If you’re looking for the kind of independent place with a local feel—where you can get a quick lunch of catfish or meatloaf, where the sides are seasoned like somebody’s grandmother is in the kitchen, the cornbread is ready to go and the pie comes topped with a mountain of meringue—Murfreesboro’s Sylvan Park Restaurant is worth a visit.
The classic meat-and-three restaurant is the sort of neighborhood spot where the locals gather for breakfast and lunch, and where the down-home Southern-style food is familiar, filling and flavorful.
“Excellent catfish,” Kathy Peterson said. “Chocolate cream pie was delicious.”
The dining room is one compact, well-lit space, with a steady stream of people coming in to claim a table and eat during weekday breakfast and lunch hours, as well as dinner on Thursdays and Fridays.
Sylvan Park doesn’t try to be overly fancy or experimental. It’s somewhere you can sit down for a straightforward plate of home cooking.
The restaurant serves breakfast on weekdays from 6:30 to 11 a.m., with all the morning favorites.
It can be an affordable way to start the day. Biscuits and gravy (for $3.95), two pancakes ($4.95), or a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit ($4.45), along with a good cup of coffee, makes a fine early meal for many who want a little something on their stomach in the morning. Or, fuel up with country ham, french toast, an omelet, home fries, fried bologna, and other substantial selections.
By lunchtime, the meat-and-three offerings take the spotlight. The every-day menu includes catfish fillets, country fried steak, fried chicken, baked ham, crab cakes and meatloaf, along with a rotating selection of daily specials. Diners can choose a meat entree and three sides for $10.50.
“The meatloaf and cornbread were delicious,” another pleased diner posted in a review. “Those stuck out as my favorites.”
For the cheeseburger fans, Sylvan Park also cooks up some fresh, juicy burgers, as well as patty melts, fried bologna sandwiches, and hamburger steak. Choose from crispy slices of home fries or crinkle-cut fries to accompany a sandwich.
The catfish fillets come out flaky inside with a crisp fried coating. There’s an all-you-can-eat catfish dinner for $17.95, with two-piece, three-piece and a catfish sandwich options also available.
Aside from the set menu, a rotation of specials change things up from day to day. On Thursdays and Fridays, for example, find turkey and dressing, along with yams. Get a little taste of Thanksgiving, all year ’round; no need to limit good food to a certain season.
Sylvan Park remains open for dinner on Thursdays and Fridays; the spot closes at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
You don’t have to worry about your vegetables being under-seasoned here.
The green beans and the cheesy squash casserole are incredibly tasty.
The lima beans, a recently featured Monday special veggie choice, were buttery and peppery. The macaroni and cheese drips with creaminess.
Every day, the menu also lists turnip greens, fried corn, pinto beans, and others. There’s even cucumbers and onions, and pickled beets, if that’s your sort of thing.
And that fine Southern delicacy, fried okra—better than caviar to the Tennessee country boy.
And don’t leave without considering dessert. Sylvan Park always has various homemade pies, many containing a crazy-tall tower of meringue—accounting for roughly 85 percent of the slice’s overall height. Sylvan Park may have chocolate, coconut cream, chess and other pies. But not only pie.
“My favorite thing was the banana pudding!” Dan Settle said.
It’s the kind of food that has kept Southern diners in business for generations.
Others with healthy appetites mention that they would like slightly larger portions, though most concur that prices are reasonable for what you get.
Overall, the appeal is easy to understand. Sylvan Park offers straightforward, fairly priced, quick comfort food in a community setting.
Stop in for some catfish, a burger and fries, a cup of coffee or a helping of vegetables that taste like they were cooked with care.
To all the Southern boys and girls who ever made themselves a turnip greens-on-cornbread sandwich, or who observed a tradition of sitting at grandmother’s table eating garden vegetables, dressing and casseroles, this is your spot.
IF YOU GO:
Sylvan Park Restaurant
1443 NW Broad St.
Mon.–Wed.: 6:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.; Thurs.–Fri.: 6:30 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
615-962-8735
Meat & 3 plate: $10.50; Patty melt: $6.95; Ham and cheese omelet with biscuits and gravy: $9.75; Side veggie: $2.25; Three-piece catfish dinner: $12.95; Sausage biscuit: $2.75; Breakfast plate with country ham, two eggs and home fries: $13.95
