ALL! FOOD. SERVICE. AMBIANCE! LOVE ME SOME PONDEROSA! AT LEAST THIS ONE IN VANDALIA!…read more THERES NOT TOO MANY PLACES IN THIS TOWN THAT I CAN SAY THAT ABOUT ... OR RECOMMEND! But the food here is delish! They even have a DRIVE-UP window that at lunchtime (i'm not for sure about dinner time) but at lunchtime, you can roll thru the drive-up window, throw them a $10 bill and tell them which meat you prefer ... (usually meatloaf, turkey, fish on fridays and then there are other choices but i'm drawing a mind blank right now) and they give you a pretty large styrofoam container FULL OF FOOD! usually on the side it's mashed potatoes, corn or green beans, and ALWAYS A ROLL! and man it is better than a home cooked meal! I LOVE IT! and I haven't ran into a rude employee yet! They are ALL so nice in there! I love the food and i love all the employees there too! THEY ROCK!! ((next time i go there, ill take a picture of the awesome food they give ya for that ten dollar bill!)) ~ THANK YOU PONDEROSA!!!

The service here is really good. I was here 4 years ago and remember the service and the food,…read morewhich is also good. We got the steak with fries and the buffet.

There isn't any dedicated parking lots for this restaurant but plenty of street parking around it…read more It is located in the same space as Witness Distillery. I made a reservation on Google and my friend and I promptly seated at a high top table near a wall. The noise level is moderate but I was able to have casual conversation with my friend. He ordered a burger with mashed potatoes and a Coke and I had the brisket tacos with sweet potatoes and an espresso Martini. The Espresso Martini was more on the creamy side but still good nonetheless. While I believe the guacamole was store bought, it meshed really well with the brisket, cotija cheese and whatever else was on the brisket. The brisket was all protein, no fatty parts and tender. The sweet potatoes fries had sea salt flakes that balanced the sweetness. They were perfect. Everything was really good and my friend enjoyed his meal as well.

18 guests for dinner and drinks everything was spot on we were not rushed time was given for drinks…read morethen appetizers we ordered the mushrooms and lobster Rangoon perfect they were amazing. Main course was also amazing steak done to order juicy and tender salmon was prepared to perfection salads fresh and tasty. We could not ask for a better evening. Waitress was as excellent as the meal

Always amazing from the food to the wait staff. I plan on visiting again soon. A little out of the…read moreway but well worth it.

Grilled prime rib was excellent! The ambience, service, food, everything was top notch. They…read moreshould be very proud of this place.

My husband and traveled from Colorado to Ohio and stayed in Vandalia on the way home…read more Los Amigos was close to the hotel . The service was excellent ! The young male server was so friendly and very fast . ) I wish I could recall his name ) We had our drinks within a minute of ordering them . Our food also arrived after a short time and was delicious . I had the Pollo Ranchero and my husband had Carne Asada . The portions are large and cooked to perfection . We are Mexican food aficionados so it is always a gamble trying a new place . It was worth it !

Best bar in town. Only bar in town?…read more Either way. Decent margaritas, frosty mugs for draft beer. Pool table (classic style with woven leather pockets). Air hockey table (out of commission as of 9/10/2022). Engraved wood everything - tables, chairs, assorted decor. Somebody shelled out some beaucoup bucks to decorate this place. Definite small-town vibes here. Didn't eat, but the pervasively Spanish-speaking staff makes me think it's worth a shot the next time we're in town. 5 stars, no complaints. Walking distance from the Best Western (which I decidedly would not recommend... but if you end up there, at least Amigos is right across the parking lot).

Great service ! Attentive and happy when I found a really good Sauvignon Blanc DuckHorn Vineyards…read more Ready for excellent steak

One of the oddest cheeseburgers I can recall ever ordering. While I admire the chef's /…read morerestaurant's enthusiasm to do something exotic, here, it didn't work. It's about execution. The meat was quite odd, both in consistency and taste. If I had to guess, they took reject pieces from their steaks and ground them up, perhaps several days ago? You couldn't cut through it with a fork. It had a strange taste to it. It wasn't at a warm or hot temperature and tasted stale. The onions that they added were delicious, but way too minuscule in size and bulk to have any taste impact. The bun was ordinary, despite their raving and reliance on its quality, and it being a Kaiser roll. The burger lacked customary garnish. Why I order cheeseburgers at high end establishments? In part? I like the quality thick beefsteak tomato slice and crisp, fresh lettuce. Here? No garnish at all, just a patty with a little cheese and onion. If the patty was fresh black angus and juicy, without the weird consistency and taste present here, and had they lavished it with mountains of similar onion and more cheese? --The risky and odd approach to making a cheeseburger might have proven successful. For this cheese to suffice, it, too, would have needed to be more pungent in taste, and abundant in presence. You could barely taste it. The mashed potatoes were quite good but way too salty. I literally crunched down on some salt crystals. That's when you know there's inordinate salt. Weird service and rock hard chairs made this bizarre stop on the way to St. Louis/ Denver more painful to savor. What irritates me was that I had to order a Caesar salad just to obtain roughage. And when you take the $30 for the salad and burger combined into account? That's a lot for such an odd experience. In summary, anyone who watches and implements the Gordon Ramsay Fword cheeseburger recipe on YouTube will end up with a vastly superior cheeseburger. In this town, while I am visiting only, from what I've read and seen in reviews, I'd recommend instead the frosty mug for basic food along these lines. A $24 burger better be pretty darned special to attract this sort of tab. This was just weird, not great. Sorry, no photos.

This place is amazing and dog friendly the food is amazing, the bee is amazing , and the staff is…read moreamazing and the ambiance is fancy and rustic it's amazing!!!

Amazing spot! Love the interior. We stopped in for dinner last week and so happy we did. The inside…read moreis gorgeous and the service was outstanding. Aja was out waitress and explained that Firefly is farm to table. We tried their spicy pineapple vodka drink and it was stellar, had two. For entrees, we both had the wrapped filet. Cooked to perfection. We also split the brussel sprouts and they were amazing. Lastly we had the brownie with ice cream and it was decadent and delicious. Everything was a 10/10. Highly recommend!

At my most recent visit, I did two things that I have never done at Moussalli's. First, I sat at…read moretable instead of the bar and second thing is that I did not order a steak. It was a special night, a group of foodie friends got together after not seeing each other for a while. It was a group of 11 and the accommodations and service couldn't have been better. Our server was extremely professional and didn't mind that it was 6 different checks. As our server was telling us the Daily Specials and the Catch of the Day, I immediately knew what I wanted. Whenever I hear, Pan Seared Sea Scallops or anything with Scallops, I'm sold. My scallops (4) were huge and the Risotto that they were served on was moist and flavorful. I also learned that they offer half bottles of wine and one of them is my favorite. I love, Quilt Cabernet Sauvignon. I'm probably going to wine hell because I paired it with my seafood instead of a white wine. Also, I want to give a shout out for their, Crab Stuffed Mushrooms. I've been known to stop by and have them and a Martini and call it a meal. When: February 19, 2026 Why: Meeting up with friends

My wife and I made 4:00 pm reservations for Moussalli's Prime for our 35th wedding anniversary…read more Neither one of us had been there before but saw it had high reviews. All I can say is WOW! We asked for the back enclosed outdoor room. Started off with fresh bread, which was delicious. Next I had oysters Rockefeller which was fantastic! Next I had French onion soup which was also to die for, then prime rib with a loaded baked potato. My wife had a filet and mixed veggies which she thought were cooked perfectly. When the meal was complete our waitress brought out a piece of ooey gooey cake with apples and a caramel sauce for our anniversary. I recommend this place highly and am trying to figure out how to get back there soon .

So sad. Walked down from the hotel and it appears that the Show Down got shut down. This was a…read moredecent food place with great service and so convenient to the hotels in the area but is gone now.

I was not expecting much but I should know better. We ahve passed this on our way to some other…read morestate from time to time and alwys say we should stop here. So we did. Its nt the decor or the location that gt 5ive stars. Its the great steaks and attentive friendly service. Very local vibe, people seemed to know each other and the staff was very chatty. Maybe a little too much because we ahd to keep flagging our waitress down who seemed a bit scattered. But still she was very nice. Other staff members checked on us several times so we were never lacting in anything. The stake I ordered (medium rare) which I always order came out very rare. If it was a little more done I would not have said anything. But someone from the kitchen stopped by the table and asked if I was ahppy with the tempature. I was nice about it and said, well not really, this seems very rare to me, not medium rare. WIthout complain he quickly took the stake on a side dish leaving the rest of myt meal to enjoy. Teo minutes laters a perfectly medium rare stake came out with a bit of char on the outside, hot and pink while still juicy inside. And it was a very good, very thick streak. Honestly I had wished I'd ordered a large cut. ANd isn't a great steak your looking for when going to a steakhouse?

The Chuckwagon Cafe is a cozy family diner at Vandalia IL. We are fortunate to pass by on our road…read moretrip from St Louis. Breakfast options are plentiful and very reasonable in price. The waitress recommended both Greek omelette and the Western omelette. We ordered Greek omelette ($12.99) , with additional green peppers ($0.75) and mushrooms ($1). The portion is generous, sufficient for two persons. Coffee ($2.75) was okay to do the job. This is a homey spot to start your day. I'd recommend this for eggs and omelette!

The Chuckwagon has very cute decor and is very inviting. It was such a surprise to seat yourself…read more Our server had just started her shift and was very friendly. I had a Ham, cheese and mushroom omelette which was really good, a biscuit and some yummy home fried potatoes. My husband got a skillet that he really liked. Their coffee was also really good.