Sylvan Park Restaurant offers some tremendous traditional Tennessee cooking for breakfast and lunch, and for dinner a couple of nights each week, at its Broad Street home on the banks of the Stones River.
Find fried catfish, meatloaf, green beans, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, turnip greens, country steak drenched in brown gravy, squash and all of the breakfast favorites—“Grandma food,” as one diner describes it.
“Comfort food” comes up often when Murfreesboro residents speak of Sylvan Park; whether that means they find comfort in fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, meatloaf, a burger or pie, they can find it at Sylvan Park Restaurant.
“Amazing lunch!” Kris Young shared after a meal at Sylvan Park. “Meatloaf is as good as my mom’s and I have never said that before. The fried okra rocks and breakfast is the bomb!”
The menu is not huge, but there should be something for almost anyone.
Every day for lunch, Sylvan Park offers catfish fillets, fried chicken, meatloaf, crab cakes, country fried steak, ham, chicken livers and a hamburger steak, along with burgers, a fried bologna sandwich, a grilled chicken sandwich and an assortment of sides, salads and pies. The country steak here is more of a Salisbury steak than the heavily breaded and white-gravy-covered chicken-fried-steak variety.
Sides include perfectly seasoned turnip greens and fantastic cheesy squash casserole loaded with butter, onions and cheese. Some report the fries and mac and cheese are not the best in the world, but they are there if you want them.
Fridays mean fried oyster day, and Sylvan Park will offer a daily special each day such as turkey and dressing, pork tenderloin, barbecue ribs or chicken and dumplings.
And for those with big appetites, enjoy all you can eat of the excellent fried catfish for $15.
“So happy we found this little diner,” one Yelper, Mike, said. He said the country fried steak and the catfish were “over the top . . . great service and friendly people.”
“The grits, biscuits, gravy, sausage, pancakes, home style potatoes, fried bologna and eggs were all top shelf,” he continued.
Sylvan Park Restaurant opens early—at 6:30 a.m., six days a week—and its omelets, pancakes and other breakfast offerings have pleased many patrons.
“Best scrambled eggs I’ve ever had! Everything was perfect,” Ceile Phelps said.
For those who do not eat an early breakfast, this casual spot offers the full breakfast menu until closing time at 1 p.m. on Saturdays for brunch fans. (Breakfast service ends at 11 a.m. Mondays through Fridays.)
Christy Knox calls Sylvan Park her “all-time favorite breakfast joint. Fantastic food and service, and the most endearing small-town feel.”
The building at 1443 NW Broad St. has long offered the people of Murfreesboro meatloaf, catfish, burgers, bacon and eggs, chicken and vegetables.
Likewise, Sylvan Park Restaurant has a longstanding tradition of serving delicious Southern cooking. However, prior to 2015, the restaurant made its home in Nashville.
“Mr. Lynn Chandler started it in 1958,” according to Lisa Greer, who currently owns Sylvan Park Restaurant along with her mother, Eleanor Clay. “My mother bought it from him in 2001.”
However, the leases at both the original restaurant location in the Sylvan Park neighborhood of West Nashville, in addition to a second Nashville location, expired about the same time in 2015, and the Sylvan Park team decided to relocate to Murfreesboro rather than paying increased rent in Nashville.
The restaurant made its home in the white block building situated on Broad Street in Murfreesboro that housed Stones River Grill for many years.
“Murfreesboro has been wonderful to us, helping us get through the coronavirus with to-go orders,” Greer said.
In addition to the breakfast and meat-and-three offerings, the Sylvan Park banana pudding, chocolate meringue pie and chess pie get rave reviews from Murfreesboro diners. The pies boast a towering layer of a very fluffy and soft meringue, almost the consistency of bubble bath suds.
Randy Liddle said he enjoys the fried bologna—“breakfast of champions!” he says.
“Love this place! Food is always good,” another customer, Paul, said. “Reminds me of my grandmother’s meals after church.”
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Sylvan Park Restaurant
1443 NW Broad St., Murfreesboro
Mon.–Wed.: 6:30 a.m.—2:30 p.m.; Thurs.–Fri.: 6:30 a.m.—7:30 p.m.; Sat.: 6:30 a.m.—1 p.m.
615-962-8735
Meat and three: $9.65; Cheeseburger or patty melt: $5.45; hamburger steak with two veggies: $10.95; Bacon or sausage omelet with biscuits and gravy: $7.25; Country ham with two eggs and home fries: $10.95
facebook.com/sylvanparkboro
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