Berlin Farmstead Restaurant

Solid Amish style buffet.  It is what it is...a buffet.

I have to agree that while the atmosphere and menu is Amish, the staff and chefs are not.

Very plain food with not much flavor and no real atmosphere.

As many other reviewers posted, the options on the buffet are limited. I'm originally from southcentral Pennsylvania, so I'm well-versed with both Amish cuisine and hospitality. No, the employees here are not Amish. I noticed a few young ladies with heavy make-up covering their tattoos (who knew they could get down in Berlin?!), so I'm 100% positive. I doubt the cooks are Amish either, but isn't that kind of par for the course when eating at a themed restaurant in a tourist area?

I avoided the buffet, as there weren't enough options that appealed to me. I ordered the meatloaf and had sides of mashed potatoes & gravy and applesauce. Here's where ya lost me, Farmstead... The waitress brings my applesauce before my meal (weird, but whatever. Maybe she thought I wanted it as an app?) and I decide to have a taste while my dining companion hit the salad bar. This was absolutely, positively, definitely canned/pre-packaged/grocery store applesauce. I'm talking Motts. Seriously?! Color me disappointed.

The meatloaf was tasty, tender, and moist. The mashed potatoes were your run of the mill variety (potentially from flakes, it was hard to tell) and the gravy was pretty standard. Overall the service was terrific, but I can't get past the average (at best) quality of the food. The prices are reasonable, but the fare isn't much better than your run of the mill family style chain.

**Warning: be prepared to wait. A long time. We had roughly 7 parties in front of us, several of which had greater than 8 people waiting. Rather than take names, move to the next group, and seat as tables became available, they waited between EACH PARTY before even taking the names of the next customers. I was in a party of two and we waited behind all large groups, only to find that when it was our turn there was immediately a 2-top available. Restaurant service 101 was clearly skipped for the hostesses.