Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant & Smorgasbord — Restaurant in Leacock Township

We have been three times so far. Once for breakfast and twice for dinner. The breakfast was just ok. Eggs were clumpy, breakfast gravy had lumps of flour, french toast sticks hard, bacon quite thin and greasy. Will not return for breakfast. Dinner, however, was a mixed experience. Enough offerings for everyone to find something. The soup was probably best on the menu. The noodles were homemade the first time we went and we loved them. Second time it was egg noodles dripping in butter, not very good and not seasoned. Fried chicken is not consistent. The first time it was good, second time very dry. Vegetables look to be canned and just dumped out (green beans, corn). Desserts were mainly pudding offerings and honestly do not look appealing once people have dug into them and mixed them up. The kids liked the eclair dessert. Service was ok. Pleasant but in our experience if you get the buffet and don't order off the menu they don't come to the table often. Plates pile up and refills are practically non-existent. The only reason we gave it another go is because Good n' Plenty closed (much more home style and a bit more COVID friendly at the time) and we much preferred their versions of many of the same offerings (fried chicken, pot roast, vegetables, noodles, and ham loaf). Has the potential to be much better than it is. Possible the menu offerings are better than the buffet, but I can not rate on it as we have not tried it. With an almost 6 year old and a 9 year old, buffets seem to appeal a bit more as it offers a little independence in choice. Might give it another go and order off the menu, but unsure...

First, our server, Sarah S, was great. Attentive with “smiles for miles.” The young girl checking us in did an amazing job getting everyone’s names and answering questions, as needed. She was so wiped out by the end of the night with the extremely large volume of people that were there on Labor Day Saturday, Both of them deserve BIG RAISES, as that situation was quite overwhelming and almost abusive to them. We were told that the wait would be 50 minutes. That’s to be expected for dinner at a place like this. While those things are out of the staff’s control, if we had been told that it was actually going to be 90 minutes, we would have chosen another place to eat and may have returned to this restaurant another time. But we waited and, like most patrons that day, sat down to eat with an offense because the wait times were much more than expected. The actual food wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t worth that kind of wait. The number of items was limited in the one section of hot dinner food, as it was close to the same in both sides. That may have allowed people to move through the line faster, but I wanted much more variety. Soup, salad and bread stations were typical. Dessert was also rather limited in its selection. My wife and I were so hopeful to eat at Bird-In-Hand only to be disappointed with so many aspects of the experience. Realistic wait times and a greater variety of hot foods and dessert could have made our experience so much better. I hope that this review helps those in charge make changes to make an “okay”...

The buffet food was great however we had an issue with them trying to seat us near a stairwell exit door ( how odd as we are not trash) that would put my Mother in-law (who flew in from Guatemala to go on vacation with us)in the aisle and in the direct path of anyone walking past to get to their table as well as all entering and exiting the area. I asked the young man who tried to place us there that this was unacceptable but he seemed to have dozens of excuses (none of them good) as to why he couldn't seat us at several empty booth and tables (some table were reserved for show goers but not all). Why am I treated like a second class citizen to the show goers as our money is green too just like there's. After walking back up to station area passing at least close to a dozen tables and booths that were available the woman hostess there seems to not mind to provide us with a booth as we waited shortly but then were seated. Our waitress came by shortly and she was great. So they saved our evening thanks to their comprehension that our first placement was offensive unlike the young man who could care less where he "dumped" us and have a sorry "song and dance" that made us feel unwanted. Food was excellent and what a great selection. Waitress was friendly and helpful as she smiled a lot. Place seemed clean and we enjoyed our meals. If not for the first ridiculous seating attempt I would have given 5 stars. Maybe train workers who deal closely with the customers to practice empathy...