Service was excellent. Our drinks were never empty. The fried pickles we tasty but has a little to much breading for my taste. The garden salad, and loaded baked potato for my sides were great. The steak fingers were awesome. I'd highly recommend them. I got the large serving size for the steak fingers. They were huge. Was full from the sides and main dish so unfortunately didn't have room for desert, but I will definitely be back to try some next time. read more

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Food was well worth the drive from Stephenville. I hadn't been there in a few years and wanted to treat my girlfriend to someplace different. She loves chicken fried steak and at this place, it's pretty good. Mine was mostly breading and very little meat which earned the 4 stars over the 5, but hers was the opposite, more meat, less breading. The sides were well portioned and the prices weren't as bad as they could have been. The pies are great! Had a slice of Apple and Buttermilk; both served warm. Yum!!! All-in-all, it was a great night out and we really enjoyed our waitress and the building's decor and original character. Will definitely be back soon! read more

The food is wonderful at The Smokestack Restaurant in Thurber, Texas! I have eaten there for over 40 years! Thank goodness some things never change!! Now I live about 25-30 miles from it, and we've eaten there more times than I can count!! The staff and service is wonderful. Everyone there has always been very friendly!! Always a smiling face!! read more

Food was awesome! Service was the best we've ever experienced. Thank you so much Chelsea for the best service anywhere. Love the T-shirts we each got one! The inside is so cool with all the old items on the walls and high ceilings. We will be back when coming through. Just 2 Californians on our way home. We love TEXAS! read more

The SmokeStack Restaurant - Front of restaurant - American Near Me - Thurber, Texas

The SmokeShack Restaurant may look like an abandoned building from the frontage road of I-20 if you are just passing by, but once you get inside, it reminds you of the family diners of bygone days. The restaurant is located just south of the small North Texas town of Mingus, just off of I-20 where it is intersected by TX 108. It was built in the old Texas & Pacific Mercantile building when the original location at the old drugstore in Thurber burned down. We stopped by for breakfast on our way further west and ordered from the vast menu to start our trip off right. I had the Chicken Fried Pork Chop that comes with Eggs, Hash Browns and your choice of bread or biscuits. What shocked me initially was the amount of food for the cost. If you leave this place hungry, it is your fault. My pork chop was perfect, crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside with a good blend of seasoning and the eggs and hash browns were excellent as well. My son tried their Country Ham Steak and Eggs, with French Toast, Hash Browns and Eggs. I stole a bite of the ham and was seriously impressed. It had a sweet, salty flavor with just the perfect touch of smoke. One other dish I included in the images was their 'short' stack of pancakes that occupy the whole plate. They were fluffy, flavorful and way more food than expected. This place is a definite stop if you are traveling down I-20 and have a hankering for some real home cooking. They have daily specials, including a Homestyle Chicken Fried Steak that completely covers the plate for around $8.50 on Thursdays and Farm Raised Catfish on Fridays. Don't miss the SmokeStack Restaurant. If you do, it is your loss. read more

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It was exactly what we needed on our way back to Ft. Worth. We love home cooking food and this hit the spot. We went on a Sunday so the shop next door was closed but it looked super cute inside. The restaurant is filled with history that is neat to look at, they have Dublin bottled sodas that we got to go that were delicious (root beer and peach). Our food was really great, I loved the sweet potato fries with ranch! The chicken fried steak was seasoned really well. I think the reason this place is so neat is because of the customer service, good price point and the history it holds. I'm sure we will come back next time we drive through. read more

The SmokeStack Restaurant - The special - American Near Me - Thurber, Texas

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We've always seen this place when we go on road trips but it is the first time that we ever stopped by! We were all very pleased with this place! Our steaks were cooked to perfection, complemented by well-made sides. I also enjoyed Henry's mexican vanilla ice cream! Our server was also amazing, because she was kind to my girls! We recommend SmokeStack! read more

Charming place, great music playing, and really good food! Right off the I-20. Definitely worth a stop especially if you are ravenous.

Been stopping here for many years on our way to the metroplex. Food and service has always been top notch. Great country home cooking at its best. The old building is decorated with old photos that give the decor a great look. read more

The fried pickle spears are amazing! The ranch is so good! I had the chicken tenders, homemade chips and okra. All the fried foods but so good! The buttermilk pie is also great! I strongly recommend this place! read more

Good 1. Servers are kind and attentive 2. History of the building and area is enjoyable and atmosphere is amazing Bad 1. Food I went with a friend and gave this place a shot again. I have eaten here multiple times over the years, and it used to be very good. Unfortunately, I started having issues with the chicken tenders around a year ago. Everytime I got the chicken tenders they ended up being under cooked, and when my girlfriend would go she would get a grilled chicken sandwich and ask for special items off of the sandwich, but when we got our food the items are normally always on there. I got to a point of asking them to cook the tenders, and make sure they are cooked all the way and it would be about 65 percent of the time they would be undercooked. I ordered my food this time and I asked for chicken tenders with fries and asked for them cooked all the way. When they came I gave the bread a shot, and I hate to say it, but was very disappointed in the bread. Ive never made faces off of bread until now and I wasn't a fan. When the chicken tenders came out they were a light color. I tried them nonetheless and the tenders were very hot but tasted undercooked and didn't seem to have a taste it just tasted like hot undercooked meat. I do love their French fries, they are some of the best fries I have had. I love this restaurant even if the food isn't great just due to the history, but I think I'm done eating here for a while. read more

So glad we stopped here for lunch on our way to San Angelo. The food was excellent. I had the catfish lunch special and my husband had the country fried steak sandwich. Mine came with apple cobbler which my husband enjoyed and said was great! We asked our server if the population of Thurber, TX was really 5 and she said yes! read more

The SmokeStack Restaurant - American Near Me - Thurber, Texas

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Good home style food. Travel that way a lot. Clean waitstaff. really nice. Part of history that place is which makes it better IMO...

For an appetizer we got the smokestack spuds, a loaded jalapeño and cheese tator tots. I had the "Greasy Cheesy" cheeseburger. The bun was elite, the burger as a whole was delicious! The fries were seasoned and crisp, exactly how I like them. Wife had the chicken fried steak and it looked amazing as well. I had to order a side roll, and I was happy I did, it was fluffy and delicious! This is a great restaurant read more

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I only stopped to check it out for on my way back from Dallas. I had fried pickles and they were good. I think the decor and building are great. The service was good I will stop in and try the chicken fried steak since that is the specialty they are known for. They also had some nice souvenirs to look through. They have T-shirts, shot glasses, coffee mugs and candles. Another bonus was the selection of old style soda-pop. If they are open on my way back I will update this review after I have tried a whole meal. I would recommend from what my experience was. 3 stars because I only had an appetizer. read more

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Stopped in on my way to West Texas for breakfast. I had the chicken fried chicken hash brown eggs and biscuits and gravy. This was my far the best chicken fried chicken I have ever had, extremely crispy not greasy and the chicken was juicy highly recommend anybody stopping by this cool and nostalgic restaurant. The biscuits are homemade and the sausage gravy was very good as well the waitress was polite and pleasant as were the other patrons in the restaurant as the older gentleman and myself for a different tables and conversation throughout the course of the meal read more

The SmokeStack Restaurant - Front of Smokestack - American Near Me - Thurber, Texas

Good breakfast. Really enjoyed the pancakes. Nice people. Clean and comfortable and close by.

First time stopping at Smokestack Restaurant & Patio and look who was there one arm Willie. I'm sure he was an old coal miner from back in the early year of Thurber's booming coal mining business. The food was fantastic and the service was top notch. We had the chicken fried steak with white cheddar mac&cheese along with their famous meat loaf. If you're passing through on I20 East or west it's worth stopping for. read more

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We love eating breakfast here. Always fast and courteous. Prices are very fair. Eggs are always spot on and pancakes are huge.

I have been driving by this place for YEARS!! Every single time I say... "I need to check that place out! It looks so freaking cool!!" Today was that day! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the history in this place. The building is old.. brick.. my favorite... it has a bad ass smoke stack outside... like a real one... well.. actually I don't know if it's real, but it looks real.. so I'm going to go with that... The inside is wide open, bench and table seats a plenty, they also have a large patio area. Apparently you can reserve part of the restaurant for parties or get togetherness of various sorts as some group had done so on my visit.. The waitresses were all very nice! One even made sure I had a sweet Tea to go, without me having to request it.. she just know what I wanted and made it happen... they clearly keep a clairvoyant on staff for just such an occasion. I got the Texas Tooth Pics (hand breaded onion and jalapeño strips) if you have read my previous reviews, you know I place great stake in the quality of a restaurant based on wether or not they use fresh jalapeño or canned.. DING DING DING! Winner! Fresh here! I also had the patty melt which hit the spot perfectly! I was so full I took half of it home. So the portions are spot on! Only a fool passes by a place this awesome for years and never stops in! ... wait.. read more

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Just like all the other reviews, delicious home style meals. We had the meatloaf special and chicken fried steak dinners. Fantastic. Love the fact they have senior dinners at special prices. Friendly attentive staff. read more

We like to stop here when headed home from the West. Come hungry, because even if you're splitting a plate, you'll have plenty. Great food, and a nice variety. We have never ordered anything we don't like, but our favorites are the chicken fried steak and chicken fried steak. Salads are fresh. Loaded baked potato is yummy. Good rolls. Nice to be able to sit down to a home cooked meal when on the road. Service is prompt and courteous - which makes it a great stop on a long drive because it doesn't become terribly longer, as often happens with other restaurants. Lots of interesting photos too look at, as well as other memorabilia. And today someone was playing the old upright piano! Highly recommend this restaurant. read more

The SmokeStack Restaurant - Outside of Smokestack Restaurant in Thurber, TX - American Near Me - Thurber, Texas

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Absolutely great Texas food done excellently, especially if you like a medium rare burger and fried food! Rule of thumb, they don't spice things up too much so it is up to you to add salt and pepper to your liking, which is GREAT! Absolute must haves: Greasy cheesy medium rare on texas toast, chicken fried chicken with white gravy, baked potato, onion rings and buttermilk pie. All sides are great but you might want to consider sides that reheat well in the event your eyes were much larger than your stomach..LOL They also have happy hour specials that start at 4:00 PM check their website to confirm. Service should be very good to excellent, but we haven't gone enough to confirm. See museum on the opposite side of the freeway first, if it is open, because it closes earlier than you might expect. After eating walk around this Texas historical area. I hear they have tours at sometimes and I think if possible you should do that also. Get the most out of this historical experience! Remember to prioritize your eating to optimize what you probably will take home. They provide take home boxes. They have t-shirts and various items that you might want to buy to commemorate this visit. The only things I found below average were: The men's room stalls, if you go, you'll know what I mean. Everything was clean but the stalls, we let us say, they are kind of historically accurate. The sunlight bounces off of the very light parking lot through the east facing windows. It needs something to knock it down, maybe tinting. I would like to try this place at night because it has some very nice lighting from what I can tell. Food Details: All portions are Texas size large and very fair prices. Just about every sandwich has a choice of buns: sourdough, wheat, gluten free or Texas Toast. Greasy Cheesy - medium rare. Cooked perfectly on a flat grill, juicy, salt and pepper to your taste. They DO NOT over spice anything, great meat and choice of buns on most items. I should have had it on Texas toast it was so juicy it saturated the bun and is a large patty of high quality meat. Everything was on the side, which is very nice, let the customer choose what they want to put on their hamburger! Word to the wise if you have a pink center, you probably won't be able to reheat it perfectly, so eat it there and try it on the Texas toast to soak up the juicy goodies! Chicken Fried Chicken properly cooked. We got the regular size had very tasty crust, juicy inside that was not undercooked and white gravy. Reheats excellently in the likely probability you have too much food on your table. I would have liked more gravy. Onion rings, NOT overcooked, well battered, almost perfect, a sweeter onion could make it better. Almost everybody else will overcook or even burn parts of onion rings, but not even one bad one in the bunch. Do not even try reheating onion rings, they just won't be nearly as good. Buttermilk pie - excellent, not too sweet, perfectly cooked, flaky crust, this is a good one to take home in the likely probability you have too much food on your table. This is also an item you might want more than one. French fries - very good even though not the best we have ever had it is better than most. This will reheat just fine in the likely probability you have too much food on your table. Baked potato - great and most baked potatoes always need more butter, but not this one had so much butter it was overflowing! This will reheat just fine in the likely probability you have too much food on your table. Fried okra - excellent, NOT overcooked, you could taste the juiciness of okra, so many places overcook fried okra, not this place. This will reheat but it is best eaten freshly cooked. Bottom line! Your biggest concern will be what to take home because they delivered so much food to your table so I recommend taking home chicken fried chicken with white gravy, buttermilk pie (you might consider getting extra of this because it keeps great), baked potato, french fries and fried okra. The cook might come to your table to make sure you are happy with the meal, he did to us and our mouths were full so we just nodded our heads yes! read more

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I was forced to give it one star in order to write this. Well... There are no words. We've wanted to stop here and finally got the opportunity. Totally excited. Drove up there was a car show across the street. Beautiful cars made us even more excited. Walked in at 10:30, read the sign to seat ourselves, man told us sit anywhere, got our menus and my husband had to walk out to get his glasses. At 10:37 asked if we were too late for breakfast because the menu said 10:30. Nope he said til 11:00. Great. My mouth was watering for the Rustler! We were talking and took our eye off the time. At 11:17 I saw two salads walk past us. Asked the server. She said IT'LL BE 15 MORE MINUTES. Then I saw big trays of lunches walk past us. WE HAVEN'T EVEN RECEIVED OUR BREAKFAST YET. Asked for management and realized the guy and a woman were the owners. They walked passed us several times. NO GREETING. NO IT'LL BE OUT IN A MINUTE. NO LET ME CHECK ON YOUR FOOD. The owner (lady) apologized and then the server walked out with our food but my bag was already in my hand. I don't know what happened but this was really bad. She offered to box it up. QUESTION: Would you want to eat that after this episode? I bid you not. I have to come to grips with a lot in my life. This shouldn't be one of them. They are evidently a success in this community but maybe aren't ready or used to outside visitors. I'm trying to give them an out because that's what I do. Also we had a server that said she'd never done breakfast before. In her words she'll try to figure it out. Told her we are easy. WE ORDERED THE SAME THING WITH NO EXTRA, CHANGES, ALLOWANCES,ETC. read more

Home cooking and generous portions. Great variety and attentive staff. Eclectic place.

Food was excellent the place is tucked away from the fwy a bit just keep an eye out for the signs you won't be disappointed. It's a very cute small restaurant with excellent service and good food in the middle of nowhere read more

Great food and service. Worth the road trip. We always enjoy going here and will definitely go back

Went in just to be ignored. No attempt at seating us for lunch. We left and we won't be back.

Great place to eat They just renovated recently. They have a great menu for the character. I have eaten there for many years and never had a bad meal read more

Fun spot with great food !! We just happened to find it on our road trip! Patty Melt & club sandwich!!

Awesome location right off the highway. The staff was friendly and courteous. I had the meatloaf sandwich, which was full of flavor. My wife had the chicken mushroom sandwich she enjoyed. Definitely recommend a stop at this establishment. read more

We've driven past this place countless times over the past 25 years on trips to DFW and am seriously irritated this was our first stop. It is a winner! The decor is just fabulous. Another reviewer said it best, it has a sort of professionally-designed-down-home-diner design, set in an AMAZING building that used to be the mercantile selling "everything from cribs to caskets." We stopped in a little too late for breakfast (boo) on a Monday morning at 11, so I made the sacrifice to give my Yelp buds yet another CFS review. (There's no such thing as too many CFS reviews, and you know it. Also, I'm a liar and will just always treat CFS as my default road-trip food.) It was everything I wanted it to be. Homemade, tender, crunchy and served with really good gravy. Loaded baker w/bacon, cheese, sour cream, green onions & butter plus lots of salt and pepper was great. There was a salad. It had really tasty food-service blue cheese dressing (yk the stuff? the actually good sysco stuff? it was that). But nothing to write home about. But omg, gimme another paragraph because that roll is the STUFF. It's yeastier and more buttery thru & thru than any roll you've ever had. It's like if your lunch ladies actually loved you when they made lunch-lady rolls. I'm guessing they slow-rise their dough, which would explain the yeastiness. SO good. Hub's burger (The Randy) was HUGE. Two half-pound hand-formed patties with cheese had me giggling as I watched him try to eat it. His fries were amazing as well. They may've been the lightly battered food-serv version but they were perfectly cooked, which makes a lot of "eh" things really damn tasty. The cook came out to check on us, clearly knowing what reception he was going to get. Nice guy, good food, great homey feel. 10/10 WILL be our go-to stop on the Rotan-DFW run now that Valentino's in Eastland is closed again. Oh, great coffee, too. read more

The SmokeStack Restaurant - The Randy Burger. - American Near Me - Thurber, Texas

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geeat food and wait staff. I got the Steak Fingers. AMAZING! Always a great place to eat off I-20.

Great stop on the way out of town. Very cute interior and inexpensive, good food. Service was also great. Will be back!

I purposely stopped by the SmokeStack Restaurant to try the Chicken Fried Steak i have been hearing about. Their chicken fried steak plate is the bomb!!!!! Our waitress was on spot very polite made sure we had everything we needed. The atmosphere of the restaurant was relaxed and made me think of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. I enjoyed the visit and will be back. read more

We stop here on our way to Texarkana. Comfort food at it's best. I love the meatloaf sandwich and today I tried the fried steak sandwich, not disappointed! Your choice of white, wheat or Rye. I chose fried onion rings. Homemade too! Crunchy sandwich is hot. read more

The SmokeStack Restaurant - Country fried steak sandwich! - American Near Me - Thurber, Texas

Great food and really quick! Service was also great! Old building with a lot of old photographs about this old coal mining town.

If looking for a traditional meal this is the place meatloaf mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese and can't forget the buttermilk pie like I said can't forget the buttermilk pie wife loved the chicken fried steak and some killer onion rings great service on top smiling face all around read more

This is an interesting, off the beaten path restaurant that I came across while visiting a cemetery nearby. You would not necessarily know it were a restaurant if it were not for the large "Restaurant" painted on the facade. I ordered a chicken fried steak with some fries and some biscuits. It was cooked wonderfully and tasted great. Would highly recommend stopping here because, well, it's the only restaurant available for miles (and the food is pretty good too!). read more

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We had the best lunch on earth the other day at The Smokestack restaurant! The chicken fried chicken was amazing. The service was top notch and super friendly! Can't wait to go back! read more