J-Barn Country Inn

From the out side it looks like just a regular old house and the decor inside is all country. Friendly enough staff, service was a little slow for all the more busy they were though. I got a salad that was massive! I had to get another plate to put some on so I could eat it. The steak was tender, done just right, and had a great flavor. Could of used less iceberg lettuce and more spring mix to it. Over all it was good and I would go back an eat here some time.

Generations of my husband's family are from Western PA, and one holiday tradition is a dinner with his mother's side of the family.  This had been held at Clifford's for years but Clifford's popularity made reservations a challenge and its expense outgrew the budget of the family patriarch.  Thus we headed to the J barn, formerly Jardine's, a Sarver institution for decades, for 2012.  Table for 13.

J barn is a great country restaurant.  The menu is a few pages and is separated into seafood, pasta, meat, and poultry entrees.  The chicken dishes offered more creativity than you'd find in most local places - they included peach chicken (pecan encrusted topped with roasted peaches and sauce), German chicken (pretzel encrusted accompanied by spicy mustard), Frangelico chicken (hazelnut encrusted with frangelico cream sauce), bruschetta chicken, and others.  The other items were mostly standard fare and included some barbecue and surf and turf options.  There is no drink menu.  They offer alcohol, but this is not a strength of the restaurant.  Several domestic beers, a few wines (ordered as red or white), cocktails from a full bar, but without top shelf liquor.  They don't sell wines by the bottle, so we ordered "carafes" of wine each of which easily contained more wine than a bottle.

No need to order appetizers as each tables is served "bottomless" plates of vegetables, bread (dinner rolls and bananabread with apple butter), fried mushrooms, and marshmallow fluff.  All tasty, although the fluff seemed out of place as an appetizer.

Entrees came with choice of potato (e.g. sweet potato fries, mashed potato, backed potato), and corn.  Again food served in huge quantiites.  After chowing on the endless appetizers, few were able to finish their entrees, all of which were well-prepared, albeit not exceptional (the frangelico chicken was interesting as a new experiment but not something I'd crave - the pretzel crusted chicken might be somehing to try in the future, but the dish did not quite work since the mustard was more on the honey side of the honey-spicy spectrum).  They offered an appealing dessert tray with about 10 items, including cheesecake, red velvet cake, chocolate lava cake, mousse, but no one had the gumption to order one.  We packed up half the table of food to take home.  The cost was much cheaper than we were used to, especially for the quantity and variety of food, but was probably appropriate for Sarver.

The ambience is a rustic restaurant setting, quiet enough that we could talk all the way down the table and large enough that no one seemed to mind us carrying on.  The service was pleasant and prompt, but unobtrusively allowed us to take our time with family for about 2 hours of eating and catching up.

I would not consider J barn a destination restaurant - many better places around pittsburgh - but I think if you are around the Sarver/Saxonburg/Butler area, J barn is a fine choice for dinner.  I am sure we will be back there in 2013 for another holiday dinner.

As a Californian on a jaunt in western Pennsylvania I found this gem by asking about a good place for dinner in the area at a mom-n-pop winery. Take your appetite. Very solid fare, good country ambiance, and nice service.