Western Night at the Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord

I have written about the Bird In Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord before. It is good. It is located on Route 340 in Bird in Hand in south central Pennsylvania in Lancaster County. Usually I have been there on Friday nights. I had an opportunity to try it on a Thursday night and found out that Thursday night is Western Night at the Smorgasbord table. This and the entrees were clearly posted in the lobby,

The entrees that make this Western Night were barbecue ribs (which are also featured on Friday nights), pot roast, ham balls, Mexican rice, and a taco bar. I mistakenly assumed that the regular entrees would be found as well, and I was mildly disappointed. There was no problem with what was there. The food was a good as usual.

The ribs are sweet and off the bone. They tend toward the chewy side. These are not the usual ribs – not baby backs or Kansas City style or Chinese style. They are rib meat and the tips, The pot roast was tender and came apart with a fork. It was not in any sauce, but was cooked with onions – seemingly in a pot in liquid, as it should be. The ham balls are small meatballs made from ham – like ham loaf (a local dish). They are served in a sauce with a pineapple base. The sauce did not make them overly sweet. There was also Pork and Sauerkraut – pulled pork cooked in sauerkraut, another local dish. The taco bar offered taco meat, melted cheese, taco shells, salted tortilla chips, and flour tortillas (that were hard and were not coming out of the serving dish). At the side were the usual toppings of tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, taco sauce, etc. I made my way over to the salad bar and added shredded cheese, There was also fried chicken and baked fish fillets,

There were a variety of sides including steak fries, hush puppies, real mashed potatoes, string beans, corn, stuffing (called filling in this area), buttered noodles, and Mexican rice which was spicy but not hot. There were several other side dishes as well.

The soup bar includes the more than excellent chicken corn soup that with this restaurant’s recipe, I consider the best soup that I have ever had. There was also beef barley soup with a tomato base and tomato soup.

For the kids = and anyone else I suppose, there is a children’s smorgasbord table that had hot dogs, spaghetti, fish sticks, chicken nuggets and other kid oriented dishes. This is set aside from the regular smorgasbord tables and is s kid height.

The dessert bar was a usual and offers a good assortment of cakes, puddings, and soft serve ice cream.

The service was a good as always. The waitress was very attentive, friendly, and made sure that we had full soft drinks.

My wife is a picky eater. She does not like barbecue or western themed entrees. She was happy with the ham balls and she had plenty to eat. For the diet conscious the soup and salad bar is a good alternative here at dinner as there is plenty for the offering on the salad and soup tables. I was more than satisfied at the end of the meal. Dinner was $13.99 per person. There is a web link to this restaurant at the side of the articles. There is also a more extensive article about this restaurant in an earlier article.