7 Best Lunch Spots in Chattanooga
The Torgerson Team doesn’t just handle all of your real estate needs—our other job is being the full-time foodies that we are. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it! This time we’ve turned our focus to the best lunch haunts Chattanooga has to offer, and after a lot of serious research, we’ve come up with our top 7 for you to try:
Totto Sushi & Grill
330 Frazier Ave Suite 124
423-508-8898
Chattanooga doesn’t have a lot going on by way of sushi restaurants, but out of all of them, one of the best for a quick bite is Totto. Their lunch buffet attracts a big crowd for lunch, so be sure to get there a bit on the early side to avoid the wait. If buffets are not your style, try one of the bento boxes like the Teriyaki Chicken Bento served with soup, salad, white rice, veggies, California roll, tempura and beef dumplings. This popular lunch spot is located on Frazier Avenue, so if you have extra time to kill on your lunch break, you can pop into one of the many local shops!
Menu: https://www.tottonooga.com/menus/lunch-menu.PDF
Taqueria Jalisco
1634 Rossville Ave
423-509-3430
You might have eaten at their food truck at the Chattanooga Market, but you can also check out their teeny tiny location just off Main Street. In our opinion, this is the most authentic spot in Chatt for Mexican fare and surprisingly has really great prices. Don’t miss the guacamole, and be sure to have your meal with a Mexican coke for the full experience. We recommend the Flautas with three flour tortillas rolled with chipotle chicken, lettuce, tomatillo avocado salsa, pickled carrots, queso fresco and sour cream or the Carne Asada with skirt steak, grilled onions, rice, beans and tortillas.
Menu: Not available online (see what we mean by most authentic?), but you may be able to find one taken by a customer on Yelp.
Main Street Meats
217 East Main Street
423-602-9568
Since Main Street Meats is known for their—well, meats—you best believe they have one of the best burgers in town. The Local Beef Burger featuring house pickles, mustard, mayo, caramelized onions, bacon and gruyere is the stuff of legends, and that alone earned this eatery a place on our list of favorite lunches! Beyond that, Main Street Meats offers an exceptional rotating lunch menu in which all the foods are local and prepared in-house. The restaurant buys its bread from Niedlov’s, the bakery next door (which leads us to our next recommendation), and its meat from local farms as whole animals and processes them on the premises. None of the animals the place uses have been fed antibiotics or growth stimulants. Although this is one of the more pricy of our lunch picks, this restaurant’s quality is worth every penny!
Menu: http://www.mainstreetmeatschatt.com/menu/lunch
Niedlov’s Breadworks
215 E. Main Street
(423) 756-0303
If you love bread as much as me and Oprah, then this is going to be a lunch spot to remember! Niedlov’s supplies a lot of the bread for many favorite restaurants locally, and with a slogan like “We Love to Knead. We Knead to Love.,” you know it’s going to be good. Try the California Club with turkey, Swiss cheese, jalapeño mayo, crispy bacon, avocado, fresh sliced tomato, sprouts and bib lettuce served on toasted multigrain or the Fall Harvest Salad featuring baby kale, roasted sweet potato, balsamic cured figs, goat cheese, pecans and cider vinaigrette. Yum.
Menu: https://niedlovs.com/media/niedlovs-lunch-menu.pdf
Mojo Burrito
3950 Tennessee Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37409
This is one of Chattanooga’s favorite spots—and you’ll know it if you come during peak lunch hours! Even though they have three locations in town, they’re consistently packed with people looking to score some yummy Tex-Mex. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, this is the place to go with lots of fresh options like the Papa Bear’s Vegetarian Chili, a savory blend of fresh peppers, onion, tomato, black, pinto & kidney beans, shoepeg corn and fresh herbs and spices, topped with Monterey Jack cheese or sour cream and green onion. For the meat eaters out there, try the Shrimp Po-Boy with shrimp hand-breaded to order and fried, black beans, Spanish rice, lettuce, pico de gallo, cilantro-lime slaw, remoulade, guacamole, Texas Pete in a grilled garlic herb tortilla or make your own burrito to get everything you want made fresh for you!
Menu: http://www.mojoburrito.com/pdf/the-menu-new2.pdf
River Street Deli
151 River St
423-756-3354
I almost don’t want to tell you about this one and just keep it to myself … but, if you are in the market for a true New York style delicatessen lunch, River Street Deli really delivers. This sandwich stop is tucked away on the Coolidge Park side of the Frazier Avenue shopping area. The owner of this counter-order deli can seem a little bit on the gruff side—for example, sometimes you might order something and he’ll tell you you’re getting something else that you’ll like better. But trust me, he’s always right. Start with one of the daily special soups and then on to whatever sandwich the owner recommends. You won’t be disappointed!
Menu: http://riverstreet-deli.com/menu
Opa
423-305-0038
249 River St, Chattanooga, TN 37405
When we think about best kept secret kinds of restaurants, Opa tops the list! This white-washed, blue accented teeny tiny building near Coolidge Park hardly looks like a restaurant at all considering it’s only large enough to hold about three tables max. If you can find yourself a seat inside or outside on their patio, make sure to have a big fat authentic Greek lunch at Opa with favorites like spanakopita, tzatziki and gyro. We recommend the Opa plate which includes a little bit of everything with produce from local farms and meats grilled right outside the restaurant. If you want to indulge a bit, grab a slice of homemade baklava for dessert.
