The Best Food In Louisville According to Chef Edward Lee

By Sydney Catinna on Fri, Mar 8, 2024 at 4:42 pm

Sarah Babcock

Chef Edward Lee is a star of Louisville's culinary scene and for good reason. With both 610 Magnolia and the award-winning new Korean steakhouse, Nami, flourishing, Lee's talents and tastebuds are clearly ones we can trust.

With the 150th Derby season quickly approaching, we wanted to highlight the best of Louisville's cuisine and could think of no one better to advise on the subject than Lee himself. Without further ado, take a look at his list of some of the best food in Louisville right now.

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"The food in Louisville is some of the best out there. Our best bites can go toe-to-toe with the greatest eats from any city in the country. When it comes to cocktails and cuisine, we just keep raising the bar, and it makes me deeply proud to be a part of this community.

I hate lists and I hate ranking restaurants – it’s an impossible task and there are too many great restaurants in Louisville to narrow it down to a neat listicle. I go to restaurants for many reasons, not just because of the food. Maybe I like what the place stands for, maybe a friend works there, maybe it’s a new business that needs the support.

But when it comes down to brass tacks, there are a handful of noshes in this town that I simply cannot live without." - Chef Edward Lee

Here they are in no discernible order:

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Pork Boudin Balls at North of Bourbon

935 Goss Ave.
Chef Lawrence Weeks brings the real Cajun flavor to the 502. I love everything on his menu at this cozy restaurant filled with spirited chatter and drunken laughter, but the boudin balls are so crispy, so unctuous and so porkalicious, the flavor sticks on my lips long after the meal is over like a porcine lip balm. I often find myself wanting to skip dessert and order another helping of these addictive boudin balls. They’re that good.

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Dark Meat Fried Chicken & Hot Sauce at Indi’s on W. Broadway

1033 W Broadway
I’ve been eating here for over 20 years and every year, I swear I’m going to find a new fried chicken spot to get me out of my predictable habit of a late afternoon snack of fried chicken drumsticks, boiled greens and homemade hot sauce. But let’s face it, Indi’s is still the best in the ‘Ville. And despite the other locations that Indi’s has around the city, it’s only this specific location that does it for me!

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Chicken Parm at Bar Vetti

727 E. Market St.
Listen, I love a bowl of artisanal, extruded pasta as much as the next person and I’ve been known to serve a few at 610 Magnolia. However, I’m originally from Brooklyn and red sauce joints ruled there when I was a kid. So nothing warms my heart more than a true chicken parm done right with a molten layer of almost burnt mozzarella cheese atop a chunky marinara and just fried, almost over salted chicken cutlet. And Chef McCabe gets it right every time.

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Tiramisu at JW Café & Bakery

2301 Terra Crossing Blvd #105
You wouldn’t think that the best tiramisu in town would come out of a Korean bakery hidden in a nondescript storefront near a Subway and a sketchy La Quinta Inn. But trust me, would I ever steer you wrong? This tiramisu will ruin your life like it did mine because every other version just reminds you how it pales in comparison to this ideal. JW Café also has some tasty Korean snacks like kimbap, but you’ll want to go for the tiramisu. You can thank me later.

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Lengua Taco at Supermarket at Preston Highway

6201 Preston Hwy. Suite B
Supermercado Guanajuato #2 is a rare taco joint tucked into a Mexican supermarket where you can buy fresh made chorizo, pig ears, Jesus candles and enough chicharrons to last you to armageddon. I thought long and hard about whether or not to add this place to the list because it’s been my secret taco joint for years. When I just want to be left alone, I know I can lose myself in a plateful of lengua tacos (that’s tongue for the uninitiated) that are dripping with sauce and trembling with fat and barely holding onto the cilantro and chopped onions that will surely fall into your lap by your second bite.

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Salatim at Meesh Meesh

636 E. Market St.
Chef Noam Bilitzer is a relative newcomer to the Nulu neighborhood, but he came quietly and confidently as one of the best chefs in the city. His new restaurant Meesh Meesh flaunts a menu of dishes from the Levant region that are undeniably authentic and of high-caliber technique. One of the benchmarks of a great meal for me is when I can eat vegetarian the whole evening and I don’t even realize it, and at Meesh Meesh that's just what I did, too busy licking the bowls and platters that Bilitzer’s expertly made Salatim came in. Diners are in luck, because this tray filled with hummus, beet shmeer, feta & mint, spiced carrots & raisins, and oh so much more is served with every entree.

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Porcellino Pizza at Pizza Lupo

1540 Frankfort Ave.
It’s easy to miss this hidden gem, tucked away on a dark street you may once have only visited to retrieve your impounded car. But as soon as you walk into this cozy nugget of a diner and feel the warmth of the wood-fired oven and take in the friendliness of the young staff, your car woes will melt away. The Neoplitan style pizzas here are all superb, but the one I can’t stop thinking about is the Porcellino with its thin streaks of Benton’s ham and random spoonfuls of melty stracciatella atop a fresh milled tomato sauce. It is an exercise in simplicity, restraint and messy perfection.

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Grippo Wings at Four Pegs

1053 Goss Ave.
There’s something so quintessentially Louisville about Four Pegs BBQ. Maybe it’s the history of the building, maybe it’s the excellent but accessible pub food, maybe it’s the fervent activism of its owner Chris Williams, or maybe it’s just the fact that it is a super friendly and unpretentious place. But trust me, these guys have every right to be pretentious about their high quality eats! The Grippo Wings are a true standout thanks to their alarmingly deceptive appearance as just another fun potato-chip-crusted bar bite for stoners but instead, these wings are a culinary masterpiece. You can taste the love in every bite!

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