These Mississippi Soul Food Cafeterias Are Family-Owned For Generations
Soul food in Mississippi has a way of making you feel like family, even when you’re just passing through.
Across the state, cafeterias have been serving fried chicken, collard greens, cornbread, and sweet tea for decades, with recipes passed down from grandparents to parents to kids who now run the kitchen.
These aren’t corporate chains with test kitchens and focus groups. They’re real families cooking real food, the kind that sticks to your ribs and stays in your memory long after you’ve cleared your plate.
1. Bully’s Restaurant – Jackson
On Livingston Road in Jackson, Bully’s looks like the kind of brick building you might drive past if you didn’t know better.
Step inside at lunch, though, and you’re in a line of regulars sliding red plastic trays along the counter, pointing at smothered oxtails, fried chicken, greens, and cornbread like it’s a weekly ritual.
This James Beard Award-winning meat-and-three is pure soul food: divided trays, plastic cups of sweet tea, and portions that cover the plate.
The backstory is just as soulful. Bully’s opened in 1982, in a brick building literally built by owner Tyrone Bully and his father, both former masons, taking a neighborhood corner-store family into the hot-food business.
Decades later, it’s still a Black-owned, family operation, and locals talk about it as if it’s an extension of their own kitchen table.
2. Mama Hamil’s Southern Cookin’ & Bar-B-Que Buffet – Madison
In Madison, Mama Hamil’s doesn’t just feed people – it stages full-on soul food reunions.
This is a classic all-you-can-eat buffet, where steam tables are loaded with ribs, fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens, cornbread, banana pudding, and cobbler. You pay at the counter, grab a plate, and keep circling back until you surrender.
The Hamil family has turned their locally and family-owned buffet into a Mississippi institution, with recipes credited to Mama and passed down through the family.
Recent write-ups highlight it as a true Southern soul-food buffet, recognized repeatedly as one of the best values – and best buffets – in the region.
3. The Dinner Bell – McComb
If you grew up with big Sunday dinners, The Dinner Bell in McComb feels like a memory come to life.
Guests sit around huge round tables while platters of fried chicken, roast, vegetables, and biscuits spin past on a giant lazy Susan – you just reach, serve, and pass.
First opened in 1945, The Dinner Bell has closed, moved, and come back, but always with family at the center.
After a fire and a hiatus, the Lopinto family revived it and kept the tradition of family-style Southern meals going, turning it into a generational ritual for locals and travelers who plan entire road trips around that spinning table.
4. Walnut Hills Restaurant – Vicksburg
Set inside an 1880s home in Vicksburg’s historic district, Walnut Hills looks more like a front-porch daydream than a cafeteria.
Inside, it’s Southern plantation cuisine done boarding-house style: fried chicken, casseroles, biscuits, pies, and vegetables spread across tables that encourage families and strangers to eat elbow-to-elbow.
The soul of Walnut Hills has deep family roots in the kitchen. The late Miss Herdcine Williams spent more than 30 years perfecting what many call some of the best fried chicken in the South, following in the footsteps of her mother, Ms. Alma Robinson, who made salads and slaw daily until she retired at 70.
Today, Herdcine’s son Xavier carries that legacy forward, making it three generations of the Williams family influencing what lands on your plate.
5. Pearl’s Diner – Laurel
In downtown Laurel, Pearl’s Diner feels like walking into someone’s family reunion – if your family reunion came with a steam table full of fried chicken, smothered pork chops, rice and gravy, greens, and cornbread.
It’s a tiny, bustling soul-food cafeteria where you grab a tray, pick your meat and sides, and listen to regulars trade stories over sweet tea.
Owner Pearl Campbell built the menu on recipes passed through her family, with local coverage noting that her dishes honor the cooking she learned from her grandmother and elders.
Each member of the Campbell family plays a role in the diner, from the line to the register, turning Pearl’s into a multigenerational operation where the food and the staff all feel related.
6. Ajax Diner – Oxford
On the historic Oxford Square, Ajax Diner is the town’s favorite meat-and-three, and it absolutely behaves like a soul-food cafeteria even if you sit down to order.
The chalkboard and menus are loaded with chicken and dumplings, Mississippi pot roast, meatloaf, country-fried steak, fried catfish, and a long list of rotating vegetables and casseroles.
Lunchtime feels like a college-town convergence of students, professors, and locals all chasing the same blue-plate comfort.
In business since 1997, Ajax has remained a locally owned spot that specializes in from-scratch Southern comfort food.
Its meat-and-three setup that never gets old, as the diner’s own description puts it, has created the kind of loyalty where people who once came as students now bring their kids back for plate lunches that taste exactly like they remember.
7. Mama Jo’s Country Cookin’ – Oxford
On the outskirts of Oxford, Mama Jo’s Country Cookin’ is the kind of place you’re warned to reach early for lunch or risk missing the best desserts.
You queue up cafeteria-style, choose from fried chicken, roast, country-fried steak, mac and cheese, and daily rotating mains and sides, then sit wherever you can find a spot among construction workers, office staff, and Ole Miss folks alike.
Local write-ups note that Mama Jo herself is almost always in the kitchen, and that the restaurant is completely run by family members, making it a true family business rather than just a clever name.
Over the years, those relatives have kept the recipes steady – from sweet tea to slice-of-the-day cakes – turning Mama Jo’s into one of Oxford’s quiet, generational institutions.
8. Romie’s Grocery – Tupelo
Romie’s Grocery in Tupelo looks like a cross between an old country store and a neighborhood café, but the line of locals waiting on plate lunches tells you everything you need to know.
Inside, it’s a classic Southern meat-and-three: fried chicken, catfish, pork chops, casseroles, and vegetables you’d expect to find at a church potluck, all served up in generous portions.
The restaurant’s own history notes that it opened in 2005 and grew out of the owners’ desire to serve the kind of food they grew up eating with family and friends.
Over time, Romie’s has become a family-run fixture for Tupelo, with relatives helping run the operation and regulars treating the place like a second home where they can count on the same comfort dishes week after week.
9. The Trace Grill – Ridgeland
Tucked just off the Natchez Trace in Ridgeland, The Trace Grill feels like a small-town café that never got the memo about fast, anonymous dining.
Inside, it’s all plate lunches and Southern staples: chicken-fried steak, fried catfish, meatloaf, squash casserole, and pies by the slice. You order at the counter, listen for your name, and settle into a dining room that feels like an extended living room.
The Thompson family has owned and operated The Trace Grill since 1999, and their social media proudly emphasizes that it’s still a family business.
After more than two decades of blue-plate specials and house-made desserts, it has become the kind of place where multiple generations of the same families file in after church or ballgames to share what’s essentially a home-cooked meal without doing the dishes.
10. Country Fisherman – Jackson
In Jackson, Country Fisherman does buffet-style Southern cooking with a special love for fried catfish.
Long buffet lines feature crispy fillets, hush puppies, fried chicken, ham, vegetables, and desserts, and weekends see serious church-crowd traffic. It has the unmistakable feel of a small-town cafeteria, just in the middle of the city.
Recent coverage describes Country Fisherman as family-owned since 1975, with decades of the same family seasoning their cornmeal batter and guarding their spices.
Regulars talk about it as a Jackson institution, the sort of multi-generational buffet where grandparents, parents, and kids all pile their plates together and argue over who gets the last hush puppy.
11. Mama’s Eats N Sweets – Jackson
On the west side of Jackson, Mama’s Eats N Sweets is exactly what it claims to be: a cafeteria-style soul food restaurant where desserts are as serious as the main plates.
You grab a tray and pick from fried chicken, turkey wings, pork chops, rice and gravy, greens, yams, and whatever else is on the steam table that day – then finish with cake, cobbler, or banana pudding.
The family behind the restaurant is front and center. Their own About page spells it out: We are a cafeteria-style, Soul Food restaurant.
Family-owned and ran for nearly two decades with gran. That line says everything – recipes and operations shaped by multiple generations working side by side, seasoning each pan with both experience and family stories.
12. Ms. Audrey’s Southern Kitchen & Catering – Gulfport
In Gulfport, Ms. Audrey’s Southern Kitchen is the kind of place where the buffet line glows under heat lamps and the smell of fried chicken, dressing, and cabbage greets you before you open the door all the way.
Guests line up for soul-food plates loaded with smothered meats, greens, yams, and cornbread, and there’s usually a line of folks picking up catering pans for church events or family gatherings.
According to the restaurant’s story, Ms. Audrey has been feeding the Gulf Coast for over 25 years, turning her love of cooking – inspired by her mother’s kitchen – into a long-running, family-centered business.
That combination of passed-down techniques and community loyalty gives the place a multigenerational feel, where locals talk about growing up on Ms. Audrey’s food and still coming back as adults.
13. Bettina’s Soul Food Kitchen – Canton
On Peace Street in Canton, Bettina’s Soul Food Kitchen looks modest from the outside, but inside it’s all about big flavors and unhurried meals.
The menu leans into classic soul food – fried chicken, pork chops, baked chicken, stewed vegetables, and hearty sides – served in a way that feels more like sitting in a friend’s dining room than a restaurant.
Reservation and restaurant guides describe Bettina’s as a family-owned spot devoted to classic soul dishes with warm, unpretentious service.
It’s the sort of place where staff remember faces, not just orders, and extra rolls or dessert slices have a way of appearing when a familiar family walks in – a small-town, generational style of hospitality you can’t franchise.
14. Fred’s Soul Food Restaurant – Jackson
At 930 Palmyra Street in Jackson, Fred’s Soul Food is a breakfast-and-lunch spot where the plates are heavy and the atmosphere is easygoing.
The menu reads like a roll call of comfort: fried chicken, pork chops, fish, grits, eggs, smothered meats, greens, beans, and cornbread. It’s the kind of place where people show up hungry and leave talking about how it tastes like home.
Local guides and Black-business directories point out that Fred’s is a family-owned restaurant and a long-time community favorite, with visitors lingering over their meals and regulars treating it as a daily stop rather than an occasional splurge.
Over the decades, that steady, family-run presence has helped Fred’s become part of Jackson’s everyday rhythm.
15. Rosie’s Family Kitchen & Catering – Jackson
Rosie’s Family Kitchen & Catering operates out of what locals call the big green building on Welota Drive in Jackson, and it leans right into its name.
This is a true family kitchen scaled up for the public: rotisserie chicken, baked and fried meats, dressing, vegetables, and classic soul-food sides served in generous, lunch-hour portions.
Community posts and local chatter highlight Rosie’s as a family-run operation where relatives share the workload between the kitchen and the dining room.
Open for lunch most days of the week, it has become a quiet staple for nearby neighborhoods – the spot where families pick up plates after church, workers grab a hot lunch, and regulars chat with staff who know them by name.