Eating The Road

Oregon Dairy Country Restaurant
Address: 2900 Oregon Pike (just off Route 222), Lititz, PA 17543
Phone: (717) 661-6804
Website: www.oregondairy.com

Breakfast: Fri-Sat 7am-11am $8.95
Lunch: Mon-Sat 11am-3pm $10.95
Dinner: Mon-Sat 3pm-8pm $12.95

Typical breakfast: fresh seasonal fruits, fresh, baked pastries, cereal, milk, juices, coffee, hot tea, eggs, pancakes, potatoes, bacon, sausage.

Typical lunch/dinner: baked corn, Harvard beets, macaroni & cheese, stewed tomatoes, potato filling, carrots, red-skinned mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, pickled eggs, steamed green vegetable blend, vegetable beef soup, pot roast with carrots & potatoes, seasoned Pollock, fried shrimp, pork & sauerkraut, shrimp & wild rice, chicken pot pie, baked barbecue chicken, ham balls.

Typical dessert: cracker pudding, rice pudding, vanilla pudding, bread pudding, cakes, pies, apple pie, cherry pie, warm cobbler, Jell-O, fresh hand-dipped ice cream.

This is a family buffet/restaurant that is connected to a large grocery store. It is one of those local family/farm type places. I’m not sure if it is still family run but it certainly has that feel. The restaurant and buffet are one of the smaller ones around.

The first buffet station has your basic salad fixings (lettuce, croutons, nuts, raisins, peas, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.) and dressings (Ranch, raspberry vinaigrette, Italian, blue cheese, honey mustard, French, hot bacon dressing, etc.). The second station has two hot soups (vegetable & chicken noodle), bread rolls (wheat & white), cottage cheese, cole slaw, pepper cabbage, chow chow, apple butter, apple sauce, carrot salad, macaroni salad, potato salad, pickled eggs ,beets and cocktail shrimp.

The hot buffet station has pot roast, chicken pot pie, scalloped potatoes, fried shrimp, mashed potatoes, beef gravy, turkey gravy, baked chicken, meatloaf, sausage, pork & sauerkraut, ham balls, macaroni & cheese, stuffing, steamed vegetables, Salisbury steak and Pollack.

The dessert section has an extensive amount of puddings. There was a pumpkin mouse, graham cracker, vanilla, chocolate, eclair, peanut butter, rice pudding, tapioca, banana, bread pudding, whipped topping and maybe even a few more, there is also a fruit medley (canned). They had a hot apple cobbler and a hot cherry cobbler. There was carrot cake, apple pie, cherry pie, whoopie pie, sugag-free apple pie and a sugar-free pound cake. You also get one scoop from their 20+ ice cream menu.

The vegetable and salad offerings were fresh and all the items were acceptable but nothing stood out too much. The potato salad was not to my liking, it was very “thick” and not much flavor. The macaroni salad was bland too. The cole slaw, pepper cabbage, chow chow and carrot salad were all pretty good. The chicken noodle was alright as well.

I was pretty disappointed by the quality of the food here. It just didn’t have the care and love that some of the other local family run places are known for. The Salisbury steak was very poor and wasn’t much more than you’d get in the freezer aisle. The Pollack was extremely dry. The chicken was dry as well and seemed as if it had been sitting for a long time. The stuffing was just downright horrible, it was overcooked and almost a brick. It’s not to say that it was all bad. The chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes, macaroni & cheese, and scalloped potatoes were all very good. The ham balls, meatloaf and sausage were by far the better items of the entire buffet.

The puddings were all extremely good with the exception of the bread pudding which was very dense and seemed old. The cookies and cream pudding was incredible as was the pumpkin moose, the eclair pudding and the graham cracker pudding. The hot apple cobbler was delicious and so was the hot cherry cobbler. The carrot cake was also very good, the frosting was not too sweet and the cake was moist.You’re allowed only one scoop of ice cream which I was a little perturbed about (only because I love ice cream) but they give you a fairly large bowl. I had the Almond Joy ice cream and it was very good. You could certainly tell in was made on premise.

Unfortunately I’m not a big fan of this place. I had horrible service but to be fair I saw it only with my server. Every other server seemed to be much better than mine. My server first off didn’t come around for about 15 minutes, I had to ask someone else for water. Then when she did come around she was very unfriendly. She did a horrible job with removing empty plates and never refilled my beverage (I had to get someone else to do it). I also had to ask someone else for hot sauce.

The place is clean and all the buffet stations are maintained well. The items were always hot and rotated nicely. The plates and utensils were always stocked and clean. There was actually a sole employee maintaining the small buffet area and was underwhelmed with work to do but at least meant that everything was taken care of.

Overall I would not recommend this place. There are plenty of Amish-style family restaurants and buffets around that do an exceptional job. I probably had one of the lesser experiences here but I still think the other nearby restaurants are consistently serving amazing food and doing it with a smile. I would recommend going to Family Cupboard or Dienner’s, both about 15 minutes away, instead.

Further reviews:
Yelp
Trip Advisor
Art of the Buffet