M&M’s Southern Cafe

I lived in the South for two years and because of that, I love Southern food. I’m glad to have found a Southern café in Northern Nevada. Best restaurant in the Reno area if you’re a Soul Food fanatic like me, and my personal favorite! The quality of the food here is just excellent. All the recipes have been passed down among the family for generations. The family also runs the restaurant and are always so friendly and welcoming to their guests. I’ve experienced the most kind, attentive service as a customer here. Some people were saying that the service is slow. Well, this isn’t your average fast food fried chicken place. The food here is made to order by the M&M family and is meant to be savored, not devoured.
What I’ve tried (so far) and recommend: the Chicken Dinner plate. It’s a fried chicken plate which comes with corn bread and your choice of two sides. Collard greens and red beans with rice are my favorite sides to order with it — outstanding! Also, the fried chicken livers are just WOW. Words cannot describe the deliciousness of this dish. I think I ate the whole basket in one sitting! As a side with the chicken livers, I got the Mac ‘n’ Cheese — best I’ve ever had. It wouldn’t be a true Southern meal without some sweet tea (you can also get unsweet tea), which is served in huge mason jars. Not too sweet but always refreshing! And of course, you’ve got to get the peach cobbler for dessert. So, so, so good.
There is no such thing as a bad dish at M&M’s, so go out and try it for yourself!

Awesome fried okra and shrimp poboys. Just as good as the best poboys I get in New Orleans.
All staff had a genuine kind and friendly attitude. (Especially the woman working the counter!)
Atmosphere was laid back and comfortable, while maintaining quality.
Only drawback was their french bread was too soft on the outside: soaked the bread and made it hard to handle. Made a delicious mess.
Fried okra was perfect. So glad they use the right crispy breading.
Intend to eat here every time I return Reno.

Welcoming, friendly atmosphere! All the folks working there were very friendly. We both opted for the $ 9.99 lunch buffet. I chose the catfish, brown beans, fried & roasted chicken, and green beans. The brown beans and Catfish was delicious. We also shared an order of chicken livers and slaw. Again, delicious. They offered several familiar brand bottles of Hot Sauce and a home made one which I loved. The iced tea came in a large mason jar type of jug. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because, for my taste buds, all was over salted. But, I would go back, especially for the catfish, beans, and livers. Plenty of parking in the shared lot in the Scolari’s shopping center.

After a rather not so fun morning, I decided to treat myself to some good old Southern food. So off I trek to the back of beyond (to me) hinterlands of Sparks, where I know I will find myself some comfort food that’ll cheer me up. The lunch buffet starts at 11 AM and ends around 2 PM. Got there just around 1:30 and was thrilled to see some fresh hot crispy fried chicken drumsticks land into the buffet line. Yup, sign me up for $ 9.99. The buffet offerings are small, but quite decent. My favs are the fried chicken, of course, the fried catfish, and the green beans. That’s because my own unwritten «buffet eating etiquette» is … ROUND 1: take a tiny spoonful of a little bit of everything, just for a taste. ROUND 2: Eat only the good items. So hello, fried chicken drumsticks and catfish and green beans. ROUND 3: Narrow down to another round of the top 2 choices. Yup, one more drumstick and a heaping mound of green beans because now I can say I am practically vegetarian.

The food is great, and the sweet tea is amazing, but the service was slow and I asked for mac and cheese and only after I waited 20 minutes, did they tell me that they ran out and had to make another batch. I actually had to ask what was up with my order. Anyways, they need to work on their speed. Other than that, it’s worth going and eating there. Nice lunch buffet too.

This restaurant is AWESOME! Sparks best kept secret. This is the best southern food around. It feels like home. Staff is friendly and the restaurant is very clean. If you’re in the mood for down home cooking, consider this place.

The décor and overall appearance of this eatery is welcoming. Friendly service too. However the take out quality of the food is not worthy of 4 or 5 stars. I ordered the chicken livers and although you can’t go too terribly wrong breading and frying they were very salty. The fries were put underneath the livers and were soggy and dark. Dark meaning that the potato itself was dark in color and not from over frying. I will not be back.

Great little place! Nice and clean, polite and attentive service, and good home cooking from what we could tell by the food we ordered.
I had the Fried Oyster Po-​Boy and the date had a two piece chicken dinner… Both were very good and the chicken and the sample of catfish is the best I’ve had in town so far.
We’ll be back!

Absolutely delicious! Will recommend to all of my friends and family! Their fried chicken was delicious! It reminded me of my childhood when my mom would make fried chicken for dinner and my dad with race to the kitchen table and be first in line to get a piece. Absolutely wonderful! The service was great! Great energy! Phenomenal food!

My family and I drove from Oakland/​Stockton to Sparks to have dinner here. The catfish was awesome the greens, yams and shrimp were good, some of them even tried the fried frog legs I was not that brave to try it but they enjoyed it. I did order the peach cobbler for dessert, I didn’t like it… It was doughy.
Other then that were very pleased and the turnaround drive was worth it.

Put a lil’ south in your mouth y’all at M&M’s! Ok. This place ain’t that cliched south shiz, but rather a rock solid representation of what Southern Hospitality is and should be always.
This family run business has bounced around over the years, and is now located next to local legend Yellow Sub, in a rather rundown shopping center that is totally not fitting of the warm, rich, cute, quaint, comfortable and homey interior of this restaurant. Dark wood tables, large, cushy high back booths, and several 4 tips fill the main space, with even more seating in an adjacent room as well. This is easily the nicest space this restaurant has ever occupied.
Regardless of where they’ve been though, the food has remained consistently delicious, southern home cooking made with lots of love! Gieshula and Mitch are the owners and they’re wonderful passionate people genuinely excited to share their southern pride with you! You can’t help but feel welcome from the moment you walk into this cute café, and that’s just one of the reasons I’m handing out a Five Star review here.
Food is the second reason for the big FIVE. For lunch I tried the combo with fried chicken wings, smoked ribs, fried catfish, and a side of southern greens! Everything was fried to perfection, but I felt like the catfish batter was a tad salty, and the greens were amazingly tender and well seasoned, and with a small dash of pepper vinegar, I was in heaven. We started the meal with a basket of fried chicken livers that I topped with true crystal hot sauce! Crispy, crunchy exterior with a tender creamy interior added up to southern fried perfection. Along with that we had a side order of a fried chicken breast and a thigh. Holy wow! This is TRUE Southern Fried Chicken! Proper stuff! Well seasoned coating, moist, hot and juicy inside, making you want to enjoy every last crumb in the basket!
Finally, M&M’s treats you like family and has some serious pride in what they serve to each guest. So the third, and most important reason they’re nabbing FIVE stars is simply service. You can tell they have fans and want a whole lot more, and they added a few today.
Southern Fried Paradise at M&M’s Southern Café! I’ll be back, and next time I’m getting my hands on that sweet potato pie!

Come on in to M&M’s for a comfortable and lovely experience.
The fried catfish is a favorite of mine!