BARBECUE

Barbecue in Middle Georgia is not just food, it’s an event. And everyone has their favorite meat (pork, beef, chicken, turkey) and sauce (mustard-, tomato- or vinegar-based). The sheer variety is what makes it so much fun to try them all. In Byron, start at GeorgiaBob’s Barbecue with a plate of authentic Southern hand-pulled pork served with a choice of two sides, bread and pickle slices. Choose from GeorgiaBob’s signature vinegar-based sauces and a sweet ketchup-based sauce.

Venture north 18 miles or so to Macon and you can have a bite of the barbecue that was chosen to go to Outer Space. Astronaut Sonny Carter took Fincher’s barbecue with him on NASA Space Mission STS-33 on November 22, 1969. The sauce is a tangy, sweet and bold mix of vinegar, ketchup and mustard.

SOUTHERN

If it’s Southern family-style cuisine you want to try, you’ll find some of that at the barbecue restaurants mentioned here, but there are many other restaurants in the area that draw upon a tradition when every family’s meals were farm-to-fork.

478 Country Buffet in Byron offers a country-style all-you-can-eat buffet with an ample selection of chicken, potatoes, vegetables and desserts (selection changes daily) and great service.

North of Byron, in Macon, H&H Soul Food has kept Macon’s most diverse clientele well-fed since 1959 with delicious, stick-to-ya-ribs soul food and is most famous for its founders’ unique friendship with the Allman Brothers Band.

Plan to come to Fort Valley during peach season for Lane Southern Orchards’ Peachtree Café & Bakery’s freshly-made ice cream or pie, or come any time of year for this cafeteria’s amazing Southern-tea brined fried chicken, fried pecan-crusted catfish, backyard smoked pulled pork, or tomato-and-mayhaw jam glazed meatloaf, among other yummy entrees.

In Perry, Georgia the Oil Lamp Restaurant is the place to go for made-from-scratch, home cooking served cafeteria style. Start your assembly line of deliciousness, sit down and enjoy.

Owens Boarding House in Warner Robins has been serving Middle Georgia with great Southern family style home cookin' for 60 years, and recently was voted one of the Macon Telegraph’s “Best of the Best” restaurants in the region.

The Mennonite community around Montezuma, Georgia continues to farm the land there, and the fruits of their labors can be tasted at Yoder’s Deitsch Haus. Yoder’s is legendary for its pot roast, fried chicken, creamed corn, pickled beets, turnip greens and other Southern staples served cafeteria style. And the desserts…oh my!

SEAFOOD

You wouldn’t think to find great seafood three hours inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but the Byron area has restaurants that will make you feel like the beach is right outside.

In Perry, Skipper John’s Is a tiny take-out gem serving all types of fried seafood, but it’s the chicken that hungry folks line up for – old fashioned Southern fried chicken at its finest.

INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS

Food in the Byron area trends beyond Southern and barbecue. With Robins Air Force Base only 10 miles east in Warner Robins, many area residents are well traveled connoisseurs of global cuisines. As a result, restaurant menus in the area showcase foods from all over the world, from the Mediterranean to South of the Border.

Casa Mexico Restaurant, a favorite in Byron, dishes up Mexican classics such as carnitas, fajitas, chalupas, quesadillas and more.

Several other restaurants just minutes from Byron can take your tastebuds around the world. Curry Mantra’s rich and distinctive Indian cuisine is just the spice to get you out of your everyday dining routine. Choi’s Korean Restaurant will fill you up on authentic Korean dishes, then encourage you to take home some flavor from the adjacent Korean grocery. Monsoon Thai and Vietnamese Restaurant will treat you to a taste of Southeast Asia, from pad Thai to pla duk pad phet and Vietnamese phin coffee. Want a little bit of everything? The Metropolis Grill menu includes Greek, Mediterranean and Indian dishes, an unusual combination that is tied together by a wide range of authentic spices selected to bring out and enhance the rich flavor, aroma and character of the cuisines. All of these restaurants are located in Warner Robins, Georgia.