Top Buffet of 2012 - Dutch-Way Family Restaurant, Gap, PA

The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in Gap, Pennsylvania is one of the unique to this area, supermarket restaurants. There are three Dutch-Way Markets in Pennsylvania. All three of them have restaurants, but only two of those restaurants have buffets. We found the Gap location a year and a half ago and have enjoyed the buffet at that restaurant very much from the beginning. It has become one of our must go to buffets when we are in the area. We also visited the other Dutch-Way location that has a buffet but we were disappointed in that buffet - and this award - TOP BUFFET OF 212 goes exclusively to the buffet in the restaurant in Gap.

When you enter this restaurant you have no feeling at all that you are in a restaurant that is part of a supermarket. The room is finely decorated and the atmosphere here equals any stand-alone restaurant and buffet. The seating is comfortable and dining here is very pleasant. There are two dining rooms  that are connected to each other. There is a mixture of tables and booths throughout. There is also a private dining room for parties or catered events that is separated from the main restaurant by a door.

When you enter the restaurant from its own lobby that is connected to the market by a hallway, you are entering through double glass doors into an inner restaurant lobby where you will be seated by a hostess. At your table your server will take your soft drink order and you then go up to the buffet area at the rear of the room. The buffet is arranged along the wall where you will find soup choices - there are always four soups in hot soup servers. At one end of the soup area there is a breads server and if you follow the soup section around you come to the baked desserts, which follows along to the soft-serve ice cream machine and then along to the rest of the many desserts that are offered. Out on the floor are three double sided buffet servers. One an extensive salad bar with a variety of create your own salad fixings and also prepared salads that include items unique to the Pennsylvania Dutch area. There are two buffet servers with hot foods. There is also a permanently set up, large grill and carving section with one or two chefs behind the counter to carve or create to order one of the special features of that particular night.

There are features most nights and they follow a theme. These themes have changed from time to time so I will not name nights and features. The one consistent feature that I will share is an extensive Seafood Night which takes place every Thursday night and does have a higher dinner price than other nights. Seafood Night does include crab legs.

Some of the recipes here are unique to the restaurant and the chefs here have taken some standard entrees of the Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish area and given them a unique slant in taste which is very good!  Not all of the cooking is Pennsylvania Dutch and there is a nice variety of entrees that will appeal to most. Some of what is served could be considered "continental" and those dishes are great too. I have not had anything - at this location - that I would not consider good. And we have enjoyed every meal here - and think about going back often (which can be a problem when you are four hours away).

Price of the meals do vary by night, but on some nights the meal is just $10.99! Soft drinks have been $1.39 and are refillable. If you are 60 or over, tell the cashier and you receive a "Senior" discount when you pay your meal check.

Service - here - has consistently been excellent. The serving staff is attentive. The staff at the buffet makes sure the trays are filled and the food that is out is well tended and not permitted to dry out.

The food is quality. There is great value to be had here, even on Seafood Night when the price has been $17.99. The restaurant has been consistent from visit to visit and we have been here several times in 2012. There was no question in our minds that this was going to be a Top Buffet.

We congratulate Dutch-Way Family Restaurant in GAP, PA - their staff - and their management on being one of this site's TOP BUFFETS OF 2012!

The Dutch-Way Family Restaurant is located at the Dutch-Way Farm Market Supermarket at 365 Gap Newport Pike (Route 41), Gap, Pennsylvania 17527. The buffet is served from 4 pm to 8 pm Monday to Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. This is about two and a half miles south of Route 30. There is a web site for the chain and that is linked at the side of this page. The phone number is 610-593-6080.