King Edward Grille

The Restaurant: King Edward Grill is one of the dining options available to guests and visitors of Hilton Garden Inn Downtown, formerly known as Hotel King Edward. The hotel boasts its southern cuisine in a relaxed ambiance designed to promote a casual dining experience and socialization. One might assume, as I did, there would be an issue with parking and accessibility of the restaurant for a viable lunch option. But, to my surprise, parking – though valet – is free during lunch hours. Just be sure to save your receipt and have your parking validated to save on parking fees.

The Atmosphere: The atmosphere is contemporary and casual, with indoor dining, bar service, and patio dining. A perfect location for a lunch meeting, for an after-five cocktail, or a relaxing dinner observing the newly revived downtown nightlife – King Edward Grill is versatile in its dining and socializing capabilities. You can order at the bar for lunch to go, or you can enjoy full wait staff service by dining in.

The Menu & Food: The King Edward Grill offers weekly lunch specials reasonably priced at $12.00, including a beverage. These “Capitol Street Hot Plates” are the way to go if you want a good meal at good portions. The menu has wonderful variety, ranging from Honey Lemon Pepper Chicken to Southern Fried Catfish to Oven Roasted Pork Loin. If the hot plates don’t peak your palate’s interests, there’s a wonderful southern inspired full lunch menu with price points ranging from $6-$13 for appetizers and $12-$18 for salads and entrees.

On this day, I couldn’t pass up the offer of lemon pepper spices combined with honey. I was curious to see how this would play out. I went with the traditional southern sides of macaroni and cheese and collard greens.

The chicken did not disappoint. It was as moist as you would expect of a breast portion, with the crispy oven baked skin generously seasoned. The taste was a mildly sweet, tangy one. It was different – but delicious. The greens were exceptional and fresh – a real treasure to find during lunch time for most places. There were slithers of onions and bacon throughout them. Macaroni and cheese is usually standard at most places, with a little dressing up here or there. It was good, but perhaps next time I’ll opt for another side. Once I shared my lunch adventure with a colleague, she admonished me because I didn’t try the “Not Yo’ Momma’s Okra” which consists of spicy whole fried okra and a spicy ranch dipping sauce. I’ll be sure to give it a run on my next visit.

Service: I ordered to-go at the bar, so there was not much in the way of service except a very courteous bar tender who took my order and checked it for accuracy. My parking was validated by way of my lunch receipt, and I was in and out in a breeze.

Don’t let the thought of traffic and parking keep you from enjoying the “hot plates” and other wonderful dishes during lunch. I’ll be back for dinner soon, to check out the evening scene and make good on my promise to try their fried okra.

Carlyn Hicks

Carlyn Hicks, founder of Jackson Foodies, lover of all things culinary, pro-Jackson advocate. All opinions expressed in this post are the opinions of the writer and not necessarily those of Sipp Jackson.