Memorable | One of the Best
Blue Bonnet Café
Review by: Jane & Michael Stern
The Blue Bonnet Café is where locals have been coming to eat three meals a day since 1929. Today it is a modern place with multiple dining rooms and clientele that includes food-focused travelers, but it retains its old-fashioned, downhome feel, and it is staffed by a team of friendly, unflappable waitresses.
At breakfast, eggs are accompanied by hash brown potatoes or grits and your choice of thin toast, biscuits, or double-thick Texas toast. Lunch and supper begin with a basket of excellent rolls, including four-by-four inch yeast rolls with a bakery sweetness that perfumes the whole table as soon as you tear one apart. With the rolls are rugged-textured cornbread muffins.
The menu has something for everyone: relatively healthful salads, sandwiches large and small, and big, beautiful hot plates of chicken fried steak, pot roast, or rib-eye steak accompanied by a choice of three vegetables from a long and inviting list. Our favorites are fried okra, pinto beans, and butter-sopped leaf spinach.
Pay attention to the sign above the dining room that reads TRY SOME PIE. It’s the main reason the Blue Bonnet has become a Roadfood landmark. About eight or ten different kinds are available every day, plain or a la mode; and while we enjoy the apple pie and pecan pie, the one we’ll come back for is the peanut butter cream. Smooth and devilishly rich, topped with a thick layer of white cream, it is brilliantly complemented by a ribbon of dark chocolate sauce: an inspired combination.
Directions & Hours
7am - 8pm
- Monday: 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Tuesday: 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Wednesday: 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Thursday: 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Friday: 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Saturday: 7:00 AM – 8:00 PM
- Sunday: 7:00 AM – 1:45 PM
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One Response to “Blue Bonnet Café”
Jane & Michael Stern
January 2nd, 2005
Although I live in Houston, we have property near Marble Falls, Texas and eat at the Bluebonnet everytime we’re there. They have been in business since 1930. It is legendary. If you look up Chicken Fried Steak in the dictionary, there is a picture of the Bluebonnet Cafe by the definition. I always get sides of mashed potatoes, seasoned spinach and fried okra. With cream gravy, of course. Perfect batter and fork tender. They have a different special every day. The chicken and dumplings and the TexMex platter are good bets. And the crispy fried catfish filets are delicious. Hell, its all good. Their home made pies and cakes are also wonderful.
But my favorite meal to eat at the Bluebonnet is breakfast. I have two eggs over easy, home made carmelized hash browns, a chicken fried steak and cream gravy with Texas toast. Grits are also available. Now that’s the way to start the day. Get there early as the locals and many Hill Country travelers on day road trips make it a morning destination and there will be a line out the door. But it moves fairly quickly. No matter if there is a wait, it worth it. Cash only. But prices are reasonable averaging about $8 per person.