I grew up on this place. Anytime I hit Columbia I MUST stop at my spot!!!! When traveling with guest from out of town this is our daily breakfast. Liver pudding. Flounder. AND onion sausage. With cheese grits and sliced tomatoes. Sweet tea for the drink. Yeah that's ALL for one person. Reasonable prices!!!! Good food. read more

Got there late Saturday night I ordered the beef stew Super tender beef stew like mama used to make. Fork tender along with sides of rice and gravy and flat green beans. Home style at best. Buttered warm rolls The cost for this meal 7.95. Add 1.59 for iced tea to complete the meal. I'm satisfied and sated Tomorrow morning breakfast southern style at its best Can't wait read more

No frills here...just good food. For the price you do get a lot.

What can I say but great. I love me some country cooking Lizard's Thicket. My 2 year old loves hearty meals so we know he can get his fill here. I've gone to serval locations and like them all. read more

See all

Perfect little country restaurant hidden in Columbia SC. A true meaning of Southern Hospitality!!!!! Greeted with a friendly staff and hello the minute you walk in the door!!!! Reasonable prices and portions of good homemade food!!!! Definitely worth the trip and money!!!! Good coffee!!!!! read more

Good home southern cooking meal! Had the chicken and waffles today and it was delicious! The only letdown was the biscuits and gravy. The gravy seemed very bland and lacked flavor. You can tell that this place is very popular with the locals. Overall, good meal for great price. read more

GOOD FOOD & GREAT PRICES!!! My husband the catfish, he said it was really fresh. I ordered the salmon patty, and really enjoyed it. read more

The two stars if the friendly and good service and their sweet tea. The good here was terrible! Worst fries chicken I've ever had. Sides were ok, but I had to eat them because the chicken was so awful. Very disappointed. read more

This location is clean and I have eaten there three times. Always great food,fast service and very friendly staff members. I would highly recommend this restaurant. read more

See all

Lizard's Thicket has the best food in town, but I had Door Dash deliver it to me and I could not eat it. It tasted as though Lizard's Thicket made it at 7:00 a.m. and had it delivered to me at 10:30 tonight. The chicken breast I could not chew, the stuffing tasted like corn meal mixed with water, the string beans tasted like metal, the macaroni and cheese was dry and hard, and the Peach cobbler was very very small and expensive and had a strange ingredient in there and I could not eat it. Door Dash said the manager would not refund my money but Door Dash offered to refund $10 of my $40 bill. read more

We visited here during a short trip to Columbia and stayed at the Red Roof Inn right next to it for few days. In fact, this place is quite famous to local people who are living around. I admittedly liked the atmosphere here in a morning of mid-March. Before we came to SC, I had done a quick research about what to eat in SC. The first thing appeared was grit. We had for ourselves grit, apparently, with bacon, over easy eggs, and ham. Frankly, everything was not bad at all. Yet we did not like the grit so much. It seemed to have no taste at all, not bland but just not tasty. There were two or three servers in the morning, and they often walked around to fill the coffee. Every other thing was all right. Later, I realized there was a ton of this restaurant in South Carolina. So that, it was not a local restaurant but a chain restaurant. read more

We were on the North side of Columbia at lunch time. We stopped in at Lizards Thicket . I had the county fried steak. It was very good.

Really like this place. I love using the drive-thru. Just good home cooking and lots of choices.

Meat-and-three, this is the place to get your fried catfish or chicken with greenbeans and okra. Definitely try the fried bologna breakfast, and their biscuits have to be tasted once and you'll not soon forget them. It's a chain, so don't expect gritty down-home atmospherics. Instead think faux country decor, but good mass produced vittle. There are about a dozen other stores around town, and it's quite reasonably priced. read more

The food was great. For the price you get a lot. The service was good also. For my southern cooking when i visit Columbia, I'm going there.

My guy, his parents and I had dinner here one Sunday night while visiting Columbia. We stumbled upon this place when we realized that our original destination (Little Pigs) was closed due to a fire. We were sorry to hear about Little Pigs, but we really loved Lizard's Thicket. Each of us went for the meat plus three veggies. I ordered the turkey with dressing, okra & tomatoes, collard greens, and pan-fried apples. Everything was tasty, with a feeling of authenticity despite being quick-serve. I cleaned my plate (which is unusual), and I felt soul-satisfied with the meal. I don't live in Columbia, and now that I'm back in DC, I wish we had a Lizard's Thicket in the neighborhood. read more

I give Lizard Thicket 5 stars only because the prices are so low. It's your basic southern style meat and three. I ate here a lot for lunch when i was working in the area. Food comes out fast and very good, great selection of southern cooking. read more

How can you beat $7 for 1 meat and 3 veggies, aka side items? I had the Country Fried Steak, Mashed Taters, Collards, and Black Eyed Peas. The peas were close to the best I've ever had, very fresh and crisp. Collards were very good as well, just a slight hint of vinegar and smoked taste. Matter of fact, I didn't have a problem with any of the food. It was all great. The only problem was the service was a little slow. Then again, we are in the South. read more

Couldn't have been too memorable. I forgot what the place was like. I didn't die of ptomaine poisoning, so I gave it a 4.

This is REAL Southern cooking at a great price. Don't go in there expecting health food (except salads and baked chicken). Fried chicken and country-style steak and fried flounder are our favorite entrees. Favorite sides include fried okra, squash casserole, potato salad, green beans. YUM!! read more

My wife doesn't like it but I do! I love southern food with a lot of bacon in it! Their breakfast is amazing and they do have some great burgers. Ok I'll mention it anyway, wonderful cole slaw, very southern the way they make it. I try to get here whenever I can read more

Lots of food for the price but all prepaired ahead and not great.

Stopped here on the way home from Charleston one early morning after checking reviews on Yelp. Wasn't impressed at all and have no plans to return. The coffee should have been a clue: tasted how I would expect water with dirt in it to taste, and no amount of sugar or cream could cover that up. I ordered a make-your-own omelette. The prices they charge for each ingredient seemed fair enough - except for the fact that you receive such a piddly small amount of said ingredient, you can't even find it. I had to SEARCH for the three or four shreds of fake cheese, and they totally forgot my mushrooms. Lesson learned!! read more

Diner style dining in north Columbia. At the end of the day I'm all about value. You're not going to get world class food or service at lizards thicket, but you're also not paying for it. As you walk in you're greeted by a sign that says please seat yourself, a fairly common site in diners. The place itself is fairly large and when I went for lunch on a Friday well attended. The menu is adorned with comfort food and southern favorites. The menu is payed out fairly simply. Protein and one side is $6.50, two sides $7.50, three $7.50, etc. I ordered the fried chicken with mashed potatoes and fried zucchini. The chicken was tender and well seasoned and the zucchini was good as well. The mashed potatoes were disappointing as they were of the instant variety and tasted a bit old. All in all though easily worth the $7.50 I paid. The meal also came with cornbread which was homemade. I recommend lizards thicket if you're looking for something quick and inexpensive while not breaking the bank. read more

The black eyed peas and Lima beans were great, but not worth the awful service or the dirty & crowded room.

The manager Jon Rogers needs training on customer service and customer etiquette. Very rude and condescending. Basically told us they have bugs and there was nothing he could do about it. He acted like we were bothering him by telling our experience. I will never eat here again. Not only because of the bug problem, but because of the manager not having enough class to take a moment to listen to his paying customers. I thank the cashier for being so pleasant and even the server. But working in a Congressional office, and dealing with congressional complaints daily, I would never talk to an individual the way this manager spoke to us. read more

It was average. The food wasn't to my expectation. Baked chicken was dry and cornbread was hard.

Called order on and picked it up. I asked for grilled chicken salad, but the guy said I can either have baked or fried- although grilled chicken was daily special. Way too much cheese and ham. Not enough lettuce. Lettuce was wilted. Chicken was tough and cold. Order hamburger w mashed potatoes- potatoes were good, but ordered burger with mustard, ketchup and pickles. Only pickles came in it. So now we have a dry hamburger. No condiments on the side either. Rolls were just store bought so plain. Was hoping for fresh but that's ok. Really bummed after traveling all day. read more

It might not be out of a can, but by the time they're done with it, it might as well be. I was born and raised in South Carolina, and I have to say, this is NOT good southern food. Unless, of course, you think good southern food includes overcooking everything and smothering things in grease and salt. And the coffee-- try burnt water. read more

Decent food and lots of it. I had the hamburger. Large burger with hearty portions of lettuce, onions, and tomatoes. French Fries were were crinkle cut type. I had a side of Lima Beans. Low prices compared to what I am used to with a good crowd. Would visit again! read more

Decent food, plainly served. Will not win awards for fancy prep or plating though the food is of good quality. Home cooking from someone else's kitchen. Deserts are insanely good. read more

I get heartburn thinking about it, but that it why I love it! If you want to pretend to be healthy go for their salad (i think the house is the one I'm talkin' about) it has tons of cheese and goodness with a guilt free name, "salad".... yummy in my tummy. I could go for some of that right now. The West Coast may be healthy but I'd trade my wheat grass for green beans cooked with bacon any day! read more

Going since 1984....I bad my first birthday there....30 years later the food is still delicious!! Southern cooking w/ sweet tea!!

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cornbread, sweet tea were all worth of 4 stars...but the fried okra was a letdown. Great prices, service and super quick. No real complaints from a Southern food fanatic. read more

I order out from here alot. My family loves the meat and veggies. On Wednesdays check out the meatloaf and spinach. It is soooo good but order before 5 or else they run out of it quick. There sweet tea is really good. The only thing that I don't recommend is their chocolate cake. It is very dry. Their banana pudding is the best dessert that they have there. read more

My sister just moved to SC. We're originally from Georgia so I was excited to taste a good southern meal. My sister had recommended we try it there so we did -- to start off the waitresses were rude. They saw us come in, looked at us, and ignored us. After about a 10 minute wait a waitress finally came to take our drinks. Hence the restaurant was not full AT ALL. There were several waitresses and only about three tables. After we ordered our meal the food arrived and the food was cold. I decided not to cause a chaos over my food and continued to eat it. I already felt uncomfortable since the waitresses were only staring and men's mugging us. I also wish the menu had more options. *sighs* :/ read more

This was a like a southern cooking place, reminded me of a converted Jo-Jo's or Denny's. The food was fine for breakfast. Prices were reasonable. The Country Ham "salty" was really good, just needed to be cut a little thicker so that it would not be so easy to over-cook it. Some parts of the ham were perfect, other sections were dryer. Overall, an okay place for breakfast, but nothing special. read more

Good spot for some 'home cookin' style food. Pleasant variety of breakfast options for every hungry body in your party (ie.good family joint). read more

Southern food at it's best! The must trys are: Pan fried apples, collards, fried chicken, and mac and cheese is the bomb! This food would go for at least double in Chicago! This is a no frills resturant, nothing fancy, so if you are looking for really good food without all the frills this is the #1 spot!!! read more

If you love country cooking you gotta try one of the Lizards Thicket locations. Great veggies to choose from and some Of the best chicken fried steak ever! read more