Cookie’s Soul Food Kitchen

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Cuisine

American, Southern

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Meal Periods

Lunch



Dining Format

Buffet



Phone

(936) 336-1954



Address

113 Berotte St
Ames, TX 77575



Website



Cuisine

American, Southern



Meal Periods

Lunch



Dining Format

Buffet



Phone

(936) 336-1954



Address

113 Berotte St
Ames, TX 77575



Website

EXPERIENCE

Cookie’s Soul Food Kitchen is an Ames lunch buffet built around Southern home cooking, with Sunday oxtails giving the weekend its own attraction. Fried pork chops and baked chicken provide familiar favorites through the week, while the changing specials give regulars a reason to have a preferred day. This is the kind of lunch worth making time for, especially if your idea of a proper meal includes vegetables, cornbread and a little something sweet.

The small yellow building with red trim suits that intimate scale. A raised porch, front steps and an access ramp lead to a modest local restaurant rather than a sprawling dining hall. Its straightforward frontage tells you quite a bit about the occasion: come for lunch and company, with the cooking taking precedence over the surroundings. The name above the door is easy to remember; the red porch certainly helps.

The business dates to 2005, giving Cookie’s an established place in the community around Liberty. Family-table dining and a welcoming staff are part of its appeal. There is room in that picture for both people with a long lunch history here and someone discovering the restaurant for the first time. A buffet can be a very personal sort of restaurant when the scale is small and the food is this familiar.

Lunch is the occasion here, including Sunday lunch. The changing menu makes a particular favorite worth planning around, whether that’s oxtails, dumplings or Friday fish. Leave a little time for dessert, too. Cookie’s gives cakes, pies and pudding a proper place in the meal, which seems entirely reasonable in a restaurant devoted to this sort of home cooking.

FOOD

Fried pork chops and baked chicken form the everyday foundation at Cookie’s, with mashed potatoes, rice and brown gravy close at hand.

Sunday brings oxtails into that company, alongside greens, purple-hull peas and squash casserole on the rotating menu. It is a particularly good day to consider if oxtails are what brought Cookie’s to your attention.

Weekday specials cover several styles of home cooking. Meatloaf has its place early in the week, with fried chicken another recurring choice. Meatballs, beef tips and hamburger casserole appear in the midweek rotation. These are alternatives across the week, so arrive for the day’s cooking rather than expecting the whole list at once.

Spaghetti or chicken and dumplings give Thursday a different set of possibilities. Friday’s fried catfish and salmon croquettes bring fish to the weekly lineup, with macaroni and cheese, baked beans and fried okra among that day’s sides. Catfish and croquettes make a useful pair to consider if you enjoy fried fish but would like more than one preparation on the plate. A Friday lunch here can have quite a different character from Sunday.

The vegetables deserve attention alongside the main dishes. Cabbage, yams and pinto beans join one day’s menu; okra and tomatoes, squash and black-eyed peas appear on another. Broccoli and cauliflower or lima beans broaden the rotation further. There is enough variation to make the sides part of the reason for returning, particularly for anyone who gives a good vegetable plate as much thought as the meat.

Cornbread, cucumber salad and fruit medley give the meal accompaniments beyond the hot dishes. The salad and fruit offer a cooler contrast to fried meats and gravy, while cornbread fits naturally beside greens or peas. These everyday additions help keep the changing specials part of a recognizable home-cooking lunch.

Banana pudding is the regular dessert on the menu, with a larger changing selection of cakes, pies and cobblers. Banana, lemon and chocolate cakes sit within that rotation, as do pecan, apple and sweet potato pies. Peach or berry cobbler adds another possibility when available. The day’s selection will determine the final decision, but dessert has enough presence here to merit more than whatever space happens to remain after lunch.

FOOD HIGHLIGHTS

♛ Fried Pork Chops — an everyday main in the Southern lunch lineup.

♛ Baked Chicken — a regular choice alongside rice and brown gravy.

♛ Sunday Oxtails — a weekend choice alongside the regular chicken and pork.

♛ Chicken and Dumplings — one of Thursday’s rotating lunch possibilities.

♛ Friday Fish — fried catfish and salmon croquettes on the weekly rotation.

♛ Southern Vegetables — greens, peas, cabbage and squash across changing menus.

♛ Cornbread — an everyday companion to the vegetables and gravy.

♛ Banana Pudding — the regular sweet alongside rotating cakes and pies.

♛ Fruit Cobbler — peach or berry among the changing dessert choices.

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