Lambert's Café, 15 miles south of Springfield in the town of Ozark, is a Missouri institution built around a single tradition: the "throwed rolls." Hot yeast rolls are tossed from basket to table — or rather, to whoever in the dining room raises a hand — throughout the meal, and the practice has made Lambert's one of the most talked-about roadside restaurants in the United States. The original Lambert's opened in Sikeston, Missouri in 1942; the Ozark location opened in 1994 to handle overflow demand.
The menu is pure American country cooking: pot roast, fried chicken, catfish, ham, and chicken and dumplings, all served in generous portions with "pass arounds" — free side dishes of fried potatoes and onions, black-eyed peas, macaroni and tomatoes, and sorghum molasses — that servers carry through the dining room and ladle onto plates. The place is loud, cheerful, and perpetually busy; expect a wait on weekends. It is emphatically not refined dining, but it is genuinely fun and the food is satisfying, honest, and filling. Cash and cards accepted.