Alabama Restaurants

Offering more than 30 healthy handheld eats prepared with super-fresh produce and high-quality ingredients, Roly Poly’s menu has something to fit any discerning taste. Lunch on tongue-torpedoing sandwiches rolled in tortillas, hot-pressed panini-like sandwiches, soups, and fresh salads. Sandwiches, such as a cold Cobb chicken salad roll, chicken Caesar roll, or hot-pressed hickory chicken, are served in 6” or 12” varieties (usually $3.75/$5.95). The hot-pressed French Twist with melted brie and swiss cheese, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, and scallions ($3.50/$5.50) soothes any veggie lover's grumbling food sack.

To craft the signature Momma's Love sandwich, chefs begin with a freshly steamed hoagie bun. They layer on slices of roast beef, ham, hickory-smoked turkey, and muenster cheese before topping the tower off with spicy brown mustard. The chefs also extend their culinary expertise toward a variety of other hearty hot and cold sandwiches, as well as their specialty nachos—crispy Dorito chips showered in creamy pepper jack cheese.

Pizza providers at Rocky's destroy hunger and mutilate snack cravings with a barrage of crust jabs and sauce hooks. The 14-inch Power Punch pizza piles on 13 lucky toppings—Italian sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, chicken-breast strips, bacon crumbles, mushrooms, banana peppers, green bell peppers, yellow onions, black olives, green olives, diced tomatoes, and an extra layer of Rocky's signature three-cheese blend, all above the tender, hand-tossed, oven-kissed crust and traditional rosso sauce. Lifting a slice is a workout for the arm and the face, so if you'd rather lighten the load, you can eliminate less-favorite toppings or ones that clash with your eye color.

Pizza Express, outer Birmingham's newly opened mom-and-pop pizzeria, delights diners with New York–style pizzas, calzones, pastas, and refreshing salads. With house-seasoned sauces and inventive toppings such as arugula, mesquite chicken, fresh basil, and fior di latte (fresh mozzarella), Pizza Express's hand-tossed pies are a cornucopia of classic and creative palate pleasers. Traditional pizzas include the Margherita ($9–$17) or double pepperoni, double cheese ($8–$16), a sauce circle that delivers twice the meat-laden cheesiness of a Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson film. For nervous nibblers suffering from disc-phobia, Pizza Express provides alternate entrees such as delectable house-made lasagna ($6–$10), baked ziti ($6–$10), and fettuccine alfredo ($5–$9).

The Brick Pit’s owner, Bill Armbrecht, firmly believes that great barbecue can't be rushed. Open the red doors of his massive smoker—"Big Red"— and you’ll uncover juicy slabs of ribs, chicken, and pork that have been roasting anywhere from 6 to 30 hours. Bill coats each cut of meat in his legendary spicy barbecue sauce, which was lauded by reporters from Southern Living and relished by Adam Richman on Man v. Food. For a sweet finish, Bill and his chefs whip up housemade banana pudding each day from scratch.

After ordering barbecue platters from the back window, guests retreat into the lively dining room. The walls are decorated in the doodles, praise, and thesis papers of the hundreds of guests who've passed through the restaurant's doors along with framed awards and glowing news articles.

Cajun food has always played an important role in Michael and Melissa Lee’s life, from their childhood upbringing in Louisiana to their 15 years spent working at a southern seafood restaurant. The brother and sister teamed up to open Mikey’s Grill, pulling from their combined talents and years of experience to craft a menu filled with contemporary takes on classic Cajun dishes that have been lauded by reporters from Birmingham Weekly. Chef Michael “Mikey” Lee commands the kitchen, slicing steaks and grating cheese himself while ensuring only the finest seafood is used in his innovative pastas and specialties, turning away catches that aren’t fresh enough. Michael’s mother Donna can also be spotted in the kitchen, whipping up the restaurant’s freshly baked desserts from scratch and pinching any exposed cheeks in her visual range. Out in the dining hall, Melissa takes the lead, cheerfully greeting guests and captaining a team of friendly servers, who place plates of gourmet dishes, baskets of rolls, and glasses of colorful cocktails on red-clothed tables.