Sheffield’s Country Kitchen

Real good catfish, and real good fried chicken.
In the film «Searching For The Wrong Eyed Jesus» (a must see doc about southern culture) the famous author Harry Crews gives a monologue inside the restaurant. There is also live performance from indie folk singer Jim White in the annex with the pool tables. There is and interview with a waitress and a guy I believe is the owner. He (the owner) usually comes, sits and talks with us while we wait for our food.
Definitely worth checking out.

There seems to be a disconnect between what I call a FDA/​Health Dept. nightmare and all around horrible food establishment and what other reviewers deem a solid choice for food. Let me get this out to you people now — STAY AWAY. For 2012 this is my all time lowest ranking review yet.
I see a fellow Unilocal ELITE member rated this place 4 stars. This is just wrong and irresponsible. This place has the poorest human quality second only to its food. I’m not talking about truck drivers… I hold a commercial license, I’m talking the staff.
Over medium eggs torched to resemble those rubber mats that assist you in opening jars… bacon that is cooked on the same griddle as the catfish — with identical flavor… and flying insects designed by the devil to irritate you to no end while choking down the prison food… no wait… prison food has to be better than this… I give up. I can’t think of any reason why the semi trucks that frequent this truck stop/​restaurant don’t just drive through it and end this horror story. This place literally belongs in the movie House of a 1000 Corpses… I expected Capt. Spaulding to jump out at any moment.
My last memory as we walked out was the mumbling waitress slamming a fly swatter down on the counter vaporizing her kill and sending fly leg hairs and antennae into other customers’ plates.
Excuse me while I cry myself to sleep.

On a recent road trip, somewhere around Jasper, I drove into a wall of road-​smoke the likes of which I’ve only ever found heading south on I-​75 within Florida. Something big somewhere was on fire, and everyone knew it. I needed a break. It was time for breakfast. So I took the next exit, thinking I would sit in some filtered, conditioned air for a while in hopes the wind would shift and move the wall of smoke. I landed in Sheffield’s.
Sheffield’s makes no pretenses. Sheffield’s is the kind of road-​side diner where there’s a couple of bottles of Raid on the shelf next to the Texas Pete pepper sauce and the Liverite liver pills. The kind of place where the waitress calls you «honey» and might be able to tell you about road conditions up and down the interstate. The kind of place where you sit to enjoy your breakfast at the counter which is decorated with that certain, special old-​town Florida kitsch, and the jukebox might suddenly play a comfortable Randy Travis song. There’s someone in the back room slowly turning quarters into electrons at a road-​side «gambling» machine, and he gives you a questionable eye as you walk to the bathroom where the graffiti depicts criminal statements against the president of our fine nation. (I do recognize the graffiti is not their fault.)
But don’t get me wrong: Sheffield’s is pure Florida Country cooking. Meat & three fare. Cooked to order right there. I was tempted to order some lunch, but decided to stick with breakfast. The waitress gave me the seal of approval on my order of an egg & cheese & sausage breakfast biscuit with some sweet tea. Communication between the waitress and the cook was precise and efficient. (He acknowledged by repeating the order, followed by the word «acknowledged.») It was made to order within minutes, served hot and fresh, and it was delicious. Totally hit the spot.
The waitress said the wall of smoke would probably last «for at most a couple of miles,» and she was right. If I ever have to take a break in Jasper, I know where I’m going.

AWSOME food loved the hamburger steak! waitress was verty friendly and food was prepped fast. great coffee interesting décor. passing thru again next week and will be back for the catfish which looked amazing! give them a try, no styrofoam plates or instant potatoes in this place!

This is a special place. We were driving through northern Florida at night on the fourth of July, hoping after days of roasted pork and other deep fried delights that we might get lucky and find someplace that served vegetables (let alone someplace that would be open on fourth of July– a real fantasy out in the middle of northern Florida). Funny enough I read the review above which makes Sheffield’s sound kind of creepy– I had a good laugh at the reviewer’s funny comments, and since they didn’t make the restaurant sound any good we didn’t head there. Later on we saw a billboard advertising a place with country cooking and fresh vegetables daily, and we decided to turn off and try it out, not knowing it was the same place. I am so glad we did.
Sheffield’s is exactly what it said on the billboard: country cooking with daily fresh vegetables. The décor is old fashioned small town style, and obviously arranged by someone who really cares about the place. It’s not fancy. It’s not a pretend version of rustic small town life like you find in the city, it’s the real thing. The mashed potatoes were real homemade mashed potatoes. The lady who runs the place was friendly and gregarious and very welcoming to a couple of outsiders like us. I totally know how it can be a little intimidating to go off the beaten path, and I have certainly had a few scary walks into truck stop restaurants where everyone gives you the pig eye and nothing is edible and you fear for your safety. That’s not Sheffield’s. There was a lot of love in every part of our experience– the food, the decorations, and the service. Like having home cooked dinner at my midwestern grandma’s place. Made us feel great, and really happy that we gave the place a chance.

I have to agree with the Arkansas review… I was curious about the «Stephen King» reference & although the place was a little (or maybe a lot) on the Sci-​Fi side, the food was great, with homemade style & the people really were friendly!
I will stop again!
R. L. H.

At first we thought we’d wandered into some Stephen King novel or something. Everyone stared at us from the time we got out of the car until after we seated ourselves (no sign or employee to indicate if we should have waited). There was one obvious employee wiping off tables, but he didn’t favor us with the sound of his voice either. The one overworked waitress spoke to us, and rather kindly. We both got the house special – the hamburger steak meal. It tasted great, but we were disappointed that there were no mashed potatoes available because – if I understood the waitress right – they were having trouble figuring out how to cook potatoes. Stays a three for the unclean floor (the table wiping guy was too busy smoking and just looking surly to clean floors apparently) and the «am I gonna get raped?» walk of shame to the restrooms in a different part of the building. Definitely good food and a friendly waitress.