FTF suggests restaurants serving traditional “Pennsylvania Dutch” specialties, as well as other cuisines.
Many “family-style” restaurants offer traditional Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, including such specialties as scrapple (fried pork), chow-chow (pickled vegetables) and shoo-fly (molasses) pie, made with fresh ingredients from local farms. Remember that most close by 8pm year-round, though some do stay open till 9pm in summer.
Stoltzfus Farm Restaurant
3716A E. Newport Road, Gordonville 17529
(717/768-8156)
There is no printed menu at Stoltzfus Farm. Sit down and you are served all-you-can-eat quantities of homemade bread, applesauce, apple butter, chow-chow, sausage, fried chicken, ham loaf, buttered noodles, string beans, corn and sweet potatoes. Don’t forget to leave room for Shoo-fly pie. Closed between December through March.
The Amish Barn Restaurant
3029 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand 17505
(717/768 8886)
Serves Pennsylvania Dutch favorites and American fare at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also offers a gift ship, petting zoo and the Teddy Bear Den, where customized bears and other stuffed animals are made.
Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant
2760 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand 17505
(717/768 8266)
Traditional Pennsylvania Dutch buffets from Lancaster County recipes.
Lapp’s Family Restaurant
2270 Lincoln Highway, Lancaster 17602
(717/394 1606)
Three fine meals served daily since 1948.
Good ‘N Plenty Restaurant
150 East Brook Road (Route 896), Smoketown 17576
(717/394 7111)
Typical, authentic Pennsylvania Dutch meals served in a remodeled Dutch farmhouse.
Plain & Fancy Farm
3121 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand 17505
(717/768 4400)
Lancaster’s first family-style restaurant serving “pass-the-platter” meals for 44 years.
Miller’s Smorgasbord
2811 Lincoln Highway East, Ronks 17572
(717/687 6621)
Run by the Miller family since 1929, serving American favorites and Lancaster County specialties.
Lee E. Brenner Dining Car on the Strasburg Railroad
Route 741 (Between Fairview Road and Paradise Lane) Starsburg, PA 17576
(717/687 6486)
Enjoy a casual sandwich and salad type lunch each day, or a choice of a Traditional Train Dinner or a full Pennsylvania Dutch dinner aboard America’s only operating wooden dining car. Fixed prices (discounts for kids) include a 45-minute train ride, a hearty meal and live entertainment at night. Reservations required for dinner trains.
Other choices include several restaurants serving elegant dinners in historic buildings, mansions and hotels. Reservations are a good idea at the following:
Belvedere Inn
402 N. Queen Street, Lancaster 17603
(717/394-2422)
Serves international cuisine in a mansion dating from 1872.
Cameron Estate Inn
1855 Mansion Lane, Mount Joy 17552
(717/492-0111)
Serves creative cuisine prepared by a French-trained chef, in two historic dining rooms in the 1805 mansion of Abraham Lincoln’s first secretary of war.
The Log Cabin
11 Lehoy Forest Drive, Leola 17450
(717/626-1181)
Serves excellent steaks and seafood in a speakeasy dating from the 1920s.
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