The great family style debate: Good N' Plenty vs. Plain & Fancy
Written: Apr 15 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Both are near the Rockvale and Tanger shopping outlets in Lancaster, no reservations needed
Cons: eating with strangers
The Bottom Line: 4 stars for Plain & Fancy and three stars (rounded up)for Good N' Plenty.
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| JasonNYCity's Full Review: Pennsylvania Dutch Country |
Good N' Plenty Restaurant is between Rtes. 30 and 340, Smoketown, PA. Phone: 717/394-7111.
Plain & Fancy Farm & Dining Room is Rte. 340, 7 miles east of Lancaster, Bird in Hand, PA. Phone: 717/768-4400.
Price:
Both are around $15 for adults and $6.50 for children, and are all you can eat.
Different people recommended one or the other of these restaurants, so we wound up trying them both.
Both are near outlet shopping, and have gift shops. Good N' Plenty has a bakery as well. Both are kid friendly, and have highchairs. You are seated with other diners at a table for twelve at both restaurants. Various Amish family style food is then passed among the diners who have already announced where they are from. The food changes a bit each visit.
The food we were served:
Good N' Plenty: Ham, fried chicken, brown buttered noodles, pepper cabbage (like a relish), dried corn, chow chow (picked mixed vegetables), beef stew, mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, whipped butter, apple butter, bread, apple sauce, jello w/pineapple, ice cream, orange sherbet, shoo fly pie, apple crumb cake. They had soda, lemonade, iced tea, coffee & tea.
Plain & Fancy: Baked sausage, fried chicken, roast beef, brown buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, dried corn, apple sauce, apple dumpling dessert, bread, shoo fly pie, icecream, and the same drinks as GNP.
While the service itself was good at both places, Good N' Plenty was not well organized. You take a #, and then are called to one of several rooms. They mixed the numbers up when they called them, causing confusion. They also won't seat anyone until they have the 12 people, while PNF had us at a 2/3 filled table so we did not have to wait for a table. GNP wound up seating a fraction of the huge room we were in so that most of the room was dark, which was not good for atmosphere. The decor wasn't great at either restaurant, but that is fine for this type of restaurant.
The food:
The food was much better at Plain & Fancy, especially the fried chicken (which was crisp & excellent), the shoo fly pie (which has whipped cream on it), applesauce, iced tea, and the buttered noodles (which were dry at GNP.) I especially liked the baked sausage (PNF) and apple dumpling (PNF.)
The dried corn, apple butter, and mashed potatoes were good at both places. The fact that the corn had previously been dried gave it good depth of flavor.
At Good N' Plenty the pepper cabbage was better, and the whipped butter was a nice touch.
Verdict:
Plain N' Fancy is a better run restaurant with better food.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
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Epinions.com ID:
JasonNYCity
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Location: New York City (Queens), NY
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 88 members
About Me:
I am no longer on this site, although I am still food obsessed.
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