Very small traditional old style diner. Very casual. Grill right behind the counter. Hamburgers are…read moreoffered in different sizes. Chocolate malt was excellent!

Great service with home cooked food. Open 24/7 they have great prices and delicious milk shakes!!read more

Good, small town stop. The menu is surprisingly full of options and specials abound. There's no…read morebeer tap here, but you can fill up and then stop be t door if you like. Or, order for takeout as we did. The chicken fried steak and breakfast bowls are good, but there are so many others too that you may have to try it more than once!

Everything was amazing! The waitress was very friendly. We ordered New York strip and it was cooked…read moreperfectly. Oh and don't forget to try their homemade chilli! I am so glad we decided to stop and try them out. I didn't get a picture because we ate it before I thought about it. Lol

Food was great. I got the brisket - delicious but MAN those waffle fries with the butter rub sauce…read moreor whatever it was. GET THEM!!! My son loved his burger. Their fries were too! Service was great. Sports bar but families wwre around also and chill area for low top tables. Lots of TVs! Lots of parking!

Effingham was our first stop on a road trip to San Antonio. We pulled in medium late but full…read morehungry. Scanning the food places we picked this because it seemed to have decent ratings and a lot of reviews. Plus, you get go wrong with good ol' American cuisine. The first kind of hiccup is that they must have recently moved building. Though they moved right next to their existing building, there was no signage and we had to rely on our own eyeballs. Which almost led us into the wrong building. Not a bid deal, realistically, but it threw us for a loop. Getting inside, it was super clean. Long bar, plenty of tables, modern, many tvs for many sports. Plus, the building itself seemed rather large. A chonker of a building, if you ask me. Our hostess brought us into what seemed like the back 40 of the building and seated us next to a garage door that overlooked a cement pad that will one day be a cement pad with things on it. Not even mad. Saw a train. Here's the money shot. Have you ever been happy adjacent? Have you ever been right up to the edge, the precipice, the peak, then turn around and leave? That was kind of the ideal feeling here. The ambiance and service and general-ness of the entire place was spot on. The food itself looked top-tier. But it felt a click away from perfection. Let's look into it. As a hefty man (fat, not the garbage bag brand), I'm a man of appetizers. Also of wings. Therefore, sign me up for 12 bone in wings for an app. Split into three flavors: Carolina BBQ, Buffalo, and regular BBQ. They came out looking and smelling delicious. The sauce flavors hit hard. But I was a little let down with the dryness of the wings. I know sometimes it can be difficult to knock a wing out of the park because those damn things just want to get crispy. But I don't want to fight chewing the meat off the bone. It felt like a battle me and my mush mouth would lose. Now, from what I understood, all sides were a la cart. Color me fine with that, fatty will order anyways. Especially since I saw they offered street corn AND hushpuppies. So naturally, that's what I ordered. The hushpuppies came out and were the round kind. Which I am no stranger to. They had good flavor, good done-ness, but missed the mark on the size. If they were hush people, they would have been premies. A little sad they didn't get to experience their full potential. Now, for this part I will say I was forewarned. My server did mention the street corn came in a bowl and was served cold. I thought I was better than somebody who judged street corn by its temperature. I was wrong. It did come cold. And because of that, it was not tasty. Missed the mark completely. I did get a bonus side, your typical, run of the mill French fry. They came out and looked great. Meadiu

Catfish heaven!!! This restaurant on Route 66 is the best spot for local food and clearly popular…read moregiven the totally full parking lot. Friendly midwestern waitress big salad bar definite destination!!

Entering The Ariston Cafe is a trip back to an earlier time. The entire decor is vintage and it is…read morewell maintained. It's a simple cafe with delicious food and it's served as if it is a white linen restaurant. Yep, all tables have white linen tablecloths and napkins. All the wait staff are wearing black slacks, white shirts with black ties and looking mighty fine. I happened to be visiting on a Sunday during Brunch hours. I'm typically not a buffet kinda guy, but I was today. I thought by doing the buffet, I'd be able to experience many of their different menu items all in my initial visit. After saying I wanted the buffet, my server brought me a clear chilled plate for the salad and soup bar, which was included with the buffet. She also gave me a warm dinner plate for the buffet line. As I dined, she checked with me and when needed she gave me a clean plate for my next trip through the line. The variety of foods were impressive. They had a section with all the typical breakfast foods; scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits & gravy and potatoes. It all looked good, but I focused on lunch items. My first trip through the line was, a HUGE fried chicken breast, green beans and mashed potatoes with white gravy. It was some of the best chicken I have had in a while. The seasoning was great, it was super crispy and crunchy and the meat was juicy. Their green beans were made from scratch with bacon and onions. The salt and pepper seasoning was just enough flavor. Then real mashed potatoes and a true country white gravy. I was satisfied with that plate alone, but went back to try more. Second trip I had Mostaccioli that tasted as if an Italian grandma had made it. It was super cheesy and the right amount of Italian seasoning. Then I had a couple Catfish Nuggets, General Tso's Nuggets, Mac-n-Cheese and Roast Beef. I was getting so full, I didn't even get anything from the soup and salad bar. I was seated close, so I did take a peak and it had a good variety of offerings. I'll be sure to try it on my next visit. My server was stellar. She was very attentive and friendly. I liked that the entire staff were dressed as if they were in a 50's diner or perhaps an upscale restaurant being the black & white. It's the Centennial Celebration of Route 66 this year. That should give you reason to go eat at the oldest restaurant on Route 66, which is The Ariston.

We stopped in for breakfast while in town visiting our family. There were 10 of us in all and we…read morewere greeted and accommodated quickly by the staff. The menus had many choices for breakfast lunch and dinner. The waitress was friendly and helpful. Some of our group had breakfast while others chose lunch. My "mama's special" was delicious. It included 2 sizable pancakes, 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage. My daughter ordered biscuits and gravy with eggs which were also very tasty. (I had a nibble). All of the others seemed pleased with their choices as well. The portions are generous, the food is really good, and the service was great. I would like to return and try the fried chicken before our trip is over! I noticed this establishment was not yet listed on Yelp, so i decided to add it for the benefit of others who might enjoy it too ;)

A nice quaint small town restaurant with an upscale menu and good food. The decor is old and dated…read morebut it's clean and nice. There is a separate bar area and small dining room. We were seated promptly and the service was great, our food came out in a pretty short time and was hot and fresh. They feature daily specials and have a nice variety on the menu. They also offer pizzas.

Pretty darn good, I had the rattlesnake and I was impressed. A great small town restaurant with…read moregood food!

Great lunch stop! I had the loaded potato with buffalo chicken. $12. The chicken was not too…read morespicy, which I liked. My husband had the walleye sandwich with fries, $13. The fish was lightly breaded and had a good flavor. The wait staff was friendly and checked on us to make sure everything was okay. The restaurant is super clean and has seating at tables, booths and a small bar area. There's a children's menu as well.

Cute decor. Friendly staff, but they could've come to the table more. I got the blackened catfish…read moreand it was delicious. Everyone I was with enjoyed their meals, too.

OMG! I just happened to visit the Wooden Duck for my first time, during Blackburn Colleges…read moreHomecoming. The restaurant was packed and the staff hustled to provide good service. Lucky for me, I was able to get a seat at the bar. My adult beverage was a draft Flight by Yuengling. For lunch, I went with a Pork Tenderloin Sandwich with a side of Fries. The tenderloin was crisp and had good flavor. However, it had a perfect shape, so I could tell it came from a bag and was not done in house. I enjoyed the thin crisp fries. A roll of Paper Towels served as your napkin. Typically I prefer linen, but for a dive bar, paper towels do the trick. I also liked that the Wooden Duck has hooks under the bar. Hooks provide a safe place for purses and jackets. I got a giggle when I used the mens room and the owner showed his political views by having a caricature of the governor in the urinal. They even had a witty disclaimer, so you shouldn't be offended. I got a second giggle when I looked around the bar and realized, about 60% of the guest were an alternative lifestyle. So everyone is welcome at the Wooden Duck.

How did I get here. We retired to a small town that doesn't have a DMV office. So we drove the 20…read moremiles to the thriving metropolis of Carlinville (not really,charming for sure, but just big enough to have cheap plaza office space for a state govt. office). So of course although my wife had done extensive research on all the documentation we would need to pay a state to drive our car...we had missed one. So we went to the Wood Duck for lunch while we waited for our credit union to send us a lien release form. We had talked to the kind soul at the DMV and she was "all-in" on this place. She was so right. It is an intimate space, with a small bar out front, and then a few more tables in a back area. We took a booth right in front of the kitchen. It is a very "locals" place. There were some police having lunch (likely the entire force, at least by weight)...and one of them stared me down as if he had never seen a veteran, former DoD executive, in a collared shirt, and khakis in a public restaurant before. [Yes I was the only pepper in the salt]. The actual restaurant staff was excellent, and welcoming. Our server was a whirlwind of effecient hospitality. I got a pork tenderloin sandwich (and later the same day was invited to join a pork tenderloin sandwich group on FB)... ordered the fries, not clear if that came with them, didn't keep the reciept. My wife got a cheesburger that she was very happy with. My tenderloin was crispy, juicy and a bit too salty in a good way. This place is a definite keeper on the list of places we will be willing to travel to over time. Perhaps if I come back often enough, Barney will get used to "others" visiting his little fiefdom.

Great Wed night fried chicken special. Freshly prepared and comes to the table HOT. Includes 2…read moresides of your choice. $10 for all white meat. Friday night is all you can eat fish with side. Fish is freshly prepared and comes to the table HOT. Other specials every night except Sundays.

The food is good service is great the beer is cold and there open on Monday now . The atmosphere is…read morevery cool all the old signs is the icing on the cake