While Tara and I are not blessed with the most refined palates in the world, we love to explore a new location by way of taste. During these journeys, we are always hoping to experience something different on our respective restaurant plates. Coming to appreciate these differences is part of what makes travel so rewarding for us. During our latest attempt to broaden our tastes, we stumbled upon the culinary estuary of Louisville. We found the mixing of midwestern and southern cuisine fascinating and inseparable from this landmark on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Make a point to stop at these five amazing places to eat in Louisville, KY.
1. Wild Eggs
Egg-centric artwork on the walls? Check. A pot of coffee left on your table with more at the ready should you need it? Check. The home of our new breakfast obsession, the KY Hot Brown? Double check.
While their eggs benedict, chicken and waffles, and breakfast sampler (The Mad Platter) were all respectable examples of those dishes, it was Wild Eggs’s breakfast version of Louisville’s famous hot brown sandwich that stole the show. Bacon and turkey were both mounded on top of sourdough and then just drenched in mornay sauce. Every bite was substantial and filling, yet each forkful also, perplexingly, whetted our appetites for more. Yes, we unabashedly licked every last drop of the mornay sauce from the K.Y. Hot Brown’s plate’s clean.
Don’t let the fact that this Louisville breakfast staple technically belongs to a regional chain fool you into thinking the food here is cookie-cutter basic. This was the only breakfast spot we thought was good enough to visit a second time. We just couldn’t stay away from the wafting aroma of griddle-cooked meats and ‘80s pop music gently eeking out of the sound system.
2. Highland Mornings ***unfortunately, closed*** 🙁
After hearing us talk through the dilemma of only being able to reasonably select two items from the menu, our server at Highland Mornings recommended getting half portions in order to include a third dish. Following some minor debating, we went with a Key West Key Lime Pancake, Dutch Apple Waffles, and the Baja Benedict. We still regret not having the stomach capacity to include a fourth item.
Even though we visited Highland Mornings on a Monday, and in the midst of a global pandemic, we could tell it was a popular spot with visitors and locals alike. The limited seating available was quickly filled shortly after we placed our orders. From our vantage point, we could see each plate coming out of the kitchen and eagerly anticipated the arrival of ours.
The benedict was an interesting southwestern interpretation of a dish we tend to order whenever possible, and the Key Lime Pancakes had a refreshing element to them, but the Dutch Apple Waffles were incredible. Juicy chunks of spiced apple were worked into the batter along with bits of white chocolate. These little round delights were covered in a vanilla compote and a drizzle of caramel.
3. Royals Hot Chicken
As a kid, I was obsessed with chicken nuggets. I dunked and dredged my shaped pieces of white meat through gallons of sweet and sour sauce every time my parents allowed us access to one of Ronald’s spots. I’ve outgrown the golden arches’s take on chicken, but I believe I’ll always have a soft spot for fried strips of poultry excellence.
With the coolest chicken mural to ever grace the side of a brick building, this chicken-centric restaurant was the first place we headed to upon landing in Louisville. The chicken strips at Royals are like the savory fried chicken equivalent of candy with a chocolate shell coating. Satisfying, crunchy batter covered tender chicken. They were smothered in hot sauce, and we could not stop ourselves from nibbling each crumble and sopping up every last drop of spicy goodness. Despite the fact that the X-Hot sauce on my tenders had me sweating, I could not stop licking my fingers. Something akin to my McNugget obsession resurfaced when we dredged our tenders in the homemade ranch, Mississippi Comeback, and Alabama BBQ sauces.
The cashier recommended the mac and cheese as our side, and Tara and I could not refuse. The ooey gooey cheesy shells made a perfect dance partner for the spicy chicken on our tongues. Eating these meals in a nearby brewery from clamshell to go containers did not suck in the slightest. Take that, B-Dubs!
4. Taco Luchador
Tacos are never a bad idea before going out for a night of drinking. Such was the case when Tara and I found our way to Taco Luchador. We knew we were going to be visiting some local breweries, and we needed to be fortified before our adventure could properly launch.
We shared five tacos, but we could have taken down another dozen if we had stumbled upon this place at the end of the night instead of the beginning. The Al Pastor brought some citrus and porky goodness, the flaky cod and cabbage on the Baja fish taco blew our minds, the barbacoa and mole both had rich flavors and tender meats, and the carnitas offered exciting crispy invitations with each bite.
The excitement didn’t end with the tacos. While super simple, the chips and guacamole were an amazing value for the amount we were served and the flavorful punches they fired. The sweet potato fries with caramelized pineapple salsa had the citrusy snap we needed before moving onto the main dishes. We washed all of these alluring flavors down with a watermelon picante frozen margarita for me and a slushy sangria for Tara.
As far as interiors go, Taco Luchador had an extremely memorable one. Each wall seemed to present a masked Mexican wrestler in either exaggerated proportions or in an unexpected situation. My favorite was the wrestler with the tiny teacup. We had a blast coming up with our own versions of each wrestler’s stage name and backstory.
5. Hammerheads
Hammerheads had the vibe of being an upscale dive bar. They had a respectable bourbon selection to accompany the untraditional meat items on their food menu. Artwork can be found all over the building from the blown glass tap handles to the octopus mural in the men’s room that leaps off of the wall onto the urinal itself. Unique doesn’t quite cover it.
Our eyes danced around the descriptions of the meal choices until they landed on the elk burger and roasted duck sandwich. Since she was dangling over the precipice of becoming hangry, Tara thought it wise for us to order the crispy mac and cheese balls and truffle fries fried in duck fat to accompany our entree choices–they did not disappoint.
The mac and cheese balls had a solid layer of breading, but the contents were still a soft cheesy delight. The burger and sandwich were distinct and extremely well-balanced, and I would certainly order both again immediately, but our taste buds seemed to forget anything unrelated to the siren song of those truffle fries. The fries had an impossible level of umami flavor (truffles and duck fat!); we could not stop shoveling them into our mouth holes. Just when we thought these fried tubers couldn’t get any better, the server brought over a dish of jalapeno-lime mayo. I’m still amazed that we were able to pry ourselves away from Hammerheads. In some alternate reality, Tara and I are still there digging through one basket after another of truffle, duck fat, jalapeno-lime mayo ecstasy.
Conclusion
Prior to our trip, we knew little about the specific food we’d find in Louisville. Sure, we had done some investigating in order to prepare, but we hadn’t really been ready for the flavorful tastes and combinations we encountered. A city with more than 1,500 restaurant options is bound to have a seductive mixture of offerings, and we know we were only able to scratch the surface of what the area has to offer.