Jean's - Meridian

So we stopped here on our way back from the beach. Found Southern cooking and decent ratings online. I give this place 1 because of the (lack of) cleanliness. I mean, this place will make you feel like eating off the floor at a Waffle House is okay. My wife took my daughter to the bathroom after our meal and she said we would 've left if she 'd seen the bathroom first. To describe it as a truckstop bathroom would be an insult to truckstop bathrooms. The kicker was when the waitress got our silverware by picking up the silverware from another table that wasn 't used (we hope) and that table had obviously not been wiped off. Oh, and the floor is in such bad shape and dirty you can 't even tell what the original color is. It 's a real shame. This place just needs some simple remodeling. Paint, new floor, new countertop, new cabinets in the first room, and change out those ugly tables. The place is so uninviting. But first tackle the cleanliness and especially the bad habits the waitresses have. What 's a real shame too is the food was good. I had meatloaf, mashed potatoes and Lima beans. The Mrs had fried okra, mac n cheese, and Lima beans. The cornbread was great too. Now it 's obvious the locals love this place. Everyone seemed to know each other. There was a table where the jury from the courthouse just ate. Now Yelp currently shows this place getting a A from the Health Dept. I call BS. I 've seen much cleaner McDonalds proudly displaying their B or C. I think that this place has been a staple in Meridian for so long that they skate by with local govt, health dept, etc. which is pitiful. Downtown Meridian seems like a nice place. A lot of the buildings are older and it 's a neat area. There 's a wonderful restaurant on the town square of my hometown that uses a very old building and the space still has older feeling and is very inviting. It 's possible. Dear owner of Jean 's, get with it, this place obviously makes money so fix your restaurant. It 's disgusting.

Like the song says waitin ' for a train well that 's what we 're doing we 're waiting for a train to depart at the Amtrak station just a block away. We found this place by just walking a short distance and it was a nice discovery. It 's a very affordable, actually it 's cheap, but quite nice little breakfast/l and lunch place. They have a nice selection with lots of veggie choices and nice comfort foods and daily specials. We enjoyed everything we ordered and the people could not have been any nicer and the service is terrific. Since this is a preferred train station for several of our trips up north it 's a really nice little find for dining and waitin ' fur a train. Can 't get Janis Joplin out of my head :

This is an old fashioned type of establishment found in many small downtown areas across the south. It has a lunch counter and booths as well as tables for seating/dining. It is open for breakfast and closes after lunch. My ill fortune is that my lunch breaks usually fall between 1-3pm, so I arrived at the end of the lunch service. This was my 2nd time to visit this restaurant and this time was as lack luster as the last. Both times my food came out bland and cold. At least this time I had the waitress nuke it in the microwave to heat it back up. I ordered the Chicken Pan Pie off the Thursday lunch menu because they were already out of my first 2 choices for entree. Lunch comes with 2 sides and they were out of my first 3 choices, so I settled with cabbage and turnip greens. The Cabbage was lukewarm and had turnip greens in them, so I really got double dosed on turnip greens. The Chicken Pan Pie was a mix of potpie and dumplings, all made in a large pan. I think the dumplings would have been better. The mixture just didn 't work for me. The deserts, however, are really good here. I had the Coconut Meringue Pie shown in the pictures attached to this site. My waitress was nice and her attentiveness rates an average rating. Since I was at the end of the shift before closing I wish they had just told me they were closed. My food was over cooked and cold. Half way through my meal the cleaning crew began mopping the floors with an astringent bleach which stunk up the dining room with unappetizing fumes. The wait staff spent their time closing out the register and counting their tips for the day. All together this was a very unprofessional way to run a restaurant in front of a customer. I have been to numerous down home style places and most have been much better. Perhaps my meal would have been better if I had arrived before noon and cleared out before 2. I certainly would have had more choices to select from their menu.

Had lunch at Jeans today and really enjoyed the daily specials. The waitress was friendly and the food was great. The service was fast and all orders were brought to the table correct. Very good home style cooking

Jeans is a nice,cozy restaurant with good food. It feels like time stopped. For what it is, I recommend a visit.