These days when eating out, our choices seem to be virtually endless. Ethnic food, steaks, seafood and fast-food restaurants abound, and many of us live within a mile or so of at least a handful of them.
   But sometimes you notice a place off the beaten path that piques your interest and makes you turn into the parking lot and head on in to see just what's happening.
   Such is the story with Southern Home Cooking, located on Arkansas 161 at Prothro Junction. The restaurant is in a building that for many years was a Mexico Chiquito. And it still boasts the heavy ornamental wood doors, Mexican-looking chairs and tiles on the front counter. We miss the old Chiquitos, but we realize we must move on.
   Southern Home Cooking's cuisine is what you might classify as a cross between diner cuisine and soul food. After entering the establishment, you'll see a small steam-table. Each day they offer a couple of meat selections and a nice choice of vegetables. For $6, you get a meat, two veggies and a roll or corn bread. And judging from the servings we got, it's more than enough. Children's portions are available for $3.95.
   Weekly entree selections include meatloaf, spaghetti, chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, fried pork chops, ribs, smothered pork chops and baked chicken.
   Side dishes include corn, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, cabbage, sweet peas, rice, pinto beans, black-eyed peas and greens.
   I didn't try the corn bread, but the rolls are your basic brown-and-serve type.
   The restaurant also sells fish dinners ($6.80 for fish, two sides and roll or corn bread), as well as burgers (a cheeseburger basket that comes with fries is $5). But be warned, on our visit, we didn't realize they were out of fish filets and we wound up with fish steaks, which have bones, and to be honest, were a bit disappointing. So if you choose to order fish and don't like the steak cut, you may want to ask before you order.
   Besides the fish, we also had yams, cabbage, green beans, mashed potatoes, chicken-fried steak and spaghetti, and we weren't disappointed with any of it.
   Dessert selections (all $1.50) include peach cobbler, chocolate cake, lemon cake, pecan pie, carrot cake and sweet potato pie, which is what we had a hankering for on our visit. Unfortunately, they were sold out, so we went away dessertless.
   On the day of our visit, the building's air conditioning seemed not to be functioning, and a small cooling unit sitting on one of the tables was working overtime. Hopefully, it's not always that way, but if so, carryout is an option.
   As for the two-person staff, you'd be hard-pressed to find a much nicer pair. The friendly gal at the counter was patient and helpful, considering it took us a while to make up our minds, and the gentleman just kept on cooking.
   

SOUTHERN HOME COOKING Address:
1719 Arkansas 161, North Little Rock

Hours:
10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday Non-smoking

section: Smoke-free Cuisine:
Southern home-style

Credit cards:
V, MC

Alcohol:
No

Wheelchair accessible:
Yes

Carryout:
Yes

(501) 955-1118

This story was published Friday, May 26, 2006