Purple Cow Restaurant in West Little Rock, Arkansas Backs Up Gimmick with Quality Food

Good food seldom seems to be enough of an attraction for a restaurant to stay in business anymore. Now it takes a gimmick or a hook to get people in the door. For the Purple Cow Restaurant in West Little Rock, the gimmick is an old-fashioned diner feel, a jukebox, dozens of cow figurines and special purple ice cream. Fortunately, once the Purple Cow lures you in with a nostalgic theme and quirky décor, they deliver great burgers, hot dogs, salads and desserts.

We tried to arrive early for our visit, but even at 11:30, the lunch crowd was already thick with business people and moms with small children. Even though every table was taken, the speedy service rotated the tables quickly and we were seated in less than ten minutes. Our server followed our host by seconds and in less time than it took to peruse the menu, our drinks were delivered to our table. The menu at the Purple Cow leans heavily toward burgers, dogs, grilled sandwiches and salads, with the odd chicken strip platter thrown in for good measure.

I chose the American Cheese Burger ($4.95) and substituted French fries (1.35) for my chips. My dining partner picked the Classic All-Beef Hot Dog ($3.95), but stuck with potato chips. Food delivery was fast, but my cheese burger was delivered well-done, when I had ordered medium-well. It's a common mistake, but a disappointing one, considering how well everything else had gone up to that point. In spite of being slightly overcooked, the burger was juicy and tasty without the dryness that can plague a restaurant style burger. The fries were of the shoe string variety and were non-descript and ordinary, but not bad. They were not worth the extra money, and after seeing my friend's mound of potato chips, I regretted ordering them.

My friend's hot dog was a massive frank, dressed liberally with kraut. She said the dog was spicy and the kraut's tanginess was a nice compliment to the slightly salty frank. You'll have to take her word for it, since she wouldn't spare a bite for the review.

For dessert, I stuck to a plain scoop of purple vanilla ice cream ($2.25)with warm caramel. The purple ice cream was an odd sight, but it mixed well with the caramel, even if the brown and purple made for an ugly sundae.

We were stuffed to bursting at the end of our meal, and in spite of the wait for our table, we still managed to leave before 12:15,proving that the service was fast. The Purple Cow has food, service and speed down to an art.