Cox Cafe

Meat and two vegetable place tucked away in scenic industrial downtown Macon. But seriously, the meat loaf was good, the chicken livers and gizzards were good. Vegetables were fresh tasting and the biscuits are enormous. Plus me and my girlfriend got as much as we could eat for $ 9.90 total. Pretty hard to beat if you’re in downtown Macon. Definitely worth a try if you’re in the area.

This has been a favorite of mine for years. They have a wonderful breakfast, perhaps the best in town. They open at 6:00 A.M. instead of 7:00 like so many other restaurants that serve breakfast in Macon. It is a good way to start the morning. Lunch is quite good too. You won’t leave hungry because they’ll give you plenty of food. I’ve found the best way to get there is to drive through Central City Park and continue passed the ball field to where the road ends at Lower Poplar. Turn left and after a short distance the building is on the left. Maybe I’ll see you there.

If you want home cooking Southern style, this place is a reasonable option. The portions are large enough to fill you up and tasty enough that you’ll eat all you are served. The clientele is 90 percent male, and many are workers in nearby heavy industry, or they are the supervisors of those workers. You won’t see many women or people wearing ties here. What you will see are hungry people who seem like regular customers.
But this place will not be on the tourist tours. It’s way off the beaten path (just past the turnoff to the Macon Landfill) and the décor looks like it hasn’t been touched since 1965. It’s down home, local, filling food for local workers. That’s it, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. The lace cornbread was unusual and very tasty; the peach cobbler was excellent as well; the green beans had big chunks of ham. The servers were friendly and helpful, especially for someone like me who didn’t know the ordering routine — you enter the front door and go straight ahead through a serving line, get whatever you want, then a server comes to your table and gives you a ticket for what you had; pay on your way out. Pretty easy.
There’s another place in Macon called Jeneane’s (one downtown, one on Forsyth Road) that serves similar kind of food — good home cooking. I found the food very similar; the big difference was the surroundings and neighborhood were better at Jeneane’s. Cox Café is a fine option for those who are downtown/​nearby looking for good food. I gave it 3 stars, which is an A-​OK rating. That seems about right. If you want a local *local* eatery, this is it, but you shouldn’t go too far out of your way. It’s memorable — if not for the food then the location and the nice Southern people inside.

You’ll be hard pressed to find better home cooking around these parts. Everything is cooked, nothing comes out of a can. It, s a great place for breakfast or lunch. The only draw back is there’s not much parking.

As a Macon native, I never really knew this place existed until recently because of its location. I love Southern food but just found the food here to be a little too greasy for the most part. My beef tips and rice were pretty good, but I found the sweet potato and squash dishes to be too puréed (a little too similar to baby food for my taste). Banana pudding was a little too basic and nothing special in my opinion. I know the menu is posted in the local paper, but I wish they could post a large, visible menu when you walk in so you don’t have to either guess what items are on the line or continuously point and ask. I will say the portion sizes are large, which is why a lot of men seem to frequent this place. The service is very friendly. Is it the best southern food I’ve ever had? No. Is it the worst? No. I can see why people like this place, but the overall quality and taste of the food just isn’t to my personal standard.

I may have never found this place if a friend hadn’t recommended it. The locals seem to know about it but I am not local. I do come to Macon often enough for work and if I’m on my own for lunch it’s very likely I will be eating here. It’s just good southern cuisine. I’ve never had something I didn’t like. I would like to add a couple notes that might help you out if it’s your first time here: 1. when you walk in go straight ahead through the doorway that looks like it takes you to the kitchen and someone will ask you what you want to eat, you don’t have to serve yourself 2. they will ask you what you want to drink and show you to your table at the end of the food line 3. bring your check to the front to pay when you’re done.

Awesome place to eat. Be sweet to the kitchen ladies and you can get hooked up on the fried corn bread. Chicken and dumplings and beef tips w/​rice are all solid choices. Banana pudding is also great.

On Fridays chicken and dumplings. Ooh la la! Cox has some of the best home cooked food you’ll ever taste. Fried catfish and chicken, Mac and cheese, squash casserole you name it. The deserts are great too, peach cobbler, 12 layer chocolate cake, and banana pudding. If you like down home southern cooking this is the place to go. The prices are reasonable and the personnel are friendly and efficient.
The restaurant is located in an industrial area, so if it’s ambience you want, this place isn’t for you, but if you want good food this is the place. It’s nice and clean, a wonderful eating experience.

I am from Miami. I was born in Miami. I lived in Miami for most of my life. Before I moved, the closest I got to country cooking was a Cracker Barrel on a school trip for soccer. But, I live in Macon now (that’s in Georgia). I have been here since August but today was the first time my taste buds knew it.
I sat in the backseat of my friend’s big, red, pick-​up truck (seriously) and watched the scenery. We drove past industrial stuff like places selling topsoil and cement. I watched as we passed under some old train tracks that I suspect are still in use. Strangely enough, we followed the long, bread crumb trail of animal control signs only to pull up to a small, white building with «Cox Café» painted in faded red on the front.
Something about the number of large, dirty men in flannel made me nervous. Honestly, the restaurant looks dirty. But after a bit of coaxing I agreed to get out of the truck.
Inside Cox is fabulous in its simplicity (also not dirty). You just walk in and get in line. I imagine this is what it would feel like to be at family reunion in the Deep South. There was potato salad, deviled eggs, talk about tomorrow’s catfish, beef tips, rice, beans, fried pork, corn bread, spaghetti, thick toast, homemade biscuits, broccoli casserole and more all sitting in a little buffet line being served to you by the smiling people who made it. Giant pots and pans hang, shining over the kitchen as you pick your food.
I took my plate, topped with cornbread, to a simple table and sat in a comfortable chair as a woman brought me my drink. My friends and I ate and laughed and, a few minutes later, someone came around and handed us our little, individual checks (mine was for $ 3.75). There was no rush to get up and we sat for an hour after we finished eating just talking and laughing.
After my visit to the little café on the other side of the tracks I can definitely say that the adventurous drive is worth it. Oh, and don’t be scared of the locals, as it turns out, they’re pretty awesome. I will be back and the rumor is that their breakfast is just as good as lunch!

great meat and 3 tucked away in industrial area of Macon, GA. I frequent there when in town on business. Fried pork cops, greens, and skillet cornbread are favorites. Of course, a dose of good sweet tea to wash everything down is just right!