Greenwood

We define "Greenwood" as the neighborhood centering around Greenwood High School along Scottsville Road outside the interstate. There are 12 restaurants in this cluster. They're all franchises, but they're good ones. If you're staying at one of the interstate hotels or live in this area of town, there's no need to drive downtown or even to the other side of I-65. The photos here are the Western Kentucky University football stadium (home of the national champion division I-A Hilltoppers, who have moved up to Division I) and the Kentucky Rumbler nationally ranked wooden roller coaster at Beech Bend Amusement Park.

Culver's might be referred to as Upscale Fast Food. The Wisconsin based menu features a core of fried foods with various custard based desserts and their famous Butterburger, using a heavily buttered bun and high quality beef patties. Culvers restaurants are sit down outlets, but you order from the counter and they bring your food to you. There are five full dinners : Fried Chicken, Cod, Shrimp, Pot Roast and Chopped Steak. There are six burgers and two melts, 10 sandwiches and a Grilled Reuben Wrap. Five Salads, a Soup of the Day and four classic sides (Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Cole Slaw, Green Beans and Fries) round out the menu.

Denny's is one of America's classic family restaurants. The menu is traditional, prices are reasonable, service is efficient, and they serve three meals a day. Their current feature is a $2-4-6-8 Value Special for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast, we think their best deal is the $4 all you can eat Pancake stack, but the Southern Omelette is a close second. If you want a bit more, there's the Skillet (a cast iron skillet comes with scrambled eggs, fire roasted peppers and onions, hash browns and bacon and sausage). At lunch, we like their Pulled Barbeque Chicken Sandwich. They serve Chicken Noodle Soup every day but we've been more impressed with some of their soup specials. At dinner we're most impressed with the Tilapia Ranchero (white fish grilled with pico de gallo and avocado) and Lemon Pepper Tilapia. Friends, however, prefer the Lemon Chicken or Spicy Cowboy Chopped Steak. For dessert there's Hot Fudge, Raspberry and New York Cheesecake. Beverages include Lemon Tea Chillers (freshly brewed iced tea, add ice cold lemonade and one of six fruit flavors as you choose), Berry Fizz, Limeade and Puckers (lemonade, lime, strawberry and mango).

Mancino's is a national chain specializing in "Grinders." A Grinder traces back to World War I, when Italian immigrants set up sandwich shops near the U.S. Naval shipyards. In these shops they would place huge amounts of high quality meats and cheeses in a cast iron food grinder, turn the crank, and produce a mix which they then spread on large freshly baked Italian rolls, further bake in brick ovens, and garnish with fresh tomato and lettuce. These large hot lunchtime or work break sandwiches became very popular with the shipworkers, who came to refer to them as "Grinders." After the war, sandwich makers drifted off to urban neighborhoods across the Northeast, where Grinders became a fad long before burgers, pizza and other fast food came into existence. Mancino's offers three sizes of Grinders ($5 third, $6 half and $9 full sized) in 17 classic and 13 contemporary ("gourmet") flavors. The Original Grinder includes ham, sausage, salami, mushrooms, onions, peppers, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and mayo. Variations on this offer Turkey, Chicken, Crab, Fish, Stromboli, Meatloaf, BBQ and Tuna in differing combinations. Gourmet versions include Southwest, Reuben, Chicago Steak, Ranch and Cordon Bleu. You might consider Mancino's Hot Sub specialists. These are good.

Waffle House is famous for their waffles but ironically their menu features everything else. They promote their Steak & Eggs, Pork Chops & Eggs, Grilled Chicken & Eggs, Omelettes (Cheesesteak, Chili Cheese, Jalapeno and Ham & Cheese), Egg Sandwiches, Hash Browns and classic EggsnBacon or Ham & Egg plates. They're also pretty proud of their biscuits, sausage and bacon sides. Then, over there in the corner, they get around to their Waffles. Their basic is the classic Butter Milk Waffle. There are Double Waffles and Waffles With Sausage or Ham or Eggs. You can pick from Pecan, Chocolate Chip, Blueberry and Strawberry. Actually, we regret the evolution of Waffle House. Way back there, they served ONLY waffles, two pages of every variation imaginable. We could try waffles here we could never find anywhere else and couldn't fix ourselves. Now they've diversified, but the waffle choices are narrowed. Luckily, they still do a good job, with waffles and everything else.

Zaxby's was born in 1990 when two basketball playing buddies decided their small town didn't have restaurants to suit them. They focus mainly on chicken fingers with fries. This combo comes in various platters and forms. There are four salads, each incorporating sliced chicken fingers with lots of greenery. Sides include wings, mushrooms, cheddar cheese bites, house fried tater chips, onion rings, celery, cole slaw and fried pickles. You have your choice of ten sauces ranked according to heat. If you think of meals as wars between you and your food, order the Insane Sauce. It's guaranteed to light your fire. Dessert is your choice of ice cold, purely ice cream milkshakes.