Seed Oil Free Restaurants on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

If you avoid seed oils, eating out on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is a research project. Most kitchens fry in soybean or canola oil, most will not tell you unless you ask, and a lot of front-of-house staff genuinely do not know the answer.

This page exists because we get the question weekly, usually from people who drove here from Mobile or New Orleans and want to know before they sit down.

If you want the background first, what seed oils are and what the research actually says covers the claims honestly, including the ones that are overstated.

The short version

The Garage at Cash Alley, 1025 Government Street, Ocean Springs. Everything fried comes out of 100% beef tallow. No seed oils in the fryers and no seed oils anywhere else in the kitchen. Open seven days, kitchen until 9pm.

We are not aware of another restaurant on the Mississippi Gulf Coast making the same commitment across the whole kitchen. If you know of one, tell us and we will add it — a longer list is better for everyone who eats this way.

What we fry in, specifically

Beef tallow. One ingredient. Every fryer, every day.

That covers the hand-cut fries, the house-cut rosemary salt chips, the tots, the jumbo wings, the catfish, the fried Spam sticks, the corn dawg, and the fried cheesecake. It also covers the sear on the flat top and the fat we roast with. There is no separate seed-oil station.

The Ocean Springs Weekly Record verified it independently in January 2026, describing food that is "rich and flavorful without the heavy, greasy finish." That is the practical difference people notice — tallow-fried food does not sit heavy, because a stable fat at frying temperature soaks into the food less.

We sell the same tallow if you want to cook with it at home. It is in the tallow cooking oil collection, and the 16 oz Original is the same fat in a can that pours.

What to order

Everything, as far as the frying goes. But if you are here specifically because of the oil question, the fries are the proof of concept and the wings are the argument. The wings are marinated, baked, and then fried, which is a three-stage process that only works if the frying fat is clean and stable.

The Blue Plate runs Monday through Friday, 11am to 3pm, $13 with a soda.

How to check other restaurants yourself

Since the list around here is short, here is how to get a real answer somewhere else.

Ask what is in the fryer, not whether they use seed oils. Many staff do not know the phrase "seed oil" but everyone in a kitchen knows what is in the fryer. "What oil do y'all fry in?" gets a straight answer far more often.

Ask about the flat top and the dressings separately. A kitchen can fry in tallow and still cook eggs in soybean oil, or serve a house ranch built on a soybean-oil mayonnaise base. Dressings, aioli, and mayo are the most commonly missed vector. This is the question that catches most restaurants out.

Assume buns and bread are a variable. Commercial bakery products very often contain soybean oil. If you are strict, ask.

Steakhouses and barbecue are your best bet by default. Both traditions lean on animal fat already.

The directories

Two crowd-sourced tools have become the standard way people find compliant restaurants when traveling:

• Local Fats (localfats.com) — a searchable worldwide directory of seed-oil-free restaurants
• Seed Oil Scout — an app for iOS and Android with user-submitted listings and reviews

Both are free, both are community-maintained, and both are more current than any single article can be. If you eat this way regularly and travel, they are worth having.

Coming from out of town

Ocean Springs sits directly across the bay from Biloxi, about fifteen minutes from Biloxi casinos and roughly forty from Gulfport. Downtown is walkable, which is unusual on this stretch of coast — you can park once and cover the whole district on foot.

We are on Government Street at the edge of Cash Alley, in the old Kwitzky's building, with roll-up garage doors and a rainbow umbrella installation over the alley. Hard to miss.

Directions, hours, and ordering are on the visit page. You can order pickup through Toast or delivery through DoorDash from there.

We fry everything in beef tallow — including the hand-cut fries — and sell the same fat we cook with.

If you are planning a trip, our guide to eating in downtown Ocean Springs covers what else is worth a stop.

Common questions

What restaurants do not use seed oils?
Nationally, a small number of chains have moved to beef tallow, including Steak 'n Shake and Sweetgreen for some items. Independent restaurants are more likely to make the switch than chains, since chains are locked into distribution contracts. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, The Garage at Cash Alley in Ocean Springs fries everything in beef tallow.

How do I find restaurants that do not use seed oils?
Use Local Fats or the Seed Oil Scout app, or call ahead and ask what is in the fryer. Ask about the flat top and dressings separately, since a kitchen can fry in tallow and still use seed oil elsewhere.

What food has no seed oil?
Anything grilled, roasted, or cooked in butter, tallow, lard, or olive oil. Steak, unbreaded grilled fish, and most barbecue tend to be safe. Fried food is the main risk, along with dressings, mayonnaise-based sauces, and commercial bread.

Do you use seed oils in anything at all?
No. Not in the fryers, not on the flat top, not in the sauces we make in house.