Little Rock restaurants?

September 20, 2009 8:20 PM

looking for your best restaurants in or around little rock

lets say within a reasonable distance of little rock -- like an hour-ish radius

so far my favorite places in LR are...

BBQ: simms
pizza: damgood pies
fish: flying fish (near river market)

i am a big fan of hole in the wall places as long as they are good, and am particularly looking for a good hamburger and italian places, but like i said i am willing to try just about any kind of place!

posted by knockoutking to food & drink (11 comments total)

I'm not sure if you've ever used the site, but I love Yelp. It's a user-driven review site for all sorts of places (not just food). For a place like Little Rock, I have no idea if they have a large user following. But I'd look into it nonetheless.
posted by JoshSmith at 8:56 PM on September 20

You used to have to go out to Scott to get the best burger from Cotham's. A hubcap burger and the Mississippi Mud Pie would take care of you caloric needs for a couple days or so. There's now a Cotham's in the city downtown, but it's lunch only, Monday-Friday.

I'm not so sure on Italian - I don't think it's something that Arkansas does really well. The only thing that really comes to mind is The Villa, out on West Markham.

Other random things - Community Bakery. Jimmy's Serious Sandwiches on Markham by UAMS. Leo's is a tiny little hole in the wall Greek place on Kavanaugh in Hillcrest. Juanita's for Mexican, with bonus live music.

There's lots of good food in Hot Springs, McClard's BBQ being the most well known.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 9:35 PM on September 20

I'm going to put in a word for Terri-Lynn's BBQ on Rodney Parham.

In Conway, which is within your radius, there's Mike's Place, which offers some pretty good New Orleans-style cuisine. The adjacent Italian restaurant Michelangelo's, which is run by the same person as Mike's Place, is also pretty good.

At the very, very edge of your radius, CJ's Butcher Boy Burgers in Russellville has supplanted Feltner's Whattaburger* as the gold standard for hamburgers in the area.

It's a chain, but there are several Doe's Eat Place locations in the area. If what you want is a giant steak ordered by the pound with very little in the way of frills, then Doe's is the place for you. To get a sense of the place, here's the menu for the Little Rock location. Evidently Bill Clinton was quite the fan.

* For those unfamiliar with it, this is a locally owned place with no connection to the Whataburger chain.
posted by jedicus at 9:47 PM on September 20

Seconding Leo's in Hillcrest.
posted by Ugh at 11:04 PM on September 20

Y'all are bringing back memories for me (I live in MO now but close enough to come home for visits)!

I love Iriana's Pizza across from the Convention Center (is that part still Markham or Clinton Ave now?). Damgoode is good too but I've only been there once. And I second Leos...used to go there for weekend breakfasts. Vermillion Water Grille a couple of blocks off The River Market is good for a really fancy, high end, expensive meal. If you like that sort of thing.

Wish I could think of more but it's been a while since I've really visited long enough to scope out the food scene. Next time I'm home I'll have to visit some of these places!
posted by MultiFaceted at 11:11 PM on September 20

regarding yelp, its pretty sparse in LR -- coming from DC where it was huge was somewhat of a big jump

also, Cotham's is somewhere I have had suggested before, again suggested going to the non-LR location, evidently the original location is much better

looking forward to more suggestions! thanks so far guys...
posted by knockoutking at 11:25 PM on September 20

Burge's in the Heights serves awesome barbecue and smoked turkey sandwiches.
posted by sister nunchaku of love and mercy at 11:25 PM on September 20

I never really got the point of fried green tomatoes until I had them at Nick's Bar-B-Q and Catfish in Carlisle. Great catfish, too, as the name suggests.
posted by escabeche at 7:01 AM on September 21

I lived in Little Rock for a year (five years ago), so my memory is pretty fuzzy.

Cajun's Wharf is a decent place to get seafood and it's right on the river. There was this great bar near my apartment that sold Glenlivet just as cheap as they sold Budweiser - I'm relatively sure I was the only one that ever ordered it.

I can't remember the name of it, but I just spent twenty minutes playing around with Google Street view, and I'm pretty sure this is it. I think the name is Lucky's Too (?). If you use the Street View (pan around to the right), it's the one that looks like it has pigs on the roof.
posted by jmevius at 8:53 PM on September 21

thanks for the links guys, will try a few of them out!
posted by knockoutking at 8:55 AM on September 23

small thing, for future reference, but there appears to be a five guys famous burger and fries going in in North Little Rock...

the address is:

2923 Lakewood Village Drive
North Little Rock, AR 72116

not in yet (as of mid October 2009)
posted by knockoutking at 3:56 PM on October 11