Duncan Family Restaurant has built its following in this corner of the Upstate on the plainest of virtues: generous plates of home-style Southern cooking at low prices. It is the sort of spot people in Duncan turn to for a hot, filling meal with no fuss, where the meat-and-three plate and the salad bar do most of the talking. Breakfast starts early, with the expected eggs, bacon, and coffee, but the kitchen is just as known for lunch and dinner. Reviewers tend to single out the house double cheeseburger, the meatloaf, and the baked spaghetti, backed by a rotation of vegetable sides that round out the meat-and-three plates. What brings people back, by their own account, is the value and the sheer size of the portions. The dining room is simple and unpolished, which suits the place: the draw here is the plate in front of you and the friendly service, not the surroundings. It is an easygoing, family-style meal where you come hungry and leave full.

Biscuitville is one of those Upstate morning stops that regulars fold into their routine without thinking twice. The draw is right there in the name: a from-scratch biscuit, split and stacked with sausage, egg, and cheese or country ham, sent out fresh while the line keeps moving. It runs like a proper Southern breakfast house rather than a grab-and-go window, unfussy and steady, the coffee poured without any ceremony. Everything here points at breakfast as the main event, which is exactly what you want from a place you hit before the day really gets going.