Smith’s Short Stop

The food was great home cooking with large portions. If you don’t stop here – you’re crazy. The wife and I were foolish enough to order dessert, but neither of us could finish them. They were great too! We had a blackberry cobbler that came out in a soup bowl and chunk of coconut cream that was awesome. The was service was friendly and responsive. We will be coming back through in 2 days and are planning to stop again.

Every time we are anywhere close, we stop into a Smith’s restaurant (in Collins or Bolivar) to have a bite to eat.
Although they could spend more time on maintenance of this restaurant, they must spend it perfecting their cooking.
The onion rings– the best ever! My beef stew –homemade delicious. The rest of my party’s pan-​fried chicken dinners… raved about. And the warm yeast rolls and pie — Oh My Goodness!
Everything was from scratch and good value for the money.
Our waitress was super too.
A MUST stop!

Food was good and portions were large. Very friendly, good service. The restrooms were in bad need of renovation.

Have eaten here numerous times. Food is most always good. Plenty of food on your plate! Waitresses are nice.

We have been stopping here for years, its our regular stop on the way to visit family in southern Missouri (gods country).
Key takeaway– Get the TENDERLOIN!
Follow up with one of homemade desserts, either the Coconut Cream or the Reeses pie! YUMMY

Homemade everything. Tenderloins are outstanding but a half order is plenty. Save room for Peggy’s homemade pie! If you like onion rings, theirs are perfect. Cooked from scratch, also excellent salads. I always stop here when I travel nearby.

The pork tenderloin sandwich was definitely memorable. Delicious! I was dubious at first but there’s reason why it’s so popular.
Everything else was great too. Wonderful onion rings and club sandwich. At the end we shared blueberry cobbler. Also popular. Also fantastic. If I’m anywhere near Collins again, I’ll be back.

Besides the Wonderful Food and Service, the Antique Signs, both Neon and Rusty Relics, This Classic Diner is worth the trip or just a pit-​stop. And yes, Get a Tenderloin and Split it, and then don’t split the pie, gobble it up before someone steals it!

One of those family joints in the middle of BFE — it’s good enough to plan a Sunday drive down highway 13 & stop for pie. Ambiance is pure roadside-​diner kitsch, nothing even in the same area code as fancy. I ordered the catfish, which was moderately good but a little overdone; my date had the tenderloin sandwich, which was bigger than some dinner plates I’ve owned. I tried a bite of his sandwich & immediately regretted the fish because the pork was so much better. Cherry cobbler for dessert — heavenly. We split an order & still took some home. Huge portions of home cooked goodness, pure Americana. See you on the highway.

If you are ever in the middle of nowhere, aka Collins, Mo., you’ll find yourself in the epicenter of culinary gratification. That is, if your culinary needs include a big, fat, juicy, Pork Tenderloin sandwich and a decadent piece of pie! Given that specific criteria… you’ve just hit the Mother Load. Don’t over think this, just order it… the Tenderloin sandwich and ANY piece of pie.

Well, this is a hometown gem, and they built a second location south of Bolivar if you’re going that way. That being said, it’s kind of pricey, but every meal is like a 2-​for-​one, and they have a great list of homemade pies.
As for my taste, I tried out the biscuits and gravy, and it was really good. The biscuits were gargantuan, the biggest I’d ever seen, as was the cinnamon roll. I mean really, do they expect people to finish this stuff? The B&G had cake-​like biscuits, so they can give you a ¹⁄₃ order which is really just one piece of the biscuit-​pan cake thing. For some reason I ordered a half-​order, and it looked like a full order in most places. I can’t imagine the full-​order. And I took some eggs to boot and I was ready. Ready to get a togo box, that is. The B&G themselves were very good, but nothing to die for. They were filling, and there was a lot of them, so there you go. No doubt everything was fresh made, and they definitely use lots of butter in everything. So I couldn’t complain.
The cinnamon roll was huge, and the few bites I had were predictable, sweet and fluffy. But the deal was, it just didn’t get me goin’ crazy or anything. I mean, why make such a big cinnamon roll unless the stuff is so great, you just gotta have one bigger than most people face? The icing was good and sweet, but how can you really screw that up? There was something unique about it, there was a caramel-​taste to it, but that just didn’t sit with me super-​well. I mean, caramel is cooked sugar, so what you’re telling me is the cook thought, you know, what’s missing from this cinnamon roll is more sugar. Yea. And there you go. If you ask me, the caramel-​sugar-​icing is trying to hide the fact that this cinnamon roll has an identity issue, and it hopes you don’t look past its enormous girth.
Also, the coffee was so-​so.