Ila Restaurant

I had the pleasure of enjoying breakfast at Ila Restaurant, and it was absolutely fantastic! I ordered the two egg breakfast, and everything was cooked to perfection. But the real star of the plate? That huge cat head biscuit! Fluffy on the inside, golden and just the right amount of crisp on the outside — it was pure Southern comfort. The atmosphere was cozy, the service was warm and welcoming, and I left full and happy. If you’re anywhere near Ila, do yourself a favor and stop in. You won’t be disappointed!

First, NOT a buffet! It's cafeteria style, with a Meat N' Three setup. Had 3 meat options, 5 side options, and 2 bread options. Mac N' Cheese was excellent! But fried chicken was tough and overcooked, which is a big problem in the south. Fried okra was also undercooked, no crunch and some of the breading was still wet. Cornbread was good, Okra and Tomatoes were just ok. Altogether was just fair overall, although it was only $12.99 with drink.

Stopped for breakfast while passing through Ila and was quite impressed!! It was a seat-yourself-and-we'll-be right-with-you type atmosphere with very friendly and talkative servers. Our food was made to order, so it did take a minute, but it was good and cooked just right. Not to mention very reasonably priced. My hubby fell in love with the biscuits, which are made from scratch every morning!! They also have buffet lunch which starts at 10 am. They are open Monday-Friday, 5:30am until 2pm. Also met some nice locals!

Don't get me wrong, the food is decent enough. If you're old and don't like seasoning, this place is perfectly fine and reasonably priced. Veggies (I had the green beans and the corn) were bland. Canned and boiled in unsalted water is my assessment. The potato salad was actually pretty good. The fried chicken wasn't terrible... A little dry, but probably because it was towards the last hour of the lunch rush. But again, pretty bland. The catfish was standard-issue cafeteria-style catfish. Nothing terribly special, but not bad. Service was great, friendly folks, and lots of seating even though they were pretty busy. To be fair, I'm comparing the food to what I've had in Athens (Food for the Soul) and Watkinsville (Rachel's,). If your choices are limited and you live in Ila, Ila Restaurant is probably perfectly fine. But I wouldn't recommend the 20-30 minute drive from Athens over the other options.

My wife and I stopped in this restaurant just minutes before they closed for the day and they allowed us to enjoy the food. We were traveling back to Florida from North Carolina that day and we wanted to bypass Atlanta’s screwed up traffic issues. Ila is a little town but Jackie, the restaurant owner, was very friendly and gracious. They didn’t have wheelchair accommodations or handicap assistance bars in the bathroom for men, unfortunately.