Garden Gate Café — Restaurant in Muscle Shoals

We visited here for lunch after a road trip to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. This is a solid little spot for country cooking.

The sign for the place is a little hard to see and I missed the turn to enter the parking area initially. Made our way back and found a spot, though the lot is a little bit hard to maneuver. We walked inside to a slightly hot, slightly dim interior. It's larger than it looks on the outside. A friendly waitress told us we could sit where we liked, so we took a booth near a window so we could see the menu better.

Their choices were fairly varied for lunch. Lunches come with a meat + 3 veggies and your choice of bread. I ordered the boneless fried chicken breast, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, and at the recommendation of our waitress, the hash brown casserole with a roll as my bread. My mom got the country fried steak with brown gravy, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, cabbage, and a roll. My dad got the same thing except he subbed the cabbage for greens of some sort, though I can't recall if they were turnip or collard greens. He also got the fried cornbread.

Our waitress was very nice and patient with us, even with my dad chatting her up, lol. Our food came out quickly. You pay at the register up front -- we thought the prices were reasonable.

As for the food itself, it was enjoyable! Simple, straightforward, but tasty and comforting. The chicken was breaded expertly and was cooked well. To me, the stand out was the fried okra, which was perfectly crisp. We also enjoyed the macaroni and cheese, greens, and chicken fried steak. My mom said her best thing was the cabbage, which was surprising at first -- but I agree, the cabbage was excellent! The hashbrown casserole and the fried cornbread were the only two letdowns; the casserole needed to be cooked and seasoned a bit more, and the cornbread was likewise a little on the floppy side, instead of having pleasantly crisp edges.

Overall, though, solid country cooking at a reasonable price served quickly by nice people. Give them a go if you're...

I stopped in for the evening meal. The menu was as usual certain dishes are served on certain days. My food came and at first I had half of the order incorrect. The waitress corrected the mistakes but, when you are waiting on your main dish everything else is getting cold. I ate some of it and took the rest to my friend's house and warmed it for an evening snack. I don't understand how the cooks can place the wrong items on your plate when it was clear enough I could read what she wrote. The food was ok, nothing special as I once would have said this is my go to place to eat when I came into town. I was not disappointed as much as the temperature of my food changes the taste for me. I would give this restaurant a 3 1/2. I did not visit the restroom but the dining area was...

The first time we came here I wasn’t overly pleased…the only things I could remember was the nasty okra and the “wheelchair accessible” bathroom that really isn’t. But my mom reminded me that the chicken livers were pretty good, so we came back… this time the server mentioned we could get the okra ,add fresh instead of taking what had been sitting under a lamp so we got chicken livers, fried okra and my mo got some beans and greens..,we shared the meal. And I guess the beans were ok, o won’t taste greens, they make me sick (all greens, not specific to this place)..but the chicken livers were awesome and the okra was great...