The Pretzel Hut — Restaurant in Elizabeth Township

Me and my boyfriend went here for a date, i saw it off tiktok and saw it had a kind of big petting zoo with a fluffy cow and more so i was pretty excited.

First off, food. If you’re from philly and you get the cheesesteak, its not like philly. i think i got so used to philly cheesesteaks that i expect every cheesesteak to be like it. for me, the cheesesteak was like a 6, they don’t put mayo on the bread and just felt like something else was missing?? maybe onions?? my boyfriend on the other hand liked it, he said its like a 6.5. GET THE MAC AND CHEESE, if you had popeyes mac and cheese its like on the same level of good as the pretzel hut and if not, pretzel hut mac and cheese is better. i rate it a 9.3 and he says 9. THE PRETZELSSSS, its literally called the pretzel hut for a reason. the best, will come here again just for that pretzel and mac & cheese.

ice cream was a HUGE let down. the looks are amazing, but the taste is something else.. i got the brownie sunday with vanilla sundae. i never had ice cream and threw the rest in the trash before, im a big back and i LOVE ice cream but this is straight up sad. the brownie tasted store brought, if not it was just a horrible recipe (AND BROWNIES ARE MY FAVORITE DESSERT). something was so off about that brownie. majority of the ice cream was just whip cream and my cherry fell.. the ice cream it self was okay, and the fudge was cold. literally the biggest let down, not even my boyfriend wanted it and he eats almost anything.

the peanut butter and banana milkshake was good tho, you can DEFINITELY taste it. he rates it a 10, well sized. pricing is 10 too he said, we didn’t see anything overpriced.

the ice cream was a bit of a wait, the sign says theres 3 sizes but when i said i wanted a medium brownie sundae they said they only have one-sized, obviously not a problem but if you dont have the sizes why even have the sign?

the outside was cute, lights, benches, fireplaces, even a little playground. but now heres the problem.

the little free petting zoo, it was honestly so sad to see. the goats seemed good, going up high but one of them squeezed through the gate to the ponies???? the ponies, there was two of them but such little room.. ponies require 1-2 acres of land but their area is the size of my bedroom, if not maybe its even smaller. they were NOT happy at all, they’re not thriving in there at all. there was another one at the front of them, the littlest gate if them all, only had cardboard for shade. and then the pigs was honestly the worst part, they have NO mud at all, all they had was very tiny bit of shade from the little pig house things, they’re obviously overheating. pigs require mud especially during summer. pigs don’t sweat like we do so they use mud to cool down. if you can’t even do mud then maybe a sprinkler, SOMETHING to make the pigs cool down, they’re suffering.

i was also looking at the reviews and turns out there used to be a brown fluffy cow, kinda sad that it’s not there anymore but i hope he had enough space to run around. i didn’t go up to the chickens and rabbits because honestly it was just sad. I did see a turkey, so thats cool.

the place would be a 4/5 if they took care of the animals more, but because it looks like they don’t its a 2/5.

ALSO, i did research on the pigs and ponies specifically because they did look like they’re either sad or suffering from the heat. so everything about the mud and acres was from research.

edit to response : okay that makes sense with the ponies and donkeys but what doesnt make sense is the pigs, if it was at the back then why did they chose the shade? me and my boyfriend didnt see any water or mud at the back at all. for the cheesesteak, i was just clarifying for anyone else trying because cheesesteak with no mayo is odd to me because i usually had them with mayo, no problem there! and with the sundae, i looked back on the menu and it says nothing about one size only for sundaes.

im happy the ponies and donkeys are only visiting so ill put it to 3 stars but the pigs...

(Reposting as a local guide based on a top yelp reviewer request with authorization from Yelp) Racist act took place against a mother and a child started by a hostile patron and which resulted in personal attacks from the employees and some regulars (against the mother and child) who ganged up on the obviously foreigner mother and a child, owners acted as villagers defending their people not as business owners justifying all that had happened making up lies and accusations, shameful.

Here’s part of the review and the rest can be read on Yelp: I witnessed the most ignorant and bit racist thing before my eyes take place there, there was this lady with a child that was petting the animals and enjoying their time like everyone else, the child was handling baby bunnies then a lady comes from behind them started being rude about how tiny the bunnies are and that they shouldn't be touching them, even though many people did before them but I saw this lady giving them dirty looks before that incident for some reason she looked like she doesn't like the way they look or the non-English language they were speaking, the lady kept yapping about that non-stop so the mother took the bunny from the child's hands and put it back in place asking that lady in a very nice way to stop that and they moved to the next thing, now I saw that lady talking with everyone and claiming that she saw the mother and her child abusing the animals and she was going to call the management and of course other women there got worked up over that, saw the child playing with another animals and they approached the mother to stop her child, at that moment the mother was very upset and felt targeted so she said that they did nothing wrong and there was no sign saying not to touch the baby animals and her child like all children there loves to hold the baby animals, of course the lady that stirred all that came back with a couple of women who work at the pretzel hut who to my surprise did not ask questions but came yelling when the mother and child where sitting on a bench holding the baby bunny, what made me believe it's an act of racism and targeting that woman and her child is that when the server in a blue pretzel hit shirt came in the most unprofessional and rude way telling the mother to give her the bunny she started yelling in front of everyone that the mother "shoved the bunny at her" I was very close to the bench where the mother and her child were sitting and saw with my own eyes that the mother held the bunny with her both hands and put it in that angry employee hands, there was no shoving, at that point the mother was so upset and because of all the screaming match that was going on she said she's did no harm to the animals and that she doesn't understand why are those women hanging up on her like that then asked them to go check the cameras before believing that woman (that was still yelling in the back that they should call the cops) the yelling keep going on and on even when she said she was leaving they kept telling her to leave and never come back (just to be extra mean to make it sound like she was kicked out) oh they told her there are no cameras! Yet they made a judgement based on some crazy woman's act just because she was loud enough, and that employee that came and was standing there being rude making it like a high school fight made up a big fat lie that no one dared to say anything about? She was rude and non-smiling when serving customers too but I never thought an employee representing a place of business that's supposed to be professional would act that way, it made me sad because I as a mother was the target a lot for mom-shaming and people who find nothing better to do with their times other than harassing families with children but it was the first time I saw this amount of ganging up on one person, maybe it's a village...

Being an avid customer with the pretzel hut for a few years now. I believe the new ownership is a MAJOR improvement. The outside area is so very nice! Before the revamp, it was messy and sad looking, lack luster. I enjoy the bigger seating area, there wasn’t too much room to sit on a busy weekend but this allows a lot more comfort. I DEFINITELY enjoy the outdoor window, some days that line would be out the door and the confusing , which lines ice cream and which one is food. Very fast service, I went at a really good time though (5pm on a Thursday) right before the evening rush. The pretzels were so good and the ice cream was as well. It’s a bit pricey, but what isn’t now a day's with inflation? I am willing to pay that price because of the cozy family feel to it , and I’m a big supporter of small businesses! The playground is a great addition, splits up time between that, and the animals which spaces people out a bit more.

Just as a note, I was out there when two ladies decided to pick up one of the baby pigs and he was obviously upset and squealing , it made me kind of uncomfortable. I didn’t know if you guys would like to know, or if it matters but may I suggest maybe a camera or something for the animal area? Something like a monitor that you can peek over at every now and then? Maybe some signage too, you may pet but leave all animals feet on the ground please 🙏. I always thought that about the old ownership of the pretzel hut also. I have seen adults do some questionable things with the animals as well as the children. Never something I would call abuse, but to someone not knowledgeable of handling certain animals - could lead to some bad things happening. The customer who picked up the pig at my visit didn’t know that the piglet would be so squirmy , as a once certified vet assistant I would be concerned about them hurting its spine. He also could’ve been dropped and hurt something that way also, broken something. The world can be an ugly place now a days, I would hate to see the animals being harassed! That’s the only reason I’d bump it...