521 Montgomery Highway, Suite 113 (next to Vestavia City Hall)
824-3655
www.cityhalldiner.com
Charming upscale diner atmosphere in a Vestavia strip mall. Breakfast includes traditional fare plus things like seafood omelettes, breakfast tortillas with chorizo and eggs, asparagus and mushroom quiche, and a "Redneck Bennie" -- biscuits and sausage gravy with fried eggs on top. At lunch there are salads, sandwiches, soup du jour, entrees such as shrimp and grits or fried shrimp, and daily specials such as chicken piccata, crawfish and andouille ravioli in vodka cream sauce, meat loaf with mashers. Dinner Thurs.-Sat. offers limited menu with appetizers such as baked oysters, entrees such as shrimp and andouille sausage in tomato risotto, pork tenderloin with turnip greens, and seared angus ribeye with roasted fingerling potatoes.

In a November 2006 review, City Scene gave it four out of five stars, giving high marks to the open-faced roast beef sandwich, as well as one with grilled asparagus, turkey, Muenster cheese and alfalfa sprouts, but complained about small portions on some items. A blackened lemon pepper grouper was an "excellent and well-prepared special," but "seemed a bit pricey." During our lunch visit in 2007, some things were done very well, like the hearty open-faced roast beef with brown gravy and skinny fried onions. Others weren't, like the watery mashed potatoes it was served with.

3144 Green Valley Road, Vestavia/Cahaba Heights
967-3300
www.mudtownalabama.com
Lunch and dinner. Fun, informal, attractive small restaurant with good quick-order food with a twist. Dishes such as fried dill pickle chips, grilled wings with unusual sauces, Caribe chicken, baby back ribs, grilled tuna, fried grouper, burgers, and sandwiches from classic (grilled Reuben) to unusual (Jamaican smoke-house press with sweet tomato aioli.) Outdoor dining in good weather. Parking's at a premium.