How did we pick these?
Two directories and a local newspaper did most of the work. The City of Center publishes a dining guide organised by category and the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce keeps a Restaurants and Eateries list, and between them they name about 30 businesses with roughly a dozen appearing on both. A place on both lists is our baseline test that a kitchen is actually trading.
The newspaper is what makes Center unusually easy to research. Shelby County Today publishes a write up of every chamber ribbon cutting, with the owner's name, the address, the menu and the hours as stated on the day. That is a dated, named, local source for seven of the eight restaurants here, which is more than most towns this size can offer. Where those notices conflict with a current directory, we have said so inside the listing rather than picking one quietly.
What we cut matters. Center's barbecue is the big omission: the city guide lists three joints, and Chap's Bar-B-Q and Darrel's Bar B Que each carry two different street addresses across sources and each shows as closed on at least one mapping platform. We will not send you to a barbecue joint we cannot confirm is cooking. Pickles and Petunia's and T/R's Steaks and More appear on the city guide with the same phone number printed against both, which tells you the page's columns have slipped, and we found nothing independent on either. Pineywood's Seafood is listed at 1003 Hurst Street, which is Fancy's address now. Royal Buffet carries two different phone numbers across the two directories. Las Palmas, Sombrero's, Las Margaritas and Granny B's Sno-Cones are all real listings with records too thin to rank honestly.
No restaurant on this list is a client of Hello Web Designs and none paid anything for its place. All eight are editorial picks.
What should you know before you go?
Center eats early. Six of these eight are breakfast and lunch operations at heart, and the two that reliably run into the evening are Fancy's and Mr. Doggo. If you arrive at 7.30pm expecting a choice, you have one or two.
| Restaurant | Price | Best for | Published hours |
| Fancy's Cafe | $$ | A full dinner, six days a week | Mon to Sat, late morning to 9pm |
| The Pizzeria | $ | Pizza, including a raw one to bake at home | Unpublished, call |
| Diamond B Cafe | $ | Breakfast, seven mornings | Daily from 6am, closes 2pm |
| Plates of Grace | $ | Very early or fairly late southern plates | Mon to Sat, 5am to 8pm |
| TCS Bistro | $$ | A fast lunch at a drive-thru window | Roughly 9am to 7pm |
| Family Traditions | $ | Southern plates and catering | Varies by day, alternating Sundays |
| Rancho Grande | $ | Fajitas and queso | Lunch and dinner |
| Mr. Doggo | $ | Hot dogs, gumbo and poboys, seven days | Daily 11am to 8pm |
The geography is three streets. Hurst Street is the commercial spine and carries Fancy's, Family Traditions and Diamond B Coffee. Tenaha Street running north holds Diamond B Cafe, TCS Bistro and Rancho Grande. The square and the streets off it hold The Pizzeria on San Augustine and Mr. Doggo on Nacogdoches, with Plates of Grace further out on Shelbyville Street.
Almost nothing here publishes its own hours. That is the single most useful fact on this page, because it means a schedule on a maps app was scraped once and may never have been right. We have printed the phone numbers from the chamber directory for exactly that reason.
Is Center worth a stop on its own?
For the courthouse, yes. The 1885 Shelby County Courthouse is the reason architecture people drive to Shelby County at all, an Irish castle in red brick designed by an Irish immigrant named Gibson, and it is generally described as the only one of its kind in the country. Gibson's 1884 county jail stands nearby and picked up a state historical marker in 2026. Both are on the square, within three blocks of The Pizzeria and Mr. Doggo.
Center also sits in a useful spot. Toledo Bend is 25 miles east, Louisiana is closer than that, and the gumbo and poboys on the Mr. Doggo menu are not an affectation. More of what we have published on the town collects on the Center city hub.
For the same kind of list in the next counties over, see the best restaurants in Carthage 30 miles north and the best restaurants in Nacogdoches 40 miles west, which has the deepest bench in this part of East Texas.
What should you do next?
If you have one dinner in Center, go to Fancy's. If you have one lunch, go to The Pizzeria and buy a second pie raw to take with you. If you are here on a morning, Diamond B Cafe at 6am is the answer and nothing else is close.
Then pick up the phone. Every recommendation here is only as good as the hours on the day you turn up, and in Center those live in a phone call rather than on a web page. More East Texas lists like this one are in our restaurants category, and the best barbecue in Nacogdoches is where we would send you for the thing Center cannot currently deliver.
