How to Find Good Food in Memphis

To find good food in Memphis, learn the vocabulary first and then rate by the dish. Memphis Travel calls the city one that feeds the soul, lists charcoal-smoked ribs and pulled pork nachos among its specialties. Beyond smoke there is soul food, Delta tamales and the cafes of Midtown.

This guide describes a way of eating that works in any city but suits Memphis in particular: ask good questions, write short notes and share them.

How do you find good food in Memphis without a plan?

Start with one anchor. Pick a dish, a district or a question, such as which kitchen makes the best vegetable plate, and let it organize the weekend. Without an anchor, a visitor drifts to the most famous names, queues for an hour and goes home with one meal to remember. With one, every stop teaches you something.

Keep the plan loose. The anchor decides what you eat, not where every hour goes, and a flexible day leaves room for the tip a local gives you at the counter.

It helps to decide in advance how you will judge what you eat. Three questions are enough: would I order it again, would I send a friend and what would I change. If the answers are yes, yes and nothing, you have found a keeper, and a one-line note is all it needs. Anything else is a good story and a lesson, which are worth having too.

What words do Memphis soul food menus use?

Menus carry a shorthand. A plate usually means a main dish with sides, and the sides come from a printed list: greens, beans, slaw, mac and cheese, yams, okra. A hot tamale is cornmeal and meat simmered in brine, explained in the Delta tamale guide. Soul food is Southern cooking with deep roots in African American kitchens, and it sits behind many of the sides.

Learn five of these words before you arrive and you can order with confidence. When a word is new, ask the server. People who cook here are usually glad to explain.

Which Memphis neighborhoods are worth a walk?

Midtown's Cooper-Young district is a sound first stop. The Cooper-Young guide describes a historic district with a steel trestle, a yearly festival and an eclectic mix of shops, bars and restaurants. Memphis Travel also lists Beale Street and Midtown among the city's neighborhoods.

Choose one district per outing, and give it at least two hours. A walk of a few blocks, with one stop for something small, teaches you more than a long drive between famous names. Come back another day for a second district.

How do you order by the dish?

Choose a dish and order it wherever you go. Over a weekend you might eat tamales twice, a vegetable plate once and a smoked sandwich once, and judge each against its own kind. A dish is the right unit because it holds still: the same name appears on many menus, and the differences are exactly what you are here to learn.

After each plate, write what you noticed in a line. Seasoning, texture, portion, sauce, heat. Those words are the useful part of any recommendation, and they are the part you will want when you plan a return trip. If you are with a group, ask each person to give one word for the dish, and write all of them down. A table of four will often produce four different words for the same plate, and the differences are worth keeping.

What should a rating say?

In the Mosey app, a rating needs only a place and stars. Past that, you can name each dish, choose tags and add a photo. "Hot tamales, gritty, spicy, saltines" says more than five stars alone. Rate places that carry a tag and the app counts distinct places toward its levels: Sampler at five, Taster at ten, Expert at twenty and Connoisseur at fifty.

The Dishes page shows what people near you are enjoying. The ratings page explains how rating a dish works.

How do friends' picks narrow the choices?

Follow people whose taste you trust and you can see what they rated and saved. On the map, the Friends' picks layer shows where those people have been. Tag the people you ate with, and each can rate the same meal.

Tags are labels a rater adds, such as Soul Food, Southern, Date Night, Group Dining or Late Night, and diners filter by them. A tag shows what the rater chose, so confirm details with the place. Treat a tag as a starting point and ask the cook the rest. If you have a dietary need, say so early, and use the tag to shortlist rather than to decide.

What do the daily food games add?

The daily food games give you three short puzzles every day, a good way to learn where dishes come from while you wait for a table. The website's ranked lists fill with real places as ratings arrive, so for now your own list is the surest guide. Start it with the first plate you rate and add one line about why it earned its place.

What else covers Memphis?

Related reading: the vegetarian guide, the Memphis page, the Tennessee page and the US food guides.

Before you leave Memphis, open the Mosey app, rate your last plate by name and start a list.