The Best Foodie Road Trip in the Southeast US (City by City)
I am a GRIT — a Girl Raised in the South — and if that means I am a little biased about Southern food, then so be it. I have eaten my way through this region for more years than I care to count, and I am telling you: the Southeast is one of the great underrated food destinations in the world. Not underrated by the people who live here, obviously. We know. But internationally, and even among American travelers who fly straight to New York or Los Angeles, the South does not get nearly enough credit.
This foodie road trip through the Southeast US is the itinerary I would hand a well-traveled friend who asked me where to actually eat — not the tourist traps, not the chains, but the places where the food tells you something true about where you are. The route runs from Charleston, South Carolina through Savannah, Georgia, then on to Atlanta and up to Nashville, Tennessee. You can drive it in a long weekend if you push, but a week is better, and two weeks means you can actually pace yourself.
Pack the stretchy pants. I am not joking.
What to Expect on This Southeast Foodie Road Trip
Route: Charleston, SC > Savannah, GA > Atlanta, GA > Nashville, TN
Total driving distance: approximately 700 miles
Recommended time: 5 to 10 days
Best time to go: Spring (March through May) or Fall (September through November)
Stop 1: Charleston, South Carolina — The Lowcountry Table
Charleston is the right place to start a Southeast foodie road trip, full stop. This city has been serious about food for a very long time, and the restaurant scene here is deep, diverse, and genuinely world-class. Lowcountry cuisine — built on rice, shellfish, pork, and produce that the Gullah Geechee community brought to life over centuries — is the foundation, but the chefs working in Charleston today are doing extraordinary things with that inheritance.
Plan to spend at least two days here. You will not run out of places to eat.
Where to Eat in Charleston
167 Raw Oyster Bar — Start your trip with lunch here. This New England-style oyster bar in the heart of downtown Charleston is everything a great raw bar should be: no-fuss, no pretense, just exceptional oysters, a knockout lobster roll, and a tuna burger that I still think about. Bring friends. Order everything.
Husk — Chef-driven Southern cuisine in a gorgeous historic building. The menu rotates with the seasons, but if the Storey Farms deviled eggs with bacon jam are on offer, order them. The blackened diver scallops over cheddar grits are the kind of dish that makes you reconsider everything you thought you knew about shrimp and grits.
FIG — One of the most consistently excellent restaurants in the South, full stop. Seasonal ingredients get the treatment they deserve here. The shrimp escabeche with butterbeans (my favorite Southern vegetable, unpopular opinion or not) is remarkable. Leave room for the sticky sorghum pudding.
Where to Stay in Charleston
The historic district is where you want to be — within walking distance of the food, the harbor, and the architecture that makes Charleston one of the most beautiful cities in America. Boutique hotels here book up fast, particularly on weekends, so plan ahead.
Stop 2: Savannah, Georgia — Spanish Moss and Serious Cooking
The drive from Charleston to Savannah takes about two hours along the coast, and it is a beautiful stretch of road. Savannah is slower than Charleston, leafier, draped in that famous Spanish moss, and every bit as serious about food. The restaurant scene here punches well above the city’s size.
Savannah is also the gateway to Georgia’s low country and the Sea Islands, which means access to some of the best fresh seafood you will eat on this whole trip.
Where to Eat in Savannah
The Grey — Housed in a restored 1938 Greyhound bus terminal, this is one of the most visually stunning dining rooms in the South. Chef Mashama Bailey’s cooking draws from the Gullah Geechee tradition and the broader African diaspora, and the results are exceptional. This is destination dining.
Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room — A Savannah institution that has been serving family-style Southern cooking since 1943. You sit at communal tables with strangers, pass bowls of fried chicken, collard greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread, and leave with the particular satisfaction that only comes from eating very well in a very unpretentious room. Cash only. Arrive early. Worth the line.
Back in the Day Bakery — This is not optional. Come for breakfast or an afternoon break. The biscuits, the granola, the seasonal tarts — everything here is made with care and tastes like someone’s very talented grandmother is in the kitchen. She is not, but the effect is real.
Stop 3: Atlanta, Georgia — The South’s Most Underrated Food City
Atlanta gets a lot of attention as a business city, a film city, a hip-hop city. What it does not get enough credit for is its food scene, which is one of the most diverse, exciting, and flat-out delicious in the American South. The city has a deep West African culinary influence alongside its Southern roots, and the combination produces cooking that is unlike anything else in the region.
Give Atlanta at least two days. You will want more. My daughter lives there and I go visit just to eat!
Where to Eat in Atlanta
Staplehouse– This is my daughter’s favorite! Creative, ingredient-forward cooking in Inman Park. The tasting menu changes constantly and reflects what is genuinely best in the market. This is the kind of restaurant that reminds you why you travel for food.
Mary Mac’s Tea Room — Atlanta’s most beloved old-school Southern institution, open since 1945. The pot roast, the fried chicken, the sweet tea, the cornbread — it is the real thing, and the longevity is not accidental.
Busy Bee Cafe — One of Atlanta’s oldest soul food restaurants, and a landmark of the city’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood. The fried chicken and sides here have been feeding Atlanta since 1947. Do not leave without the banana pudding!
Stop 4: Nashville, Tennessee — Hot Chicken, High Tables, and One of the Best Food Cities in America
I love Nashville, possibly more than is rational. My son went to college there and I used every available excuse to visit. The food scene here has exploded in the past decade — not just because Nashville became a bachelorette party destination, though it did, but because serious chefs have been quietly building one of the most interesting restaurant cities in the South.
Come hungry. The hot chicken alone is worth the drive.
Where to Eat in Nashville
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken — You have to do it. Nashville hot chicken is its own genre of food experience — crispy, spiced to a level of your choosing (I recommend “hot,” not “shut the cluck up,” on your first visit), served on white bread with pickle chips. Hattie B’s is the benchmark.
Biscuit Love — Breakfast in The Gulch. The name tells you everything you need to know. The bonuts — biscuit donuts — are absurdly good, and the Southern biscuit with fried chicken and gravy is the correct way to start any day in Nashville.
The Catbird Seat — If you want one truly special dinner on this road trip, this is it. An intimate, chef-driven restaurant with an open kitchen and a multi-course tasting menu that shifts constantly. Reservations are hard to get. Plan ahead.
Where to Stay in Nashville
The Hermitage Hotel, a historic luxury property in downtown Nashville, is one of the great hotels in the South. The Capitol Grille downstairs is excellent, the rooms are beautiful, and the whole place has an old-world grandeur that the newer honky-tonk hotels around the corner cannot replicate.
Practical Tips for Your Southeast Foodie Road Trip
Make reservations. The best restaurants on this route — Husk, FIG, The Grey, Staplehouse, The Catbird Seat — book up weeks in advance. Plan your itinerary around your dinner reservations, not the other way around.
Eat lunch seriously. The South does lunch. Do not skip it in favor of snacking. Some of the best meals on this trip will be midday — the oyster bars, the tea rooms, the bakeries. Pace accordingly.
Drive the back roads when you can. Between cities, the interstates are fast but the smaller state routes are where you find the roadside barbecue joints, the farm stands, and the things that do not exist on Yelp. Allow for detours.
Book accommodation in the food neighborhoods. In Charleston and Savannah that means the historic districts. In Atlanta, Inman Park or Ponce City Market. In Nashville, downtown or The Gulch. Walking distance to your dinner table is worth the premium.
This foodie road trip through the Southeast US will not disappoint you. Not if food is really the point. The four cities on this route have distinct personalities, distinct culinary traditions, and enough overlap in their obsession with good ingredients and serious cooking to feel like one long, deeply satisfying meal.
I have made versions of this trip more times than I can count. I still look forward to it every single time.
Now go eat something.
This post contains affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend places I have personally experienced and genuinely endorse.
