News has perfected the ancient art of burger-craft. As I entered I was struck by imagery; specifically the old-fashioned bar, the dim lighting, the sports memorabilia reflecting golden-age teams. This combined with the delicate chatter of the patrons left me with a ghostly feeling indeed. I had stepped into the 1950s via the twilight zone. I saw an old man in a black and white checkered hat reading a paper, a waitress in a red long skirt with a white apron making coffee, ash-trays filled and emitting a spectral mist. I heard the faint air of big-band music and the ringing and thuds of the iron cash register... "Can we help you!" I heard the friendly waitress say to me as I snapped out of my ghostly vision. I was seated promptly and handed a simple menu. I like simple menus. One page. Direct. "No time for your indecisive nature" is the message it communicates. More practically, it is a good sign that the cooks know at least a few dishes and know them well. The cooks at New's didn't know their craft well, they may as well stop what they are doing and write a treatise on how to make one hell of a burger. Bare with me as I attempt to describe it through this limited medium we know as Yelp. Served round, drizzled with oil and salt, the circular hand cut fries hit a home-run. They were like the ones you make at home but far better than the ones you make at home. There's always some arrogant ass-hole at the table who likes to tell others they make better things at home. They are lying. These fries prove it. Tall. It was one of those tall burgers. You know what I'm talking about. The veggies are so crisp that it elevates the top layer bun into the air. The beef graciously extended well outside the circumference of the bun. The burger's dimensions and construction was as flawlessly executed as it was fantastic. Aside from the dimensions, the first bite made me pause. I paused and internally exclaimed, "God bless America!" It is a sacrilege to compare this burger to that of Wendy's but I am going to anyway. This was a wendy's triple stack on steroids, on human growth hormone, and on its way-to-kick-your-ass kind of good. It would have made men of lesser constitutions cry out, faint, or collapse in place. After the experience, I was left feeling like I had made one of the best decisions of the month by stopping in. I also felt disappointed in leaving the inviting old-time scenery. As I left, I could have swore an old man in a black-and-white checkered hat lower the newspaper and look at me approvingly. read more

New's Restaurant - Seafood Near Me - Meridian, Mississippi

Just picked up 2 lunch plates to go, with 4 veggies and cornbread, no meat. I know the food is pretty good, as we've eaten here before. The bill BEFORE tax was a little over $39. No drinks, 2 vegetable plates and a cornbread; basically just under $20 per plate with no drink. Outrageously expensive by any standard of meat and three place in the south. I asked about the total from the very nice employee there and she explained that there was a .50 charge per plate for to go prep and reminded me that it did include bread. She really was nice. But the price was ridiculous to me. Sorry, New's, but huge thumbs down today. read more

Had an awesome meal when all of my siblings gathered in Meridian for a reunion. We started with shared appetizers of fried green tomatoes and onion rings. They were excellent--light and crispy with just the right amount of corn meal for crunch. I had a vegetable plate and the others had "meat and two" featuring smothered steak, and lightly battered catfish. Dessert was delicious and homemade -- black bottom pie, lemon meringue and pecan. All food. Highly recommend. read more

Very quaint and friendly little place off a beaten path. I had the fried livers and they were really good and a large portion.

The food is delicious, the burgers are to die for, it's a wonderful family environment! And the service is first class!

Absolutely delicious food. The homemade soups, cornbread ,roast beef , turkey & dressing is the best in town. If fact the food here is so good, I drive all the way from Florida just to eat here. The atmosphere is so home style & very clean. The service is always served with a smile & a glass of ice cold tea . see y'all again soon. read more

Went in to have a drink at the bar and the owner or manager started yelling and belittling the bartender. It was the most unprofessional behavior I have ever seen. Will NOT be back. The gray haired man who was yelling seemed like a crazy person. read more

Great Service!!!!! Great Food!!!!! The jalapeno cornbread muffins are to die for....... read more

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Home comfort vibe & home comfort food . Drinks & live music just perfect . Sweet neighborhood dine

My great-aunt Hettie White married Herman New in 1929. They established a service station on the north side of Meridian, Mississippi in the mid-1930s and transitioned that service station into a café in the early 1940s. As a teenager in the latter 1960s I ate countless meals there with Aunt Het still doing or overseeing much of the cooking. That was all the same establishment under the same name in the same building at the same location on Poplar Springs Drive that (with some expansion) is today's New's Restaurant. In 2013 a bar called Sports Page was opened in back. I have great memories of the wonderful comfort food New's provided during my adolescence and young adulthood. Thus I am especially disappointed that the quality of the food has not held up in more recent years. I will mention that the establishment is no longer in my family's hands. I now live four states away but visit Meridian a few times a year and as recently as this past week I was in New's for lunch with various family members (we still frequently eat there). The service was friendly and accommodating but somewhat haphazard, and the food was mediocre at best. My stepmother and my niece and nephew all had the lunch special of hamburger steak with sides. My great-nephew had a grilled cheese sandwich with fries, and my sister and I both had the philly cheese steak sandwich, hers with fries and mine with breaded mushrooms. No one was especially impressed with their meal. I recommend a visit to New's Restaurant as providing an interesting slice of Meridian history; however I cannot recommend the food as in any way providing a memorable dining experience. read more

New's Restaurant - a car parked in front of it - Seafood Near Me - Meridian, Mississippi

Have eaten here on and off for about 40+ years. Food has always been good, service has gad its ups and downs.

From the outside appearance it hard to know what to make of New's Restaurant. Inside it has a warm country style food place with lots of options for eating. read more

Worst dining experience! We called ahead to confirm they could handle a large group and even though they assured us they could ... they could NOT! Food took over an hour to come out . The ONE waitress for 45 people was also the bartender ... I waited at the bar for 20 min to get a coke ! After about 45 min the hostess, which had been doing nothing , finally came to help. Almost EVERYONE dislikes their food ... unless they got a burger . Burgers where ok but not worth waiting an hour . The food has no taste , was over cooked or just plain wrong . Not to mentioned we were informed a 20% gratuity would be automatically included.. they forgot to included it and made the last person there pay the $100 tip that was UNEARNED... and later we found out that everyone left additional tips to cover the 20%. We will NOT go back and we WILL spread the word! read more

Went there on a Saturday recently for a late lunch. Called ahead and was told they were open until 2. Got there a few minutes after one. Place was not super crowded. Staff was friendly. Ordered off the plate lunch specials,but was frustrated at the very long wait before our food was fiance lyrics delivered. Around 40 minutes so i was way past hungry when it finally arrived. Food was not worth the wait is am sad to report. read more

My husband and I had dinner here last week and it was delicious. We had fried pickles and jalapenos for appetizers. The breading was done well and they weren't greasy.For the main course I had the hamburger steak and my husband had the veal. Portion sizes were generous, in fact we had to take some of it home! I was curious to see how their desserts tasted and was not disappointed. I had the lemon pie and my husband got the fudge brownie. Our server was very courteous sns attentive. We never had to wait on her to refill our drinks. We enjoyed our meal and hope to be back soon! read more

We went for brunch on Saturday. The service was very slow, the bacon was raw on one plate and overcooked on another. One of the orders was wrong. It took so long, we didn't want to have them fix or change it. We won't be returning. read more

We went for lunch today, it's been a very long time since we have dine there, the red beans and rice where very good, best I've had in meridian ever. The staff was very friendly, it was well worth the 30 minutes drive over. read more

Very poor service! Took over an hour to get food because they served other tables seated after us, first. Waitress even commented on how she just got 4 more tables and seemed overwhelmed. No one even came out to apologize or let us know why it was so delayed. Had to keep going up front to ask. Last minute save was free drinks, but most had water. read more

I've lived in Meridian most of my life and today was my first time to visit News. I must say everything was delicious. I had the fried chicken, turnips, field peas, cornbread and sweet tea. Service was quick and the staff was kind. I'll be going back soon. read more

Great home cookin!!! Plate lunches are the best!!!

My wife and I came to eat here. Food and service was awesome. I ordered the hamburger steak and my wife ordered the veal cutlet. It all tasted wonderful. If your looking for a good home cooked meal I highly recommend you try this place. read more

News BLASTS overly loud music from amps at their outdoor bar on Friday nights during warm weather. Gets even louder as the folks get drunker, totally ruining a quiet residential neighborhood. Big thumbs down on this joint. Also, have had friends who tried to eat here and could not get served. read more

Wife and I went after hearing a lot of good things. We waited for roughly 40 minutes for food to arrive. I had bacon cheeseburger with fries and she had the shrimp poboy. There was no bacon on my burger, fries tasted like rubber. Salt and ketchup couldn't even fix it. There were a total of 6 shrimp on my wife's poboy. Really? 6? Also, her fries were cold as ice. Highly disappointed as we couldn't eat half our meal. read more

Food was mediocre at best. Our friends got their meal 10 minutes before us. Pretty sure our bill was wrong. The music sucked! Never going there again. read more

I have been coming to this restaurant since the 1960's. It was always a reliable place with good family fare. I went recently to discover that the restaurant has apparently changed hands. I ordered a dish that was inedible. I took one smell, ventured one bite and returned it. I ordered something else. When I went to check out, the owner refused to take the item off of the bill. I refused to accept that. He then insisted that I pay for half of the uneaten, inedible entré. He created a major scene in the restaurant in front of my party of 5 guests and the general public . He began to yell at my eldely 90 y/o father as we left the restaurant. BEWARE! Bad food and even worse attitude. A very unfortunate change to an old standby. read more

Although the one waitress working did her best it took over an hour to get our food. The food was greasy and way too expensive for what we had. The ambience was ruined by people across from us who acted like they never been out in public before today, I got the impression they were there with someone who worked there. I will not be back. read more

I just left News Restaurant from my third visit. I live in New Orleans and my husband is a proud "Diego-Coon Ass" (Italian-Cajun) AND he is an excellent cook in his own right. We visit my family in Meridian frequently. The fried catfish here is the BEST in Meridian! It beats all the fish camps and Weidmann's fish which we sent back to the kitchen because it was SO bad. This restaurant has mastered the art of cooking catfish South Louisiana style. Their vegetables are country style and delicious as well! This is our new FAVORITE restaurant when we visit Meridian!!! I thought the service was very quick and efficient. It is a very casual place with lots of cool old Meridian memorabilia! Great job, Chris!!! read more

The food is okay, the service is acceptable, and the price is just a little higher than you would expect. Unfortunately, I can't tolerate someone stealing. I ordered the beans and rice and the bill came to ten dollars. I thought I was being generous by adding a three dollar tip; I overheard the staff discussing how tips were off that day. When I got the charge, they had added a six dollar tip instead (to a ten dollar meal). To be fair, this was my fourth visit and the gentleman (I assume the boss) that normally runs the register was not there that day; I overheard them talking about him too. I definitely advise you check your bill if you eat here. read more

Good meat & three place. We have only eaten there for lunches, but the food is always excellent.

I grew up in Meridian but have lived in another state since high school. I never ate at News growing up, but read about it and decided to try it on one of my visits to Meridian. Since it was our first visit, we tried two of the lunch specials. The hamburger steak was dry and tasteless. The rice and gravy and mashed potatoes were cold (not just not warm, but actually cold). The meatloaf was not good. The cornbread was the only decent item. We would have sent the food back to be heated, but that would have required the waitress returning to the table or at least returning to the area, which did not happen. The couple next to us barely ate any of their food. We do not know why, but can guess. read more

OH boy, where to begin. We arrived at lunch, expecting a reasonably priced meal. There were 3 of us in our party. It took a while, but our order was eventually taken. Two other parties arrived after we were seated. The owners son or some other relation was seated at the table next to us, and had obviously had been there some time. I'm guessing these people were never taught how to behave in public. Anyway, it took over an hour for our food to arrive, much after the other two parties had been served. The food was very greasy. My wife did say the Reuben was good, the ribeye sandwich I had was very greasy and was mostly bread, the meat was merely a suggestion. My daughters steak and cheese wrap was, again, very greasy and she said the steak was dry. When I went to pay I was very shocked at the price of this meal, I could have gone to Weidmann's, and spent less. We won't be back. I am baffled as to why this place has been in business since '42, maybe its just nostalgia, but if this is how it always been, it should have been vacant long ago. read more

My husband and I used to frequent this place years ago when we were dating. The food and the service has always been good in the daytime, but we have discovered that the night time service is very bad now, and the food we ordered tonight was very bad as well. The 1st time we went there for the evening meal, we left after waiting over 1 hr and 45 minutes. We had asked about our food 3 or 4 times because everyone around us was being served and we came in before them. After several different explanations but still no food, we finally asked for the manager. After a few more minutes we were told that our order had gotten lost in the kitchen. and it would be another 30 to 45 minutes to cook our food, so we left. We had eaten the iceberg lettuce and few small bites of tomato that they call a salad, and at least they didn't charge us for that skimpy salad. This evening, which was probably about 6 months or more from our first attempt to eat there during the evening mealtime, my husband decided to give them another chance to see if they had improved. In the daytime, they occasionally get the to-go orders wrong like most restaurants, but at least what we end up with is eatable and most of the time it is very tasty, but tonight that changed. My husband ordered his food to be eaten in the restaurant and my food to be a carry out order. After over 1 hr and 30 minutes of waiting on his eat-in order, he told them to just make his food a carry out order too because it was taking way too long. The only explanation offered was that it was taking longer to fix because they had to steam the vegetables, which everyone knows should not take very long at all. He ordered both of us a chicken dish that he thinks was listed as Charleston Chicken. Regardless of the name of this dish, it was truly awful!!! I have to wonder if they precooked the chicken, sliced it, and left it to dry out because it was as dry as a bone. If we had been eating in the restaurant, it would have been sent back. The dish consisted of some very over cooked chicken breast that had been sliced long enough for it to completely dry out. My husband covered it with catchup just to get it down. Over the chicken was some sliced mushrooms, which had just a splash of some kind of cream sauce on top; however, there was not enough of the sauce to even taste it, and there surely wasn't enough to cover up the dry chicken. The chicken, mushrooms, and the scant amount of sauce was served over wild rice, which was floating in what appeared to be a good bit of the water. If I had to guess, I would say they were trying to add some moisture to the chicken because, just by looking at it they had to know it was way too dry to be served. The steamed vegetables that supposedly held up the order for well over 1 and 1/2 hrs. were not cooked enough. If you decide to give this place a try, do yourself a favor and only eat there during the daytime when the daytime manager has things running smoothly and they are serving the southern home style cooking that helped make their reputation for being a good place to eat. I just hope they can fix the problems at night, so that the bad nighttime service and food doesn't ruin their reputation. Based on the food and the service we got tonight, I am being generous with a 3 star rating. read more