Der Dutchman — Restaurant in Washington Township

What surprised me- the moment we were maybe 15 feet into the dining room and headed to our table: this over-all sense of peace and calmness just filled my entire being. It was so strong, it caught my breath, and then released in a nice, slow exhale. What was this??!! In a restaurant?? The few other times I have felt a sudden flooding of peace or joy into my soul were during solitary moments with nature- like walking on a calm shoreline, or I MUST SAY this- When I could feel the presence of One or more, from The Holy Trinity. Yes, I said it. There have been moments in my life where I could honestly say I felt the presence of The Holy Spirit- sometimes in a church setting but more often out in Nature. Now, in a restaurant, and the peaceful feeling was there for the entire time. Anyway- I bet you took this moment to read about Der Dutchman, not about my having a personal moment! So, moving on: I was with my husband and of course, Annie, my SD, mini dachshund. We ordered the buffet so we could eat right away since we were both hungry. We were seated at a window 2-top. I used one of their chairs for me and then put Annie on her blanket in my w/c. I pulled it right up beside q so Annie could maintain her proximity to me for continued cardiac and diabetes monitoring. The restaurant was probably filled 75% and yet it was very quiet. The staff moved efficiently. Tim wheeled us past the buffet so I could get a glimpse of their offerings to tell him what I wanted. Then he took me and Annie back to our table so he could fix our plates. The food was tasty and plentiful. The buffet had plenty of items to make your own salad, plus just about every other cold salads like macaroni, potato, and cole slaw. 2 kinds of soup! Hot foods were: roast beef, fried and roasted chicken, ham, and some kind of pork. The carbs- goodness! Home made noodles, dressing, mashed potatoes, bread pudding, green beans, creamed corn, beef and chicken gravy, and a couple other items. Let me take a moment to compliment them on the green beans! They were the most brilliant, freshly picked bright green! The consistency was perfect- the first moment- there was a very slight crispness which gave way to perfect tenderness. There was NO squeakiness to their texture, they were cooked properly, not at all mushy and very flavorful. This was green beans- on a buffet, folks. Do you know how hard it is for almost every other restaurant in my experience to cook green beans well? Yeah... you know, it's impossible! The other items were also done perfectly, including the bread pudding. The only item which was not great to me, was the roast beef. It was a bit dry and hard to chew. It wasn't even really worth mentioning, except that I had gone into such details of greatness for the other foods. Plus, I may have gotten the only portion which was this way,and other people may think the beef is always great. Dessert? YES, PLEASE! We both had dutch apple pie warmed up with ice cream. He had caramel added to his. We both loved it. So yes, the food, service, and the entire experience, was wonderful. I apologize to you who are reading this, though- I keep forgetting to take pictures of the food. Thank you, Der Dutchman, for being part of such a wonderful sunny Fall...

I drove three hours and this spot came highly recommended after reading the reviews. After my experience, I had to come back and see if the people who wrote the reviews were eating at the same place. We arrived with out family of 6 and we're promptly given a wait time of 30-45 minutes. No problem, it was a Saturday night. The you are welcomed in to the place with a huge foyer the splits to a food shop, cafe, and large upstairs gift shop. Looking through everything, prices were extremely high. I'm all for supporting local but outrageous pricing of National brand products just doesn't sit right with me.

After getting called and seated, we were sat and given access to the (much recommended) buffet. Based on the size of the dining room. The buffet was INCREDIBLY tiny. The goal for the area seems to be a cozy, country style ambiance. With the huge open area, high ceiling, and cheap furniture, it feels more like a cafeteria than a down home experience.

I sampled just about everything from the hot side of the buffet as well as the potato salad and macaroni salad. To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. Going down the line, the noodles tasted like the noodles out of a can on condensed chicken noodle soup. Soggy and mostly flavorless. The beef and pork, which were absolutely SWIMMING in liquid was somehow dry. The meatballs were very obviously frozen and not fresh made, just thrown into a sauce. Ham was severely lacking in flavor as well. The biggest letdown was the broasted chicken. The brought out a whole new pan while I was there. After waiting for several others to take 4-5 pieces, I was excited for this. I will say the chicken and skinny as perfectly cooked, golden brown, and crispy. This is as far as it goes. It was completely flavorless. There seemed to be no seasoning on it. I learned last night that you can in fact have foor that looks perfect and is cooked perfectly, and still is completely awful.

As an executive chef spending over 18 years working in the kitchen, I feel as though at times, I can be a bit harsh in my criticism but my whole family agreed with my sentiment.

The over all problems were the severe lack of actual scratch-made food, flavor, and atmosphere when it feels as though the whole gimmick is to portray themselves as a down-home country kitchen to which I see the have utterly failed. Considering we were eating at a price point of 20 dollars per person for food I would have enjoyed better at a KFC, I have been severely disappointed and cannot recommend this...

When traveling through Ohio on our way back to Ontario from Florida, we had spent a night in the hotel located beside this restaurant and decided to try it for dinner. The place is themed around the family's/owner's Amish heritage, with a simple and hearty menu, albeit somewhat basic. Not that that's a bad thing, but some may come in expecting more? From the outside, the building is quite large, with my first impression being that there must have been some sort of hotel accommodations along with the restaurant. As it turned out, the large restaurant was augmented by an equally large retail side, but more on that later. As far as the food goes, we ate both dinner, as well as breakfast on the following morning. Dinner was okay. Just okay. If you've read any of my other restaurant reviews, you would have learned that I am gluten free, with my go-to choices usually being a simply prepared steak or chicken dinner. For this visit, I did have chicken, served with baked sweet potatoes​. The chicken was broiled and tasted okay. The sweet potato was somewhat earthy tasting. Normally, I would clean my plate, leaving nothing behind, but I only got through half of the potato. My wife had a meatloaf with mashed potatoes. Oddly, the meatloaf came to the table with ketchup already on it. Must have been the cook's preference, but to me, that was akin to ordering french fries and having them come with ketchup already on them? Not sure if that would go over with anyone... Breakfast was classic bacon and eggs. Home fries and coffee rounded off the meal and all were good As for the retail side, the store offered both nick-nack decor items, as well as limited Amish style prepared food items. My wife loves pickeled beats and picked up a jar. She loved them, with her only regret being that she didn't grab a large jar, or two ;-) The rest of the store is filled with home decor items, bric-a-brac and what I like to refer to as dust collectors ;-) Would I go back? Probably not. Would I suggest bypassing it? No I wouldn't. My only recommendation would be to drop in and check it out...