Ok, it’s not downtown, but it did win a Best of Memphis for best lunch, and it’s about three minutes from my shop, so I had to check it out.

Valle’s Italian Rebel is a little hole in the wall joint in Whitehaven, open only for lunch (11am-2pm weekdays, generally). I stopped by at 12:30, and there was a decent amount of business, but it wasn’t packed. The outside looks like, well, a hole in the wall.

The inside, however…well it looks like a hole in the wall too. Smells awesome though.

I waited maybe 2 minutes before my order was taken, got a large lasagna to go, paid $7.1o before tip, and took a seat at the table. I barely had enough time to snap that inside pic with my phone, and my food was ready. A huge (at least two servings unless you’re really hungry) portion of lasagna, and a generous sized chunk of bread. No pics of the bread because I forgot, and I was hungry. Here’s the lasagna.

It wasn’t the best lasagna I’ve ever had, but it was pretty close. Definitely very good, and a nice change of pace from burgers and fried chicken if you work in the airport area. Also, the bread was amazing, it’s supposedly baked fresh every day, and I believe it. I’m going to try their pizza later this week, it gets rave reviews.

Definitely worth checking out, based on the lasagna alone. I grabbed a menu, and I’ll scan it and add it to this post when I get off work.