Fried chicken on repeat? Indiana might have found a loophole.
This longtime Millhousen restaurant has been serving the community since 1934, with a buffet that keeps changing as the week moves along.
That means one dinner does not tell the whole story. Different nights bring different reasons to come back, while the familiar favorites keep the place grounded.
There are other ways to order, but the buffet is where the weekly rhythm really shows.
Homemade pie waits at the end, which certainly does not hurt the argument for staying a little longer.
I’d be checking the calendar before the first visit was even over.
Fried Chicken Has Been At The Heart Of This Country Restaurant For Generations
Fried chicken is the dish that gives Stone’s much of its identity. The restaurant traces its roots to 1934, while fried chicken became part of the operation around the 1950s and grew into a lasting tradition.
The early chicken was pan-fried. As demand increased, the kitchen shifted to deep frying to handle larger quantities. The recipe stayed connected to the restaurant’s earlier approach, giving the chicken a long history.
Fried chicken anchors three of the four featured buffet lineups and can also be ordered as an individual meal. Thursday takes a different route with chicken wings as its featured buffet offering.
The sides complete the country-dinner idea. Mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, fried biscuits with apple butter, and the salad bar are regular parts of the buffet.
That combination keeps the plate focused on familiar comfort food.
Start with chicken, add a fried biscuit, and leave enough room to see what that day’s buffet special is doing beside it. If your idea of a country dinner starts with crisp chicken and gravy, this section of the menu does not make you work hard to find it.
The All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Runs Four Days A Week
Stone’s buffet is not an occasional weekend extra. It runs Wednesday through Saturday, with a different featured lineup depending on the day.
On Wednesday and Thursday, buffet service runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday starts earlier, with the buffet available from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday has the longest window, running from noon until 8 p.m.
The restaurant stays open until 9 p.m. on each operating day. Saturday opens at 11 a.m., while Sunday through Tuesday are closed.
Regular buffet components include green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried biscuits with apple butter, and a salad bar, while the featured proteins change according to the day.
Reservations are available for parties of eight or more, which is useful if the whole family is coming along.
You’ll find Stone’s in Millhousen at 2376 E County Road 820 S, Greensburg, IN 47240.
With four buffet days and three different ways to dine, the hardest part may be deciding which evening deserves the first visit.
Thursday deserves its own note too, since chicken wings take over the featured spot that night. That gives every buffet day a clear reason to stand apart.
Wednesday Brings Fried Chicken, Livers And Gizzards To The Line
Wednesday gives old-school chicken fans more than the usual pieces. Fried chicken shares the buffet with chicken livers and gizzards, creating one of the week’s most distinctive combinations.
Livers and gizzards have become harder to find on everyday restaurant menus, so their regular Wednesday appearance gives this buffet a clear identity. You do not have to wait for a temporary special or wonder if they will happen to be available that night.
The familiar sides stay close by. Mashed potatoes and gravy bring the soft, hearty part of the plate, while green beans keep things simple. Fried biscuits and apple butter add a sweet-savory turn that works especially well after a few bites of chicken.
The salad bar gives you another route through dinner if the first plate starts getting ambitious.
Wednesday is also a good example of why the four buffet days are not interchangeable. Someone interested in livers and gizzards has a clear reason to choose midweek, while another diner might prefer what arrives later in the schedule.
Pick the featured food you want most, then let the rest of the buffet fill in around it.
If livers and gizzards are already on your comfort-food list, Wednesday practically chooses itself. If they are new territory, the buffet format gives you an easy way to try them without making them the whole meal.
Friday Adds Fish And Shrimp To The Country Buffet Spread
Friday shifts the buffet in a seafood direction without sending the fried chicken anywhere. Alaskan white fish and fried shrimp join the chicken, giving the line three main choices before you even reach the sides.
That mix works well for a table with different appetites. One plate can stay with chicken, another can lean toward seafood, and a third can sample all three.
The regular buffet sides keep the meal grounded in the same country style. Mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, fried biscuits with apple butter, and the salad bar remain part of the lineup.
Friday buffet hours run from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m., with the restaurant open until 9 p.m.
White fish and fried shrimp are also available elsewhere on the menu, which means seafood is not limited entirely to the buffet format.
Friday works especially well if you like choices but do not want a massive line full of dishes that have nothing to do with one another. Chicken, fish, shrimp, and familiar sides make the plan easy to understand.
The only tricky part is deciding what deserves the most room on the first plate. Fried biscuits with apple butter can make that decision even harder, especially when you remember that pie is still waiting at the end.
Saturday Adds A Changing Chef’s Special To The Buffet
Saturday keeps the fried chicken in place and adds a chef’s special to the buffet. The special can change, so this is the day with the most built-in uncertainty.
That is a useful kind of uncertainty for repeat visits. Wednesday clearly belongs to livers and gizzards, Thursday brings chicken wings, and Friday adds fish and shrimp. Saturday leaves one part of the equation open.
The buffet runs from noon until 8 p.m., while the restaurant is open from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. That makes Saturday the easiest day to work around a flexible schedule, especially if dinner plans tend to drift toward late afternoon.
Fried chicken remains the reliable anchor, joined by the regular buffet sides and salad bar. The chef’s special simply gives you another reason to inspect the line before deciding how much room that first piece of chicken gets.
The staples can stay familiar while one part of the buffet keeps moving.
If you prefer knowing exactly what will be waiting, another day provides a more predictable lineup. If a surprise sounds better, Saturday has the advantage.
Either way, the chef’s special makes checking the buffet before building your plate part of the fun. Saturday also gives groups a broad time window, which can make coordinating a country dinner much easier than squeezing everyone into a short evening slot.
Family-Style Dining Offers Another Way To Share The Feast
The buffet gets plenty of attention, but Stone’s gives you three ways to handle dinner. Family-style dining sits beside the buffet and individual dinner-style ordering, so a visit does not have to involve repeated trips to the buffet line.
Family style is built for a group sharing the meal, while dinner style lets each person order a dish for themselves. That flexibility helps when one person wants the buffet and another wants a single entree.
The individual menu extends beyond fried chicken. Choices include fried white fish, fried shrimp, country fried steak, grilled pork tenderloin, chicken tenders, grilled chicken breast, livers, and gizzards.
Sandwich options include cheeseburgers, fried white fish, hand-breaded chicken breast, grilled chicken breast, and tenderloin.
Sides cover the expected comfort-food territory with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, fries, onion rings, slaw, pasta salad, and several potato choices.
You can return on another day and order differently without rebuilding the same plate.
For a larger gathering, family style keeps the meal centered on the table. For a smaller appetite, dinner style keeps the choices manageable.
Stone’s may be known for the buffet, but it gives you plenty of ways to skip it without skipping dinner. That matters on repeat visits, when the fried chicken can stay familiar while the rest of the order takes a completely different route.
Homemade Pie Makes Saving Room For Dessert A Smart Move
A country dinner without pie would leave unfinished business, and Stone’s keeps homemade pie firmly in the picture.
The flavors vary, which means the dessert choice can change from week to week. The lineup has included Indiana sugar cream pie along with peanut butter, apple, blackberry, chocolate meringue, coconut cream, butterscotch meringue, peach, and fruit-based delight pies.
The changing selection means the winning slice may depend on what is available that week.
The pies are made down to the crust, keeping dessert connected to the home-style character of the rest of the menu. A scoop of ice cream can join the slice if the buffet somehow left enough room for an upgrade.
Pie is ordered separately from the buffet, so saving room is a deliberate decision after chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and perhaps a second plate.
Taking dessert seriously also gives the meal a better ending than simply admitting defeat after the last biscuit.
Choose sugar cream for an Indiana classic, chase a meringue flavor, or see what fruit pie is waiting that week. By then, checking next week’s buffet schedule may already seem like a perfectly sensible idea.
That is the advantage of a four-day lineup with changing featured foods: one dinner can easily give you a reason to come back for a different one.