A protein plus three Southern vegetable sides with cornbread or rolls. The canonical Black-owned restaurant lunch format across Atlanta.
The meat-and-three plate-lunch format runs across the South but Black-owned Atlanta restaurants codified the soul food version. Paschal's (1947) and Busy Bee Cafe (1947) on the West End ran the format through the civil rights movement. Mary Mac's Tea Room (1945) added the white-tablecloth version. Sides typically include collard greens, mac and cheese, candied yams, black-eyed peas and cornbread. Most rooms still serve lunch only and run cash-and-card under $15.
3 editor picks for Soul food meat-and-three plate in Atlanta, ranked by editorial score. All Atlanta signature dishes · Soul food meat-and-three plate across every city.
Busy Bee Cafe ★ 4.7
downtown · 810 Martin Luther King Jr Dr SW, Atlanta, GA 30314
Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta opened 1947 on MLK Drive and won the James Beard America's Classics Award in 2022 for its decades of soul food service near the AUC campuses.
Paschal's ★ 4.7
downtown · 180 Northside Dr SW, Atlanta, GA 30313
Paschal's in Atlanta has served soul food since 1947, when brothers Robert and James Paschal opened on Hunter Street. The civil rights movement met here; SCLC was anchored at the bar.
Mary Mac's Tea Room ★ 4.6
midtown · 224 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308
Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta opened 1945 and runs Southern Sunday dinner classics in a four-dining-room compound on Ponce de Leon, with the same recipes through three ownership changes.