Yoder’s Kitchen

The overall feel of the place is what I would call, early American or Colonial. Lots of wood, natural lighting, (in the main dining area at least), clean and nice, country style décor. You should anticipate a wait, especially so if you hit the normal meal hours. The time waiting can be spent by either grabbing one of the local to-​do brochures which are in the main entry (and free), or browse through the well stocked gift shop.
The menu itself is simple American fair, or you can elect to go with the buffet, which is small when compared to big-​box buffet places, but you can be sure the food here is of much higher quality.
Since I’ve been here on several occasions, I’ve ordered from the menu and also went with the buffet. In either case, I was very satisfied. The wait staff is very friendly and tentative. My drink never got empty and she checked up on us periodically just to be sure all was well.
All the food that I have had here was of good quality, very fresh and clearly made from scratch. The breakfast sausage was really good, the plate sized cinnamon bun plastered with a rich, creamy toping was really good. The chicken, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, roles, sweet potatoes, dinner roles are «all» outstanding. Oh… and I forgot the ham, that too is extremely good ! On the buffet, during lunch, on two occasions there is a red, strawberry looking compote, I don’t know exactly what it is, but let me tell you, it is really, really good. I found it spread out on a dinner role very well and then I popped in a few pieces of chicken and it was heavenly.
At the table, you’ll also see two jars. One is peanut butter spread and the other is apple butter. The peanut butter is clearly a natural variety, and it is pretty good. I’m probably going to pick up a bottle of this the next time I go there. As for the apple butter, I’m finding this spread is a local favorite with each placing having their own take on it. To date, I’ve not really cared for the taste, however I must say, the Yoder’s Kitchen variety was pretty good. Not something I would go craving for, but I would certainly place it out on my kitchen table for others to enjoy.
I’ll definitely be coming back here again ! Next time however I need to remember to grab a bottle of the peanut butter and apple butter.

Went here last night for dinner. Had not been since I was a kid. My husband loved the Fried chicken. I had the buffet and loved everything, especially the noodles omg so good, and the catfish. My son also got the buffet and said the shrimp were really good and also the corn nuggets.

We enjoyed their Saturday breakfast buffet on the 4^th… we had their lunch buffet last year when visiting, but the breakfast was over the top. My wife usually will eat most of one plate… here, she went back for seconds and said it was the best restaurant breakfast she ever had. From fresh fruit and juices to eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy (biscuits are the bomb), corn meal mush, pastries and more… something for everyone and at $ 7.50, why would you go elsewhere? Super friendly and efficient staff… can’t wait to go back!

We live about an hour and a half away, and make the trip over to Arthur at least once a year, for this place. Home style, comfort food. Not a fan of buffets, but get the buffet every time. The broasted chicken is the best chicken I have ever ate. Clean, friendly staff, cute store, great baked goods! Family friendly, kids love it.

The best thing about this place is it is all from scratch. The fried chicken is some of the best you will ever taste. The mashed potatoes are absolutely amazing. The brown gravy is Oh so good. The dessert table is OK… The marshmallow sauce is awesome. My friends swear by the sweet Onion dressing at the salad bar. Myself is not as fan of salad bar as they shred the lettuce taco bell style. Not my favorite

We go to Amish/​Mennonite country all the time. Always clean, constantly restocking the buffet, so friendly. Most importantly the food is beyond great, and that is a all the time great. We go every time we can !!!

Awesome place! I recommend the cinnamon rolls! If you like sweets you’ll love there cinnamon rolls, there as big as the plate. They also have a great buffet, down home, amish cooking. Staff is friendly for the most part, had a couple encounters I wasn’t to pleased with but the food out ways any of that.

Went in for breakfast and left REALLY FULL! They really do have cinnamon rolls as big as a plate and the portions are pretty big as well. The staff was Amish, and very kind. Its definitely a place to stop while you are in town.

Best fried chicken ever! This place was awesome! We ate the lunch buffet and loved it. The service was great. The side dishes, corn bread, and spreads were fantastic. The best part, of course, was the fried chicken. Crunchy and juicy. Amazing. I’ll return all the back to Arthur just for the chicken and I live in Atlanta!

Defiantly the best in the area from what I can tell. I’m not a fan of buffets so I ordered off the menu. My boyfriend and I shared a cinnamon roll (um… Wow… Amazing) and my stuffed French toast was very good. He raved about his green peppers being the best he had ever had! I don’t even like green peppers and they were ok to me. Lol! If your ever in the area and want something simply made well This is the place.

Yoder’s is the place to eat when in this rather quaint Amish community of Arthur, IL. We went for early morning breakfast on a weekday last month, so it was a nice, quiet time to go.
I had the cheese omelet and a ½ order of biscuits and gravy, and I think my total was just under the $ 6 mark which was reasonable. The cheese in my omelet was thick homemade cheddar; I could tell. It was really rich and not your everyday omelet. The bowl of biscuits and gravy was a pretty large serving and needed a little black pepper to jazz it up.
Our server was really nice and attentive. The gift shop is a must for the ladies in your group. People rave about the homemade jams, jellies and pastries.
I really liked Yoder’s and would gladly make the drive in the future.

The only reason I’m not giving five stars on this is because our dinner wasn’t that fabulous. It was the breakfast the next morning that really blew me away. First, dinner. We didn’t get the buffet, but ordered off the menu. The meats were over salted, and the veggies over cooked.
Breakfast was by far the most amazing. Besides their decadent Cinna-​Swirls that are to die for, I had their Amish Haystack. A tender, flakey, freshly baked biscuit, hash browns cooked just right (crunch), chopped ham, eggs, topped with a scrumptious Sausage Gravy, and then cheese on top of that. It was an amazing meal, and my arteries are still complaining.
Ask for Connie’s section. She is fabulous!

Yoder’s serves homey, delicious, comfortable, predictable Amish food with friendly service. You can choose between the very popular buffet or al a carte service.
There is absolutely no sight, hint or smell of anything remotely spicy on the buffet; no hot sauce on the table, no frou frou olive oil dip. What you get is salt AND pepper. Yet the food is very exciting to me. Partly because there is nothing else worth mentioning food-​wise in this part of middle Illinois. But Yoder’s really prepares their food with care and heart. The broasted (fried) chicken is always tender and juicy; the casseroles are warm and welcoming like those church potlucks of my childhood. Their peanut butter and marshmallow spread and fresh homemade bread has a real following, too.
So yes, although I enjoy every kinda exotic food, I still look forward to lunch at Yoder’s when I am in this part of Illinois. It is a must try!

My husband and I are from Los Angeles and were visiting Monticello, IL with his parents. They were kind enough to treat us for dinner at Yoder’s. The place is cute, décor is warm and welcoming, servers were polite, and the food was great!
We had fried chicken (salty, but great), green beans and corn (both were very sweet and equally good), as well as other sides from the buffet. Everyone loved their desserts, which ranged from a spice/​cinnamon type of cake, to brownies, to soft serve, to cobbler.
The gift shop is adorable! I brought a small pumpkin loaf and a pack of Amish chocolate chip cookies back for my coworkers. The cookies are as real as it gets. You can pretty much taste the butter and brown sugar inside. I could have easily purchased every food item in the gift shop since everything was delicious.
So, stop by Yoder’s if you’re in the area. It’s worth the drive. :)

First of all, the location is wrong on the Unilocal map. The place is actually east of town by half a mile or so, but you can’t miss it. It will be where all the cars and tour buses are parked.
I think this is what happens when the Amish proprietors succeed way beyond their dreams in the retail business. They go from being «country» to mass market retail. So, rating this place puts me in a real quandary.
Let me start by stating that this place does in fact make the best fried chicken ever, anywhere, and it is not even close. Nothing in the deep south or anywhere else can come close to how good the fried chicken is.
BUT, that’s where the good ends, and presumably why the lot is full at lunch time and the tour buses are lined up, because the rest of the place is Amish sell-​out to mass market retail and your basic all-​you-​can-​eat buffet chain.
I feel a responsibility to recommend Miller’s Bread Basket, in of all places South Carolina, for the traditional Amish store/​restaurant if that is the experience you are looking for:
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So the 3 stars apply to the fried chicken, which is really 5-​star quality, but the rest of the place drags it down.
PROS: Fried chicken is the best in the world
CONS: everything else: Tourist trap, blue hair tour buses, 20 minute wait for lunch on a weekday, who knows on a weekend.

I went in for breakfast around 9:30 and was waited on within 2 minutes. While waiting for my hot breakfast I looked around and noticed less than a dozen people mulling around eating. For some reason it took them over 30 minutes to bring me my one dish. The food wasn’t that bad, I just wish the food had been hot instead of luke warm, and the biscuits didn’t taste a day old. Another incident was when the waitress filled my coffee cup and overfilled it, spilling some on the table… instead of cleaning up her mess she threw down a napkin, said ‘oops’ and walked away… she didn’t even bother to clean it up… maybe thats why I wasn’t charged for the coffee… nevertheless it was a wtf? moment. Oh and the bacon had no flavor whatsoever… blegh! It was just dried crunchless air.
Oh, and I don’t know what they have done to the chicken in the past year, but it was extremely dry the last time I ate the dinner buffet. Unlike the past year when you could taste full, juicy, flavoring, mouthwatering chicken. Where is that tasty chicken, I want it back!

We went for a late lunch-​early dinner. The food was still pretty good but some of it you can tell had been sitting on the buffet table a while. The oyster stew, pork, chicken, and cherry cobbler were the favorites. They sell the peanut butter and apple butter, that is served along with the bread, in the gift store. The fudge from the store was very creamy. The store also had a nice selection of cards and many gifts.

The first time I went to Yoder’s Kitchen I was in heaven with their comfort food buffet style! Yummy. You can’t beat some fried chicken and mashed potatoes after a long stressful day! There was also a certain charm to the place. Loved it! The second time I went here I was kinda disappointed to see all the same foods in their buffet. There weren’t too many choices in the dessert department either. And I love me some dessert (s).
I was sorta hoping they’d have different foods, you know, change it up a bit. But it was the same stuff. Kinda boring and predictable. Still good, still charming, but I may only go back in a year or so.

If you ever find yourself in Amish country do not pass up an opportunity to eat; this goes well for Yoder’s Kitchen in Arthur. It is American comfort food, unbutton your top pants button and let yourself get comfortable. The food isn’t Michelin quality but there is plenty of it and it is tasty. The hospitality is genuine and the gift store needs to be perused. I picked up some homemade jam, so good I ration myself.
Yoder’s may be off the beaten path but hitting Amish country is a great way to pass away a lazy Saturday.

So we got there 1 minute too late to enjoy the lunch buffet. Our bad. The menu was simple American diner and comfort food and the salad bar wasn’t half bad. The service was good and the peanut butter they have on the table to put on your bread was (according to my girlfriend) delicious. I couldn’t tell you… if I had eaten it I may have been rushed to the nearest hospital.
Imagine a very clean and friendly Old Country Buffet with a genuine Amish charm…