Courthouse Whistle Stop Cafe

Love the Whistle Stop when I’m in town. Homey, small town Texas joint, unadorned simple food served with a smile. Perscilla is a sweetheart.

Ed, the owner oversees this place and the atmosphere is awesome as well as the food. Maybe once out of 100 times did I get something not so good. Once you eat shop at the store inside this building, antiques, collectables and more

Breakfast was very good. Had number 1. Everything was cooked very well. Service was great. Waitress was very tenative to our table and very sweet.

Came here on a Sunday morning. The place was pretty busy. Took 30 minutes to get a simple breakfast and when the food came out it was cold. Asked the owner if it usually takes that long for breakfast he said yes sometimes longer. The food was not very good.

Check the prices. I had a delicious patty melt platter with fries. Then I had peach cobbler ala mode with coffee. $ 24.00. I could have had a great rib eye steak for that price.

Decided to stop here for a late breakfast, but unfortunately they stopped serving at 11 am, and we just missed it. Ordered lunch instead. I had the chicken fried steak, and my husband had the chicken fingers. Both were ok, nothing special really. Mine had white gravy on it which was pretty bland. Serving portion was big. Service was great, however.
Would go again, but for breakfast.

We stopped for breakfast and was pleased with all we ordered. Eggs, hash browns and bacon was great. Gravy and biscuits were wonderfully southern and the blue berry pancake was delicious. We are coming again. Also loved the gift shop right beside the restaurant

We stopped here on the way thru and had a hamburger. The food was delicious and the staff was friendly!

We walked in and we were sat right away. We were served our drinks 15 minutes later, still no one came to take order.
Customers came in after us, were seated, placed their order and they were served before we placed our order.
We got up and left. Bad service. Manager tried to keep us from leaving but by then lost appetite.

This review is for one dish only.
A couple of years ago my wife’s family was re-​introduced to this place when attending a funeral in the area. They had eaten here many times but it had been a while. All they could talk about is how good the Chicken Fried Steak was.
My wife and I were driving through with her parents and we made it a priority to go and have the Chicken Fried Steak.
This came with a choice of sides and we all had a salad and French Fries or Baked Potatoes.
The Salad was the same old thing you have had at many small town diner type restaurants everywhere and that is fine.
The fries were good and those who had the Baked Potatoes seemed to like them.
Now to the Chicken Fried Steak. WOW, first off it is HUGE! It covers your plate and is covered in «white» milk gravy. It is crunchy and tender and juicy all at the same time.
I really don’t know how but we all cleaned our plates. This dish will make you wish for a 2^nd stomach so you could do it all again.
The décor is quite eclectic, filled with antiques and photos that the owner has collected. There is also an antique store downstairs. There is lots of fun stuff to look at and maybe some shopping to be done.
If you are driving through be sure to give this place a try and have this dish.

Disappointing… not sure why the locals like it so much

While the food is good, the prices are high and portions are very small. Décor is eclectic and staff is nice.

I was in town today and free for lunch. I tried to check out the new Blue Duck but it was closed for some reason.
Came here and ordered the hamburger steak with mashed taters and green beans. The food came out about 15 minutes later. I expected a little more food for what I ordered but it was good. The brown gravy on the mashed potatoes reminded me a lot of a brown gravy packet at the grocery store that you mix with hot water. With tax and tip the total bill was a little over $ 16 which is high for downtown Livingston.
My service was good. If I come back to Livingston, I would probably go somewhere else as this meal while ok is not pulling me back.

About as good as it gets for Livingston as far as breakfast/​brunch is concerned. I go frequently for brunch and there isn’t a better place in town.

Wow! We arrived just before closing. The staff was friendly and attentive. The food was fresh and delicious! The eggplant Parmesan was heavenly – could have made a meal on that alone. We will be back as we are traveling through the area.

Pricey, small portions, will not go back.

While visiting this area of Texas we thought we would try this mom and pop looking diner for lunch after reading the one review. They must have come on a special day because none of what they had was on the menu. The place is located in an old building in the old town section of Livingston. The front door was a big piece of unfinished wood? (Just found out a car drove through the front door a few days ago Yikes!!) Once we entered we waited for about two to three minutes to be seated. When the hostess arrived she was very friendly. We chose a table by the window that had not been cleaned up yet and she promptly took care of that and took our drink order. The window ledge was dirty with chipped paint and a few dead bugs. A good cleaning is in order here. It took so long for the waitress to come and take our order I had already finished my drink. We were just getting ready to pay for the drinks and leave when the waitress arrived. The waitress took our order and the wait began again. Wife started with a salad that was about five pieces of limp lettuce. Our order finally came after another wait longer than what is expected, I had a Philly cheese steak sandiwich and fries. The sandwich was greasy and served on a standard hot dog sized sesame bun and the fries were undercooked, cold and limp. Wife ordered the Hawaiian Chicken served or a bed of rice. It look kinda wierd because it took up only one fourth of the plate, almost like they forgot the veg or bread or something. It would have looked better in the center of the plate. She said it was ok. This resturaunt would be a good canidate for Resturant Impossible, except because there are few choices for dinning in this town they probably aren’t hurting for business. The people were very friendly and nice but the food quality was unsat. Most of the customers are probably locals and this is normal for them. I know they could do better if they wanted to, especially in todays competitive resturant market.

Searching desperately for a place to eat on a Sunday afternoon, having struck out in Lufkin we remembered thinking this café looked good on an earlier drive. Thankfully it was open at 2pm on a Sunday.
The décor is a bit odd, combining antiques (with attached antique store) and stuffed animal heads, but the food was pretty good. The crawfish étouffée was flavorful, the catfish and hushpuppies were filling, the grilled shrimp were gone in a flash, the cole slaw was amazing (no mayo, two extra orders went in for that), and the chicken salad was tasty. Unfortunately, the fruit that went with the chicken salad was straight from a can of light syrup coated fruits.
The service was attentive and the price was just fine. I wouldn’t necessarily hunt this place down, but if I were in the area I would be happy to stop here again.