The Ariston Cafe

Excellent food and service! Highly recommend :) Nice clean salad bar and tasty homemade food! Food comes out fast. Ask for Cyndi…she was our waitress and she made the experience fantastic! Great stop while traveling!

Historic (and possibly oldest) restaurant on Route 66. Don’t need to say much more. The food was tasty, service was timely and cordial, atmosphere was warm and inviting. Very enjoyable dining experience.

According to Google search, this place was highly recommended, AND BOY WE'RE SO GLAD IT WAS!! From start to finish, everything was wonderful!! Erica was our waitress and a great one at that!! The salad bar...WOW!!! I could have stopped there..with so many options, my salad was a meal in itself! The appetizer was delish..( potato skins ) Before I could finish that, the Entre came out!! Whew!! No way could I eat all that!! The portions or NOT SLIM!! At this point... I'm stuffed and haven't even started on the main meal!! ( country fried steak ) Let's not even think of all those tempting desserts in the showcase!! With saying all that... we highly recommend this gem 💎
You won't leave hungry or disappointed! We ate on a Sunday, but I didn't get pics of the buffett... again.....highly recommended!! Go and treat yourself. You deserve it!!!

The Ariston Cafe is a stop you will repeat. History, great food, attentive service and clean, comfortable surroundings all combine for a wonderful dining experience. Homemade soups, large high quality salad bar and an extensive menu (including prime house-made desserts) await your palate and sure to please your palate! The staff was well trained and attentive. It is plain that the ownership takes pride in providing a well above average dining experience. The food was clearly homemade, served hot and seasoned properly. A Route 66 gem. Not to be missed. If you are just passing by on I-55, this is well worth the minor detour for a great meal. Well done to the staff & ownership at 'The Ariston Cafe', KUDOS!!!

This is a delightful old fashion diner that we accidentally happened into when we were traveling. The greeter was very welcoming, the staff kind and efficient, the food delicious, the coffee particularly good. What could make it better? Nothing. It was simply wonderful!

Everything was good but the Mexican food was nasty. Party of 13 all good but the 2 that got Mexican plates. And we had a variety of everything on the menu.

Great lunch experience, waitress was super nice and attentive. Save room for dessert because they will come around with an irresistible tray of all sorts of things to tempt you.

Older building (original drug store soda fountain?) Elegant, white table cloth kinda place, wait staff with uniforms and ties. Open short hours, so watch the clock. And.... It's right across the street from the Route 66 museum! Free admission too.

First time visitor, but since I was across the street at the museum and knew this restaurant had so much rich history with regard to route 66 and Litchfield I just had to eat here. When I walked in I was taken aback. The waitresses we're all dressed so professionally with ties even. The tables had cloth table cloths and neatly folded cloth napkins, etc. I told the lady seating me that I felt out of place. She assured me that wasn't the case and promptly seated me. Her name is and was Tina, pure joy to be around. The other waitresses we're dressed similarly and we're super curtious and friendly to their customers. I told Tina that I thought of the old Howard Johnson's restaurant I worked at on University St. in Peoria, IL back in 1964 while in highschool. I ordered the special of the day. Chicken fried chicken, mashed taters with white gravy, corn and iced tea to drink. They served two pieces of the most delicious sliced bread in a container on the side with butter. My food was excellent and the portions were just right. Not too much, but they didn't skimp either. I wasn't able to have any dessert from the huge selection they presented to me on a large tray. A couple of times Tina sat down across from me and we chatted momentarily. I felt right at home and the nostalgic music they were playing isn't what you hear on a golden oldies radio station. This was very refreshing. My check only came to 14 bucks to boot. Tina was so kind to have a picture taken with me before I departed. The restaurant owner who was constantly present and dressed very nicely even allowed me to go behind the counter with Tina and he took our pictures. Talk about service!! I don't recall ever having a meal in a restaurant and feeling like I was family. Really made my day for sure. I may make it a point to venture back down that way again just for lunch. It's only about a 2 hour drive.

Update: My visit this time was a complete opposite of my last visit sadly to say. Tina was my waitress last time and a complete joy. She wasn't there this time. My waitress was Jackie this time. Everything started out fine. I ordered the special of the day, a prime rib, baked potato with the salad/soup bar. Jackie brought my salad plate out along with my iced tea. Trouble is she brought my prime rib and potato out just as I sat down to eat my salad. She offered to take them back and keep them warm, but how fresh would that be. This should never happen in the first place. I told her to just leave them. By the time I had eaten my salad and a cup of the great clam chowder my meal was luke warm. My 14oz prime rib was very thick and a lot of meat. I soon found out that the prime must have stayed in the kitchen. The meat sure wasn't fork tender! Had to use my steak knife and saw off the meat. It was chewy and more like the texture of a thick pork chop. Too much gristle and fat for my taste. You get the picture? I was never asked how my meal was, etc either. I was just plain disappointed this time around. What can I say!

VERY DISAPPOINTED. Charged full price for an item not as described. Don't believe the hype!

We were so looking forward to eat at this historic resident and was very disappointed. We are a family that came together for the first time in several years. 7 of us met here because it's halfway between where we live. We were excited to try out this historic diner. We decided to eat there today. The ambience was nice, the deserts at the display upon entry looked great. They sat us down to eat in the back room. We were a little surprised off the bat at the higher than expected prices but didn't complain . It looked like there was something to make everyone happy even though a little expensive.

We waited longer than expected for our food, by this time around 2 pm now the restaurant wasn't very crowded. The food finally arrived but was not consistent. The first issue was someone going into the supply closet located literally less than 24-36 inches from a row of our family members. They go into the closet bumping my wife, never saying thank you or anything of the sort. My wife had to eventually scoot closer to the table. One member of our party got food not as described, catfish, with bone and void of flavor. Brought this up right away, didn't eat any of it complained again right away, no alternatives or refund offered, tried to speak to the manager would not come out. His wife is a verified chef who has ran restaurants and stated that bone in fish should be mentioned prior to order as a liability issue. There were other issues with the food but this was a main one.

A very disappointing experience and due to lack of attention to our issue with our food and their unwillingness to discuss the issue a reason we can't recommend the Ariston.