We  are lucky enough to live, a good part of the time, at a tourist destination, Lake of the Ozarks, and we often have people ask us for recommendations about where to eat and what to do when they visit. We aren’t much help on recommending good fishing holes, hot spots for dancing or the best jogging trails, but we CAN tell you where we like to eat (and some in our family can tell you a lot about the golf courses! That someone isn’t me!) Here are a few of our favorite restaurants:

Best all around: The winner of the “most popular” award in our family – Ruthie D’s. Nice atmosphere-whether in the bar for appetizers (in the winter they have a great fireplace and in the summer lots of TVs to watch the Cardinal games) or in the main dining rooms with a sweet view of the lake. Nice staff and good service. AND, excellent food!  Their onion strings, grouper bites, seared tuna and chicken strips are all terrific appetizers (get their before 6 and enjoy Happy Hour prices).  They have a yummy chicken picatta, chicken marsala, great burgers and a couple of pasta dishes that look delicious. Oh, wait, I forgot the best part of the meal (at least for Sales Guy, SIL #1 and Sales Guy’s Lake Sis) – the side salad! What the heck? That’s right- the side salad! They include a couple of tasty pickled beets in their fresh, crunchy salad! A definite hit with some of our family. Our favorite spot!

Best Italian: Lil Rizzos (the one on HH – for some reason, the one at the Outlet Mall doesn’t live up to its sister restaurant).  Nice Italian salad, nice little warm rolls, good pasta entrees and an amazing chicken speidini! Delicious! Daughter #1 likes the spinach dip appetizer.

Best Pizza: J J Twigs. They serve an all meat pizza called “Ozark Meat Fest” that is awesome! We laugh about SIL #1 who once “dreamed about” the J J Twigs pizza. You get a basket of peanuts in the shell to snack on when you are seated. It’s kind of an odd décor, rustic with an odd mixture of stuffed animals and old tricycles, signs and farm implements. Service is sometimes slow and their lunch buffet is just ok. Stick to an Ozark Meat Fest pizza you can dream about!

Best Pizza Buffet: Imo’s. It’s not a huge buffet, but it has a variety of pizza, good salad ingredients, fried raviolis and yummy little dessert breadsticks. If you don’t like thin pizza, you won’t like Imo’s but if you like bacon, their bacon pizza is the best!

Best Wings: Ok, this is a weird one! Who goes to a Mexican restaurant for wings? We do! Vista Grande has delicious wings! Spicy and crunchy, sauce clears your sinuses, delicious! Their chips and queso are very tasty and for lunch they have a grilled chicken, rice and salad dish that is just perfect (pollo lago is what it is called). My MIL loves their seafood chimis and Daughter 1 likes their quesadillas. Good food, great service!

Best Barbecue: Hands down, it’s Half Sauced BBQ and now that Mizzou is no longer in the Big XII conference, it is easier to overlook their KU roots! Sales Guy can only wish that I could make brisket like they do! Nice bark, tender, terrific! I have to order their smoked turkey every time we go there because it is so much better than anywhere else! The Pit Beans are great and the rest of the other sides are average but the meats are so superior and servings are so large, you won’t have room for the sides anyway.

Best Steak: There are several upscale steak restaurants at the lake, but our favorite is J Bruners. Their filet is outstanding and fellow diners say their rib eye is as well. Start out with some amazing onion rings, have their wedge salad (share it-it is truly a quarter of a lettuce head, plus toppings!), splurge on a steak and add a couple of fried shrimp-they are delicious too. Sales Guy recently had the lobster bisque and he gave it a thumbs up. Great service!

Best Frozen Custard: Absolutely, Randy’s Custard! Creamy, sweet and delicious. They have a huge selection of sundaes, concretes and shakes. Try a Turtle Sundae: frozen custard topped with caramel and chocolate sauce, topped with around 100 toasted pecans (more or less…) and a maraschino cherry. Just yum. Nothing else to say.

Best Gyro: Arris Pizza. They have a Gyro sandwich and a Gyro salad and Sales Guy loves both of them. They have a good pizza buffet at lunch too.

Best Potato Soup: Baxters. It is delicious! Thick, creamy, cheesy, bacon-ny. They have a wide variety of very good entrees and they serve a 1 to 2 pound baked potato ala carte! Huge!

Best View: J B Hooks. You overlook at least 10 miles of lake, a golf course, gorgeous mega-houses and the bridge to the West side of the lake. The food is good – and the view is definitely a winner!

Best Crab Cake: Shorty Pants. How is that for a restaurant name? I’m not asking! They have a crab cake app that is amazing! It is a fun indoor/outdoor restaurant on the lake with an industrial décor and they specialize in Cajun food. Lots of good (different) choices, but go with the crab cakes!!

Best Frou Frou Sandwich Shop (you know what I mean): On the Rise Bistro. They serve breakfast (can’t vouch for that) and lunch. They have a tasty club sandwich and some soups that are very nice, but what I go back for is the homemade black pepper potato chips. DE-LI-CIOUS…They also have a bakery (can’t vouch for that either). It’s a dining experience, so don’t go there in a hurry!

That is a quick synopsis of our favorites. We rarely eat breakfast out, so I can’t recommend any of the large number of breakfast restaurants at the lake. I also don’t eat desserts much, I’m too full when I get to dessert time, so I didn’t help much there. We have lots of chain restaurants in the area too, but I didn’t include them as they should be pretty much the same everywhere. Nearly all of the lake area restaurants are open year round, which is a change in the last ten years, however some are closed on Monday or Tuesday each week.

There are lots of great dining options – a week in the Ozarks is a guaranteed 5 pound weight gain, but it’s a lot of fun getting there! Enjoy!