White House Restaurant

Honestly, it's getting 4 stars overall relative to it's location. First, your other dinner options include the movie rental shop (which serves pizzas/subs) and a few others like it. Second, White House is far more expensive than the rest of them for dinner (in spite of being comparably priced for lunch). So if this was the Balto-DC-Frederick metropolis ... I'd have to be a little more critical.

But this is Meyersdale, PA (way out in God's country). You've probably just had some big adventure - like a long hike, or a full day of skiing, or a bunch of miles on the GAP trail. You're probably hungry. Our experience suggests the White House is gonna come through for you.

The experience started with a journey down some residential side lane, leaving us to question whether there really was a restaurant down there. Relieved to find the smallish white building, but now expecting a diner - we opened the outer door to find a foyer, coat racks, and a second entrance ("maybe this is a restaurant after all, not a diner?"). We entered to find a quaint collection of wooden booths which counterintuitively contributed further to the air of restaurant (vice greasy spoon). We were instantly put at ease by the gracious staff, who sat us down with a warm welcome.

At this point, in spite of the upper-$20s price tag on some of the entrees, my expectations were still pretty low, and it didn't matter really. I'm figuring nice people, ample portions, a beautiful day outside ... dinner is just fuel tonight, I'm not too worried about finding a gourmet meal. And before the main course arrived, there wasn't much to suggest otherwise. The old time soup bar had the oddest assortment of stuff - there was a reasonably good (presumably homemade) french onion soup and half dozen different bread loaves, but the other offerings included some trans-fat laden dollar store star cookies, off brand saltines, and government-issue yellow cheese cubes. A glance at the wine list didn't help either - your choice of Almaden Mountain Burgundy or Riunite Lambrusco. The dinner menu was heavy on deep fried, especially deep fried seafood, including a few that were "fresh" (not trout, mind you, but ocean fish ...)

But the highlight here seemed to be the steaks. Also the specials for our visit included prime rib and a bourbon marinated beef loin of some sort. So we had those. I thought the waitress said chuck loin (never heard of it), and it definitely wasn't tenderloin (i.e. the source of filet mignon) ... was kind of like a double thick flank steak in grain and flavor, but more tender.

Kim at the Levi Deal Mansion where we were staying had told us the White House was the best place in town, and I have to believe she's right. The aforementioned quirks of Allegheny-Highlands-Haute-Cuisine aside ... the meat courses (my bourbon marinated loin, wifey's prime rib) really were excellent, 4 stars anywhere, no relative-geography-star-boost necessary.

We didn't get dessert - but only because we were stuffed. They brought out some death by chocolate looking cake, and from 4 tables away, wifey saw enough to be lusting after it. Unfortunately, we were too full to sample.