Food Network star Paula Deen got her start in Savannah with a lunch delivery business. She cooked, and her sons delivered to local businesses. In 1996 they opened Lady & Sons restaurant in a former Sears & Roebuck store on Congress Street, and in 2003, they moved down the street to a larger space that seats 330 in a renovated 200-year-old building with four floors. Thanks to fans of her TV show and cookbook, the “lady” draws lines every day. A hostess stands outside the restaurant from 9:30 a.m. taking names from those who appear in person to request to be placed on the priority-seating list. Otherwise, reservations are not accepted. The buffet lunch runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and dinner begins at 5 p.m. Southern specialties such as fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits, crab stew, pulled-pork sandwiches, crab-stuffed shrimp, peach-barbecue grouper and key lime pie have made Deen a celebrity, and you’ll taste why, even if it means you are dining with hundreds of others. Open seven days; Sunday is buffet lunch only.

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Leopold’s Ice Cream was founded in 1919 by three Greek brothers and resurrected by one of their sons, a native son turned Hollywood success story. Stratton Leopold left Savannah to become a major movie producer. (His blockbusters have included Mission Impossible 3, The Sum of All Fears and The Big Chill.) But in 2004 he and his wife returned to reopen Leopold’s with the original black-marble soda fountain and banana-split holders as well as all the original family recipes. An Academy Award–winning designer helped pull together period details from the ’50s and movie memorabilia to create a fantasy soda fountain. Burgers, sandwiches and salads are served, but the real draw is the homemade ice cream, in such flavors as rose-petal cream, strawberry shortcake, tutti-frutti (apparently Johnny Mercer’s favorite) and Girl Scouts thin mints ’n’ cream. Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

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In a former boarding house run in the 1940s by Selma Wilkes, Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room is still owned and run by the Wilkes family, who dish up their family recipes in period rooms (but no longer take boarders in the upstairs rooms). When Jim Williams, of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil fame, was in jail awaiting trial, he had his meals sent to him from here every day. Lunch is served family style Mondays through Fridays only ($16 for adults and half price for kids under 12), and there is always a line outside before noon, as it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city and noted in every guidebook. Visitors are seated together at tables of ten where help themselves from passed platters of such Southern favorites as okra gumbo, fried chicken, cornbread biscuits, collard greens and beef stew. Even locals confess to loving the food, if not the crowds. Closed weekends; cash only.

Tip: Do as the locals do and get takeout. You miss the family-style experience, but you avoid the wait and can head instead to Forsyth Park or one of the nearby squares to eat on a bench.

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This has been considered one of Savannah’s best restaurants for so long that it is no wonder it has turned into a bit of a tourist trap. The tour buses point it out, and many of your fellow diners may have cameras hanging around their necks and fanny packs at their waists. However, if you can get past those distractions, you may discover that the setting and the food deliver a fine taste of Savannah. Set in a wonderful pink house built in the late 1700s on Reynolds Square, the restaurant seats guests in a series of restored rooms on two floors. The second-floor rooms are the most popular, but if those are booked, ask for a table in the blue room or wood-paneled library on the main floor. The least appealing room is the main parlor to the left of the reception, because you have to watch the crowds stream in. Order the she-crab soup, but skip the lemonade, which isn’t fresh, and brace yourself for inconsistent service. Open for lunch and dinner.

Tip: Go for lunch. Olde Pink House is now open for the midday meal, and while the food is not as great as it is at Elizabeth on 37th, Local 11 Ten or Noble Fare, the restaurant does deliver the historic house experience with tasty traditional Southern fare. If you cannot get into the main restaurant, consider eating in the bar.