Great breakfast! We sat at the counter and got to watch all the cooking!! His Ott's Tots were so good! Crispy and seasoned! Eggs and sausage cooked perfectly. My pancakes should have been called Plate-cakes because they were so big and fluffy and delicious! A great spot with friendly servers! Worth a stop! read more

Ott's Drive In - Huge pancakes!! - American Near Me - Rantoul, Illinois

Have Not eaten there for a year and went yesterday. Food is very ordinary just as in the past. Prices are higher than everyone else in Rantoul. Was given the bill and when I went to pay the cashier tried to charge me for $13 and change more than the bill was. I showed her her the ticket and she goes I thought that sounded high and it was obvious she did it on purpose. Second time she tries to charge me $4 dollars more. I said in a firm tone try again.. It was so obvious what was going on.as this stems from an incident over 20 years ago. Very unprofessional and rude low life help. This place wouldn't get any business if all of the customers are treated like I am. I'm done! read more

Debbie and Linda were amazing. The atmosphere and customer service were both wonderful and exquisite. Every time I come to Rantoul, I have to make a stop for a Haystack in the morning. They are very kind and fun to have conversations with. If you are driving through the area or staying nearby, I would highly encourage coming to Otts. read more

Ott's Drive In - Half Haystack - American Near Me - Rantoul, Illinois

Awesome biscuit and gravy. One of the best I've had, and I'm a big B&G snob! Place is a bit small but very casual. Excellent service.

This was a great find! Not too far off the highway; easy to find; good and friendly service. We were treated like company in their kitchen. Grilled chicken sandwich with fries was perfect! read more

Loved this place small hole in the wall mom and Pop place very nice staff ! The food was delicious! read more

Great old school diner. Seems family owned and operated. Had the Haystack which his the spot. Hash browns, biscuits, sausage patty, eggs, gravy. Hella good. read more

See all

It's an excellent diner with hearty dishes and perfect service. They've got a good variety of dishes with decent portions. It's designed to fill you up in the mornings. Everything is the right balance of savory, hearty, and homey. They also managed to keep the ship running even with a full restaurant of twenty people sliding in and out. The prices are very reasonable as well. It's one of the best places to stop through. read more

10/10 always food is delicious, they're always quick with getting orders out, & I love the hole in the wall location! It makes me feel like I'm eating a home cooked meal & i love it! read more

If you want good old fashioned diner food, this is the place to go. Friendly staff and owners will treat you right. The booths were installed in the 50's and are now a little snug for the average American. read more

See all

Most of the servers were nice. This is not Ott's. Not the Ott's I am familiar with. Over prices for frozen no flavor hash browns. I gaved them three tries. Not again. read more

Super affordable and tastes homemade. Seating is not the best, but it's vintage so they are more snug

Love the staff and the food. Love places like this! Congrats on many years of service to your community.

Good little restaurant with great food. Classic drive-in options. I got a double cheeseburger and onion rings. Staff was very friendly. I loved that it still has a old school counter where you can sit on a stool and watch the cooks. My only hang-up, was figuring out how to enter. The front door is metal/silver without any markings. I honestly thought it was the door to the freezer. read more

So, this place feels like you went back in time. It's an old school diner with a few new things. They accept cards now, btw. The food is definitely diner food, but it's filling and tastes good. I could eat their pancakes without syrup all day. I love a pancake that isn't bland. My 2 pancakes and 4 sausage links were filling and I literally could not make myself eat my last two bites of pancake. The haystack my fiancé got covered the plate and he had to leave 3 bites on the plate because it was so filling. The service is not bad. Especially since we chose to sit at the counter. It's not a big place, so I don't suggest coming with a big group, but if you need filling, good food at a good price this is the place. The menu is not huge, so it makes it easier to narrow down if you want breakfast or lunch. The bill came out to be $19 and some change before tip. Of course we'll be back. It's a Rantoul staple to eat at Ott's. read more

See all

This was the first time I've tried Ott's since they reopened. The food was really good and the staff very friendly. The booths are a bit small and my fiance and I were a little cramped when we shared a side while my friend and her daughter shared the other. The menu is straight forward and the atmosphere is casual. I grew up around the area so I got to see several familiar faces including some staff members I hadn't seen in years. read more

Ott's Drive In - American Near Me - Rantoul, Illinois

See all

Thanks to yelp we decided to try this diner. It has a nice old time feel to it. Friendly people good clean food Service was terrific. Very reasonably priced leaning towards very inexpensive. read more

Small town dinner with a simple menu. Fast food with a friendly face that seems to be extremely popular with locals! I tried pancakes and eggs... Very good and classically American. Our server was sweet and helpful. I'm glad we went. It's not a fancy place, so I didn't have high hopes. But man, the water was nasty. It tasted like dirt and metal. Bring your own water! Other than that... Not a bad experience! read more

My husband and I got breakfast here. The sausage in the gravy was cubed and it threw us off. Wouldn't recommend anything with gravy. Service was slow on a Thursday morning when they weren't too busy. Overall not an atmosphere we enjoyed. read more

love sitting at the counter and seeing the cooks do the work. quick and always good! love breakfast all day!

Needs some renovation, a more modern environment, the menu needs improvement. but hopefully Ott's will continue to grow different positive way. read more

Haystacks from my favorite home town diner always hit. Friendly crew always working hard and keeping a smile on their faces. :)

French toast done nicely. Egg cooked to order. Bacon super crispy, a little too much so. Husband had half haystack. He said it was "okay", potatoes could have been browned more. Coffee was good. Noisy environment and board-hard seats are the drawback here. Just reopened and I had hoped for improvements on these issues, but no change was made. Maybe this is the atmosphere the regular customers like? read more

Disgusting and very disappointing with new ownership/management. Biscuits and gravy... Watched an employee touch his face, clothes, and then rubs his stomach. Afterwards he reaches into the bag of biscuits without washing his hands. He grabs the biscuits bare handed and prepares the plate. Not once in the whole time while observing this employee did he wash his hands. Flu season. Cross contamination. read more

Food is so sloppy made and seems like some kids cooked it no thank youservice was really nice but food sucks

This old time diner will remind you of Mayberry and times gone by....the food is delicious, the service is prompt and the staff are so friendly! Try a haystack or a pork tenderloin sandwich! read more

I was going to give a good review until I saw my check. $13+ for a single bacon cheeseburger, fries and drink!?! I can go right down the road and get 2 DOUBLE bacon cheeseburgers and fries for under $7 AND they have longer hours! The only reason I gave a 2nd star is because the waitress refused to let my drink go empty (good job). Seriously, crap hours and "downtown Champaign" prices in this crap hole called rantoul? Nope, won't be back. read more

My first time visit and my husband's in a lot of years. Don't be discouraged by the less than impressive exterior. We ate lunch and lived it. I got the BLT and my husband got the Ottburger. This sizable half pounder is on texas toast. Cheese, tomato, lettuce and pickles completed his sandwich. We both enjoyed our food but the star by far was the onion rings and yummy dipping sauce. The service was spot on and very friendly. read more

Went one morning before COVID for breakfast, and I was blow away at how good the food was! The dining area is quite small, but I had ordered to go a few times before. And even ordering to go the food is steaming hot and super delicious! I highly recommend eating here! You won't be disappointed! read more

No frills diner food, opens at the ass crack of dawn. The waitresses get to you when they get to you because it's always jumping. Food is great and menu options are cheap cheap cheap. I usually get the classic haystack and I can't complain. Coming here as a child was a treat, 20 years later it's even better.... I like coffee now read more

Great place to eat & shoot the shit with old home folk! Eat here when we come up from Kentucky.

Best onion rings I've ever had (and I've had lots). The breaded tenderloin sandwich was HUGE and tasty. Who would have thought in the little out of the way town such a find! read more

A great place or Breakfast, Brunch or Lunch!!! Smiling faces and Amazing food!! read more

See all

Classic diner experience. The menu has been virtually unchanged for decades and that's a good thing. No frills, just good old fashioned American food. read more

This was a great place to eat at. The Haystack filled me up. The sausage and gravy was very good. The cook was very friendly the hours are perfect to go early. It came with toast on bottom layer of hash browns, 3 pieces of bacon, sausage gravy, two eggs and toast on top. It was perfect meal to start the day. read more

Ott's Drive In - American Near Me - Rantoul, Illinois

The name Ott's may have stayed the same since the Mayer family sold this restaurant BUT the quality of food is not even close to the same. I recently ordered what has been my favorite breakfast there for many years, the Haystack with bacon on it. Even though the restaurant was not packed it took close to a half an hour to get my food. It was not the servers fault at all. She checked on me frequently to see if I needed any refill on my coffee or water. When my haystack finally arrived it was fresh and hot. There ended the excitement. The sausage gravy was bland with almost no flavor at all. There may have been three or four tiny pieces of sausage in all of the gravy, which covers the entire stack of food on the plate. The scrabbles eggs and hash browns were good. The bacon consisted of three burned up pieces of bacon-product that were shriveled up to about 2 inches long. Between the slow service and the almost non-existent portions of meat in my dish the Grillo family won't keep Ott's customers as happy as the Mayer family did for over 50 years! read more

The food is awesome and generous for the price!!! Unfortunately, that comes at a sacrifice. The poor servers are wayyyyy understaffed to handle the Sunday potential. It took 20 minutes for our first drink refill and just over 30 minutes to get our food from the time we ordered it. We both ordered ham cheese and mushroom omelets with has browns and tater tots and again, for the price, they were generous and it was quite tasty!! If I was to be picky, onions and green peppers would be nice, but for now, it's about time for Ott's to revisit human resources class in order to ensure general customer volume demand is met efficiently. If this Sunday was a fluke, there should be more than enough 5-star reviews that will offset this 3-star review. read more

The service, food, and price were okay. Typical diner which is located in a small town with loyal locals. Not sure I would personally visit again. read more

Went to the restaurant ever since I was born. I was worried when ownership changed but I gave it a try and it's still just as good or better than before. A local landmark. read more

Every Foodie gets born somewhere. Even before they really know they are one. Sigmund Freud once said, "a child leaves the womb because its craving diner food." (ok, something like that) But for this Foodie, I was born into this path at Ott's Drive-In. My earliest Foodie memory was around 8 or 9 years of age, and the fantastic treat of my father taking me or my brother and I there early Saturday mornings and to order what seemed to be taboo, but amazingly so for a breakfast, an "Ott Burger" with a vanilla or chocolate milkshake! The Ott Burger is a half pounder on Texas toast and of course, milkshakes are hand made.Their Biscuits & Gravy are huge favorites too, and as a child encountering the little chunks of peppery sausage, fired my desire to always seek new things. When there as a child, we'd sit at one of the 14 spinning, chrome & cushioned stools at the counter, or switch it up and do one of the original formica booths, but never too far from the grill. I wanted to see all of the action and how it was done! When those diced onions or onion rings hit the flattop and began to sound, I was either destined to become a composer, or a Foodie and you can guess how it turned out. I love music but it just doesn't have much going for the nose. Even though a child of the 1970's, I could tell this place was special and somehow,sensed it history. I have recollections of an old jukebox, pinball machines, chrome candy machine (LOVE THOSE), old bulky cigarette machines (even a strange cigar one), shiny black & white tiles checkered across the floor. Much of those things were removed as I grew up, but everything else original, intact, and less a fire in the 1960's that closed it for a few months, it retains its character of the past. Ott's is one of the long survivors in the cannon of American Diners at 42 years. Perhaps not as long as The Arcade of 1919 in Memphis, TN, but as far as those whom live for something more authentic of that mid-20th century era, Ott's is still keeping old school diner alive. Before "fast food" became the stuff of clone and cancer, the drive up, drive in, or in Ott's case, "drive to, park and go inside," was the standard. The original owner, Othmer Mayer (died in 1978), had designed it to have a drive thru window, but it compromised the parking and never happened. In its heyday, when the town of Rantoul still had its Chanute Air Force Base, it was pretty much open til Midnight every night. Those diner days of "Nighthawks" are long gone sadly, but they do breakast and lunch every day but Sunday & Monday. A shame that they don't open it back up to the youth of the town as it would give them something more wholesome than hanging out in the parking lot of Arby's, but that's just me. At least they're still holding down the classical fort in other ways. Ott's Drive-In resides on the edge of my hometown, near old Rt 45 where it feels like you're leaving small town America and traveling to nothing all at once. So in a way, it sits on the edge of vanquish, but there's something prolific about a great diner being the last landmark before the town vanishes behind (or starts, depending on your view). Which is a statement of the diner journey for the Foodie. Classic diners are like little churches for our mortal appetites, where we dial it back to simple and recenter. Or, like me, with Ott's, if just to get back in touch with my eternal Foodie child self. Foodies are travelers on roads in search of, and we need a good meal in our bellies before we venture on. For me, and others, Ott's Drive-In is an outward post on the Foodie Soul's Eternal Sojourn and may it live forever. read more

See all