hilltop restaurant

great place for family dining. the hilltop is a great place for family style dining. this has been one of our family favorites over the years and wtih 5 generations. the chicken is crispy and juicy, and the accompanying vegetable platters are always hot and tasty. we love the tomato juice, beets and salad. you can't beat the biscuits and orange marmalade. the prices are very affordable and reasonable.

let's get some seasoning!. i used to frequent the place ten years ago and stopped by last week. my salmon was tasty but overcooked. the family style veggies were obviously out of a can with no butter or seasoning. potatoes could have been from instant flakes! the biscuits were very tasty and the tomato juice and veggie appetizers acceptable. salad and dressings were from a bag and bottle and a non-event. my husband's steak was acceptable, but not remarkable. there are not a lot of choices in spencer we do not plan to return in the near future. even frozen seasoned veggies or real mashed pototoes would have improved the scenario----it was disappointing and definitely not "country home cooking." i imagine the salmon came from gordon's or some other supplier.

great place for a family get together. can accommodate big groups and everything served family style. save room for dessert!


-----04 aug, 2013-----

great food, beautiful setting. best fried chicken & rolls i've ever had. lots of food for the money. good place to go with a large group as everything is served family style.

the chopped steak(with cheese). the wife and i dropped in last night for dinner. the wife again had the fried chicken but i decided to have the chopped steak. the salad came out and we added the ranch dressing which is very good. i love a good chopped steak but most places now tell you well done is the only way you can order it(most the time with extra charcoal on the side) well at hilltop i had mine made to order(some pink). the waiter was extremely attentive to our needs and friendly. the chopped steak was perfect, the mashed potatoes, are home made, and the corn were excellent.


-----25 dec, 2014-----

hilltop one of the hidden jewels in spencer!. we have been going to hilltop for over 20 years. the new owners have brought the hilltop back to its former glory days! new menu items are excellent, the chopped steak is an excellent addition to the menu. the fried chicken is extremely good, best guess its about 75% of what they sell! refills on side items is also a big plus, where else but hilltop does a restaurant do that for you?!!! the rating is much lower than it should be and may be from past owners who seemed to loose interest in the restaurant.

hours ?. might be nice if the hours were posted on their website. drove from greenwood (50 miles) for lunch. closed. 4 - 8 dinner only - wed-fri.
ended up at chambers smorgabord in downtown spencer. highly recommend it, good selection and fair prices.

sunday lunch. good chicken... pretty good service, good sides. i was pleased with this visit.... worth a stop.

family reunion. we were camping at mccormick's creek and decided to make it to hilltop with my sisters who i only get to see every 3 years. we got the absolute best service and all the food was wonderful!! we will definately be back in 3 years for our next reunion so don't go anywhere!! the bbq ribs were fall off the bone and the ribeye tasted like steaks used to taste with great flavor. we sampled all the desserts. the blackberry cobbler ala mode was my favorite!, wonderful experience and we highly recommend.

pugh sisters
nc and fl

great food, great service. we went there on father's day 2014 without making reservations (it was between lunch & dinner about 3pm) with a group of 15. with what i'm sure was a big crowd for lunch they were welcoming, the food was great & service the best. even tho because it was a holiday & you could not order off the normal menu they offered a variety of main courses & the family style sides were the best, they even accommodated a few of us that had special request. will go back again and again. oh, the only thing that is missing is more than a one toilet restroom. for as large as the place is on special occasions w/large crowds it is inconvenient to wait so long.

great visit!. i admit, i was leary about what to expect...i read over several reviews posted....
we went to hilltop to celebrate my grandmothers 90 birthday. we had a large party and made a reservation. loved the house salad with their dressing made in house. i added the garlic salt per the waitress suggestion....oh my! the dinner rolls, i loved. i sampled the orange marmalade however, i wasn't a fan. i even sampled a beet.
the service was top notch, good clean premises and large portions. i ordered the fried chicken, white meat. other dinners ordered were jumbo shrimp, catfish and chicken strips. everyone that went stated their food was yummy. we were offered refills on the salad, mash taters, green beans and corn. brought my leftovers home to enjoy for lunch tomorrow.
we all will return in the future.
if you leave this restaurant hungry, it's your own fault.

thanksgiving and not reat turkey!. we went there for thanksgiving this year. the turkey was a turkey loaf! no thanks. not impressed at all. service was ok, but not great. and take a jacket is was cold!

went there on a whim tonight with the fam because i didn't feel like cooking dinner. i'm sure glad we did! it was our first time. i had the 1/4 white meat chicken. hubby had 1/2 slab ribs and son had chicken fingers. my chicken was cooked perfectly, super moist on the inside crispy on the outside. my 5 yr old finished his fingers and then ate my wing! hubby's ribs were a hit too. everbody cleaned their plate and was satisfied. i liked the family style veggies n mash, no worrying about what sides to choose. wish i had room for dessert!
service was friendly and somewhat fast. decor was old fashioned but it was clean, cute. i would definitely drive the 20min to go again. it was overall a pleasant family dining experience!

the new owners are great! the old owners were so rude to people and the only reason i came back was because of the new ownership. the food is 10x better. homemade rolls are to die for and their fried chicken was delicious. their location is beautiful. i highly recommend hilltop!

we haven't been there in years, but after reading in the ht, that dennis and chris grubb purchased it this past may, my wife and i decides to check it out. we were not disappointed! great atmosphere and food. the food is made from scratch and it shows. they have outdoor seating that overlooks beautiful scenery. it's definitely a good place to eat and worth the trip.

oh dear. we arrived at this place on saturday july 6th and found the door locked in spite of arriving at 8:20am when the posted opening time was 8am. someone did unlock the door after we stood around a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on. apparently this place has changed hands again and we had no idea when we headed down from plainfield intent upon having the family style breakfast we had rather enjoyed from our last visit to the place. the big attraction for me was the brown county style deep fried biscuits which had been served with the breakfast by the previous owners. new owners don't serve those and when i learned this i actually wanted to leave. my husband wanted to stay and try it and after being assured several times by the hostess and the waitress that i would not be disappointed i relented and ordered from the menu. i asked for a combo item on the menu that consisted of eggs 1/2 order of biscuits and gravy, home style potatoes and breakfast meat of which i chose bacon and requested it served crisp. i asked for scrambled eggs. husband ordered the same except for ham rather than bacon. they also served us a basket of deep fried biscuits served with powdered sugar and cinnamon. it was complimentary and was served to us because i had whined and lamented the lack of them initially. it was a very nice gesture indeed which makes it all the more difficult to offer the following criticism of the food. the bacon was not remotely crisp. it was cold and limp and not to my taste. it was a good quality had it been served to taste i think it would have been quite acceptable. the biscuits and gravy were very bland and blah: edible but not remembered fondly. the potatoes were cold and greasy. the scrambled eggs were absolutely awful, so bad in fact that i could not eat them. i could not decide if they were powdered eggs or just fresh eggs with too much milk stirred in. each bit had a mouthful of liquid of some sort. i gave up and did not eat them.

ironically the absolute best thing on the table was the complimentary deep fried biscuits. they were actually made from homemade dough and did not really resemble brown county biscuits which are made from canned dough. instead they were a unique creation and quite delicious served with marmalade and apple butter. i thanked the hostess as we left and suggested that they add those biscuits to the menu. her response was something along the lines of oh no we wouldn't want to do that.

too bad because they might put your name on the map as a place to go instead of a place to avoid at all costs.

their hearts are in the right place and i hope they figure things out so the business will not disappoint them.

this changing w/new owners. we have lived in owen county all our lives and the hilltop restaurant was always an attraction but recently since there have been new owners take over it is a little disturbing. we had to wait on the hostess to actually seat us and then she did not give out any menues for at least 20 minutes and when the waitress came to our table, she then noticed that the hostess did not do her job but tried to blame it on the waitress. it took forever to get our food and if we asked for 2nds on vegies or rolls, we barely got any. you could hear alot of yelling in the kitchen and it was very uncomfotable. again, back to the hostess, when we were leaving, we stood in line for another 15 minutes waiting for her to come and check us out at the register when all she was doing was walking around the dining room. unless things change, will not return.