Wilma’s Restaurant

While Wilma’s got some poor reviews and that’s usually enough to deter me, it’s in the «Eating Your Way Across Kentucky» book so I had to check it out anyway. We visited the day before Thanksgiving and Wilma was busy filling pie orders. For $ 8-​$ 9, you can get a whole home-​made pie! You do have to give Wilma 24-​hours notice to get one of her pies, but you can’t make a pie that cheap!
We stopped in for breakfast and were the only people in the dining room. The restaurant is basically in a house so the «dining room» is a few tables spread around. Ours was right next to the kitchen and it’s a regular home kitchen not a restaurant grade outfit. Most of the food is prepared in the basement and sent upstairs via a dumbwaiter.
We got the Pork Tenderloin Breakfast Platter. Be sure to ask for the homemade strawberry freezer jam for your biscuit. It was a ton of food and was only $ 5.75!
Wilma’s isn’t super fancy and but the food is reasonable priced and the place definitely has character so it’s worth a stop.

Oh wow, where to start? This place was pretty nasty. The floors are sticky. Our table was sticky. The men’s bathroom was out of order. The women’s bathroom is literally about 3ft x 3 ft. There was a sick toddler roaming around the floor greeting the customers with his snotty nose. It appeared to be the owners grandson as they had a room full of his stuff strewn about easily taking up ¹⁄₃^rd of the dining area.
I think the reviewer who mentioned the cooking being done in the basement was correct. Food was prepared somewhere else then brought back in. The staff were yelling between floors to/​at each other. There were three of us. Two of our orders were edible. One was horrible!
I wouldn’t recommend eating here. I would easily recommend one of several local fast food restaurants over Wilma’s.

Cozy country cooking, open early and on Sunday’s. Friendly service and they have hot browns on the menu! Great local place to enjoy coffee and a hot meal. Very Appalachian «feel.» My husband is from Texas and wanted to experience Eastern, KY (where I’m from) while we were here visiting family. This is the spot. Love it!

I am going to make a bold statement here and I will stand by it — we had THE BEST BACON EVER at Wilma’s.
We were passing through Paintsville — touring around Eastern KY soaking up local flare and flavor, avoiding chain restaurants for sure — when we cam to Wilma’s for breakfast. It is small, small crowded, dated and perfect. We asked for menus instantly outing ourselves as strangers. Our waitress, Haley Jo, was the sweetest thing ever. We also outed ourselves as cityfolk when my dad asked for hot tea instead of coffee. Haley Jo offered to heat up some sweet tea they had made, she admitted she had never made hot tea before. We loved her.
Anyway, on to the bacon. BEST EVER. done. The whole bill for four people full breakfasts and beverages (my dad had a rib eye & eggs meal!) was exactly $ 20. Wilma has been cooking for 50 years, and she is a pro. Loved it! After our breakfast we checked a couple antique shops in town, you won’t meet nicer people.
A note of caution, Wilma’s is not the cleanest or most well organized place I have ever eaten, but be nice — remember where you are and what you came for. Cut Wilma some slack — she has been doing this for 50 years!