Lillie Bell’s

Some of the best soul food in Southfield comes not from a dining room but from a counter — and Lillie Bell’s is the proof. For more than twenty years, this family-run spot on Southfield Road (yes, tucked into a party store — trust the process) has been turning out the kind of southern cooking that gets passed down, not printed in cookbooks. It’s named for Lillie Bell, the family matriarch whose recipes still run the kitchen, and the regulars have opinions: the smothered pork chops, the fried chicken wing dinners, the collard greens, the candied yams, the mac and cheese. It found a new generation of fans through TikTok, but the food’s been this good for two decades. This is unpretentious, made-with-love, to-go-container soul food — the kind you end up eating in the car because you couldn’t wait to get home. On our list as Southfield’s humble, handed-down soul food secret.