Three Pines Restaurant

This is the best home cooking in Hot Springs. We bring our grandkids to Brookhill Ranch Camp for the last 7 years and this is the first stop! It is run by a father (the cook), his daughter (pie cook) and granddaughter. The food is awesome. I haven’t had anything I didn’t like. The fried chicken isn’t cooked until you order it, the vegetable soup is to die for, liver & onions, chicken fried steak, everything is great. The daughter makes fresh pies everyday, coconut cream, chocolate and lemon icebox. I can’t say enough. I would give it 100 stars if I could. Closed on Wed & Thu, open for breakfast & lunch.

My mother made the best fried chicken ever known to humankind. Alas, though, death now irrevocably has impaired her ability to prove this assertion. Fortunately, this small, unassuming little establishment carries on with her tradition of fried chicken excellence. Simply stated, you will find none better anywhere.
The Three Pines is, indeed, a southern cooking Mecca. Besides the chicken, be sure to order an extra bowl of the best gravy most folks likely will ever taste in their lifetimes. Eat a couple of their slim, tasty biscuits smothered with this viscous, fat-​laden, fat-​producing delight, and wind up embarrassingly eating directly out of the gravy bowl with a spoon. Or simply come back the next morning for an unbeaten breakfast of fried eggs, quality bacon, and another order of biscuits and gravy.
If dignified ambiance is a goal, just drive on by. And if pressed by time constraints, don’t order the fried chicken. It takes a little time to fry up the best chicken available to humans in a world without my mother.
Update: On my last visit, the fried chicken was was too salty – to the point that it was almost inedible. My tolerance for salt is VERY high, so for me to say this is remarkable. Since it’s my first negative experience at this restaurant, I’m not inclined to lower its rating, but I’m concerned about my next visit.