Where to Eat in Little Rock
Cheese dip may lie in the heart of Arkansawyers, but there’s far more on the menu for those who venture into the heart of Arkansas. Here are the places the locals love in Little Rock.

Related To:
Lap Up the Best of Little Rock
Lost Forty Brewing
Heights Taco & Tamale Company
Doe’s Eat Place
George Eldridge bought the rights to open an eatery based on the Greenville, Mississippi, original, but he’s done it one or two better. Best-known as the place where Bill Clinton’s campaign staff whiled away hours during the 1992 presidential campaign, Doe’s delivers Delta tamales and incredible steaks sold by the pound. The unassuming diner’s main cavernous room is decked from end to end with photographs and memorabilia. The chili, always served with tamales, is an unheralded star.
Sim's Barbecue
Arkansas lies at the crossroads of barbecue, betwixt Memphis pulled pork, Kansas City ribs and Texas brisket. At Little Rock’s oldest barbecue joint, you’ll find one of the state’s most-famous sandwiches chopped brisket (or pork, your choice) soaked in a sweet vinegar sauce, topped with slightly creamy coleslaw and served on white bread, as nature intended. Sandwiches come with a fork, because that bottom slice will be saturated before you take your first bite, the same way they’ve been offered since 1937.
Arkansas Burger Company
Red Door
Bobby’s Country Cookin’
This weekday-only cafeteria-style lunchroom only serves from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the line is always out the door. Bobby’s brings the rural diner to the big city, offering meat-and-two or meat-and-three plates with favorites such as fried chicken, country-fried steak and pot roast (and like all good Southern diners, catfish on Fridays) paired with the likes of purple hull peas, steamed cabbage and other regional delights. The pie case is a destination in itself — filled with the sort of sweets best purveyed by grandmothers in country kitchens.
Honey Pies
Ciao Italian Restaurant
Arthur's Prime Steakhouse
Head west to Chenal to spend an evening of quiet elegance in the dark-paneled interior of one of the top steakhouses in the region. Arthur’s sports one of the finest selection of steaks, from dry-aged prime to certified Japanese Kobe beef to Australian Wagyu. Cuts include the delectable Chicago bone-in ribeye, Alley’s Bone-In Filet and the only Chateaubriand on any Arkansas menu. The seafood and desserts are also fabulous, so be sure to slate plenty of time to enjoy this luxurious experience.
One Eleven at the Capital
Trio's Restaurant
This venerated mainstay began in 1986 on the edge of a growing capital city. Today, Trio’s is miles from the western edge of town, but it’s still the restaurant by which all other midrange eateries in Little Rock are judged. Chef Capi Peck, whose family has been at the heart of the city’s restaurant scene since the 1930s, works with partner Brent Peterson to cultivate a menu defining Little Rock food culture – from the legacy Peck Salad to the much-lauded raspberry cream pie to the adored shrimp enchiladas, one of many dishes combining Latin influences with Arkavore cuisine.
The Root Café
This tiny up-cycled restaurant used to be home to the decades-old Sweden Cream; Jack and Cory Sundell revived the long-empty dairy bar and created a new epicenter for Arkavore eats, where most everything is short on food-miles and long on flavor. The bright little diner’s mismatched tableware and napkins, indoor and outdoor dining and sweet, hip staff would be an asset anywhere; gems such as third-of-a-pound burgers featuring small-farmed, pasture-raised beef from Simon Farms, brats Farm Girl Meats’ pork, and an incredible curried chicken salad sandwich on an Arkansas Fresh Bakery bun.
Loblolly Creamery
Boulevard Bread Company
South on Main
Star of India
ZaZa Fine Salad + Wood-Oven Pizza Company
Cajun's Wharf
Mary Beth Ringgold has been the captain at the stern of this riverside hangout for many of its 42 years. An anchor for the Riverdale Design District, this restaurant is known for great seafood, the Big Swinging Deck (a second story outdoor lounge directly overlooking the Arkansas River) and the famed pink Play-De-Do concoction that’s the start of many a great story of a fantastic evening. The Oysters Bienville, half-shell oysters stuffed with tiny shrimp in a white wine and cream sauce topped with Parmesan cheese, are a comforting and steady appetizer.