Magnolia’s

Magnolia’s is now closed! They notified us by mail last week that last Saturday was their final day, due to financial circumstances. Just FYI

Read reviews and had a coupon so I went here to have Southern food.
We were greeted with a big smile. Service personnel EXCELLENT! Looked at menu asked questions and ordered. I had the fried chicken, breast only with yams and mac and cheese. The others ordered fried pork chop, with fried okra, and collard greens. The third person shared the second person’s but ordered hush puppies too. I also ordered a cadillac margarita.
The margarita was huge as it came in a BEER stein. Great on ice/​salt amount, as requested but didn’t taste the tequila, only the mix. boo hoo.(not that I want to get drunk but I expect alittle kick”.
The food came and this is our take on it. My fried chicken and yams were YUMMY! Excellent chicken!!! tasty and not greasy!!! The mac and cheese, nothing to write home about. More oily then creamy. My guest liked the okra and collard greens. they were not salty as many reviews mentioned. She said it had a good flavor to them. The bummer were the pork chops. They were tasty yet TOUGH.(I think someone else mentioned that attribute before). Funny how when we were deciding on the pork chops orginally (gravy/​no gravy???), I asked about the gravy, if we could have a taste, as we are not into garlic and the menu says garlic/​onion flavor. They said «no’ that the chops are made to order and YETwhen we mentioned how the pork chops were TOUGH and asked what were our options. my guest opted for gravy to put on top of them. now they have the gravy.weird.Oh yes we ordered dessert and shared. peach cobbler. it was tasty but I like it more crumbly. this was more like a shortcake.
The service was excellent and attentive. It had a relaxed atmosphere and the music in the background was great, jazz. There was a mix of nationalities there, ecclectic.
Overall, I would recommend Magnolias as the service was great, the value for the price good, and the atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant. I want to go back and try their ribs. and some day. maybe the catfish.

Hmmmm… this place was meh, okay.
The atmosphere felt like they were trying to give a cafeteria some pizazz and were not quite finished. It was clean and had nice colors it just seemed like something was off or missing.
* There are tables right under the fans that cause the light coming down to flicker like a bulb is about to go out that is extremely disturbing to the eyes and started giving my partner and I a headache… so we moved.
The food was okay, I ordered the grilled catfish with black eyed peas and collard greens…
The spices on the catfish were pretty good but the fish itself had unusual variation in texture and taste… I don’t even know what to say about that.
The only phrase that came to mind with the collard greens was: lame… They seemed half hearted, it seemed like they must have scooped them out of a can and popped them into the microwave, lame.
Someone on here said the black eyed peas were amazing… makes me wonder what exactly they were referencing that opinion on… the black eyed peas were BORING.
My partner had the mac and cheese which had a good flavor but the pasta was overcooked and it went cold fast which made the cheese clod up.
The bread pudding was okay but the sauce on top was actually pretty good and really made the dessert. The sweet potato pie was HUGE and pretty good too.
All in all, it’s just not the kind of place I would recommend to my friends or have any desire to revisit.

***3.5 my Taste of San Diego
San Diego is my home town and the abundance of different cultural food makes my mouth water with excitement. It’s been a year since I moved out of San Diego and I miss it’s culinary opportunities for the pallet so much.
I almost gave this place 4 stars but I was a little set back on the price and flavor from some of the things that we ordered.
I came here with my cousins since we’ve been wanting to try it for sometime. I always admired the sign as we drove passed it on the way to somewhere else. It look very elegant for the location it was in and I just love magnolias.
We came on a Wednesday for lunch and the place was pretty empty. The server was nice and friendly and the place was very well decorated. Had a theme of the south, with windows made of mirrors on the wall and a couple of pictures of actors who have eaten there.
I asked the waitress what she liked in the menu and suggested a few things. I wanted to try the Jambalaya but she convinced me to try the Pork Chops covered with garlic gravy sauce (Southern Style Pork Chops $ 13.95) It came with 2 pork chops smothered in this brown onion garlic gravy goodness, the gravy sooo made the dish but the pork chops where a little undercook and wish they would have trimmed the fat. It also came with 2 sides. I ordered fried okra (which was battered and fried to perfection) and collard greens (disappointed on this, I love collard greens and this one was way too salty for me to even finish it).
My cousins ordered Crawfish Ettoufee $ 15.95. She also asked if it could be made a little spicier than usual and the waitress said no because the sauce was pre-​made. It came to our table and we tried it and it wasn’t even spicy at all. I think my cousin even shook a few more black peppers to kick it up a notch. Don’t think that worked.
My other cousin ordered Creole Okra Gumbo large bowl for $ 13.95. This was good and well portioned. Lacked a little spice, expected more for the price.
They also gave us a side of corn bread… yummmmy.
So if you’d like to try a little soul food or creole food this is the place to go. Good service, nice atmosphere, and descent food. A little pricey but well worth it.

3, 3.5 stars? Came here because my cousin chose this as her «last lunch in San Diego before heading back to Kentucky.» It’s a solid place. For lunch, I would recommend featuring a lunch menu, especially in this economy. Most dishes will set you back $ 14 – 18. I wasn’t too hungry so I shared my sister the Crawfish Ettouffee. She said this dish was spicy so I asked if we could get it extra spicy. She said we couldn’t since the sauce was premade. What? No extra spiciness? Boo. The dish wasn’t spicy, even for the faint-​hearted. The crawfish was in abundance and the dish was good at least. My other sister had the Creole Okra gumbo large bowl which was a decent serving size. And my cousin chose the smothered pork chops, which we all loved the gravy. I gave up fried food, but they seemed to be enjoying the fried okra. The collard greens my cousin was disappointed in. She said it was a bit salty and missing something.
Service was decent. Parking is ample as it is in a strip mall. And although certain parts of the area to some can be considered «sketchy» it’s totally fine. The place inside was nice and people around are very friendly.

If you like soul food and a little bit of creole, this is the place to go! I LOVE soul food! Whenever I have a need for collard greens, black-​eyed peas, yams and fried chicken, Magnolia’s is where I go. Also, if you enjoy New Orleans flavor with cajun/​creole spices, Magnolia’s has that too! MUST try the chicken or shrimp jambalaya rice with cornbread (Also, Magnolia’s has the best cornbread I’ve ever had!)
Service is great and you are always greeted with a smile :) It is a little pricey but where else can you go into San Diego for delicious soul food? A real treat!

I wouldnt return!
I’ve orderd the yams, greens, rice (w/​a small bowl of gravy) & greenbeans. Very simple dishes which took more than 20 minutes to arrive @ my table. This occured during non-​peak hour. I was very disappointed to find my rice was cold, my greenbeans were from can and the greens to be bland. I would not return there again.

I’ll keep it short this time, Not too bad, a little pricey. That’s all.
J/​K, I actually have a bit to say about this one. Came here with the wifey and three friends for dinner not expecting much as Soul Food is best prepared at home and in the South. Nevertheless, we thought we would try it. We were somewhat pleasantly surprised. I am not from the South, but two of us lived in Georgia and another has strong family ties there, so they serve as my validity check. Aside from that, I regularly get soul food cooked at home by my in-​laws who are GA transplants out here.
I got the Crawfish Étouffée (about $ 16), the wifey got the Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya (about $ 15), my cuz-​in-​law got the fried catfish with fried okra and red beans and rice (about $ 15). The wifey and I also got the baked Mac n Cheese to share as a side for $ 2.75.
All of the portion sizes were somewhat small for the price, so let that be known and expected up front. The Crawfish Étouffée was by far the best dish. My friend also got it and loved it. Although we were sharing and this was the dish that I ordered, the wifey did not seem to want to share much of it with me. It had a generous amount of crawfish tails and came with a very thick and flavorful gravy type sauce. It could definitely have been spicier, but the lousiana took care of that. The mac n cheese was just okay, could definitely have done better at home, but we wanted it.
The jambalaya was okay. It was lacking a bit in the flavor depth dept, but had a good consistency. Also could have been spicy, but was aided by the hot sauce again. Not too impressive considering the price, but not bad ignoring the cost.
The fried catfish was good in my opinion, but had some faults. The wifey hates the cornmealy texture of southern fried catfish and prefers a smoother, less gritty type of batter. Nevertheless, this was appropriate given the venue. I thought it was fried perfectly, but wait. Oh no, they forgot the seasoning! or maybe they didn’t and they just don’t like to season things much. It was pretty weak. The fried okra was pretty good in my opinion, although my friend complained that they were too slimey (duh it’s okra!). The red beans and rice were just average and actually do not come with the rice unless you specially request it. It is a very small amount of rice that they will include, so you can always order a side of rice for…$ 2.75? really?
My other friend ordered the fried snapper and complained that it was under seasoned and just average. It was pretty pricey, all said and done. The food was good, but then we had thanks-​g dinner and honestly, my mother-​in-​law blows this place out of the water single-​handedly. For others who are less fortunate, its nice when you can afford it. If you can’t, Huffman’s is down the street. They do have beer of the month specials at like $ 2 a pint and this time it was red trolley. They carry the whole Karl Strauss selection I believe which earns them major points in my book. Anyway, this year I am giving thanks for my mother-​in-​law!

Went here when we were craving friend soul food… and this was the only place left open out of the small selection we have in San Diego.
We ordered A LOT and everything was pretty decent. Nothing fantastic, and again, nothing bad. It seemed all a little California-​ized soul food, but nice service and great sweet tea.
We had:
1) Liver and onions — good peppery spice, a little overcooked, which some people may like to take away the liver texture. Not enough of the pan sauce as I would have liked, but generally moist and flavorful.
2) Fried Oyster po-​boy. Like most places in San Diego, their bread was too soft for my liking. I like a nice crust on my breads, especially for po-​boys, but everything else was tasty on there. Oysters had a nice crisp to them, lightly battered with a corn meal crust… but not too thick as to take away from the oyster flavor. could have used better tomatoes, but that is another thing that lacks in SD.
3) Fried catfish. Nice light batter, not too thick and definitely not greasy in any way. I happen to like super thin slices of catfish so that the entire bite is crispy, but this batch was a little thicker, which my dining mates liked. Could have used a larger slice of lemon on the side instead of little slices, a wedge would have been perfect. And maybe a tarter sauce or aioli to compliment the fish and add something moist to the dryness.
And now the sides…
1) Hush puppies — decent, not too dry, and on the sweet side, which I like. SLIGHTLY over-​fried, but good.
2) Cornbread — little muffins that come with every entrée. Slightly sweet, not dry and generally very tasty. Not served with butter, so we had to ask for it… and that made them even better (honey maybe would have been awesome too).
3) Candied yams — delish! Perfectly cooked, and the pieces were a perfect size, not too big as where they don’t get flavor, and not too small. Nice amount of sauce left at the bottom of the bowl to dip the cornbread or hush puppies in. yum.
4) Collards — decent, not bitter but in my opinion, could have been cut or torn into slightly smaller pieces to make it easier to eat out of the small side bowl they come in.
5) Mac and cheese — pretty good, not too salty, not overcooked, but no breadcrumbs from what I can see… and thats how I love my restaurant mac and cheese to come.
6) Black eyed peas — nice flavor, cooked perfectly and all around tasty.
7) Red beans and rice — great flavor and cooked perfectly. Usually these can be bland, but they were perfect here.
8) Fried Okra — it was delish. Slighty tangy/​spicy, perfect fried coating and all around fantastic… but I am a big okra fan.
Lastly, we had the sweet potato pie and it was FANTASTIC! Slightly warm and you get a whole mini pie, not some dainty slice. Definitely worth saving room for, so plan ahead!
Overall, I would probably come back, but won’t go out of my way to.
Looking forward to trying the other soul food offerings in San Diego first.
Oh, and the security golf cart in the parking lot had «rims»…which gave us all a chuckle… WTF?

Three words: Gumbo, Gumbo, Gumbo!
This hearty bowl of seafood soup is a must if you visit this fine little family owned Cajun establishment. The crawfish bisque is pretty good too. Try one of their etouffe’s or their jambalaya, you won’t be disapointed. Top your order off with a side of hush puppies and your good to go. If you must order dessert try their sweet potato pie, yummy :)
A couple items I wasn’t impressed with are their mac and cheese, and fried oysters. I’m just a bigger fan of my own homemade mac and cheese, and perhaps I need to stick with raw oysters.
By and large stick to the yummy dishes I mentioned above. They are definitely worthy of 4 stars. Best of all they have a full bar!

I came here a while ago, thinking it was more of a soul-​food place, realizing it was a Southern food restaurant. I had the catfish which was good and plenty, I didn’t finish my plate, cause it was to much. One of my good old friends Brian aka B’more (yes he’s from that city) appreciated that a lot when I offered him the ‘doggie-​bag’.
The owners are very friendly and served us themselves, while having conversations with us and some of the other guests at Magnolia’s.
This restaurant seems to be to nice for a location like this, in my opinion, but I am glad is is here, it means that I don’t have to drive elsewhere to get some great, quality Southern food.

I’ve only eaten here once but when I went, I got lost since the streets were somehow broken and anyways, the point is, I was going in circles for a while.
Upon driving into the parking lot, I was a bit cautious. There was a very suspicious group of teenagers huddled up in a corner and I was almost scared of being attacked. When I entered the restaurant, I noticed it was very casual and also very empty for a friday night. We got seated and our waitress seemed «out of it.» She messed up our orders 3 times. The food was okay and not really extraordinary for me to even remember what I ordered. What I did remember (and what made me rate them 3 stars instead of 2) is their sweet potato pie. Now that was DELICIOUS. It made the trip worth it.

The only time I’ve actually eaten here was once with a co-​worker for lunch. I ordered only a side of mac n cheese and he had the jambalaya. They were both good but we paid like $ 25 and in these times that’s just too much for a lunch. The rest of my visits to Magnolia’s have been to the bar. They don’t have any great happy hour specials but I come here because it’s close and they usually have some kind of band playing in the dining room. Like Kelly B. mentioned, it is an older crowd in the bar so the only people acting a fool will be out in the parking lot or by the trolley station. I’ve never had authentic ‘southern cooking’ so I don’t have anything to compare this to, but from what I’ve heard it’s at least worth a try.

Ate there last night, there were maybe only 4 tables seated and a few people at the bar. There was this huge group set up off to the side that must have been some sort of sales presentation (Testimonials, Video, etc.)…kind of loud and annoying at times so ½ star off for that! That group did highlight that the acoustics of this place aren’t the best and that it can get rather loud on busy evenings. On to the food:
Fried red snapper with collard greens and fried okra. Everything was delicious. I love mixing Trappey’s hot sauce into the tartar sauce to make a wonderful dip to the fish… oh and lemon juice too! I had 2 pieces of cornbread and both were pretty good.
Also had a couple of bites of the chicken/​sausage jambalaya and it was very well seasoned and tasty. Both dishes were winners.
Prior to last night it had been a while since we visited Magnolia’s. My recollection was that it was kind of pricey. This time around we had a coupon from signonsandiego (buy 1 get 1) so it was a great deal.
I’ve had better iced tea. The place gets 4 stars because I really do love their greens and fried okra… I’d be happy with a plateful of those and nothing else :)

Was visiting San Diego for a few days. The group I was with raved about this place’s southern cuisine. Although I was craving good seafood, I went along to Magnolia’s. I was born and raised in GAh, so I know southern food. This place is more like Louisianan, cajun or creole food, which is different from southern.
The Good: Nice space. Nice owners. Good live music on Saturday night. Tasty Mac and cheese. The fried chicken my husband ordered. Sweet cornbread (if you like sweet vs. buttermilk).
The Bad: Red snapper was over-​fried (hard) and not so fresh. The sweet ice tea (50 cents extra and no refills) was under-​brewed. Green beans were canned. Pricey.
No ugly, but this place should stick to what it knows best, which I think is probably Louisianan/​New Orleans/​Cajun cuisine… not the broader «southern» cuisine, and there is a difference. Also, they should consider doing collards and black eyed peas in smoked turkey since everyone doesn’t do pork. I think the folks in my group who had the jambolya were pleased.
Two stars for the husband/​wife team. Genuinely nice people.

I read about this place here on Unilocal and it had me at Fried Okra! Yum. haven’t had it in yearsandyearsandyears… um…a really long time.
First of all, this place has super cheap drafts. 3.50 for local Karl Strauss. Not too shabby :)
And the Fried Okra was delicious btw! I had the grilled red snapper with yams and cornbread. Cornbread was a bit on the dried side though, so they lose a star for that. My bf had the crawfish enchiladas that looked interesting but not enough to tempt me, but he seemed to enjoy them.
Beware though, this place was a bit pricy. A couple beers and 2 lunches ran about $ 50. Yikes. At least the okra hit the spot though, otherwise I would have been sad: (

Incredibly authentic Louisiana style southern cuisine.
The story behind this restaurant is an interesting one… Rather than gentrifying the area and moving in new businesses, the panel tasked to bring in a new shopping center asked the community what businesses and restaurants they wanted. They asked for a Food 4 Less, and for Bessie Johnson to continue her cooking in a big new restaurant, and thus this incarnation of Magnolia’s was born.
The food here is top notch, better than Fix You a Plate IMHO. It’s serious business, authentic dishes like cat fish, pork chops and gravy, and so on and so forth.
The real items that shine here are the sides. The absolute BEST cornbread I’ve ever had in San Diego. Better than my mom’s. (But don’t tell her). And oh man! The collard greens!!! Mmmmm… I could eat tubs of the stuff.
They’ve got a full bar, and some rather interesting cocktails as well.
This is some real down home soul food, and I’m glad that someone in San Diego is doing right!

Bessie Johnson is the owner of Magnolia’s. I asked our waiter if I could be introduced and Ms. Johnson graciously came by our table. I said «Ms. Johnson, thanks so much for making such a great place for us to come and eat. This is the kind of food I grew up eating. Makes me feel like home.» Bessie said «That is exactly the kind of food I was trying to create here.» She graciously allowed a picture to be taken with me. I uploaded it with several other pictures showing the beautiful dining room. Bessie and her husband Charles Johnson opened this great San Diego restaurant back in 2005. I highly recommend you give it a try.
Several weeks ago my wife said «For your birthday I want to take you out to eat lunch. You pick anywhere and I’ll pay.» So I started looking for the best place in San Diego offering southern fried pork chops and all the lagniappe (macaroni and cheese, smoky collard greens, dirty rice, fried okra, black eye peas, candied yams, etc.). I found an article in «The Reader» written by Naomi Wise, Jan 2005, when Magnolias opened.

Another good review was written by Andy Fletcher, «San Diego Citybeat», written in September 2006.
But some of the best info came from a terrific San Diego food blog, «mmm-​yoso!!!», which offers some great reads always.
My birthday pork chops were cooked to perfection and I loved the fried okra, cornbread and black eyed peas. Getting a chance to meet and talk with Bessie Johnson made the visit very special indeed. We will be back for sure.

I had heard some good things about this place and had been curious to try it for a while, especially after Bud’s closed before I had a chance to go there. I tried to keep my expectations in check, as I am from New Orleans and know that no place will be as good as the original but overall it was pretty good.
We tried a couple of sampler platters so that everyone could get a taste of the sides. The red beans were pretty good but not as creamy as I liked them and some seemed a little dried out. I enjoyed the yams which were nice and sweet. The fried okra was also pretty good and was a crowd pleaser but then again most fried things are well liked. Personally, I am not a big fan of collard greens but plenty of people we were with gobbled them up. The hush puppies were good for hush puppies but I don’t get too excited over fried dough (unless it is in the form of a beignet).
We also tried a couple of dishes to pass around. The gumbo was good, with nice big chucks of chicken (and possibly beef), sausage, and crab legs. The legs were a little hard to crack open as they had presumably cooked with the gumbo and gotten too soft. The crawfish étouffée was not bad, with a fair number of crawfish in it but the sauce could have had more flavor and the rice stuck together.
I know the review sounds a little critical but it is all relative. Although I was not blown away by the food, compared to similar type food that I have tried in SD it was up there. The people working there were friendly, although the service could have been a little quicker at times. I would head back to try some of the other dishes.

I’ve sampled a few of the restaurant’s in town that offer Southern fare and this is so far the best of the lot. The food is great and the portions are enormous. We tried the BBQ shrimp appetizer… AMAZING! It is served in this «bread-​sopping spicy herb butter sauce» (their words not mine) and it’s sooooo good. They don’t lie! There were three of us that day and while there was a lot of shrimp (about a dozen) we could have eaten two orders, easy. AND, compared to the BBQ shrimp appetizer I had at an upscale restaurant just the other night with 5 measly shrimp and a less than flavorable sauce, Magnolia’s version is unbelievably better, hands down.
Now you, GO – get the fried chicken, mac n’ cheese, black-​eyed peas, but don’t get the green beans. They’re the reason I only gave this place 4 stars. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.