Restaurants in Hattiesburg

The family-owned and operated Slidell eatery offers a seasonal menu of fresh Cajun and Creole cuisine to brighten bored palates. Start with a “colossal” lump-crab-meat salad with fresh veggies and a garlic-cocktail vinaigrette ($18) before moving on to one of Joyce and Darnell's signature entrees. The seared maple-leaf duck breast ($17) recalls the breeze over Caribbean waters, dressed atop a hammock of tropical couscous with a port-wine demi-glace. The seafood pasta (sautéed shrimp, crawfish, scallops, and crab meat tossed with veggies in an asiago cream over orchiette, $18) and succulent grilled filet mignon (with au-gratin potatoes and a crab-and-brie cream, $24) will tempt seafood-eating land mammals and land-loving mermaids alike. Make any meal or choral performance end on a happy note with praline bread pudding swimming in crème anglaise ($6) or a spiced Guinness cake with cranberry compote and a glistening mound of vanilla-bean ice cream ($6). Nestled in a handsome house adorned with wreathes and trees, the breezy eatery offers an upscale and comfortable dining experience, which makes it an ideal setting for your next marriage proposal or dramatic interruption of a marriage proposal in progress. Call ahead for a reservation.

Chef Christopher Case fills his stretch of Carey Street with the spicy, sizzling aroma of classic creole cuisine crafted from the region's freshly farmed and fished products. Trained in kitchen disciplines at Johnson & Wales University and the Delgado School of Culinary Arts, chef Case has crafted sauces and comestibles for such notable and demanding diners as Gordon Ramsay, Anthony Bourdain, and the Cookie Monster. His wealth of experience blends with a lasting love for his hometown's cuisine to showcase surprising, flavorful ingredients such as pompano, venison, and green tomatoes.

The restaurant itself welcomes guests into a cozy atmosphere, where pristine tablecloths provide a white backdrop for plates of colorful delta fare. Mirrors and bright wall sconces add depth and character to the intimate dining area.

For more than 30 years, Quiznos has toasted its submarine sandwiches to bring out the hidden flavors found in butcher-quality meats, cheese, and artisan breads. Its classic and signature subs take on a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles ranging from the prime rib mushroom and swiss to the classic italian donning black olives, mozzarella, red-wine vinaigrette, and plentiful sliced meats. Those closely monitoring their waistlines can take unabashed bites of sandwiches that have fewer than 500 calories, such as the pork-cuban, Baja-chicken, and veggie-caprese subs. Quiznos' Sub Sliders offer slimmer versions of sub fare and flaunt supreme aerodynamics when shot out of T-shirt cannons and into mouths. A selection of Flatbreads, soups, and salads round out Quiznos' varied menu.

At Tacos & Beer, soft corn tortillas enfold 10 types of grilled and marinated meats in their warm embrace. Above the crunching of freshly fried tortilla chips and the scribbling of odes to guacamole, live music drifts from the brick-walled dining room out onto Tacos & Beer's patio until 2 a.m. Wednesday–Saturday. During these hours, both early risers and night owls can recalibrate their mental clocks' built-in roosters with breakfast options served all day.

Against a backdrop of burnished wood walls, an intricately wrought gilded frame surrounds a Budweiser poster. This playful contrast between sophistication and informality extends to the rest of the dining room, where candles cast circles of light on crisp white tablecloths and a wood-beam ceiling as crowds enjoy live rock music played during happy hour.

When it comes to the cuisine, chefs prepare the same steakhouse fare they unveiled in 1969. Succulent slabs of steak cook on the grill alongside fresh seafood dishes, which are then topped with elegant flourishes such as crawfish rémoulade or jumbo lump crabmeat in the shape of a top hat.

Turquoise and red frames decorate NOLA's walls with colorful borders as abstract as the artwork they house—all funky points and angles, as if they themselves were melted over the Cajun grill’s red-hot fire. In the kitchen, chefs soak pickles and onion rings in buttermilk before tossing them into fryers and arranging them around cool-ranch dipping sauces. Diners scoop up charbroiled oysters on the half shell and wrangle with poor boys loaded with crayfish and shrimp at glossy wooden tables spread throughout the laid-back dining room. Inside, guests can watch games on flat-screen TVs hanging from the ceiling, and on the outside balcony, they can recite soliloquies from Romeo and Juliet.