Cottage Caf? Gets Three Stars (Business Lunch)
by February 14, 2005 12:00 am 89 views
Cottage Café is a must-stop for visitors to Van Buren, whether they’re calling on clients in the Arkansas River Valley or riding the Arkansas-Missouri Railroad to take in fall foliage.
Just across Main Street from the downtown train depot, the old school diner has been in business since 1942. The restaurant is quaint and clean, and the service is quick. In between checking out the restaurant’s memorabilia and ceiling post graffiti, we found the company and cuisine just as colorful.
It’s the kind of place where Norman Rockwell would have loved to burrow into a back booth and start sketching customers.
Our resident Yankee she-chef went southern and ordered the Cottage chicken strips ($6.25). The boneless strips of white meat with seasoned breading are cooked to a golden brown.
The entrée comes with a salad and mashed potatoes, or diners may substitute another vegetable for the taters. Our female reviewer selected the broccoli and cheese side item.
She said the chicken strips were exceptional and didn’t have a pinch of fat on them. “You could tell they were hand breaded,” she said.
She was underwhelmed by the side dish but loved the coconut cream pie the duo shared for dessert.
Our big-bellied reviewer couldn’t resist the inexpensive rib-eye steak ($8.50), which came with the same side dish offerings. He went for a salad with Italian dressing and the broccoli and cheese.
The steak was cooked just right, and overall he thought the food and prices were good. He pouted a little about the restaurant being out of pecan pie, but one bite of the coconut brought back memories of his grandmother’s kitchen.
He swore to try one menu item on another day: the “Hop Sing Sandwich” ($5.75), marinated chicken breasts with Swiss cheese and crushed pineapple.
Cottage Café is not “The Ritz,” but prices are right, and the experience is classic “hometown Arkansas.”