At all-you-can-eat restaurants like Plain & Fancy Farm and Good ’N Plenty Restaurant, diners sit at long tables with new friends and pass heaping platters of chicken pot pie, roast beef, baked ham, dried corn, mashed potatoes and buttered noodles - and that’s just a short list. Entrees are accompanied by chow chow, a mixture of vegetables preserved in a vinegar and sugar dressing, and followed by bakery-fresh apple dumplings and shoofly pie.
At Miller’s Smorgasbord, buffet tables are laden with regional favorites. On Sunday, the bountiful breakfast buffet here includes local favorites like cream chipped beef and scrapple.
Those who still can’t get enough can fill their grocery bags with regional goodies from Lancaster’s Central Market and roadside produce stands along country roads.
Throughout the county, restaurants in historic hotels dish out equal servings of cuisine and character. The 19th-century lager-era Bube’s Brewery complex in Mount Joy offers a variety of settings: fine dining in a Victorian-era hotel, steak and seafood in the aging cellars 40-feet below ground, a tavern menu in the original bottling works and an outdoor biergarten.
At the Cameron Estate Inn, the 1805 mansion of Abraham Lincoln’s first secretary of war, a French-trained chef serves elegant dinners in historic dining rooms.
The Log Cabin, built in the woods as a speakeasy in the 1920s, continually wins accolades for "the best steaks" and the "most romantic" setting, and downtown, diners enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and history of The Pressroom Restaurant.
The Revere Tavern, where Stephen Foster wrote Oh, Susannah, was considered the state’s best roadside tavern in its day, perhaps starting the Lancaster County tradition of satisfying diners with food that’s both good and plenty.
Restaurant Locations and Contact Information
- Plain & Fancy Farm, 3121 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand, (717) 768-4400
- Good ’N Plenty Restaurant, 150 E. Brook Road, Smoketown, (717) 394-7111
- Miller’s Smorgasbord, 2811 Lincoln Highway East, Ronks, (717) 687-6621
- Lancaster’s Central Market, 23 N. Market Street, Lancaster, (717) 291-4739
- Bube’s Brewery, 102 N. Market Street, Mount Joy, (717) 653-2056
- Cameron Estate Inn, 1855 Mansion Lane, Mount Joy, (717) 492-0111
- The Log Cabin, 11 Lehoy Forest Drive, Leola, (717) 626-1181
- The Pressroom Restaurant, 26-28 W. King Street, Lancaster, (717) 399-5400
- Historic Revere Tavern, 3063 Lincoln Highway East, Paradise, (717) 687-8601