Zeeland Street

Review Highlights

The New York Times sends critic Brett Anderson to Baton Rouge as part of compiling its annual list of the 50 best restaurants in America. Zeeland Street lands on the 2024 list as a defining example of the Louisiana plate-lunch tradition — the state's answer to the meat-and-three. Anderson frames the restaurant through the lens of its chef-owner, Stephanie Phares, whose scratch cooking has anchored this Perkins Road institution for more than three decades.

• ·Smothered Chicken — Anderson describes it as an "eat-with-a-spoon" dish, the kind of soul-soothing staple that defines Phares's deep repertoire. The chicken is cooked down until spoon-tender in a rich, savory gravy.
• ·Mama's Pot Roast — the restaurant's most iconic plate lunch, a slow-cooked pot roast served with mashed potatoes, carrots, and onions. Phares learned the recipe from her grandmother Rachel Drain while growing up in Mississippi.
• ·Vegetable Plate — Anderson singles out the "notably meatless vegetable sides" as a standout, writing that each one "tastes of the kitchen's pride in preparation." The plate typically includes choices like mustard greens, smothered squash, sweet potato souffle, and green peas.
• ·Scratch-Made Biscuits — Phares arrives at 6 a.m. each morning to bake these herself, a daily ritual she's kept for over 30 years. Regulars order them with gravy or as the foundation of a breakfast sandwich.
• ·Red Beans and Rice — a Louisiana classic that appears regularly on the daily specials board, slow-cooked with the same from-scratch approach Phares applies to everything else on the menu.

The New York Times names Zeeland Street one of the 50 best restaurants in America in 2024, calling it a "paragon" of the Southern plate-lunch form. Anderson's assessment is rooted in respect for Phares's consistency over three decades: familiar dishes executed with uncommon care, in a restaurant that sits at the cultural crossroads of Cajun country, roughly halfway between New Orleans and Lafayette.

About

Zeeland Street is a Southern plate-lunch restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, founded by chef-owner Stephanie Phares in 1992. Phares, who grew up in Mississippi learning scratch recipes from her grandmother Rachel Drain, opened the restaurant in a former convenience store on Perkins Road — originally naming it Zeeland Street Market after the nearby avenue where she first hosted community potlucks. Over more than 30 years, it has grown into a cherished local institution and was named one of the 50 best restaurants in America by The New York Times in 2024, known for breakfast and lunch served Monday through Saturday.