Mary Lou's Grill

Mary’s Lou’s Diner in Carbondale, IL, is a cozy, old-fashioned diner near Route 51. It’s busy and has fast service, making it great for a quick meal. Just keep in mind they close at 2 PM. Worth a visit!

This was the first breakfast we've had in Carbondale. As for breakfast restaurants in southern Illinois, this place is now the gold standard. We tried the breakfast special: Strawberry and cream cheese stuffed French toast. It was delicious. The filling wasn't too little nor too much between two thick slices of Texas toast. The bacon was okay. Our server did a decent job keeping our coffee filled. Coffee or tea was included in your meal, which is nice. Portions are generous. I feel it's definitely worth the price. The interior is shabby without any chic. Simply functional and clean. For two people you're going to pay with tip $30-40. Seems to be a local favorite. We'll be comparing all other breakfast restaurants in the area to Mary Lou's.

My grandparents and parents went to SIU and I was lucky enough to have a great meal here with my family. My Mom was over the moon when we told her that we stopped there. She asked if the food was still good and it was flipping amazing. My son and wife ordered these ranch chicken sandwiches that were massive and looked amazing and they said they were absolutely delicious. My daughter got a cheeseburger and said nothing but ate it quick as can be- she's a teenager. I got the biscuits and gravy. They were sooo good. This is the kind of place I love to visit because this is what real American food is. I hope it never changes.

Very historic place lots of deep history. Food was fine can’t complain just not something I would seek out regularly. That being said the price was great and so was the service. Maybe I just haven’t found the right dish.

Flash back to the good ol days where friendly faces greet and serve you! I had breakfast here each day of my weekend and was not disappointed. The biscuits and gravey are a tad overrated, but I'd go back in a heartbeat! Two thumbs up for sure!

From Chicago we stopped in after a full morning of hiking... Best breakfast I've had in a while. Everything was fresh, the biscuits and gravy were to freakinn die for. I cleared my plate and contemplated ordering more !! Plan on coming back to the area and this spot will be at the top of our list!

This is a great place to eat. Good size portions, great service, very friendly. Highly recommend.

This establishment is a Carbondale icon that has been around since the early 60's. The biscuits and gravy are the best. Many of the menu items comes with biscuits and gravy as an appetizer. You have the option of eating in the dining room or at the counter. I enjoy the latter. It's sorta like stepping back in time. Iced tea and coffee are both good. Breakfast and lunch only. They close at 2pm.

Mary Lou's has been in a staple in Carbondale and for SIU students for years. There are few places in the area that I think compete for breakfast of lunch. Mary Lou's is a bit of a throwback. There is counter service and then a small dinning area. It reminds me of a cafe from movies in the 1950s. It isn't a fancy place, and I've definitely referred to it as a "dive" in the past in the best possible context. The service is polite and fast, the prices are very reasonable, the portions are large, and the quality is high. The last time we were in was right around lunch so our table ordered a mixture of lunch and breakfast items. My kids got pancakes that were huge and fluffy. My dad got an omelette with a side of bacon and biscuits and gravy. My wife got a burger and fries while I got a steak sandwich. Everything was outstanding and the prices were unbeatable. I would highly recommend Mary Lou's grill to anyone looking for a bite to eat.

I was in the area to attend a wedding and a small group of us went out to get breakfast on a very cold morning in November. The place was packed even for the early time of the day on a Saturday so we had to wait for about 10-15 minutes. Immediately on entering you could smell smoke from oil burning and food being cooked and they did not seem to have the best ventilation as it was pretty over powering. There seemed to be a lot of locals as the lady at the register seemed to be taking her time talking to each one of the. Being from the east coast I guess I need to work on my patience, but that was definitely one observation that stood out. The place has two sections and we were taken to the other side to be seated. Our waitress seemed pretty inexperienced as she took our order a few times and then served us food without any utensils at the table. It was a few rounds before we got everything. The biscuits were the best part, but other than that it was very ordinary breakfast with hardly any flavor.

We met our fiend here for breakfast on the way to a golf event. Parking is across the street in the public lot. It was my first time trying Mary Lou's. It has a diner vibe, with seating at tables or the bar. We sat at the bar and received quick service. They are famous for their biscuits and gravy and almost every meal on the menu offers them. I do not like biscuits and gravy so I can't give you my personal review, but everyone else scraped their plates, so they must be pretty good! My traditional breakfast items, eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast were all good! We will be back!

It's been 2 years since I ate here. I am still thinking about the biscuits and gravy. They were the best I've ever had!! Nothing else compares. Unfortunately, I live 6 hours away.

Very Friendly fast service. Across the street from railroad museum. Ice Tea was very good unsweetened had Chicken & Dumplings and Tea. $8.50.

Food was generous and delicious. Great service. The atmosphere reminded me of diners from the past! Highly recommend!!

Great ambiance! We had a bit of a wait but the food was well worth the wait. The staff was friendly and the food was hot and tasted great!

Everything was great. We had breakfast. The service was friendly. Just like I remember when I was in college!!

Love this place. Mary Lou's is everything that's right with the world. Huge dining counter. Mind your manners, they will tell You where to sit. Breakfast is awesome. The half order of biscuits & gravy; outstanding. The bacon is off the charts and the service is outstanding. Wish there was a Mary Lou's at home. A Carbondale treasure.

Never a disappointment with Mary Lou's. The food is hot and fresh and the service is great!

This is one of my favorite places for breakfast. I've been coming here once or twice a month for the last 3 or 4 years. The service is top notch, and they'll keep your coffee full until you say "stop." I usually get the one egg breakfast. It comes WITH a meat ( sausage, ham, or bacon) hashbrowns, one egg any way, and toast. But that's not all, you also get a small order of biscuits and gravy and coffee at no additIonal charge. THATS INSANE. All for less than $10. There is no better bang for the buck.

A well-known local breakfast place with great food and service, but I personally like to order off the lunch menu and get one of the best burgers in town!

1st Timers and WOW! Absolutely 1 of the 2 best Biscuits and Gravy I have had, the entire meal was tasty, service was solid, everyone was friendlt. Really, really enjoyed our breakfast!

I wish I didn't live 4 hours away! This place is awesome. My son and I popped in before a SIU visit this morning and we loved it all. The food was so great. They give you a free biscuit and gravy appetizer, people....how can you be upset with this joint?! I never saw the bottom of my coffee cup. And my kid didn't even take a breath while eating...that's how happy he was with his breakfast. We met Marilynn and heard about how she cheered on the Salukis basketball team the night before at a game. This place is the real deal. If you do just one thing while in town, it better be to come visit these nice folks!

The food is great and filling! My sister said her pancakes were the best she's ever had. The employees are very kind.

If you want some homemade biscuits and gravy then this is the place to go. Been coming here since 2017, and has been my go to for breakfast ever since. Staff is always friendly and gives a nice mom and pop restaurant feel. I recommend sitting at the bar but it's really up to you on if you want to sit on a diner stool or in regular chairs.

A Carbondale tradition. Service is friendly and food is good. I go there for breakfast and it's what you want for breakfast. Character is the name of the game when you go to Mary Lou's.

Great meal and quick service- and have enough leftover for dinner tonight. So good! Glad we saw this place-

Diner food hits the spot unlike anything else. Professional servers and cooks here, doing everything right. Everything we got was fresh and delicious. Nothing but a positive experience, I would recommend to anyone. I'll always be stopping here when I'm in the area!

My goto place for a great breakfast. Great service. Super friendly staff. I usually order the standard eggs n sausage combo thing.

Mary Lou's is a throwback kind of diner. The walls are pre-fab wood paneling. Nearly every inch of the wall is covered with photos of odd bands and members of Mary Lou's clientele. Reminded me of the kind of place Uncle Jesse would take Bo and Luke for breakfast before a long day of evading Roscoe P. Coltrane. I had a half order of the biscuits and gravy and they were good. Not amazing or anything, but solid. The real reason to go to Mary Lou's is to check out all those awesome framed pictures of human beings from a bygone era. Once upon a time, people really had mustaches like that. And they allowed themselves to be photographed that way.

I've went here for years and gotten the same thing lol I love biscuits and gravy and I always get an egg on top. They talked me into the pretty legs I personally would have wanted extra gravy but still really good! Plus I'm all about local and that they are!!

Mary Lou's is what you think of when you think small-town breakfast diner. Every breakfast comes with biscuits and gravy which is a favorite of mine and everyone in my family. I love the crisp bacon they serve and usually gets eggs and the potatoes. The service is good and friendly. The prices are very good. I've never sat at the counter, but it's always full of people chatting with each other and the cooks. The decor is nostalgic with old family photos and basic diner type tables and chairs. Nothing fancy, just old-fashioned goodness. If you're in town to visit, you've got to try Mary Lou's.

Cash only no-frills breakfast spot. The menu is small and fairly straightforward for a breakfast diner. Service is blunt and fast. Their biscuits and gravy are usually what draw us here (plus we also live super close by). The biscuits are very soft, and the gravy is creamy and mild (more cream based than sausage in it). Note the hash browns are actually home fries (cut up potato pieces). I've found this is a fascinating Midwest phenomenon where home fries are often called hash browns, but for me, a hash brown lover, it is quite a let down to see chunks of potato instead of a lovely thin layer of fried shreds of potato (rosti style).

Every Carbondale native that returns to visit makes it a PRIORITY to have breakfast at Mary Lou's!! Food is DELICIOUS, helpings HUMONGOUS and the HOSPITALITY is Amazing!! Now that I've finally moved back, it's a regular staple for my family!!

It's the breakfast staple in Carbondale! If you haven't been you are missing out. Biscuits and gravy come along with most of the menu to keep you happy while you wait on a delish omelet maybe!

This place is no frills, and I really appreciate that. That said--the prices are about 20% higher than other no frills places I've been--in more expensive areas of the country too, like New England. The biscuits and gravy are pretty good (I will admit I prefer Longbranch's, though! And no indigestion afterwards with theirs;)). The waitresses seemed understaffed and stressed, and I did order a side of homefries that took an additional 10 minutes after my biscuits and gravy came to show up--bummer, since I enjoy dipping my potatoes in hot gravy. I would pass this place over in favor of Longbranch of Harbaugh's for breakfast.

Of the few years I spent in Carbondale for school, Mary Lou's was, by far, my favorite spot in the area! The staff is very warm, welcoming, and makes you feel at home! I still dream of their complementary biscuits and gravy that comes with your breakfast order!

This is one of my favorite places to grab breakfast. Staff is always helpful and their biscuits and gravy are THE BOMB! I love the story behind this place also!

No frills breakfast and lunch joint. Good Pie. Decent made from scratch biscuits and gravy, light on the sausage. NOT KID FRIENDLY. High chairs all broken (straps either missing or with broken buckles). Chastised for children being children and making messes even when parents were cleaning instead of leaving things for staff to take care of. Children are not welcomed unless they're on their best behavior, either asleep or sitting quietly.

Met with a few colleagues for planning talking lunch. Plenty of tasty food for good price with quick good service. I would say the only bad thing about it is if you don't come early the parking lot across the street fills up quickly. And the place was absolutely packed for lunch. This place is a 50 year plus staple of Carbondale. And they recently remodeled and upgraded. It's worth it to spend a few minutes perusing all the newspaper articles of the history of the place. I got the turkey dinner which was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes cranberry all kinds of good stuff for $7 We made the mistake of not ordering dessert first and they were sold out on the pies . And get their gravy on everything

I gotta say mediocre at best. We were visiting our daughter for family weekend and our son joined us as we'll. This is our second time here and I still can't change my opinion of both times we came here for breakfast. The biscuits and gravy appetizer before breakfast was a nice little touch. Biscuits were good but the gravy was bland, lacking sausage crumbles. The omelets were scrambled eggs fried flat, cooked on both sides then a slice of American cheese (probably Kraft singles) with a scoop of ham then folded. Very un imaginative. Everything else was basic breakfast. Cash only, probably from all the bad credit from students. Long lines at the front which I don't get the attraction. I guess the big thing about this place is the burgers. Maybe we'll try next time were there.....we'll see how desperate we get.

***AWESOME*** I had the Bacon Cheeseburger platter with fries. It was so good! I can't wait to go back and try their famous breakfast! I am definitely a new loyal customer! Also, Mary is so nice! I am not from here yet in moments she made me feel like she has known me for years. Very welcoming atmosphere and people.

Wow what a disappointment. We waited 10 minutes just to get coffee. Never did get water we asked for twice. Food was very bland nothing special. My girlfriend could produce better on a camping stove! I had French Toast and some mystery meat the waitress claimed was sausage but tasted of nothing and probably could have passed as a burger as well. French toast just made with regular wheat bread. My girlfriend had an Omelet that was made with sliced cheese! We won't be back. Harbaugh's Cafe at the other end of the strip leaps and bounds better.

I used to live in an apartment on top of mary lou's. Awesome place to live except the smell of grease every morning on drunkin hangovers was enough to make me puke sometimes. The food really isnt all that great but it is what you would expect from a greasy spoon cafe. Perfect for hangovers and the amount of food you get is HUGE! If you order eggs before 11am you get a plate of biscuits and gravy(the best item on the menu) for free! The cooks and wait staff are super friendly and remind me of a cool aunt. The awesome pictures on the wall of friends, bands, regulars, famous people from the 70's and 80's is really cool. I really do miss this place, More so living above it than the food. But i will not miss having to use my shirt sleeve to open the door because the door handle to walk outside was so friggin greasy.

Great place ..by far the best biscuits and gravy ... staff is excellent and friendly. I highly recommend

Well, it took 4 years but the current Cooks or whomever have taken the Biscuits and Gravy to a whole new level of TERRIBLE! Sausage gravy is suppose to have Sausage in it, right? Should it taste like something other than flour? Well, the service was great and the folks were as friendly as ever, that's the only reason they got 2 Stars....but the party's over, as the Giant City Lodge's Biscuits and Gravy beat Mary Lou's hands down, and their Fried Chicken is the best in Southern Illinois.

I would daily drive 6-hrs each way (from Chicago) just for their B&G if it weren't for the price of gas!!!

Come for the biscuits and gravy, stay for the old time greasy spoon ambiance and family-like service. Every time I visit C'dale, a stop at Mary Lou's is a must! It can get crowded on Saturday mornings, but be patient because it's worth the wait. Wish the place was a little bit bigger, they really pack in the tables and chairs here. I like sitting at the counter. The customers and the staff are friendly. Food's reasonably priced and it's CASH ONLY. A Carbondale institution. Check out all the celebrity photos on the walls!

Went there with my bestie yesterday a.m. Love the new location and, as always, the down home friendly atmosphere. The waitress was super friendly and efficient. The biscuits and gravy is stick to your ribs yum. I am a sucker for strong restaurant style coffee;they got it there. I was happy with the food and the surroundings. Very relaxing atmosphere to chat and visit while eating momlike cooking.

I was visiting Carbondale and looking for a local breakfast joint. I found it! Saturday morning is incredibly busy. The line for table seating was across the restaurant, and the counter was full. My omelet came with toast, potatoes, and a half order of biscuits and gravy. Everything was prepared fresh behind the counter on an open grill. The biscuits and gravy were delicious, and just a sample of what was to come. The eggs were light and fluffy, the sausage was fresh. I could see over the counter that they were pulling patties straight out of the fridge. It was rich and flavorful Will be returning once I move there.

Food is good but this is nothing fancy. Staff was really nice and food came quick. Would pick this place over any there spot besides Denny's

I would rather clean the bathrooms of Grand Central Station with my tongue than eat here. The food is overly greasy,and saltier than a disgruntled war veteran. The staff looks at me like I've got stupid written on my forehead, (when I know I wiped it off prior to entering), and can't show even the most basic form of enthusiasm when I place my order with a smile . I love little ol' grandma's, but these gals remind me of the headmistress from Matilda. I've heard rave reviews from people over their biscuits and gravy, but color me un-impressed.

i have ate there many times... the food is outstanding and the service is better. Trina is a darling. the owner made our long stay in carbondale bearable. i took my crew there every day for lunch. when we had time i took them there for breakfast if you are ever in carbondale make sure to go there.

My favorite place in Carbondale to eat. A little known fact is their lunches are just as good as their breakfast. I am a third generation Mary Lou's diner and eat there whenever I can. Only bad side is I wish they were open longer. For lunch their burgers and their fish sandwiches are fantastic. Their plate lunches are amazing!

Biscuits and gravy still come first and they're not bad, but the rest of breakfast is at best average diner fare. Mary Lou's moved one door down and in the transition lost just a bit of her character. the pictures that used to line the wall now run on a video screen.

I love Mary Lou's. The food is great and so is the service. Parking is decent. You might have to walk a little to get there. I love the decor of the restaurant. I definitely would eat here again.

Best place to go to for breakfast in Carbondale. It is a local restaurant that has been around for years. Very delicious and staff always treats you like family!

Carbondale wouldn't be Carbondale without this place! You just have to go here at least occasionally. The service is fast even though the line can sometimes go out the door. The options are no fuss breakfast items and I like that about it. It's affordable and those famous biscuits are gravy are a MUST. Service is consistently great. I love that this place is family-owned and has survived many phases of Carbondale. Definitely recommend.