Known for its seafood, you can get such delights as lobster tails, fried catfish or chargrilled amberjack along with a variety of steaks and chicken dishes. Be sure to ask about the nightly chef specials. Finish off with a piece of apple pie, strawberry cheesecake or key lime pie. Pier Restaurant has been a favorite for over 20 years. Sit along the windows and watch the riverboats. The interior is designed to look like a boat with wooden walls and floors and nautical decorations hanging everywhere. You can also host a party or banquet in one of their private rooms.

This Victorian Village restaurant occupies the Mollie Fontaine House, built in 1886. At Cielo,salads of endive topped with grilled pineapple and mango and Thai-spiced pork dumplings are outstanding starters. Follow with the salmon fillet with lemon-tamarind sauce and a green tomato croquette or the roast duck breast with orange-cinnamon sauce. Other menu items show Caribbean, Cuban and Spanish influences.The wine list is heavy on chardonnays and merlots. There is a full bar with especially good martinis. From the gold-leafed ceiling to the custom covers on the bar stools, this is the epitome of "lux." Even the chargers under the plates are hand-blown glass. This restaurant is open from Tuesday through Saturday, 5:30 p.m. onwards. 

The specialties piroshki and beef stroganoff, are well prepared. Entrees such as a Chilean fish dish called Escolar and a terrine that layers polenta with wild mushrooms and feta cheese make an eclectic menu. Strudel and napoleons make lush desserts and served in large portions. More than 27 varieties of Vodka and a short wine list is also available. Murals are featured in the main dining room, with Eastern European folk arts and crafts, and samovars once used to prepare tea. There is a small outdoor patio for a pre-dinner drink. Enjoy belly dancing on Friday and Saturday nights.

The menu sticks to the German classics. Dishes such as sauerbraten, wiener schnitzel, sausages and sauerkraut bring people back again and again. This is hearty food, great for a cool winter night or for giving a busy professional strength for a long day in the office. This restaurant occupies a large space on South Second Street, near the Peabody Hotel. The large dining room is made cozier by dim lighting and natural-brick walls. The clientele tends to be the people who make Memphis run. Attire is business-suit professional, especially at lunch.

Memphians who work downtown have been lunching here since 1918. This is the best of Southern home cooking. Plate lunches offer standards such as fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, catfish, greens with hot sauce, black-eyed peas and wonderful cobblers for dessert. Sweet tea (iced) is the authentic drink with Southern food and your best bet here. No beer or wine is served. The decor, like the food, is designed to be homey and comforting in the middle of a stressful day. Works by local artists hang on the walls, adding to the feeling of being in someone's cozy home.

This Pinch District pub is sort of memorial to the Irish immigrants who settled in this area. Enjoy a good selection of beer in the old, dark wood interior and with Irish memorabilia on the walls. Live music on the weekends brings in a wide variety of customers, all ready to have a good time. The menu features Irish Beef Stew and Potato soup, along with juicy 1/2 pound hamburgers.

People come to here for two primary reasons,which is the 270 kinds of beer and the hot fudge pie. However, you can get an excellent hamburger or choose from the selection of Creole-style dishes if you want something more substantial. The restaurants in the Pinch area occupy buildings that served as homes and shops to the immigrant population that lived here in the 1800s and early 1900s. Thus, they have a somewhat shabby, but charming, atmosphere. The restaurant's decor has earned scene settings in several of the John Grisham movies filmed in Memphis, including The Firm.

Here at Mesquite Chop House, young executives, city managers and up-and-coming lawyers congregate for the refreshing Sunday brunch. The bar encourages regulars by keeping track of their favorite drinks. Every month they also have wine tasting days wherein you can sample their divine collection of wine.Enter this brick walled exterior, for a meal to remember!

The club, B.B. King's Blues Club as the name would suggest, is owned by legendary blues musician B.B. King and features some of the best blues music in Memphis. From the regular appearances of Ruby Wilson - who can belt out a tune and entertain a crowd as well as anyone - to the special concerts by groups such as Booker T, this club consistently delights visitors and locals alike. There is a menu of ribs, barbecue and other entrees, as well as snack items, but most people come here for the music, not the food. The dance floor rocks every night of the week. Reservations are required for special concerts.

This bar has wrap-around windows that let you see the dancers bopping and jiving from the outside, or watch the street scene on Beale from the inside. Autographed guitars hang from the ceiling, offering proof that musicians such as Carl Perkins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Walsh and others have hung out here. The house act, James Govan and the Boogie Blues Band, performs at Rum Boogie Café when there isn't a visiting artist. The kitchen serves several dinner and snack items, but the Rum Boogie is famous for its red beans and rice.