Red Oak

I vaguely remember the Red Oak in Bishop Hill from one of those times we visited my grandpa at the nursing home in Toulon and, when asked where he wanted to have lunch, he said Bishop Hill. So, off my dad and I went with Grandpa tucked into the front seat.
I remembered the restaurant fondly, so a year or two later, took a friend to Bishop Hill shopping, and we had lunch at the Red Oak. I've been a devout fan ever since.
The restaurant is cheerily decorated with lots of yellow walls, checkered tablecloths and floral motifs. It's not a manly place, but after taking StfRon out there, he loves it, too.
I always go for the Swedish meatballs with homemade noodles. This is true comfort food and is served with a small side salad and homemade bread.
To finish, I can never stray from the rice pudding. This one differs in that instead of raisins, it comes with a nice grape or plum sauce on top, I can't recall which right now, but it's good. They also offer many pies each day and bread pudding.
Owner Trisha Rux always seems to remember us, even though we only make it out about once a year. They have been fairly entrepreneurial in recent years, trying a location in Eureka which was closed after a fire; a location at Grand Prairie, for which I would expect the lease was expensive, and probably didn't receive a lot of traffic due to being off in one of the strip malls (plus, having visited this location, it seemed to me the food was cooked in Bishop Hill and driven over, which changed the quality); I believe they now offer catering; and, Rux is now present at the Riverfront Market on Saturdays.

The Outsider Gallery

Bishop Hill is a great place to visit. There are many neat shops to poke around in, historic buildings and charming restaurants. It's like stepping back in time. The Outsider Gallery features unique works by area artisans. There are bowls and baskets made of paper, eggs carved with beautiful Victorian lace patterns, even a fun collection of socially incorrect art.
We stopped in and were quite amused by some of the selections.
Take a gander on the web at http://bishophillgallery.com/ and then take the drive.