If we’re allowed to talk about historical haunts, one of my favorites could only be found by following the pillar of smoke to its source, a tiny concrete block booth behind a bar in the summer. Back in the days when drive-in movies were teenager’s bedrooms, we would stop by the window and pick up a shitload of BBQ ribs and corn, then take it to the drive-in next door. We enjoyed backwoods gourmet while everyone else had to put up with the snack shack’s {shudder} hot dogs with bandages.
It is long gone, but there was a very good Colombian restaurant called “Chibchas” in Catheys Valley, CA pop. 825. It was in an old, nondescript farmhouse on the road to Yosemite. The livingroom and bedrooms were used as the dining rooms.
The best pizza I’ve ever eaten - by a huge margin - was at Truby’s, then in Whitefish, MT. (It’s since moved to nearby Columbia Falls, a little closer to the west entrance to Glacier NP. Haven’t been back to Montana since it moved.)
Damned inconvenient for my favorite pizza place to be 2000 miles away from where I live. 
Similar experience in Artesia, NM. The regular restaurants were mediocre, the fast food joints were horrid, but two little shacks on opposite ends of towns served up carryout of some of the best Mexican food (both SW and TexMex, oddly) around. The only place better anywhere nearby was a regular family owned restaurant all the way down in Carlsbad.
The late, lamented Planet Wayside, which had been in a converted chicken coop outside of Hamilton, VA. Customers included former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and actor Robert Duvall.
Similar, but more recent.
Sole Sapori in little Mt Horeb, Wisconsin was this tiny little hole-in-the-wall place on main street of a small town 20 minutes outside Madison. They used the name Pronto Pizza as the at the time sole pizza delivery place in town. But in the back was a family style Sicilian restaurant that was exceptional.
I would make a monthly pilgrimage with friends and we would just walk in and and say, “Sal, feed us!” and leave the details up to him. Never was disappointed.
I live in Oakville, Ontario, and until recently lived in the city next door, Burlington. Both are very rich, and both have trendy downtown strips with many boutique restaurants advertising every kind of cuisine you can ask for. Some are okay.
But the best steakhouse in either city, by a mile, is in an industrial-looking little strip mall on an industrial street way removed from the boutique stores.
My God, I wonder if that’s the same place? :eek:
I actually remember what the interior looked like: the front wall of the restaurant was a line of big windows looking out onto Main Street, with glass doors set in the middle.
Could you maybe take a photo of it and post it somewhere? Or has that ship sailed?
I also remember lots of red vinyl upholstery on the chairs and booths.
ESRI has an amazing cafe on their main campus that is open to the public. Not what you’d expect from a mapping company.
Hmmm.
Doe’s was my first and only thought when I saw the OP, then I saw your post.
How very strange. I went several times in the mid-80s while on business at Greenville.
Could very well be. It’s the right size, and I imagine it’s been heavily remodeled in my lifetime. If so, it’s nice to know it’s still there! 
Sole Sapori changed hands a few years after I left Madison and my friends said it just wasn’t the same. They remodeled, which removed some of its dingy charm. I heard it closed last year.
It’s not right on US Hwy 12, but not so far that couldn’t end up there on the way from Illinois to Minnesota. Not sure how long it was in business.
Sole e Sapori’s website has been shut down, and its Facebook posts end in early 2014. 
We were talking about the Mt. Horeb mustard museum at a meetup last week, and I was thinking that if I ever went there, I could stop by that restaurant too.
I had wondered about this restaurant; it closed in 2013 after the building burned to the ground.
Wacky decor and *great *for deep-fried clams, whitefish, etc., is Susan’s Fish & Chips in Portland, ME.
Found a very good BBQ place in Marion, IL, 17th Street Bar and Grill. Not “the greatest” BBQ ever, but very, very, ver good and in a surprising location. Right off I-57 if anybody is driving through. The owner/founder of the BBQ place, Mike Mills, is a champion BBQer, so that explains the quality.
Texas Steakhouse and Saloon in Goldsboro NC served a surprisingly good Pittsburgh-style steak.
Possibly the best breakfast I had was in Cooperstown, NY, right across from the Baseball Hall of Fame. I don’t know what made the breakfast so memorable (could be that I was very hungry, could be that I wanted it to be special), but it was pretty damn good.
Was driving from Orangeburg, SC to Athens, GA when I stopped at some convenience store that had fried chicken for sale. I got some to go but waited a few minutes after I started driving to dig in. It was so damned good that I turned around and told the woman who cooked it that it was some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten… and I’ve had a lot of quality fried chicken.
…and they never did catch on how to cook them bandages, did they?
We’re from South Texas and like a certain type of Tex-Mex food. Traveling north or west one encounters what those people think of as Mexican food (and it might very well be) but we don’t like it all that much. Lots of sauce, black olives sprinkled over, sour cream on everything, red AND green chili… When you venture to places like St. Louis and Atlanta, it becomes amusing (to us) what they think of as Mexican food. Yeah: we’re snobs.
My late husband and I took a trip to Alaska years ago to visit his son & wife when his son was stationed there. We took a driving trip into the hinterlands and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery. One day, on the side of the road, we spotted a Mexican restaurant. Intrigued, we felt we must certainly try it (and by this time we were experiencing Mexican food withdrawal-- not a pretty sight).
We went in and ordered familiar food from a familiar menu and when the food came—OMG, it was HOME. It was delicious, prepared exactly the way we liked it, and just what our tummies and souls longed for. The owner/cook came out and beamed under our praises. Turns out he was from Laredo! No wonder we loved his cooking! It was a lovely and memorable meal.
That’s what catch-up is for.