Pioneer Restaurant

Normal small town southern food, friendly staff cold drinks salad bar. BLT sandwich was very good assortment of sides. Nice little place to stop off for a quick bite. Only drawback restrooms are outside of building. Also very little for the kids you have a choice of corn dogs or chicken tenders.

Zolfo Springs = Population 1641 = 1 Unilocal restaurant! Yikes! Don’t get me started with the small town jokes. Hell, there are some West Virginia families bigger than this. The cattle outnumber the people and so don’t the goats. If your GPS talks it might say «What in the world are you doing?» Don’t be put off by the dirt parking lot.
Despite all the jokes this is one fine place for breakfast. The smiling hostess will seat you at the table with the red & white checked tablecloth. The menu will have all the expected basics. The Special = your choice of eggs, potatoes, meat & bread which might be a homemade biscuit for a whopping $ 4.79! There are also tons of other choices. Of course your big mug of coffee will be kept filled.
The neighboring conversations will likely include the latest gater sighting. Of course the trials and tribulations of the locals will also be dissected.
This is small town America at its very best and despite all the jokes you will absolutely feel comfortable here. Highly recommended! BTW– Cash only. Those newfangled charge cards are only for the city slickers.

Good Country fare. Cash only. Hand written menu with days fixin’s. Had a Reuben w/​fries, with side of turnip greens and cucumber salad. Others in our party had cheeseburger w/​mashed potatoes and brown gravey. BBQ pork sandwich w/​green beans. Everything was pretty good. Cash only.
Only negative was the condition of the public bathroom, which has an outside entrance. In need of a good cleaning.

Went in hoping for vegetables. Very few on menu unless you count potatoes and corn, both starches. Couldn’t make s veg plate. Had black eyed peas that was the only real one. Can’t count beets. Won’t stop again.

This is definitely a locals diner and we love visiting diners where the locals eat. When we saw it in the morning, we figured then we’d be stopping on our way back.
We were just going to order a light lunch but when we saw the salad bar and homemade soup we opted for that instead. That was a good choice. The soup was wonderful and the salad bar very fresh.
Our server was excellent and very friendly. Part of the menu was handwritten and prices were very, very good. We just might try it again for dinner before we leave the are. Just remember to have cash if you decide to visit as they don’t take credit cards.

Great fried checken. Excellent rice and beef tips.
Very friendly old south restaurant.

I ordered the sirloin steak, the steak came out, it was so salty and smelled funky that I could not eat it. I think they were trying to hide the old meat smell and taste with salt and seasoning. I sent the steak back and ordered the New York Strip steak. When that steak came out I tried to eat it. This steak was nothing but fat and gristle. I told the waitress that this steak was also unacceptable. The owner of this restaurant is an old lady with a nasty attitude, she started yelling at me when I asked for an adjustment on our ckeck. She even took a swing at me and told us to get the hell out of her place. Please do not even think about eating at this cesspool of a restaurant. I give this place a negative –10 stars.

This is really in the middle of nowhere. Stopped at 1130 am. Could not get breakfast. There is every country thing on the menu that you can think of. Frogs legs, catfish filets, chicken gizzards and livers. The wood paneling and the hard red booths show how dated this place is. Bathrooms are on the outside of the building. Husband ordered pork fritter with mashed potatoes, picked beets and corn fritters. Me — grilled ham and cheese. waitress was very friendly and accommodating. Everything seems to be fried. When in Rome. My grilled cheese arrived. LOL one skimpy piece of cheese on it.

This is a legitimate dinner. The Defenders Motorcycle Club I ride stopped here for breakfast during our Labor Day breakfast ride. They immediately accommodated our large group. Wrote individual checks without a complaint. They had a great breakfast special; two eggs anyway, bacon (I mean a lot of bacon, maybe half a rasher), potatoes (hash browns, homefries, or some other way), and toast or biscuit (get the massive homemade biscuit), all this and coffee for $ 4.95. You can’t beat that any where, and the reports were great. I got two eggs over medium (perfectly cooked), corned beef hash (grilled to perfection), homefries, and a biscuit. I thought I was going to have to take a nap!
If you’re out in this area or just want to get away one morning this is a great little surprise. Those that follow me know I love breakfast, this is a really good one!
Oh if you come here bring cash they don’t so credit/​debit cards!

Just stopped for lunch and had the cheeseburger and onion rings. Very tasty, and the good service got us back on the road fast. Try them!

Dang $ 4.39 until 11AM for 2 eggs/​small links/​home fries hashbrowns or grits/​toast or biscuit. This is a family owned haunt of locals, and travelers going north south through the State. The cashier, well scented in Noxema, directed me to a neatly prepped table covered in oilcloth. She told me that Miss Brenda would serve me, Miss Brenda was table side before the kind receptionist lady returned to her station where photos of a young beauty queen proudly graced the wood paneled walls.
The $ 3.49 desserts used two columns on the daily specials’ board. So I had to have pumpkin pie, considering the festive Sunday atmosphere. Motorcyclists, families, hunters, snowbirds from the many inland FL RV communities, and various regulars seemed to enjoy the stop as I did.

I’m torn with this place. Had the Texas burger and it was OK, nothing spectacular though seemed hand pressed. Service was OK, again, nothing spectacular. Wait staff was pretty good, but something was still missing.
Could tell that this is a mom and pop place, which I truly enjoy supporting, yet something leaves me unenthused about this place.
It’s very busy and always has cars and is in a fairly remote area at intersection of two main roads.
Some prices seem really good but some are truly horrible.
Came here for lunch but will try breakfast next time, maybe I’ll be more energised then.
Can’t really recommend this place but it’s very busy all the time.

This is a great out-​of-​the-​way place to eat. Zolfo Springs isn’t a very big town so you won’t run across the Pioneer unless you are probably on your way some place else. They serve good ‘ol fashioned southern food here and some good desserts too, mostly of the cake and pie variety. This place has been here forever and many of the locals have been going to this place all of their lives. The service is real friendly and the prices are very good also. My father and I have eaten here many times and the prices are very reasonable.