Hot and Hot Fish Club

Hot and Hot Fish Club has been one of Birmingham’s defining fine dining restaurants since chef Chris Hastings opened it in the city’s Lakeview District, a stretch of 2nd Avenue South that has grown into one of Birmingham’s liveliest restaurant and nightlife corridors. Hastings won the James Beard Foundation’s award for Best Chef in the South, a recognition that reflects the restaurant’s decades-long reputation for wood-fired cooking built around Gulf seafood and whatever is in season from regional farms.

The kitchen’s wood fire is central to the experience, and it shows up across the menu in dishes like the wood fired New York strip and an oven roasted black grouper finished simply enough to let the fire and the fish speak for themselves. A crispy pork belly starter comes with compressed sugar baby watermelon, pickled onion, and cucumber, playing sweet and smoky against each other, while a black grouper crudo is dressed with peaches, radish, and a yuzu kosho vinaigrette, a dish that leans toward the restaurant’s more adventurous, technique-driven side.

The restaurant’s name-bearing dish, the Hot and Hot Heirloom Tomato Salad, brings together field peas, sweet corn, fried okra, and smoked bacon, and it can be ordered with shrimp added for a heartier, entree-sized version. A house made pasta dish loaded with lump crab, squash, zucchini, corn, and mushrooms shows the same commitment to seasonal produce that runs through the whole menu, and marinated crab claws dressed simply in lemon vinaigrette make for one of the lighter starters on offer.

Beyond the seafood, the kitchen turns out a grilled Iberico pork chop, a seared magret duck breast, and a summer vegetable plate substantial enough to serve as a genuine entree rather than a side dish, a detail that speaks to how seriously the restaurant treats produce alongside protein. Desserts, grouped on the menu as the closing act, include a chocolate souffle credited to pastry chef Elton, a peach cobbler, and a chocolate sampler for the table.

The restaurant’s Lakeview District location puts it in one of Birmingham’s most walkable dining and entertainment neighborhoods, a corridor of restaurants, bars, and event spaces along 2nd Avenue South that has grown steadily busier over the past two decades. Hot and Hot Fish Club has been a fixture of that growth since well before the neighborhood became a destination in its own right.

For visitors who want to taste the full range of what the kitchen can do, the closing act desserts, which change with the seasons alongside everything else on the menu, are worth saving room for, whether that means the chocolate souffle or a lighter seasonal option like the blueberry cake. Between the wood fire, the seasonal produce, and the restaurant’s decades of James Beard recognition, Hot and Hot Fish Club remains one of the clearest reasons Birmingham is taken seriously as a food city well beyond Alabama’s borders.

An opening act section on the menu, priced separately from the main courses, offers a simple bread service with Hinkel’s sourdough, herb salt butter, and tomato jam, along with a fried okra basket served with chive aioli, both designed as an easy way to start the meal while the kitchen works through the rest of the order. The restaurant’s soups and salads section includes a summer gazpacho built from seasonal vegetables and lemon agrumato oil, served cold, a dish that reflects how closely the kitchen tracks the calendar rather than running a static, year-round menu. That level of seasonal attention is a big part of why the restaurant has held onto its reputation for so long.

The restaurant is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. and closed Sunday and Monday. Reservations can be booked through Resy, and given the restaurant’s reputation and relatively small dining room, booking ahead is strongly advised for weekend evenings.