Chattanooga is Tennessee’s Cinderella when it comes to food. It’s often overlooked by two other cities, Nashville and Memphis. Thanks to black restaurant owners, there’s so much flavor in Tennessee’s fourth-largest city. Here are the best black-owned restaurants in Chattanooga.

Blue Orleans Seafood Restaurant

Blue Orleans Seafood is consistently ranked in the top 10 best restaurants in Chattanooga and should be one of the first restaurants you try in Chattanooga.

Blue Orleans is a love letter to New Orleans and a way for Chef Mike Adams to honor his family. The kitchen wizard comes from a line of talented chefs – his grandmother, mother, aunt and his father, who was the family’s master chef.

Blue Orleans opened in 2006, a year after Chef Adams was evacuated from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane damaged her home, personal belongings, and possessions from the family’s catering business, Mo’ Gumbo. Today, it’s a Chattanooga staple where people travel from all over to sample authentic New Orleans cuisine from the Big Easy.

• Location: Southside Historic District
• Owner: Chef Mike Adams
• Type of kitchen: Southern, Creole
• Menu in focus: Chicken and Andouille Gumbo, Seafood Gumbo, Po’Boy, Creole Red Beans and Rice with Andouille, Shrimpalaya,
• Before you go: Closed Sundays and Mondays. Reservations are accepted by calling 423-757-0088.

Chatt Smokehouse

Chatt Smoke House offers some of the best barbecue not only in Chattanooga, but in the entire South!

The meat is slow cooked daily over charcoal and hickory wood. The spice blend and sauce are the original recipe of chef and grill master James Massengill. The love Massengill puts into every bite keeps people coming back.

Apart from the sauce and marinade, even the chili and coleslaw are his original recipes.

• Location: EML King Blvd
• Owner: James Massengill
• Type of kitchen: American, Barbecue
• Menu in focus: Rib plate, rib sandwich, pork sandwich, chili dog, Vienna cutlet plate
• Before you go: The sauce isn’t on the menu, but if you call ahead, Massengill will prepare a special batch and sell it to you.

Chatterbox Cafe

Another fantastic barbecue restaurant in Chattanooga, Chatter Box Cafe is a continuation of owner Brandon Ellis’ love of food and serving his community.

While the menu is constantly evolving to ensure he’s serving the freshest dishes available, one thing doesn’t change: the meat, which he spends hours smoking in his hardwood smoker. Ellis spends every morning chopping logs as he prepares his smoker. Everything the chef prepares, from brisket to ribs to chicken wings, is cooked low and slow until tender, then seasoned to perfection.

• Location: Meadow grass
• Owner: Brandon Ellis
• Type of kitchen: American, Barbecue
• Menu in focus: Beef brisket, smoked wings, pulled pork
• Before you go: Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The restaurant does not accept reservations.

Davis Wayne’s

Davis Wayne’s is an upscale, family-owned meat-and-three restaurant with a full bar. The term meat-and-three means your choice of meat and three sides. It is a make-from-scratch kitchen serving soul food with a healthy twist. It is a fun and entertaining environment with great food, lively music and fantastic service.

While it’s upscale, it’s still an unpretentious atmosphere where the staff makes you feel at home. For dining, it doesn’t get much better than Davis Wayne, where you can enjoy upscale comfort food.

• Location: Ooltewah
• Owner: Antonia Poland, Cynthia Wood
• Type of kitchen: South
• Menu in focus: Slow Cooked Braised Roast, Roast Chicken, Sweet Potato Casserole
• Before you go: The restaurant is closed on Mondays. Reservations are accepted online. Some side dishes are prepared without meat, so vegetarians can enjoy them without worry. Call ahead to be sure.

Plant Power Café and Juice Bar

Plant Power Cafe And Juice Bar is a vegan restaurant with the most extensive vegan menu in the Chattanooga area. Offering appetizers, sandwiches, wraps, tacos, hot dogs, salads and more, owner Aurellia Alexandre wants to teach people that good food can be healthy and has the power to reverse poor health and habits.

• Location: Lee Hwy
• Owner: Aurelia Alexandre
• Type of kitchen: Vegan
• Menu in focus: Portobello mushroom burger, Philly cheese steak sub, vegan fish sandwich
• Before you go: The restaurant does not accept reservations.

The burning rooster

Edward “Ed” Wickley’s journey began with a dream to bring a unique and exciting culinary experience to Chattanooga. He wanted to awaken the city’s taste buds in a way they had never experienced before. That’s exactly what he did with the opening of Flaming Rooster – a restaurant that captures the essence of his culinary journey and serves it to a city he loves.

Every bite delivers a taste of Ed’s passion, where flavor and spiciness dance in perfect harmony.

• Location: South Side Historic District
• Owner: Edward “Ed” Wickley’s
• Type of kitchen: American
• Menu Spotlight: Tender Plate, Breast Quarter, Whiting Fish Plate, Oh Hale Naw Challenge
• Before you go: You choose how spicy you want it, from a pinch of heat to “Oh Hale Naw,” as Ed calls it.

Uncle Larry’s Restaurant

As you walk up to Uncle Larry’s Restaurant, the first thing you might notice is the sign in the window that reads, “Fish so good, it’ll fly around your ears.”

Owner and chef Larry Torrence and his loyal customers stand behind this statement.

Torrence opened Uncle Larry’s Restaurant in March 2013 after constant encouragement from his wife, Terilynn, and other family members. He was the one frying the fish at all the family gatherings, and now he delights the rest of Chattanooga with his crispy, crunchy fish that’s seasoned just right.

• Locations: Different
• Owner: Larry Torrens
• Type of kitchen: American
• Menu in focus: In addition to fried fish, there are pork chops, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, turnip greens and macaroni and cheese.
• Before you go: Online orders are accepted.

Black restaurants in Chattanooga are Tennessee’s best-kept secret. Here, people can taste an ingredient you can’t learn in culinary school: passion. That’s why Black restaurant owners create their own sauces and spices, split their own logs for their smokers, and create unique experiences you can’t find anywhere else in the world. It’s the ingredient that keeps people coming back to a city with a small-town and welcoming feel.