Hungry Hunter

Popular … With Good Reason

If you don’t get to the Hungry Hunter for Branson breakfast when it opens at 7 or shortly thereafter, you will wait for a seat, sometimes as much as an hour. Its popularity makes perfect sense.

It serves immense portions at reasonable prices. Beyond those good things, the quality of the food makes it a really good value. Despite hordes of tourists who would eat anything big and cheap, the Hungry Hunter maintains good, from-scratch cooking standards. For that reason, locals flock here, too.

Pork-Perfect

Chicken-fried steak, for example. They hand cut it, bread it, and grill it. As opposed to deep frying, grilling results in a rather elegant cutlet. Fragile crust stars as much as the beef within. Cream gravy on top adds an Ozark accent, but does not overwhelm the cutlet. At lunch, you can get a smaller version in a bun. Or you can get a slice of pork cooked the same way, becoming a modest and satisfying version of the Midwestern tenderloin sandwich.

Memorable Hash Browns

Side dishes to accompany a chicken-fried steak breakfast crowd a large oval plate. Three eggs, a biscuit, and sausage gravy share space with a cylinder of beautiful gold hash brown potatoes. Good as the hash browns taste on their own, I highly recommend upgrading them to “Bob’s Special Hash Browns.” For this, they fold the crisp spuds around a great lode of Swiss cheese, sour cream, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Add bacon, ham, or sausage to the mix and Bob’s hash browns become a memorable meal unto themselves.

Other noteworthy Branson breakfast choices include French toast made using house-baked bread and plate-wide pancakes. Big cinnamon buns overflow with sweet icing.

Feel Like A Welcome Guest

The food satisfies. But Hungry Hunter’s attitude elevates it, too. In a destination town like Branson, many very popular restaurants to forsake personal charm for programed service. But in this restaurant, one does not feel like just another visitor on a theme-park ride. The staff goes out of its way to make guests feel like … guests.