1210 20th St. South (Southside/Five Points South)
918-0726
www.birminghammenus.com/26/
Lunch and dinner, full bar, no reservations accepted. From the same people who brought Birmingham the popular Ocean restaurant next door. Vey cool, industrial-chic decor, bistro dining feel. An eclectic menu features Asian, Mediterranean, Southwestern and other flavors, which enhance high-quality ingredients artfully prepared.
Click here for Bhamdining.com review

3028 Clairmont Ave. (Southside/Forest Park/Lakeview area), 254-9780
162 Oxmoor Road, Homewood, 941-9994
Darryl Whitfield, who took over the original Bogue's on Clairmont Ave. in 2006, owned Southside Cafe for 14 years before closing it to take over Bogue's. The restaurant still bears the name of the Birmingham family that founded it in 1938. Known for years for its homestyle breakfast, especially its blueberry pancakes, this diner-style restaurant also serves a meat-and-three lunch. Featured for "best breakfast" in "Where the Locals Eat." A January 2008 review in City Scene of the new Homewood location praised the homemade, fluffy biscuits, "perfectly fried" bacon, crispy hash brown potatoes, and the Yankee omelet for breakfast, but said the side serving of gravy was too small for the price. The steam-table-style lunch got high marks for country fried steak, boneless grilled chicken breast and carrot cake.

3719 3rd Avenue South, downtown
533-6288
www.thebottletree.com
Live music venue and bar as well as a cafe, with a funky and eclectic ambience. Serving soup, sandwiches, salads, quesadillas, tacos, desserts, heavy on vegetarian fare. Its vegetarian chili won the Birmingham News' 2007 chili competition. A City Scene review in January 2007 praised the "wonderfully inventive menu," including the Bread & Spread Plate with a walnut-green apple pesto, butternut squash dip and hummus; blue cheese slaw; grilled tofu Caesar wrap with pesto; green apple and havarti quesadilla; salads with locally grown organic greens; grilled pimiento cheese sandwich; dark chocolate tofu pie; and the award-winning vegan chili. However, there were service mix-ups.

1035 20th Street South, Southside/Five Points South
933-6363
www.birminghammenus.com/5ptsgrill/
Popular outdoor dining area. Under new ownership as of 2007. Casual favorites such as appetizers, soups, salads, steaks, shrimp and grits, pasta, pizza, sandwiches, desserts. A December 2007 City Scene review gave high marks for fried calamari with three dipping sauces, but called the blue crab dip "gummy and relatively tasteless." Also good were grilled red snapper with lemon caper sauce, braised lamb shank, and a ribeye steak that was "a deal" with invigorating horseradish sauce on the side. Shrimp and grits, unfortunately, had lots of flavor but not much shrimp, and desserts were "not a strong point."

1901 11th Avenue South (Southside/Five Points South)
933-6333
The city's first vegetarian restaurant and a good lunch spot even if you're not a vegetarian. Our favorites include the GT Stack, with brown rice, black beans, cheese and other toppings, and the GT sandwich, lightly grilled with cheese, sprouts, tomato, and your choice of guacamole or garlicky hummus and mushrooms or black olives.

515 University Blvd., Southside (in old Ollie's building)
251-3101
www.kairoskatering.com
Emphasis on chicken, plus salads, burgers, Italian entrees, lunch specials. City Scene's "Lunch Bunch" in July 2007 praised the Horst's Hot and Spicy Grilled Chicken sandwich with buffalo sauce, and vegetable trio of potato salad, slaw and green beans, tasty banana pudding. Open for lunch weekdays, Friday dinner, Saturday brunch.

720 29th St. South (Southside/Lakeview)
323-6727
www.birminghammenus.com/ots
Lunch and dinner, late night dining. Meat-and-two lunch served until that day's offerings run out. Sports bar serving burgers, fried catfish, fried crab claws, fresh fish, steaks, soft-shell crab, cajun specials, etc.

1845 Montgomery Hwy, Ste 207 (Hoover/Riverchase, off Hwy. 31), 988-5558
810 Inverness Corners (off Hwy. 280), 437-1999
727 29th Street South (Southside/Lakeview), 320-1225
www.ontapsportscafe.com
Born in Birmingham and locally owned, On Tap Sports Cafe offers daily meat and veggie lunch specials, typical bar food. Some of the best wings in town. More than 150 beers.
Click here for Bhamdining.com review

1312 Cobb Lane (Southside/Five Points South)
939-1312
www.jclyde.com
Casual restaurant, serving "Southern food with a European flair," such as for dinner, fried green tomatoes with Milanese dipping sauce, Southern-stuffed mushrooms, free-range chicken breast with barbecue dipping sauce, vegetable boxty, Belgian pork chops with chipotle chickpeas, steak au poivre with curried corn-red pepper chutney, Bavarian sausages on a bed of sauteed cabbage, Southern grilled shrimp and biscuits, cheese plate. At lunch there's gourmet pizza, burgers, portabella sandwiches with pesto aioli, steak salad, free-range Greek chicken. For brunch, there are brunch pizzas, poached eggs on fried green tomatoes, steak and eggs, made-to order omelets, crepes and more. There's a small wine list, but the focus here is on beer, with over 200 to choose from. A big selling point is the covered patio. Live music on weekends.