Nana J’s Soulful Kitchen
Review
Better get to Nana J’s Soulful Kitchen by 11:00 AM sharp if you expect to snag one of their few tables. Nana J’s Soulful Kitchen is located at 6512 Washington Blvd in Ocean Springs. You will find the restaurant in a stand-alone building among others on the street.
No dazzling lights or signs adorn the building. It’s a simple rectangular, single-story building.
Parking may at first glance seem to be limited but that is because there are limited seats. Often people are sitting in their cars just outside the door. Since this is the South, they usually a few minutes to open the door but the food is worth the wait.
There is a whole story about the restaurant and Nana J that I will not go into here, that’s part of the atmosphere when you arrive. Alcohol is not served at the restaurant, frankly, there would not be enough time to enjoy it. The quantity of food you will be served will require all of your attention.
Down home cooking
Forget a printed menu. There are two blackboards, one containing about five or six entries and more than a half dozen side dishes. You pick one entre and two side dishes.
The meal usually comes with cornbread or a roll and of course dessert. Some dishes come with the entre, rice and gravy, and the two side dishes.
The pork chop is perfect, served fried or under gravy. Both are good, the fried chop is the best. They must look for the biggest pigs in town because the pork chop seems to be large. It may be because all of the other food is filling the plate.
Some menu items are available every day e.g. the pork chop. One day I arrived and even though the focus is on “Soul Food”, I ordered spaghetti and meatballs. Wow, the meatballs were the size of baseballs (well a bit smaller but they were big). The dish was great.
Have lunch there, skip dinner
Side dishes at some restaurants are often plain and blah. Not so at Nana J’s the same care cooking the pork chop or ribs goes into the red beans, cabbage, field peas, mac and cheese, potato salad (to die for), and other goodies. The sides are meant to be eaten not just as a garnish for the entre.
They make your tea, premade liquid at Nana J’s. By the way, they do not salt anything and yet without adding salt to the table the food is perfectly seasoned. How do they do that?
Nana J’s is closed on Monday and Tuesday as I found the hard way. Arriving with my mouth drooling for the pork chop to find the “closed” sign. Wow, what a letdown.
Conclusion: Good food, Good prices, Good service, what’s not to like? After making repeat visits and being accused of being a “regular”, I must state that Nana J’s is “a jewel”. Go to Nana J’s Soulful Kitchen website for directions and more information.
About Mississippi Gulf Coast Restaurants
Feel free to read other restaurant reviews on this site. Simply search for restaurant in our blogs. We add new restaurant reviews periodically. None of the restaurant reviews are paid. If I eat at a restaurant and I am not impressed with the food and/or service, I will not review the business. I only post about those locations that I think you should know about.
So many restaurants and so little time. We will on occasion eat at a big box restaurant but that is very infrequent. For example, rather than eat at a national Itialian restaurant chain, we will eat at a local Italian restaurant. More often the national restaurants receive their seafood from outside of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and they are very likely serving shrimp from outside of the U.S.
If you really want to taste good Cajun, Creole and/or Southern food, select a local establishment. The state of Mississippi has a restaurant rating system from A to F. We select only A rated restaurants.
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