Cook’s Spice Rack

Glad it is wheelchair accessible. They have a ramp and a big bathroom.
Pretty spacious inside with good sized tables.
Shared ½ an egg shoe, ½ biscuit and gravy, cup of DonnIa’s mean green chili, and cup of the red chili.
Liked everything. The chili were more like soup with a lot of beans. Not thick. The red was sweeter but I liked how savory and meaty my green chili was. My sister liked the red better.
Affordable prices.
I’d come back.

Food is good, service is great. Staff is incredibly nice and friendly. Friday is the one day they are open for dinner and the special is fish. They smoke the meat in a big smoker out back. We usually eat breakfast both weekend days. Wonderful! Good coffee, and we are choosy.

Great find. I was visiting from Philly and was amazed to see how reasonable the prices were. The staff was very friendly and welcoming. Will definitely go there again duringmmy next trip :)

This restaurant is one of my favorites. It lacks parking and can get crowded, but the atmosphere and the food are really good. I’ve eaten both breakfast and lunch at Cook’s and enjoyed the taste and the portions. I especially go back for the teralingua red chilli. I recommend Cook’s.

Old, reworked house with tchotchkes, doo dads, gee-​gaws and funny signs, etc. on every vertical surface. Huge menu, with breakfast served all day. I am visiting Springfiled for a couple weeks for work and have eaten there for lunch and breakfast, and plan to get another meal in before I leave at this week’s end. I ordered the White chili and half an egg salad sandwich for lunch — the chili Blanco was a surprise as it is more like a bean, hominy, vegetable soup (thin broth), but was DELICIOUS and fresh tasting. Egg salad on toasted marbele rye was also quite good, although egg salad was a bit sweet for me preference, the bread was hearty and spot on. Other diners tried the pony shoe — as it is a Springfield «tradition» and while they said it wasnt bad, didn’t rave about it.
Plus, as an aside — when was the last time you went to a reastaurant that had a sign stating «Their Back — Bluegill and Frog Legs» ?
Solid little, locally owned diner. Go and enjoy!

Love this restaurant! My favorite breakfast here is the skillet with eggs, variety of veggies and sausage, plus homemade whole-​grain bread with gravy. Yum! The atmosphere is super casual and staff are very friendly. Have never been disappointed with a meal.

Every time we come here order breakfast, we love their bfast. Especially the breakfast burrito. They have awesome homemade bread too. I have not been here for lunch but have heard good things.
Only downside would be service, a little slow at times. Depends on how busy they are.

This was our first time at Cook’s. The restaurant atmosphere is a bit quirky. The food was EXCELLENT! The service was fantastic! The homemade biscuits are a must-​have! I’ll definitely be back! I think this is my new favorite breakfast place!

Absolutely a winner in my travels. I ordered a Bluegill entrée (Bluegill delivered from Canadian source) which was excellent both in texture and in taste. I had not eaten Bluegill since my high school days and the flavor brought back fishing memories from Kent, OH in the 1950’s.
Our server was very proficient at a noontime period when every table was full. Our party of 5 adults and 2 kids were given two tables. All the food orders were delivered correctly, were still hot and not delayed by the noontime rush. The restaurants has several rooms and the noontime crowd is somewhat noisy and plenty of folks moving around the tables. However, in my opinion, the full house did not detract from our eating experience.
As we stopped to pay our bill (my brother-​in-​law picked up the bill) the restaurant owner was at the cash register. She took time to answer our questions about Bluegill rarely found available at any restaurant and how did this location have a fish that is regarded as a Game Fish in Ohio. She said the fish are caught in Canada and delivered fresh to this restaurant which makes them a legal, eatable fish in an Ohio restaurant. In my opinion, Bluegill have a very unique taste and surpass many other fish with bland flavors used in sandwiches.
We topped off our Marblehead visit with a stop at the Lighthouse just down the street.

First impressions… love the small quaint feel if the restaurant in a house. The Devore is a mix of hot peppers, Native American and the American west.
So, Terlingua Red, Black, Greasy Pot and the Green chili were all fantastic!!! Gray flavor, good combo of ingredients that provide a flavor that just keeps the spoon going. In addition, the grill cheese was excellent with several options for homemade bread to choose from! The marble rye patty melt did just that… melted in your mouth!
The service was awesome, with one if owners giving a sample of one of the holos to taste! Awesome!!!
All in all, great food at a great price !!

Six variety of chilis including a very tasty and perfectly spiced vegetarian. We both loved it. I also had Spinach Salad made from a large portion of tasty fresh baby spinach leaves, eggs, bacon, onions, tomatoes. Didn’t know it was so much or I would have got a cup instead of a bowl of chili. My wife had Black Pot chili, almost a stew with black beans and green peppers, not tomatoey like traditional chili, and a good chicken salad sandwich on tasty homemade whole wheat bread. Very eclectic décor! Check it out!

Sorry that I have to break the mold on this one. Despite all of the signs that said things like «Farm Fresh Eggs» I have to beg to differ. Those eggs were straight out of the 99 cent aisle at Walmart. You know, the kind that come in the styrofoam container. Also, I know that they are proud to represent soldiers but the Native American motif and the chili pepper overload made for a confusing interior. Not to mention the pro-​gun magazines on the way out. Yes, I like breakfast and all, but served with a heaping of ideology — save it for a more appropriate place. The biscuits were definitely not homemade. I’m fine with pre-​made everything — but don’t call yourself «cooks» call yourself «heats»

The greasy pot chili is amazing!!! They have so much to choose from and it is all good!!! I love their biscuits and gravy as well as the deserts

We visit Springfield regularly but hadn’t tried Cook’s for breakfast. It was good! The vegetables in the loaded veggie omelet were cooked al dente — perfect! The potatoes were griddle-​fried and nicely done. Whole grain toast had body and flavor. The bacon was crisp and tasty. The coffee was pretty bland, but that wasn’t a big deal. As we left we ordered a couple of quarts of chilli to take along, and they were very flavorful and not as peppery as expected. Service was very friendly and helpful. We’ll definitely be back. Good food, comfortable seating, friendly atmosphere — what’s not to like?

Fairly healthy chili alternatives are offered. Plus greasy chili if you want.

This is a good place for chili beans and fried fish, Donna the «Owner» she is very adorable and sweet, let’s get to the food, I love their Greasy Pot w/​Black Beans, if feel eating chili beans this is highly recommended but according to Donna all their chili beans are excellent and I agree to that…
Their beans will go very well for a plate of fried blue gill, crapie or walleye, I’m not really a walleye fun but their crapie is excellent and blue gill and if you are wondering about the price, Oh… it’s excellent specially with the bad economy they still keep their reasonable pricing for $ 20.00 you’ll have 2 bowl of chili beans, an Eat all you can Crapie or Walleye plus a soda for two person, it’s a complete meal for party of two, isn’t it excellent…
So if you have check out the place, I suggest to give it a try.

I love that this place opens up early! Getting off early in the morning after a long night at work and a hot cup of coffee and warm delicious breakfast is nothing to complain about.
The small place is great.
Try the wheat toast! AMAZING

I have a lot of love for places like Cook’s Spice Rack. It is clearly a family owned and run business. There were only two servers at the lunch rush (so I can see how some people might have had service issues) but both seemed to be family members. The atmosphere is super homey (because it is in a home?), the people are friendly and the food… oh the food!
First, the menu is huge here. There is a whole page for breakfast (today the breakfast special was sweet potato waffles… uhh!!! yesss!!) and it appeared you could get it all day as I didnt see anything that said ‘served until…’. When I walked in I saw a sign that said ‘6 types of chili and 6 types of fish’ and I was sold. All the chilis are different and I went for one (Terilingua Red?) that is very similar to what I grew up on. Its is very thin and has large chunks of tomato, green pepper, meat and lots of red kidney beans. To make it even better I chose the ‘add pasta’ option and suddenly I was in heaven. My dining companion and I agreed that with the pasta it was almost like goulash.
Dining partner had fried bluegill which he was very excited about. Apparently it is difficult to find in Illinois. I tried some and it was great! Amazing breading that was sort of like a thin panko. They also had froglegs, catfish, crappie, shrimp and walleye. Looking around everyone looked full and happy. In addition to the chili and fish they also had more of the normal stuff… sandwiches, horseshoes, etc. Something for everyone.
After our first visit my dining partner and I left totally stuffed and super satisfied. We are already talking about the next time we can go back.

Breakfast is what this place does best. Lunch and dinner can leave a lot to be desired and cause sticker shock at the register. We regularly drive past this place to go to other restaurants we like a lot better.

I’m at a loss as to why I’m the first one to review this place. I came here absolutely starving and left so full and satisfied that I wanted to wait until I was hungry again. It’s a small place, it’s a house that was converted to a restaurant/​store so it seems like you’re eating in someone’s house. They have four varieties of chili that all sound good but I only had the ‘greasy’ chili, which it was but was also delicious. Our group split an order of the chili cheese nacho fries and it’s the best order of loaded fries I’ve had and I’m going ahead and adding the word ‘ever’ at the end of that phrase. On the way out I snagged a cranberry chocolate chip cookie and the mix of cranberry and chocolate was blissful.
I can’t bad mouth the service either, maybe I’m not used to having friendly servers up north but our waitress was friendly and funny. It was as if we were eating at someone’s house and she was the hostess with the mostess. Truly, a great place to go to for a good, made-​to-​order lunch.