Paula Deen's Family Kitchen

Paula Deen's Family Kitchen sits upstairs at The Island, and honestly, the tiered seating overlooking those fountain shows is half the reason we keep going back. They do family-style service here — platters of food come out for the table to share, and you can keep ordering more until you're ready to roll out the door. The fried chicken and mac and cheese are exactly what you'd expect from Paula Deen recipes, plus they throw in soft drinks with your meal.

Fair warning though — the wait times are brutal during dinner rush, especially 6-8pm when everyone's trying to time their meal with the fountain shows. We've waited over an hour even with reservations. The noise level upstairs gets pretty intense when it's packed, and our server seemed overwhelmed the last time we brought a big group.

The portions are massive, which sounds great until you realize you're paying $25-30 per person and half the food goes to waste. My kids got full after one plate but we kept getting more food brought out. One thing though — while you're waiting, hit the Paula Deen store downstairs. It's got like 3,000 items from spice blends to cookware, and you don't need to eat upstairs to browse around.

Park in The Island's free garages instead of street parking on the Parkway. We learned that lesson the hard way when we got a $25 meter ticket during dinner.