Shorty Small’s

Great place to eat they have awesome baby back ribs very good food I will be back for sure came all the way from California long trip driving thanks for the good service it was fantastic and I will be back for sure Hope to be moving to Springfield Mo so will be coming here as much as we can thanks again for the great service.

Dining around Branson trying as many places as we could, using Unilocal to help me lead my family to places worthy of one of our vacation meals, we stumbled upon Shorty Smalls. Not many cars in the parking lot, but not empty either. Big but sort of nondescript from the outside, we decide to go in and give it a try. We sat at the bar and Roger was our bartender. Roger was fantastic not only at his job, but he also gave us a map and a little sightseeing tour of places that hadn’t originally been on our adjenda. The next afternoon, we took his suggestions and did the tour he had mapped out for us and thoroughly enjoyed every part of it. That night we had 2 chicken pot pies and they were delicious with hearty creamyness, vegetables, chicken, and flaky puff pastry. We appreciated Roger’s suggestions so much we had to stop back in before our vacation was over to say thank you. This time we shared the soft pretzels because we were on our way to a show. I am a pretzel fan, and I’ve eaten them in Bavaria, Germany, so you will see pretzels riddled throughout my Unilocal pictures and reviews, but these pretzels were something new and surprizing even to me! One of the best pretzels I’ve ever eaten. A tender crisp on the outside of a fluffy soft hot pretzel. My dad and I gobbled and my mom even ate a whole one even though she is completely grain free… but she polished off that whole pretzel with no regrets
Thanks again, Roger!

This place is great! We came in late on a Friday and sat in the bar. The service was great and so was the food.

Food was really good, which is the only reason I’m giving four stars. The margarita & amaretto sour could have been better. Service was just ok. We visited on a Sunday night & the restaurant was fairly empty, but it took longer then expected to get our food.

Staff was friendly. Now to the food — Portions are very small and there isn’t a choice of BBQ sauce. There’s only one. It was okay-​very thick. I’ve had better out of a bottle. I’m not a rib fan but they were truly amazing!!!

Let me say that first and foremost – the food is spectacular. I had the guacamole burger, sans bacon, and my guy had a bacon hamburger. We didn’t go for any apps, but they have a good selection of some different items.
Our issue with this place was the service. We are in Branson several times per year and know the area well, yet we’d never tried Shorty Small’s. Sadly, while I rarely do this after one visit, we won’t be returning.
We had about a 10 minute wait, which isn’t unreasonable. However, their queue was input on an iPad, and you would be sent a text when your table was ready. The two girls at the hostess station made comment that if you input at the same time, it doesn’t sync correctly. In turn, two or three of us were text at the same time while they were calling other names on the list.
Even so, we were sat, and our waitress Mackenzie (sp?) came over. She took our drink order and disappeared. She sat and waited on a booth behind us and took their drink order. We’ve now been seated and waiting on drinks for 10 or so minutes. She then returns to take our food order… still no drinks.
The food order was a WHOLE separate issue. After 15 minutes we did receive our drinks, but to order a hamburger plain, add bacon was a serious ordeal. Literally 5 – 6 minutes on the iPad were spent to input this order. She mentioned that by ordering a burger that was $ 2+ more expensive it would save us money. Except by adding bacon to their most basic burger and 86-​ing the garden, would have been the cheapest – and most effective – route. After correcting her multiple times (both of us said «no cheese» about 4x each), we finished the order. Whew.
Food comes out, and his burger is wrong. My fries were ice cold. Imagine that.
The funniest/​saddest part is… behind us, after taking our order, she goes to the folks seated behind us in the booth and tells them their food would be out shortly. One lady at the table reminded her that they hadn’t even ordered yet, so she proceeds to take their order.
She finishes and a manager (I assume) finally brings out my guy’s food. At least it’s hot.
Burgers were awesome. She popped by to exclaim that she DID put the order in correctly. .whatever. She asked if we were okay. At that point, we were fine. She went to table behind us and dropped their check… before they even received appetizers. Seriously, chick? Get it together.
She only came back to drop our check, and by then, I no longer wanted the refill I’d been waiting for.
The craziest part? It isn’t as though she was super slammed. She had 4 tables in her section, and one was empty.
What a freaking mess!
Too many places to choose from to choose Shorty Small’s.

We went as a group of 12. They were sort of a confused mess. The staff was very nice and the food tasty but everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Everyone’s food came at different times. My husband found a hair in his food. A lady in our group ordered chicken and green beans. They brought her ribs and fries and told her they were out of chicken. She brought it to their attention that she did not order ribs they never offered to change it. It was all just a big mess. We were all nice and laughed it off and they tried. They brought desert on the house and really apologized but boy was this the strangest restaurant experience. Two stars because they were friendly and the food that was correct did taste ok. We won’t go back.

Went in, sat down at the bar on a Friday night. There was one other person in the area. Waited almost 10 minutes while bartender snacked and played on his phone 4 feet from where I sat. Then I left.
Should I have said something? Yep. But that’s not really how this works, is it? I took my money elsewhere. Judging by the lack of business on a summer Friday night, I’m not the first.

Super friendly and fast service. Found a coupon in a local tourist flyer for a free onion loaf… their version of a blooming onion. Pretty good. Kids meals came out super fast, which isn’t a bad thing. My drink took a bit to reach the table, and when it arrives it barely resembled the picture on the table flip insert. I posted a comparison pic. The drink itself was ok. I ordered the chicken fried chicken pasta. Really good. The chicken was delicious. If I could give Shorty Smalls a 4.9 I would. But can’t give it a 5 because of the drink.

Seated within 5 minutes at 7:30 on a week night. Food came to the table within minutes of the order. Waitress was very friendly. Half onion log was huge. Ribs were good as were the sweet potato fries. I would recommend this place.

We like the smoked sausage and the roasted chicken. And always enjoy the atmosphere.

They have these HUGE cheese stick appetizers!!! You must eat these! They were great!!!
I had chicken strips and the batter was delish. Most chicken tenders taste like they are thrown into a bar of flour and fried. These had a little spice to them.
Daughter had chicken fried steak, the Sadie size and still was to much for her. Honey had a mushroom burger and he said it was really good. I did carry out but the place looked clean and had a bar.

As the reviews said… Excellent food, BAD Service and the awesome cleanup crew! If this place could improve on the service side this would be a top notch restaurant.

Best food in Branson. Ribs fall off the bone with tangy sauce. chicken is full flavor and sides are seasoned to perfection. and the beer is off the hook!

Not that I was expecting fabulous food but really sub-​par. The free onion loaf was greasy, like way, super greasy. The best thing on the chicken tender platter was the cole slow. The chicken tenders were small and dry, the fries soggy. Had the brownie/​cookie sundae which was fine but really needed more sauce on it.

Must have been off night, the steaks were bland the ribs were okay the baked potatoes were cold, the fried okra was excellent. The blackberry cobbler real good. Management was wonderful. And compted us dessert.

Family went for dinner.
Between the 4 of us, we had the onion loaf, roasted chicken, pulled pork, sausage, and turkey. It was all good food. Had to ask for silverware when the onion loaf arrived… Got it when the meals came, but had to ask for it again. Seemed like somebody just dropped the ball.
Clean up crew was impressive. They moved the table out of the booth to use the sweeper, they moved the booth seat away from the wall to clean behind it, and I watched them wipe down every inch of the chairs at the table… Seat, back, legs and braces! Maybe the end of the dinner hour cleaning, but still impressive.
All in all, food was good, service was good (enough), and the place was clean. I would go again!

Shorty Small’s was a nice surprise! Jessica, our waitress, was amazing! We left our appetizer coupon at the hotel and she honored it anyways! The onion loaf was very tasty.
The food was amazing! Catfish, ribs, and sausage were just unbelievable. We left with a full stomach
I’m not exactly sure why this place only has 3−½ stars! It deserves more than that so I gave it 5.
Service is great and the food is amazing! Try them out tonight and you won’t be disappointed!

We ate here for lunch on NYE day, so I wasn’t surprised when Shorty Small’s wasn’t exactly hopping and popping. The place is huge… there are rooms jutting off everywhere, and I wonder if it gets busy enough to warrant all that space. Anyway. We waited at the front counter for about 5 minutes before someone wandered over to see if we had been helped. We finally got ‘greeted’, and I use that term loosely. He came up, asked if there was just 2 of us, and said to follow him. Call me old-​fashioned, but a little conversation, smile, or welcoming attitude would have made a better first impression. I would almost have rather just seated myself. It’s funny how much a pleasant attitude makes a dining experience better.
We were seated at a booth, and after that, the service definitely improved. The menus are a cute little folded newspaper with a ton of food options. All the appetizers seemed a little pricy ($ 10 for 5 mozzarella sticks), so we opted for a side of fried okra for an app. What a great idea we had. The ‘side’ of okra was a dish about a foot long piled with fried tasty goodness, and was under $ 4.
I ordered the turkey club on a buttered croissant – that’s what the menu said, and it wasn’t kidding. The taste of butter was almost overwhelming, in an awkward way. It wasn’t a shiny melted butter like you get on the croissants at Cheddar’s…it was like a fake butter taste with a serious smell of butter… tasted good, but the scent situation gave me a weird mental issue.
Like any of my reviews, I have to examine the beer menu. Not a ton of option at Shorty Smalls, but that’s okay. They had a local brew in a huge mug. I’ll make do when I get a pile of fried okra!
Good food, fast service, but a slick dirty floor with a puddle of coke (?!) under our table. Two outta three ain’t bad.

Great place to goto
I miss the landing location and the original location.
No idea why it closed besides the Tornadoes that came through.
Onion loaf is AMAZING!
the large chicken fried steak is good.
Baked ziti is good.
I been to this location once.
The landing: 4 times
The original 100+ over 14 years or more.
Patio area with the waterfall looks cool.
Inside was clean as of summer 2013 when I was their.