We Finally Ate At Foothills Milling CO.

There are very few fine dining restaurants in the Maryville area and we hadn’t eaten at any of them until now.  I was shocked when I discovered that the highest rated one, Foothills Milling Co. has been open in this location for 20 years.  So, we decided it was finally time to try it and friends, Joe and Carol, joined us for the evening out.  The building has been everything from a Studebaker dealership (1921-1948), to a grocery store, an equipment rental place, and a few restaurants.

We arrived for our 5:30pm reservation and were promptly seated – I was surprised that they were half full so early and there were only a few empty tables to remainder of the evening.

This is the elegant table setting when we first sat down.

We began with a bottle of Italian Prosecco and were then served a small (1" dia) grits fritter that was delicious.

Then we shared an appetizer of excellent fried oysters, which was followed by rosemary focaccia bread with butter and olive oil for dipping and then an intermezzo of citrus sherbet – no pics of these.

Then the meals came and I used mostly pics from the web as they were better than mine.

Bev had the “Steak Oscar - 8 oz. beef barrel cut filet cooked to medium rare served with mashed potatoes, asparagus, lump crab meat & hollandaise sauce.”  She said it was maybe the best steak she ever had. 

Carol opted for the "Steak and Potatoes - 8oz barrel cut beef filet, cooked to medium rare, Served over a Peppercorn brandy sauce. Paired with a loaded potato souffle & spinach maria."  She enjoyed her meal and the steak was cooked perfectly.

Joe went with “Cedar Planked Salmon - Sushi grade salmon roasted on a cedar plank and cooked to medium well, with pineapple & soy glaze. Served with mashed potatoes & asparagus.”  He had never had this dish and really enjoyed it.

And I decided to try something I’d never had or seen on another menu – “Tempura Lobster Tails - Cornmeal tempura fried lobster tails, over sesame scallion jasmine rice, with sriracha aioli, sweet Thai chili sauce, sesame mushrooms & baby green beans.”

I thought mine was very good and I only ate one of the tails and a couple of green beans then took the rest home.  I’m glad I ordered it but would not again as the other flavors masked the taste of the lobster – broiled lobster next time.

The Verdict:

This was truly a fine dining experience and was very pricy but as they say – “you get what you pay for” and we really did.  The food was delicious and the service was outstanding.  Bev had been reluctant to go there in the past because of the prices but now she can see it was worth it and she is ready to go back.  I’d like to try Maryville's other two fine dining places first though – The Walnut Kitchen and The Restaurant At RT Lodge.  And finally, I had to look this up: "A beef barrel cut filet is a thick, cylindrical steak taken from the widest, center portion of the beef tenderloin."

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/8/26 event date