ABBQ Meat & Drink
Texas-style barbecue with a real kids menu and a large fenced backyard for cornhole and running around. The green space is the difference between eating with children here and carrying barbecue home.
Aardwolf Brewing Company
A taproom inside a former ice plant on Hendricks. The building does a lot of the work here, and a beer list has no way of saying so.
Ajua Mexican Kitchen and Bar
A Mexican kitchen and bar at Jacksonville Beach with its own vegan menu. Enchiladas, quesadillas, jackfruit birria, cauliflower tacos, and a full vegan entree give a mixed table more than one safe fallback.
Amazing Thai
Folio Weekly described a small strip-mall spot at the Gate Parkway exit, with an Ikea across the street, when it reviewed the place in 2023 under the earlier owners. Its own site says it has been under new ownership since August 2024, and it offers vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free starters.
BellyUp! Jax / Over 50
Over 50 Jacksonville
Nobody publishes the noise level, and it is the thing that decides the night.
Good places to eat and drink in Jacksonville, minus the nightclubs. When a spot gets loud later or draws a lot of kids, the card tells you.
8 spots
ABBQ Meat & Drink
Texas-style barbecue with a real kids menu and a large fenced backyard for cornhole and running around. The green space is the difference between eating with children here and carrying barbecue home.
Bono's Pit Bar-B-Q
Jacksonville has been pulling trays from Bono's since Lou Bono fired up the first pit in 1949. The original moved to Beach Boulevard as the expressway came through, and today's 4907 Beach Boulevard room is the direct link to that story.
MOJO No. 4
The Avondale room in the local MOJO family has served barbecue, Southern sides, whiskey, and blues on St. Johns Avenue since 2011. The patio and giant onion rings make it hard to mistake for a quiet takeout stop.
Mojo Kitchen, BBQ Pit and Blues Bar
Slow-smoked barbecue and a full bar in the Beach Boulevard plaza at Penman Road. The name and the room come from the blues, though its own site says it is not booking live shows right now, so it is not listed for live music here.
Th3 Central BBQ+
Navy retiree Foday Sambolah and his wife turned a Leonid Road property into a takeout barbecue restaurant. The menu puts slow-smoked brisket and ribs beside Caribbean dishes such as smoked oxtail, jerk ribs and curry goat.
The Bearded Pig
Opened at 1224 Kings Ave and moved four blocks down to a purpose-built room in 2021. The backyard is as much of the draw as the tray, which is the sort of thing a menu never tells you.
The Butt Hutt Smokehouse
Started in 2011 as a food truck that spent eight years working up and down the East Coast, then settled into a room on Roosevelt Boulevard in Murray Hill.
Yellow Rose BBQ
Andrew Zelade and Anthony Hashem bring Texas barbecue and Texican ideas to Mandarin. Zelade learned the craft in Austin smokehouses, while Hashem brought the Jacksonville restaurant side of the partnership.
What these spots are known for
The same over 50 spots, sorted by the reasons people actually pick them.
Origin Stories
Who built this and why?
Rooftops and Patios
Can we sit outside?
The Whole Family Table
Will they be fine with a four-year-old?
Big Groups
Will they seat twelve of us?
Neighborhood Institutions
What has been here forever?
Sports on TV
Where can I watch the game with food and drinks?
Brunch
Where is brunch worth the wait?
Vegan and Plant-Based
Where can I eat with no asterisks?
Community Quotes
Recommendations from real Jacksonville locals, always attributed to whoever wrote them.
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