crowd but continually attracts a new generation of regulars seeking down home, Southern comfort food (and strong martinis.) Diners come for the turkey and dressing, chicken fried steak, and fried chicken and numerous vegetable side offerings, but restaurant regulars swear by its brunch and the bloody marys, too.

Open in Google Maps

1879 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30324

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Matthews Cafeteria

Matthew’s Cafeteria in Tucker has been slinging Southern favorites since 1955: that’s how folks know it’s good. The restaurant’s ownership still remains in the family, and the fried chicken tastes like grandma made it. Diners travel from around Atlanta to eat at this old school cafeteria. Matthews never disappoints with its array of Southern comfort foods.

2299 Main St, Tucker, GA 30084

Visit Website

Also featured in:

Magnolia Room Cafeteria

Tucker’s Magnolia Room has a good hold on Southern classics, but expands its reach with seasonal offerings like shrimp creole and sweet potato balls. They’ve got enough pies to fill a bakeshop — coconut custard, lemon meringue, sweet potato — so go ahead and grab a slice.

Open in Google Maps

4450 Hugh Howell Rd #10, Tucker, GA 30084

Visit Website

Hannah's Kitchen

Hannah’s Kitchen is open for both breakfast and lunch, but it’s during the latter meal where the home-style cooking of a meat and three really shines. Simply choose your protein, like baked chicken, fried fish, country fried steak, or meatloaf, then your two sides, including black-eyed peas, mac and cheese, fried okra, and turnip greens. That lunch plate also comes with cornbread or a dinner roll and costs just under $10.

3083 Breckinridge Blvd #100, Duluth, GA 30096

© 2023 Vox Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Link copied to the clipboard.

Carzell's Kitchen

3217 New MacLand Rd #140, Powder Springs, GA 30127

Billed as the “best soul food in Powder Springs,” Carzell’s Kitchen is a small counter-service operation that packs a serious punch. The menu is not lacking in options for a meat and three, including proteins like chicken livers, pork chops, grilled whiting, and chop sirloin with gravy. Meats can come seasoned with salt and pepper, garlic, lemon pepper, or blackened. Choose two vegetable sides for your plate, including black-eyed peas, collards, fried okra, yams, or fried cabbage. The plate also comes with two cornbread muffins or a dinner roll. Like any good meat and three, there’s even a Southern vegetable plate. Make sure to order banana pudding for dessert or the peach cobbler, if it’s on special that day.

Open in Google Maps

3217 New MacLand Rd #140, Powder Springs, GA 30127

Visit Website

The Beautiful Restaurant

2260 Cascade Rd SW, Atlanta, GA 30311

Established in 1979, the Beautiful Restaurant on Cascade Road delivers exactly what’s promised: crispy fried chicken against a metal backdrop and vibrantly colored vegetables. Here, the portions are huge and all the recipes are classic. Oh, and it’s also really good.

2260 Cascade Rd SW, Atlanta, GA 30311

Visit Website

Q's Restaurant

1599 White Way, Atlanta, GA 30344

Q’s Restaurant is absolutely worth the travel and traffic down to East Point. Favorites at this cafeteria include daily specials like rip tips, oxtails, fried pork chops, and cube steak with sides of mac and cheese and green beans washed down with a blend of tea and lemonade.

1599 White Way, Atlanta, GA 30344

Q Time

1120 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30310

This Southern food cafeteria in West End serves up soul-soothing comfort dishes. Order the baked chicken and gravy with collard greens and mac and cheese or Salisbury steak with green beans and rice and peach cobbler for dessert. Q Time is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

1120 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30310

Visit Website

K & K Soul Food

881 Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy NW, Atlanta, GA 30318

Those in search of meats like neck bones, chicken gizzards, and pigs feet should definitely hit up Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway landmark K&K Soul Food. The turkey wings are a hit here, as are the pork chops, country-fried steak, and fried whiting paired with daily sides like black eyed peas, collards, and candied yams.

Open in Google Maps

881 Donald Lee Hollowell Pkwy NW, Atlanta, GA 30318

Visit Website

Busy Bee Cafe

810 Martin Luther King Junior Drive Northwest, Atlanta, GA 30314

Busy Bee Cafe is small and usually super busy, but that shouldn’t deter anyone from grabbing food from this historic restaurant institution on the edge of Vine City. In business since the 1940s, Busy Bee serves some of Atlanta’s best fried chicken alongside an assortment of other meat and three staples. Save room for a slice of key lime pie.

810 Martin Luther King Junior Drive Northwest, Atlanta, GA 30314

Visit Website

Annie Laura's Kitchen

6814 GA-85, Riverdale, GA 30274

Order Southern meat and three fare via the drive-thru window at this Riverdale staple. Pair fried chicken, oxtails, fried catfish, roast turkey, and pigs feet with traditional sides like collards, limas, field peas, yams, and cornbread.

6814 GA-85, Riverdale, GA 30274

Kenley's Catering And Restaurant

75 Piedmont Ave NE #152, Atlanta, GA 30303

Only open on weekdays, Kenley Waller’s eponymous restaurant is a local favorite for downtown residents and Georgia State students seeking meals filled with comfort foods. Lunch here offers plenty to choose from, including a variety of meat and three platters.

75 Piedmont Ave NE #152, Atlanta, GA 30303

Visit Website

Mary Mac's Tea Room

224 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

Mary Mac’s Tea Room is known for its meat and three fare, including fried chicken, cube steak, and roast turkey paired with sides like fried green tomatoes, the popular yeast rolls, cornbread dressing, and fried okra. Mary MacKenzie first opened Mary Mac’s Tea Room in 1945. At the time, it was one of 16 tearooms in Atlanta.

224 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

Visit Website

Eats

600 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

Few places like Eats exist anymore on Ponce. And, for locals and regulars, it’s hard to pass up this Atlanta landmark restaurant which offers classic meat and three (or four) options on its menu starting at around $10 a plate. The jerk chicken here is the mainstay.

600 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

Visit Website

Sonya's Southern Cuisine

759 Main St, Forest Park, GA 30297

Located on Main Street in Forest Park, owner Sonya Jewsome offers hearty meat and three options on the menu at her eponymous restaurant. Expect smothered pork chops, oxtails, fried chicken, and catfish paired with vegetables choices like rutabagas, collards, green beans, and mac and cheese. Meals come with a cornbread muffin, too.

Open in Google Maps

759 Main St, Forest Park, GA 30297

Visit Website

Rays Southern Foods

4150 Jonesboro Rd NE Building B #800, Forest Park, GA 30297

Located in the International Discount Mall complex, Ray’s merges soul food and barbecue on the menu, creating the best of both worlds in a meat and three. Order plates of chopped chicken, smoked wings, catfish, or brisket with a choice of one or two sides, including Southern green beans, collards, candied yams, and fried corn.

Open in Google Maps

4150 Jonesboro Rd NE Building B #800, Forest Park, GA 30297

Visit Website

The Colonnade

1879 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30324

This is an Atlanta classic, where the food is pure Southern comfort and the people-watching is some of the best in town. Opened in 1927, the Colonnade has a loyal following among the over-60 crowd but continually attracts a new generation of regulars seeking down home, Southern comfort food (and strong martinis.) Diners come for the turkey and dressing, chicken fried steak, and fried chicken and numerous vegetable side offerings, but restaurant regulars swear by its brunch and the bloody marys, too.

Open in Google Maps

1879 Cheshire Bridge Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30324

Visit Website

Matthews Cafeteria

2299 Main St, Tucker, GA 30084

Matthew’s Cafeteria in Tucker has been slinging Southern favorites since 1955: that’s how folks know it’s good. The restaurant’s ownership still remains in the family, and the fried chicken tastes like grandma made it. Diners travel from around Atlanta to eat at this old school cafeteria. Matthews never disappoints with its array of Southern comfort foods.

2299 Main St, Tucker, GA 30084

Visit Website

Magnolia Room Cafeteria

4450 Hugh Howell Rd #10, Tucker, GA 30084

Tucker’s Magnolia Room has a good hold on Southern classics, but expands its reach with seasonal offerings like shrimp creole and sweet potato balls. They’ve got enough pies to fill a bakeshop — coconut custard, lemon meringue, sweet potato — so go ahead and grab a slice.

Open in Google Maps

4450 Hugh Howell Rd #10, Tucker, GA 30084

Visit Website

Related Maps

Hannah's Kitchen

3083 Breckinridge Blvd #100, Duluth, GA 30096

Hannah’s Kitchen is open for both breakfast and lunch, but it’s during the latter meal where the home-style cooking of a meat and three really shines. Simply choose your protein, like baked chicken, fried fish, country fried steak, or meatloaf, then your two sides, including black-eyed peas, mac and cheese, fried okra, and turnip greens. That lunch plate also comes with cornbread or a dinner roll and costs just under $10.

3083 Breckinridge Blvd #100, Duluth, GA 30096

Related Maps