Top Buffet 2015 - Yoder's Restaurant and Buffet, New Holland, PA.

As was stated in our last article, the Top Buffets for 2015 (there are four of them) are not listed in any particular order. There is no ranking position. All are equal Top Buffets for 2015. With that we start our Top Buffet 2015 articles with Yoder's Restaurant and Buffet in New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

We have written about Yoder's many times over the years. There were some physical changes at Yoders in 2015. A new dining room was designed and installed in the restaurant. In the area that was once rows and rows of booths, the room was turned into a more formal dining room atmosphere. Gone are most of the booths (but new booths not what was there) and scattered around the floor are free standing tables. The walls have been redecorated also with large photographs of the same scene of Yoder's farm in each of the seasons. The dining room has gone from a cafeteria/fast food look to a restaurant dining room. We were very impressed when we first walked in during 2015 to find this change. There does not seem to be any loss in their ability to accommodate as many diners as they always have.

Yoder's is not a big, sprawling restaurant. The buffet is bigger than some and small than others. There is always plenty of foods and a variety. Plus the building can accommodate very large groups for meetings, programs, etc. and often these include dinner at the buffet. Large groups coming in off the street can be accommodated as well in another dining room.  This is a family restaurant and buffet.

The food at Yoder's is good. There is a different theme feature each night and the themes reflect the types of foods on the buffet. While Saturday night's feature has not changed, for some reason we "discovered" it this past year - and Yoder's became our go to buffet on Saturday nights when we are in Lancaster County. Every night is good, but compared to other buffets in Lancaster, Saturday gives the selections we are looking for at just the right price. If for no other night Saturdays makes Yoder's a Top Buffet for 2015. The theme for Saturday is Pennsylvania Dutch but this does not necessarily mean you will find the usual PA Dutch foods found at some of the other Lancaster buffets. You may find some of those but the two featured entrees - among the other entrees are Marinated Steak and BBQ Baby Back Ribs.

Let's talk a little about Saturday nights in Lancaster. There is no one time of the year that would be considered "Tourist Season" in Lancaster. It is more crowded with tourists in the summer months but it can be just as crowded with tourists in the Spring and Fall. During the winter after Christmas, things slow down until the Spring, but you can still walk into a buffet restaurant during that "off time" and find a lot of tourists. Are tourists a bad thing? No, but I would much rather be dining with local people in a local atmosphere without bus groups and the tourists. Yoder's is a local restaurant - and if you have read this site before and read one of our Yoder's articles you already know that it is located inside a supermarket building - which as I have said before - is not uncommon in this area. This is not the type of restaurant/buffet that attracts tourists. It also is not priced for tourists and the price for the buffet at Yoder's - especailly on a Saturday night is quite good.

I like steak. Saturday night, as said, features marinated steak. This steak is served to order and cooked on a char-grill. The marinating gives the steak a nice flavor and more than once I have had this steak exactly how I like it - charred crisp on the outside and still red, juicy and rare on the inside. You are getting a whole steak - not a piece of steak cut off from another. If you happen to miss being at Yoder's on Saturday night, the marinated steak shows up on Monday night too!

There are always some interesting entrees and sides on the buffet at Yoders, and we have some favorites here. It is not often that you find Baked Oatmeal at any buffet - including in this area. This is not a breakfast dish - this is a side dish or a dessert. Here there is generally two types - one plain and one with fruit such as blueberries baked in. The macaroni and cheese is thick and gooey and good with a crumb crust on the top that just makes it right. There is often a combined casserole dish of some type - one was smoked sausage with potatoes in cream sauce. Some have been unusual and tasty.

There are two soups - some unusual. Ham Vegetable soup was particularly good. There is a nice salad bar with several types of lettuce and all of the toppings, plus a good assortment of prepared salads. For bacon lovers, try hot bacon dressing which is always on the salad bar. Desserts are plentiful and are located at several spots - an entire double sided buffet of prepared desserts, a wall of cakes and hot desserts including hot shoo-fly cake, a rotating glass case of pies, a sundae bar with soft serve ice cream and if you go to the opposite side of the room along the wall where the soups are, a hot counter follows along with hot sticky buns, iced cinnamon rolls, the baked oatmeals,

Service is always good. The buffet is open until 8:00 pm but don't get there at the last minute as they do start closing down the buffet at closing time. Yoder's is open from Monday to Saturday with their regular buffets - and unlike most other buffet restaurants in Lancaster, is open on Sundays until 2:00 pm with a Breakfast Buffet Brunch. The restaurant closes on Sundays at 2:00 pm.

As said this is a must go on Saturday nights for us and we have heard from a number of others who feel exactly the same. With that and all of the rest of this buffet meeting this site's criteria for a top buffet, Yoder's is a Top Buffet for 2015!  

Yoders  is located at Yoder's Country Market, Route 23, New Holland, Pennsylvania. The phone number is (717) 354-4748. There is a website posted at the side of this page.