Restaurants Near High Horse Lodge
A surprising number of exceptional restaurants are close to the Lodge. The ones shown below have the HHL Seal of Approval.
Pictured below, from left to right:
Canyon Grill, DeSoto State Park Restaurant, Wildflower Restaurant,
Mentone Springs Restaurant, Windwood Farms, and the Hardware Cafe in the Little River Hardware.
Canyon Grill, DeSoto State Park Restaurant, Wildflower Restaurant,
Mentone Springs Restaurant, Windwood Farms, and the Hardware Cafe in the Little River Hardware.
Big Jim's Bama Q - Hammondville (down the Mountain from Mentone) at the intersection of Hwy. 11 and Hwy. Hwy 117. 1 256 634 1121; Wed.-Thurs. 10:30 - 1pm. Fri. and Sat. 10:30 - 8 pm.
Slow cooked pull pork shoulder and beef, chicken and ribs.
Bonnie's Family Restaurant - 7807 Hwy. 48 in Menlo, Ga.
1 706 862 2281.Monday - Sat. 10am to 8 pm.
Menlo native Christy Reed named the cafe after her grandmother Bonnie who ran the Menlo School cafeteria in days gone by. Get a blue plate meat and two for about $6.50. Look for country fried steak, chicken and dumplins, spaghetti and lasagna, with sides such as squash casserole and slaw. Saturday is seafood day. The huge hamburger with juices dripping is as good as an old time greasy burger can be .
Slow cooked pull pork shoulder and beef, chicken and ribs.
Bonnie's Family Restaurant - 7807 Hwy. 48 in Menlo, Ga.
1 706 862 2281.Monday - Sat. 10am to 8 pm.
Menlo native Christy Reed named the cafe after her grandmother Bonnie who ran the Menlo School cafeteria in days gone by. Get a blue plate meat and two for about $6.50. Look for country fried steak, chicken and dumplins, spaghetti and lasagna, with sides such as squash casserole and slaw. Saturday is seafood day. The huge hamburger with juices dripping is as good as an old time greasy burger can be .
The Canyon Grill - located on Lookout Mountain about 15 miles north of High Horse Lodge. Turn right out of the drive. Left onto Hwy. 157 at thee dead end. Go 10 miles to the blinking light at Hwy. 136. Turn left and go a couple of miles to the next blinking light at New Salem, Ga. Turn right to see the Canyon Grill on your right. They are one mile from Cloudland Canyon. You'll know you are at the right place when you see a parking lot full of cars.
1 706 398 9510; Evenings only Wed. through Sunday 5-9. Danged expensive for this area, but worth it! www.canyongrill.com.
Make a reservation on weekends and holidays to be put at the front of the line on your arrival. If you forget, bring a trivia game or an ipod movie.
You can expect a mecca of good food that rivals that in Birmingham, Atlanta, or Nashville, and you can wear jeans.
The menu offers dishes with superb sauces and flavors---from lamb to scallops, to trout and the daily specials which usually include seafood.
Bring your own wine and a credit card with a lot of space on it.
1 706 398 9510; Evenings only Wed. through Sunday 5-9. Danged expensive for this area, but worth it! www.canyongrill.com.
Make a reservation on weekends and holidays to be put at the front of the line on your arrival. If you forget, bring a trivia game or an ipod movie.
You can expect a mecca of good food that rivals that in Birmingham, Atlanta, or Nashville, and you can wear jeans.
The menu offers dishes with superb sauces and flavors---from lamb to scallops, to trout and the daily specials which usually include seafood.
Bring your own wine and a credit card with a lot of space on it.
Country Boys Restaurant - Valley Head (at the bottom of the mountain from Mentone in the old gas station. 1 4300 256 845
Buffet is displayed in the tire changing area.
Country Boy has three things going for them: quantity, price, and tastiness. Breakfast and lunch buffets are not for those on weight watchers, or those with high cholesterol, but teens, workmen, hikers, and those who don't care can gorge on the likes of country fried steak, fried chicken and fish, pork chops, taters, biscuits, sausage, all served buffet style in unending quanties. Lunch $6-$7 range.
Buffet is displayed in the tire changing area.
Country Boy has three things going for them: quantity, price, and tastiness. Breakfast and lunch buffets are not for those on weight watchers, or those with high cholesterol, but teens, workmen, hikers, and those who don't care can gorge on the likes of country fried steak, fried chicken and fish, pork chops, taters, biscuits, sausage, all served buffet style in unending quanties. Lunch $6-$7 range.
Mentone Springs Hotel - . Serving from Thursdays through Sunday noon . 1 256 634 4040
This oldest continually (well, almost continually) operating restaurant in Alabama
features a huge wrap around porch from which you can see the comings and goings in Mentone while you eat. The spacious dining room has hosted guests, governors, tourists to the Mountain since the 1880's, Magnolia is the chef at this point and is wowing guests. Five stars for ambiance.
DeSoto State Park Restaurant - The Mountain Inn Restaurant
Located within DeSoto State Park
This treasure from the 1930's is the handwork of CCC workers who raised the beams and laid the stones of the structure. Five star building. Daily, 7am-10am; 11:30am-2pm and 5pm-8pm; Closed for dinner Jan.-March.
The place to take families for meals when you visit the park, especially the huge breakfast. Reasonably priced and well done. $5-$10 lunch; $6-$13 dinner.
The Lookout Restaurant - 41 Atlanta Avenue, Cloudland, Ga. at the blinking light. 1 706 862 2005 Thurs.-Fri. 5-9. Sat. 11am -9pm. Sunday 10:30 -2:30pm Reservations on weekends and holidays.
A Lookout Mountain favorite for decades, The Lookout is back in business again under the ownership of Beth Ross, who was a chef at the Mentone Springs Hotel when Mark and Andy were owners. She has completely redone the resaturant and grounds and is opening to rave reviews.
Try a Guiness beer fried green tomato appetizer and then move on to herbed trout, catch of the day shrimp and grits, a filet or ribeye, or a build your own burger. Sunday brunch features wonders like crab cake benedict (not featured on Weight Watchers). Lunch around $10; Dinner $15-$25
Located within DeSoto State Park
This treasure from the 1930's is the handwork of CCC workers who raised the beams and laid the stones of the structure. Five star building. Daily, 7am-10am; 11:30am-2pm and 5pm-8pm; Closed for dinner Jan.-March.
The place to take families for meals when you visit the park, especially the huge breakfast. Reasonably priced and well done. $5-$10 lunch; $6-$13 dinner.
The Lookout Restaurant - 41 Atlanta Avenue, Cloudland, Ga. at the blinking light. 1 706 862 2005 Thurs.-Fri. 5-9. Sat. 11am -9pm. Sunday 10:30 -2:30pm Reservations on weekends and holidays.
A Lookout Mountain favorite for decades, The Lookout is back in business again under the ownership of Beth Ross, who was a chef at the Mentone Springs Hotel when Mark and Andy were owners. She has completely redone the resaturant and grounds and is opening to rave reviews.
Try a Guiness beer fried green tomato appetizer and then move on to herbed trout, catch of the day shrimp and grits, a filet or ribeye, or a build your own burger. Sunday brunch features wonders like crab cake benedict (not featured on Weight Watchers). Lunch around $10; Dinner $15-$25
The Moonlight Bistro - on the hill by the caution light, Mentone.
Downtown Mentone, on the hill. l 256 634 4560 Wed.-Friday 11am to evening; Sat and Sun 8am to evening. www.themoonlightbistro.com
The Moonlight Bistro is the newcomer on the block. Moving into a spot that was The Log Cabin Deli for years, the restaurant is getting good reviews for food and a fresh new look in an old historical building. The center portion was built in 1832 when Mentone was on, or atop, the frontier. A fire burns in the fireplace fall through spring.
The owners had experience catering for the likes of Georgia governors Jimmy Carter and Sonny Perdue, and for Berry College before returning to home turf to open the Bistro.
The weekend breakfast is 5 star, with lots of options including grits and shrimp, country ham, and wondrous biscuits.
A long lunch menu features salads, sandwiches and house specialties such as portobello mushroom burgers. Steaks and seafood are served at night. Lunch about $10; Dinner $12 - $20 range.
The owners had experience catering for the likes of Georgia governors Jimmy Carter and Sonny Perdue, and for Berry College before returning to home turf to open the Bistro.
The weekend breakfast is 5 star, with lots of options including grits and shrimp, country ham, and wondrous biscuits.
A long lunch menu features salads, sandwiches and house specialties such as portobello mushroom burgers. Steaks and seafood are served at night. Lunch about $10; Dinner $12 - $20 range.
Sunshine Pizza - Hammondville, down the mountain from Mentone at the intersection of Hwy 117 and Hwy 11.1 256 635 6896 Mon.-Fri. 5:30am to 8pm; Sat. 7am -8pm. Closed Sunday.
Owned by the people who have the Moonlight Bistro, the Sunshine Cafe serves good cafe fare and recently added a brick pizza oven and turns out some incredible pizza. Not much tomato sauce and wondrous mushrooms and cheese.The pizza takes a pretty good while to cook, so your best bet is to order ahead. A large supreme type pizza will run you about $17.
Great place to go early am ---they can cook a biscuit-- or for standard cafe fare.
Owned by the people who have the Moonlight Bistro, the Sunshine Cafe serves good cafe fare and recently added a brick pizza oven and turns out some incredible pizza. Not much tomato sauce and wondrous mushrooms and cheese.The pizza takes a pretty good while to cook, so your best bet is to order ahead. A large supreme type pizza will run you about $17.
Great place to go early am ---they can cook a biscuit-- or for standard cafe fare.
The Wildflower Restaurant - downtown Mentone just southeast of the caution light and west of Mentone Realty. 1 256 634 0066.
7 days a week. Lunch 11am-3. Dinner 4pm-8pm. Call for reservations. You will have a wait on weekends and holidays as The Wildflower is consistently jammed. www.mentonewildflower.com
Joining hands and talents, herbalist LC Moon and Chef Ben have built a reputation over the years for consistency and variety in The Wildflower. The restaurant is fitted into a remodeled period Mentone vacation house in the center of all the Mentone activity. Filled with local art, herbs, beads, coffees, earrings, clothing and stuff, The Wildflower turns out an incredible number of meals for an incredible number of patrons in a late day hippy atmosphere. They begin with brunch, and go to lunch and then into the night, sometimes with music of Tony Goggins and other noted locals. If you go on a weekend, plan to wait. The parking lot is full from 11 to 8. A reservation means that you go to the front of the line.
Food is tasty and interesting with daily specials served to both out of towners and locals. Chef Ben offers wild caught salmon flown in on Tuesday, and buys the best of meat and produce, some supplied locally. At lunch, try a good burger (thick, grilled and restaurant priced), or salmon salad. Tomato pie is a winner at brunch. $10 - $17 lunch. Dinner $15 up.
I've concluded that their spectacular success comes from their ability to please a house full of customers day after day, year after year. They have got to be good to pull that off. Wish they would get the boxes off the back porch.
Windwood Farms: Mentone, about a mile east of the Little River bridge and past the school and library. 11-7 daily, starting March 1.
Chef Toni, once a fisherman and restaurateur on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, is back at the wheel or stove at the little white farmhouse. This time he has simplified the process and the menu to offer tasty country cooking. A single menu lists sandwiches, salads, plates and daily specials, including seafood for which he is famous. Daily specials depend on his whim and availability of fresh food. Step up to the counter to order. No waitresses. No fru fru. I've never eaten anything Tony cooked that was not delicious. Lunch is under $10 and dinner borders on relatively cheap.
Food is tasty and interesting with daily specials served to both out of towners and locals. Chef Ben offers wild caught salmon flown in on Tuesday, and buys the best of meat and produce, some supplied locally. At lunch, try a good burger (thick, grilled and restaurant priced), or salmon salad. Tomato pie is a winner at brunch. $10 - $17 lunch. Dinner $15 up.
I've concluded that their spectacular success comes from their ability to please a house full of customers day after day, year after year. They have got to be good to pull that off. Wish they would get the boxes off the back porch.
Windwood Farms: Mentone, about a mile east of the Little River bridge and past the school and library. 11-7 daily, starting March 1.
Chef Toni, once a fisherman and restaurateur on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, is back at the wheel or stove at the little white farmhouse. This time he has simplified the process and the menu to offer tasty country cooking. A single menu lists sandwiches, salads, plates and daily specials, including seafood for which he is famous. Daily specials depend on his whim and availability of fresh food. Step up to the counter to order. No waitresses. No fru fru. I've never eaten anything Tony cooked that was not delicious. Lunch is under $10 and dinner borders on relatively cheap.