Unless my advisors and DegreeWorks have led me astray, I will be graduating this May after four fantastic years at the University of Alabama. In food terms, that means roughly 312 meal plans used, $2,100 Dining Dollars spent and 702 Frosties devoured. I’ve eaten a lot of food while at UA — some good, some bad and some with too much icing. But it’s not with Wendy’s or Bama Dining locations that my fondest food memories lie. It’s with Maggie’s Diner, my favorite restaurant in Tuscaloosa.

Over 15th Street and through the Lurleens, you will find Maggie’s, a meat-and-three that has big portions, questionable hygiene and the best lunch in Tuscaloosa.

Tucked away in an old brick building next to the train tracks, Maggie’s is a lunchtime favorite for locals looking for some good home cookin,’ hold the frills.

A straightforward menu hangs on the wall behind the servers scooping up hefty portions of their food. Only open for five hours a day, people pack into the small diner, and the order line frequently wraps around the cafeteria-style buffet.

Maggie’s offers all of the usual meat-and-three options, as well as some truly down-home dishes like pig’s feet and chittlins. And with several hungry diners queuing up behind you, you need to be quick on your feet when ordering. No loitering, no dawdling and no second-guessing.

The sweet potatoes are divine. Cooked in large chunks, they are honey-sweet, tender and float on a bed of thick, sticky sauce. The turnips are expertly seasoned, the meatloaf moist and substantial and the complementary griddlecakes sweet and buttery.

A meal at Maggie’s is best ended with one of their massive honey buns. About the size of a human head, the honey buns look like a gut bomb. But after tearing off a pinch, the buns prove to be surprisingly light. Delicately drizzled with icing, they are sweet, but not too sweet.

Even when the lunch break is nearly over, customers dawdle around chatting and picking at their plates with expressions of content and drowsiness, two sure signs of a good meal.

No matter how much time passes after graduation, if Maggie’s is still around, I know where I’ll be getting lunch whenever I’m in Tuscaloosa.

Maggie’s Diner

(Open Monday through Friday from 11:00am to 4:00pm. Entrées under $10.)

1307 Ty Rogers Jr. Ave. Tuscaloosa, AL 35401

(205) 366-0302