Southern Hills Diner — Restaurant in Hot Springs

Stopped here for a late lunch as we headed north after a few hours exploring Toadstool Geologic Park. This place is a little gem and well worth a visit! Everything, and I do mean everything, is made from scratch, even the ketchup, pickles, and seasonings so this is high quality, home cooking. Expect to wait 20 mins or more, but it's worth it! The three of us chose burgers...including the Sheps BBQ Burger and a potato pancake as a side. The bread (no factory made buns here!) was homemade and the burger was well seasoned. All ingredients are locally sourced and there's a sign posted showing where everything came from, if not from their own garden...the meat, cheese, veggies, even the wheat flour! The menu changes based on what's available...truly Farm to Table. They also sell home canned selections like jams, relishes, and pickles along with some fresh produce, baked goods and ice cream/malts. The young lady at the counter was very sweet and clearly working hard to put our fantastic meals together, along with her sister. If you are heading to Toadstool or the Hot Springs area, or anywhere in the surrounding area, make a detour to Southern Hills Diner and support this small family business. Your tastebuds...

Like another review posted on here - we strive to support locally owned businesses. We tried this place the week of August 9th. We such high hopes going in based on reviews online. I wish we had an experience equivalent to the high rated comments but unfortunately that was not the case. The flies are horrible. I’m not picky - I live on a farm. If you go - My suggestion would be to eat outside instead of inside. Food: in addition to our dinner meals we purchased a variety of baked goods. Dinner was disappointing. Mashed potatoes - while homemade - were very watery with no taste. Wild rice - watery and no taste. Bread served with meal was outstanding. Beef tips were good. Meatballs were dry and didn’t taste right. Coleslaw side was good. Drinks were tepid water. No ice. We got home and tried the baked goods we purchased. The small loaves of bread (i.e. zucchini bread) were all dried out and lacked any flavor. Like styrofoam texture. Cookies were just ok. Based on the positive reviews we are tempted to give them a second chance on possibility of a one off day. But the flies. OMG the flies. I may have to wait...

I've been driving across the country and back again, and in 6000mi this may be the best meal I've had.

Arriving, it looks very... quaint. More like a country store. But go in (the door sticks), and the menu's on a chalkboard next to the register non-ironically. Next to my table was a list of where specifically they source their ingredients.

Started with fried green tomatoes. The tomatoes almost fresh to a fault: they were so juicy I had trouble cutting them to eat. Great flavor though, seasoned breading, and the remoulade complimented them well.

Had a country fried steak. The steak was cooked to a medium instead of the usual well-done or over, making it very tender. Gravy was creamy and buttery. Fries were decent, wild rice tasted great and was cooked perfectly, and of course the bread was out of this world. I got an extra side of shrimp, which tasted very fresh and were seasoned just enough to enhance the flavor of shrimp without overpowering them.

The apple crisp pie for dessert was slightly underwhelming, but it was a bit too tart for me.

If you're within an hour or two drive, you...