The Fort at Exit 18 — Restaurant in Lebanon

When we walked in to The Fort diner, they were playing Bocephus (Hank Williams, Jr.) , and now they’re playing Patsy Cline and maybe that’s at least half of the charm of this diner-inside a gas station, here.

But first, when you drive in, you will never think there is a restaurant here! And once you walk in, you definitely think you misunderstood the term, “restaurant.” But keep walking to the back and towards the right, and you’ll find a door that opens up to a whole, charming, old-fashioned slice of historic Lebanon country restaurant.

You can get breakfast, lunch or dinner here, and breakfast is served all day. So, unless you are looking for 24-hour breakfast at Denny’s, this is the most awesome homestyle diner to eat at up through 6:30pm-ish (it clears out by 7:45 i think). There is a lot of charm to be had, here, including friendly waitresses and cantankerously-charming cooks. And did I mention that I loved the vintage country music?! :)

There is a narrow U-shaped counter here with a fair amount of seating. Our server was fast and friendly. We really enjoyed it when one of the cooks came out who has just the right amount of self-depricating humor if you dare to banter with him.

The hot cakes and biscuits are cooked on a real cast-iron griddle, here, and you can taste that flavor and how good it is. The biscuits are like nothing I’ve seen: cast iron grilled corn meal and wheat maybe? Not sure. They look like hamburger buns but have the mouth feel of a nice, firm cornbread - though not as sweet. Our biscuit was overcooked but if I get back there, next time I’ll ask for it toasted light. (You might ask for your hot cakes cooked light, as well, because one of those came out dark.) This biscuit did have a good and unique flavor. We got a double side of mashed potatoes and gravy as an appetizer and it was delicious! They have an almost-whipped but definitely substantial feel, yet also firm and so buttery. Very good! You can tell the cooks put a lot of work into this food and that comes across in the flavors.

We ordered a breakfast called the Lumberjack and it was gigantic! 2 eggs,3 slices of fresh, crispy bacon, big sausage patties, 2 gigantic slices of rye toast and well-seasoned potatoes. There was a very subtle taste of garlic seasoning and i loved it! The bacon was my favorite: very flavorful - oversized and light in flavor - vs. some of the real country bacon I’ve tasted a few times around here.

Their sweet tea is good! It tastes like the homemade version of what Country Time Lemonade was modeled after.

Their 2 dessert cases definitely serve up some tasty treats: homemade muffins, cruellers, donuts, pies, oversized brownies and gigantic coconut squares (chocolate chips, coconut slivers, Oreo cookies and tons of other sweet goodies layered in). You can order 3 different types of pie slices for the same price of a half of a pie. We ordered: Coconut Custard: sweet, coconut throughout the custard, with even sweeter whipped cream Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie: smooth and sweet peanut butter filling with a very present flavor of Hershey’s syrup. This is good and tastes like flavors i haven’t enjoyed for decades. You will not find this anywhere else. Cherry Pie: perfectly tart, round and plump mostly whole cherries with a sweet sauce. I love that the cherries aren’t over-baked drowning in a sea of sauce in pieces and half sizes. The pie crust is thick and buttery.

Order to go by 7:30 at the latest. Or be seated by 6:30 latest because when they close at 8, customers are...

I'm an over-the-road truck driver with 26 years experience and have been to and seen a lot of places across the country and I ended up spending 2 days here because of having truck parking waiting to make a delivery at Dartmouth College for their expansion. That being said, the well overpriced food was so-so quality. (Example) they tried to sell me a grilled chicken salad which consisted of nothing more than a few small cubed up pieces of Yardbird, iceberg lettuce, two thin pieces of tomato , a little bit of grated carrot and cabbage for ten bucks ! needless to say I had the waitress take it back and told her that they're out of their damn mind. The BLT sandwich and onion rings cost me $12 with no drink! The six chicken strips with a little bit of thin and greasy fries was $13 with no drink.They should be ashamed of themselves for trying to say that they are a bakery. in my humble opinion they are far far from it. The Blueberry pie absolutely sucked it was mostly that gel stuff that you buy and you know comes out of a can .the restroom facilities we're just plain nasty with commercial size rolls of toilet paper not even put into the dispensers, no paper towels, no soap, toilet seats that needed to be tightened down and just plain run down and dirty. The one bright spot was the people that work there are friendly. Would I recommend this place to...

We went on a Thursday night because we were staying up the hill for an early dr appt at DHMC. Read reviews and was really looking forward to a good experience. We were sadly disappointed, not sure what all the hype is about. It was not busy at all. We were told to sit by the windows, which were very cold and drafty. The water had a funny taste to it, not chlorine but more needing to be cleaned. Hubby ordered at Diet soft drink and was told they were out. He is diabetic so we asked what else and was told unsweetened tea. Within 2 minutes of being served the tea the dishwasher or cook needed a diet soft drink so they changed the tank. You'd think our waitress would have said "hey, sorry, i didn't know how to change it, would you rather have the diet Pepsi?" We both ordered burgers and they arrived over cooked. Food quickly got cold because of the draft. He didn't finish his burger or tea. Waitress never checked in after bringing the food until.she dropped the check. Pastries were big as said in other reviews but who wants to try them after a terrible dinner for $50, for two burgers and an iced tea?? Maybe breakfast is better but we will...