The Garden Patch

I believe a good reviewer never judges apples relative to oranges. That said, I give this place 5 stars not because the cuisine is world-class but because they do what they do very well.

Sadly, local restaurants serving southern cuisine in Mississippi really declined during the 80s and 90s thanks to the success of chain restaurants like Cracker Barrel, Quincy's, Ryan's, etc., who sold mass-produced swill on the cheap. The decline of the chains, and a new appreciation for "local" goods and services, has lead to a resurgence for restaurants like the Garden Patch. I've eaten at a lot of these new venues for southern cuisine in the Midsouth and would rate this one in the top two or three.

Their buffet provides a LOT of great southern dishes including some delicious desserts.

The first time I had to travel to Forest for work I was disappointed that I couldn't try this place. My second time here I knew for sure I had to come here. If you're looking for homemade southern cooking, this place has it all. It's only open for lunch and it's buffet style so if you want your food fresh and piping hot, you'd better come early!

Unfortunately I didn't listen to my co-workers warnings when I arrived at 1:30PM. They had a decent amount of food left but I know it could have tasted way better if I had got there earlier. I picked out some fried chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes, black eyed peas, cornbread, and fried okra. All of it was very tasty and hearty. Except the cornbread was a big disappointment, and I LOVE cornbread so this made me very sad. The mashed potatoes were light and fluffy, so simple with just a touch of butter but very delicious. The roast beef was pretty good, the gravy was a little on the salty side though. The fried okra were ok, unfortunately I got the left over bits and pieces, one of the dishes I knew would be good if I had some fresh. My second dish was about the same thing except I scrapped the cornbread.

My favorite part of the meal was the hurricane cake a la mode! The chocolate cake was so moist and the homemade vanilla ice cream was perfect!

The service was just ok, poor lady was scrambling around and dropping silverware here and there. Overall it wasn't bad for less than $10 with a soda. Next time I have to learn and get here early!!