I'll give another spin on life in Little Rock. I was born and raised in Kansas City, so that's kind of my baseline for comparison. Overall, I would say that LR is not really that great of a place to live but has been improving noticeably in the past few years.
In general, things in Little Rock have very little character. Yeah, there's the trendy, hipster-ish shops and bars in Hillcrest and The Heights, but most of them are just clones of each other. Downtown is also pretty nondescript. Outside of that, it's mostly ranch houses and strip malls as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately, that homogeneity describes the populace fairly well, too. It's devout white Southern Baptists all day long and everything that comes with. I was alarmed to discover that many of my classmates were at least a little racist and homophobic. There are sprinkles of diversity, but you have to look pretty hard to find them. People in LR are often nice, but it's nice in that superficial stab-you-in-the-back-later fashion that seems prevalent in the south. Basically, if you don't fit the mold, things will be a little more difficult for you. I suppose it isn't a coincidence that most of my friends were other out-of-staters.
Okay, so those are the main negatives of living in LR. The main benefit that I can see is that the cost of living is ridiculously low. I shared a nice ~2500 sq ft house with a fenced yard, garage, and 2 driveways that cost us roughly 500/month each, including utilities, and that was fairly expensive by local standards. As noted above, food and other necessities are similarly inexpensive. You will be able to live quite well off your cost of living loan allowance.
I'm a food guy, so finding good eats was a priority for me. First, the good news: there are a few really amazing places to grub around town. In particular, the Mexican food is awesome. The bad news: those are the only good places in town. For instance, there's a pretty good Vietnamese place right in the middle of the city but no other decent ones at all. Same goes for Thai and Chinese food. There just usually aren't many good options. However, the Indian food options are pretty strong. I disagree with the above regarding The House; they used to have excellent food but restructured their menu about 2 years ago and started serving hardtack and swill. If they're bringing back the old stuff, I'd be thrilled, for the space is a great one. Restaurant-wise, here are a few I'd recommend:
Italian: Capeo (NLR). Don't bother with the rest
Indian: Banana Leaf (food truck right down the street from UAMS), Taj Mahal (off of Rodney Parham), Taste of India (McCain Mall)
Viet: Thanh My (Markahm and Shackleford)
Mexican: Del Campo a la Ciudad (grocery store on the corner of 65th and University), Taqueria Jalisco San Juan (truck in parking lot of Colonial Liquor on Shackleford)
Thai: Chang (in Sherwood but well worth the drive)
Chinese: Mr. Chen's (University and Asher)
Mediterranean: Layla's (Rodeny Parham. Not fabulous but good enough)
Sandwiches: Argenta Market (NLR)
Pizza: Damgoode (Hillcrest - freaking awesome pizza), Vino's (edge of Downtown)
Burgers: David's (Markham and Bowman), Big Orange (the mall way on Chenal in WLR). It'd be awesome if The House returned to its old form.
Places I absolutely do not recommend that other people seem to enjoy:
US Pizza. Terrible pizza, mediocre sandwiches, high prices. They buy in their food, and you can literally get the exact same pizza in the UAMS hospital for half the price. Never, ever go here if you can avoid it.
Ferneau (or 21 or whatever it's called now). Decent food but outrageous prices.
Ciao Baci: God awful Italian food, astonishingly high drink prices for terrible drinks. You can't charge $7.50 for a Popov and tonic in Little Rock, guys. Beers are priced better, admittedly, but $3.50 for a bottle of Bud Light is still pretty damn bad.
B-sides: Ridiculously bad service, long wait times, and average food.
Leo's: Gross, relatively expensive Greek food. Long waits here, too
Canon Grill: Hands down the worst tex-mex I've ever had, and it ain't cheap, either.
Star of India: Worst Indian food ever. Before I met her, this was my girlfriend's only experience with Indian food, and she thought she just hated the food in general. It's now her favorite ethnic food.
Next up, night life. Despite how it may seem, you'll have plenty of time to go out and let down a bit. Unfortunately, Little Rock's night scene is abysmal. There are a grand total of 3 places open late at night, and most of the bars take advantage of the fact that there isn't much else around and charge accordingly. The late-night venues, Salut, Midtown, and Discovery (a.k.a. "Disco") are mediocre at best, but it's all LR has. All charge a cover and are slammed after bar hours (2 officially but often earlier). Disco is basically a gay club kind of off the beaten path, and they require you to drop a cool $18 bucks just to walk in the door. It's fairly bare-bones and in a crappy old barely-converted warehouse. They'd be laughed out of business in any other city. Midtown and Salut are renowned for their food, but it's really just regular bar fare. Being the only non-IHOP, non-Waffle House joint in town serving food later than 10 PM has its perks. Several of the more popular bars, most notably Ciao Baci, Ferneau/21, and Diversions are just awful. Bad douche-heavy crowds, expensive drinks, tons of people to fight through, bad service (especially at Diversions). Downtown is small and has fairly few options, some of which are of the piano bar type which is an instant no-go for me.
Okay, that's the negative stuff. The good part is that there's hope yet. The Fountain in Hillcrest is a great little neighborhood place. It can get annoyingly crowded on weekend nights, but any other time, you'll find that the same local regulars gather there in relative peace. The bartenders are all friendly and will single you out of the crowd for drinks once they know you. The Rev Room and Juanita's are both cool venues that get some impressive acts. I saw Orgy, The Wailers, Crystal Method, Lacuna Coil, and several others during my time there. There are also a few other townie bars around that offer good drinks for reasonable prices and good company. I also have a soft spot for Cajun's, a place sort of near Disco down by the River. It's an amazing venue with average drinks and a much different crowd than what you'll see downtown or in Hillcrest. All is not lost, but you have to look pretty hard for good places to go.
Little Rock lends itself well to outdoors activities. Pinnacle is a cool place, and the Ozarks are about an hour and a half away. If you like hiking, camping, climbing, canoeing, etc., Little Rock is a great place for you to be. The city also has quite a few nice parks and trails to explore. You'll be quite pleased with the options.
I agree with the above assessment of the city's safety. I guess people aren't used to not being able to leave valuables in plain sight, but it always seems to surprise people when their windows get smashed and their iPods stolen from the passenger seat. You're living in a city. You can't do that ****. You'll hear lots of reports about LR being dangerous, but that usually consists of a robbery every few weeks. It is not at all a dangerous place to live unless you stray southeast of 630. Then it gets dicey.
Weather in LR is probably how you'd expect. It's crazy hot in the summer and gets down to the 40s in winter. Occasionally it'll get cold enough to snow, and god help you if it does. The entire damn city shuts down when there's an inch of slush on the ground, and the already awful drivers piss themselves in fear. Seriously, just don't go out when winter weather hits. It's dangerous, and there's nowhere to go, anyway.
That brings me to a(nother) pet peeve of mine: the traffic in LR is way worse than it should be. People drive slowly and unpredictably and create a lot of very difficult, dangerous situations. One thing you'll find happening very often is that people looking to turn across/onto the street you're on will edge the nose of their car into your lane like it's no big deal, essentially blocking it. Obviously, that gets ****ing treacherous when there's someone driving in the lane next to you. You'll also find people on highways and roads driving a solid 10 MPH below the speed limit for no real reason. All it takes is 2 of those people cruising next to each other to demolish traffic flow, and you'll find that practice is the rule, not the exception. If there's any sort of inclement weather, you throw caution to the wind by going out on LR streets. It's like precipitation flips an idiot switch in everyone in the city. As noted above, nobody there can drive in winter weather. Seriously, be careful.
Clearly, I have a lot of negative things to say about the city. To paraphrase one of my good friends, it's a town with all the bad parts of small towns and large cities but few of the good ones. That said, it is definitely getting better fast. I noticed a huge improvement over my time there. If nothing else, you can just carve out your own little niche and live cheaply and happily for 4 years. It worked for me.
