Relay Station Restaurant

Went here for lunch on a Sunday.  Empty, which is always a bad sign, though while we were eating two other tables filled up.  I had called ahead just to check where they were...they have a billboard next to the intersection of 105 and 1774, and it's about half a mile east of there.  The decor is an odd mix of old time country eatery, sketches like you might get at the Ren Faire, and life-sized carved wooden statues.  The salad bar is in an old bathtub...well, I assume the ice is in the tub under the metal bins that hold the food.

I asked what was good and the waitress (who did a fine job waitressing) said they sell a lot of chicken-fried steak, which I got with white gravy and mashed potatoes.  Also tried some fried cheese sticks and jalapeño poppers and a corndog with fries.  It wasn't a bad chicken-fried steak, but it also wasn't special.  The fries were probably the best part of everything I tried and they weren't even fully brown.  The fried food was fresh out of the fryer and it was fried right...it just wasn't any more than filling.  If you've got a hard day's work laid out, this may be a good place to get your fuel, but otherwise I won't go back.  The people that sat at the table next to us got hamburgers, which looked fine but not exciting.

There are two intriguing things on the menu.  The first are frogs legs, and the second is a 5.5 pound steak...eat it by yourself in 75 minutes and it's free.

So if you like the sort of place where the warm, afternoon sunlight stretches through a stained glass Budweiser sign illuminating swirls of smoke from the cigarette sitting all by itself in the ashtray, still lit somehow.. - this is your place!

Oh yeah did I mention their fried foods are uniquely, 100%, no-bones addictive?  Cause they are.  

AND as an added bonus your table is a huge wooden spool..

The food is huge. The portions are out of this world. I knew about this place in high school and frequent it ever since. This is the home of the free 85 ounce steak. If you can eat a 5 pound 5 ounce steak, it's free. You have to finish it in about an hour I think. The steaks here are great, tasty and cheap. The fried mushrooms are delicious. The only thing I don't like is that sometimes the waitstaff is either understaffed at busy times. The food is great and the prices are great. This is one of my favorite down home steak restaurants.