Located in a beautiful 1880s Victorian home in the historic Germantown neighborhood, Monell’s offers a variety of all-you-can-eat meals. Long wooden tables seat up to a dozen people, creating a family dining experience. Each day’s menu includes 2-3 meats, 3-4 salads, 4-5 hot vegetables, bread, preserves, drinks, and dessert. Appetizers are bottomless bowls and plates with southern delicacies served with all the trimmings.
Among the first courses that grace the table are the best pan-fried chicken, barbecued pork and ribs, fried catfish, spinach lasagna, pork chops, roast, and stewed chicken with sauce. Meals depend on the days of the week. Saturday and Sunday country breakfasts are great with eggs, sausage, bacon, country ham, fried chicken, grits, pancakes, brown pancakes, biscuits, gravy, corn pudding, orange juice, and coffee.
Family-style Southern food at Monell’s is served buffet-style, meaning you don’t have to reach for the steam table to get another serving. The experience captures the warmth and abundance of a holiday meal without the bickering and uneven cooking. Even with a dozen options, everything on the table requires a second helping.
Family seating like this attracts the sociable and terrifies the misanthropic. Both people will have to deal with unpredictable wait times because Germantown has only a few tables and they seat everyone at the same time. Although we’re more into southern classics than conversation, we didn’t feel much social pressure at the table, just friendly smiles and good manners. Remember to walk to the left. Don’t worry about taking the last biscuit, the staff is trained to sense empty baskets.
On the table during Sunday lunch there are four main courses, eight side dishes, a flavorful biscuit/corn basket and an unforgettable strawberry pie. Kettle-fried chicken is served at every meal – breakfast, lunch, and dinner – every day that ends in “y”. We can see why. It’s peppered and gently cooked to the point where the breading remains savory and the chicken retains all its juices. Fried catfish is an everyday dish that almost outshines chicken. Each fillet is boldly seasoned with blackening spices and cooked more precisely than much of what we’ve eaten in expensive seafood restaurants.
The best side dish is the macaroni and cheese topped with a golden brown cheese sauce. You also can’t miss the signature corn pudding. This sweet and savory porridge made from fresh and dried corn is flavorful enough to complement any other dish on your plate like a sauce.