Restaurants in Fort Leonard Wood

Once a ramshackle ice-cream store with a loyal Akron following, today Zack's Fire and Ice serves barbecue along with its cones with help from new owner and former pastor Randy Stewart and his wife, Kathy. The Stewarts have lived in the Southwest and up and down the East Coast, so rather than adhere strictly to any one regional barbecue style, they synthesize their favorite elements from a number of traditions to create an eatery with the welcoming spirit of a backyard cookout. The kitchen slow smokes brisket, ribs, pork, and turkey breast and slathers them with sauces such as honey and apple bourbon. Frozen treats such as sorbet and frozen yogurt stay chilly at the ice-cream counter alongside hard-packed ice cream in flavors such as pumpkin pecan, oatmeal cookie, and Superman, designed to freeze enemies’ brains faster than a speeding bullet.

RyMac's Rub and Pub charms diners with its 1920s-inspired ambience. The dining room's cobbled interior imitates period buildings, with false doors and windows inlaid with portraits that depict life in bygone decades. The flavor of the epoch even finds expression in menu items, which fuse the recipes and ingredients of various cultures into dishes that can only be called American, such as the Irish nachos or the light bulb sandwich. The bar, also encased in stone, brazenly snubs prohibition with nine different tap beers at any given time.

Aromas of fluffy pancakes and freshly made omelets waft through Springfield Family Restaurant 24 hours a day. In addition to breakfast fare, the menu also features lunch and dinner items, including strawberry bistro salads of baby field greens, cranberries, pecans, and feta cheese. Ovens bake specialty bread for the french toast, which is battered, grilled, and lightly dusted, like a forest fairy, with powdered sugar.

Bambu embraces traditional recipes and dining practices to create an authentic Vietnamese dining experience. Their pho soup packs noodles into a beef or chicken stock made on site and simmered for 12 hours to fully coax out flavors and create a dish named Best Hangover Remedy by the editors of 417 Magazine. The menu showcases rich house specialties, including Bun Bo Hue, a soup from the old imperial capital of Central Vietnam with a spicy broth made from long-simmered beef bones. Most items come with a plate of fiery chilis, fresh herbs, and lime to season dishes instead of boring salt- and peppershakers or somber personal chefs. The courteous wait staff caters to every diner's needs, providing gluten-free menus to those with dietary restrictions and bibs to protect from soup splatters.

When you order guacamole at Las Margaritas, you aren’t just asking for the avocado-based chip dip; you’re asking for a spectacle. That’s because the staff brings the entire guacamole-making production to your table, mashing together the ingredients in front of you and delivering the tasty concoction as freshly as if the kitchen had an avocado tree growing in the sink. This dedication to fresh, authentic Mexican cuisine sums up Las Margaritas, where chefs make salsas by hand daily and churn out favorites such as chimichangas, tacos, enchiladas, and burritos.

The menu also includes more innovative dishes, such as pork-and-pineapple-filled tacos and the camarones tocineta—cheese-stuffed shrimp that are wrapped in bacon and topped with a pork rind whittled into a bow. A chilly margarita quells any spicy main course and incorporates only natural ingredients to flavor its pomegranate, peach, mango, and pineapple varieties.

Linda and Steve Wood broke the ground on their first Australian-themed enterprise when they opened The Outback Steak and Oyster Bar in 1987. Over the years, the eatery garnered enough attention from Ozark visitors that it inspired the couple to open the Outback Outfitters clothing store in 1989. Nearly a decade later the Woods converted the store into the Outback Pub, adorning its walls with Australian articles and serving a menu of down home, exotic fare. Wild appetizers such as kookaburra-sauce-laden gator tail cause taste buds to don tiny safari caps before trekking through entrees of seasoned grouper or the tavern's specialty Shepparton chicken pot pie. Sips from more than 100 beers bring tides of malty and hoppy flavor, while live entertainment hosted every night gives the dinner crowd a soundtrack more pleasing than compliment-whispering earmuffs.