Golden City, MO
Cooky's Diner - GREAT Pies - family diner with very very good road food. $$ -- Cooky's Restaurant Golden City, MO USA Located in a sleepy farming community in southwestern Missouri, Cooky's Restaurant offers good, old-fashioned, home cooking. Here, one will find old favorites such as meatloaf, perhaps with a side of harvared beets and some mashed potatoes with gravy. In addition to several main dishes to choose from, there are a full line of sandwiches, from a pork tenderloin to those good, greasy hamburgers. Certainly, you wouldn't want to leave without an order of suzy-q's.
While the menu may not offer fine cuisine, the atmosphere is priceless. This is an old-fashioned diner, greasy spoon type restaurant. It is located in the downtown area of Golden City, Missouri, a village of approximately five hundred people. The main street where the restaurant is situated has as strong a tie to the past as it does to the present, with buildings that were constructed in the nineteenth century. Inside the establishment, faded pictures on the walls tell the story of the town, as it evolved into a sizeable buggy factory. The customers and staff are equally friendly. Hospitality is never in short supply.
This small eatery has managed to acquire a reputation for many miles around and in several counties. In large part it owes this to its dessert menu. Cooky's is famous for pies - of all types and all are freshly made. When asked what flavor of pie is available, expect the waitress to begin a minute-long littany of pies, from butterscotch to apple to rhubarb to things you will have never heard of. Largely for this reason, expect to wait in a line that runs out the door and down the block if you come on a Sunday after church. They don't take reservations.
So, if you want to experience what American restaurant food was before McDonald's, where ketchup comes out of a glass bottle instead of plastic packets, head up to Golden City and visit Cooky's. You won't regret it, especially if you leave room for pie.
Scammon, KS
Josies Ristorante - 400 Main, Scammon, KS - Great steaks and pasta - 9/10 - avg=$25. Worth the ride!
Tipton Ford, MO
Under Cliff Rest. - Good road food - Unique Rest that is built with part of it sheltered by a cliff - $$