— Leave a Comment

Road Trip: Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre

Berks County Eats crosses the county line to bring you some of the best dining both near and far. This edition takes us 37 miles southwest of Reading to Lancaster, PA.

Dinner and a show. It is the quintessential night out, a perfect evening of food and fun for couples and large groups alike. Somewhere along the way, a genius decided to combine the two and the dinner theater was born.

Some dinner theaters offer superior acting with subpar food. Others offer great food with mediocre acting.

The Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre has amazing food.

The Dutch Apple is one of a pair of dinner theaters in Lancaster. The nearby Rainbow Dinner Theater specializes in comedies while the Dutch Apple stage is home to musicals.

Theater-goers gather in the lobby until 90 minutes before showtime when the floodgates open and patrons are led to their seats. The two-tiered seating area is deceptively large, holding nearly 400 people on a busy night.

With that many people crowded in, it can create quite a traffic jam at the twin buffets, but it is well worth the wait.

I am sure there are some delicious greens on the salad bar, but I have never wasted a trip on salad when there are so many entree options waiting on the hot bar.

The choices remain fairly consistent between visits, with a trio of entrees (usually beef, a poultry and seafood), a fourth meat at the carving station, at least one potato dish and several vegetables.

plate with portions of ham, mixed vegetables, corn, and applesauce

My first trip through the line, I loaded up on sides while getting a few slices of ham from the carving station. The vegetables, a mix of carrots, squash, broccoli and snap peas, were cooked to a perfect t al dente. The corn casserole is creamy and delicious. The pot roast, complete with red skin potatoes and pearl onions, was juicy and tender. The ham was good, but the only bad part about carving stations is that the meat rarely stays hot under the heat lamp, and that was the case with the ham.

plate with a slice of turkey, scoop of stuffing, mixed vegetables and a dinnerroll

Trip number two featured a second helping of vegetables. The thick slab of turkey was moist and flavorful. The addition of mini marshmallows to the sweet potato casserole gave added texture to the side dish while also adding an extra layer of sweetness. The stuffing was also quite good (though as a Dutchman, I will always pine for potato filling over bread stuffing).

plate with mashed potatoes, corn and post roast

After a third trip for more pot roast and corn casserole (and a dollop of mashed potatoes), I had my fill of the main course and ventured to the dessert tables.

A server stands guard over the ice cream freezer at the front of the room. The tables next to him is loaded with toppings, as well as wide array of pies and cakes.

plate with a slice of pecan pie and a bowl with ice cream topped with crushed Oreos

Not wanting to miss out, I took a scoop of ice cream to go with my slice of pecan pie.

Pecan pie is a favorite of mine, and I enjoy Dutch Apple’s. The crust is flakey, the filling is gooey and the pecans are crisped perfectly. I only wish there were a few more pecans and a little less of the filling.

The buffet closes down a few minutes before showtime, ensuring clean up is finished before the curtain rises. If you are still hungry (you shouldn’t be), you can place an order for appetizers to be delivered to your table during intermission. But beware, there is an extra cost involved. And with tickets prices at about $50 per person, I wouldn’t spend the extra money when there is so much good food included.

I won’t pretend to be a theater critic. My area of expertise is the 90 minutes before the actors take the stage. Just know going in that you may be seeing a hit Broadway musical, but Centerville Road is a long way from Broadway.

Enjoy it for what it is, a really good dinner with a show, and you won’t be disappointed.

More Road Trips from Berks County

Buffets Dessert Lunch & Dinner Reviews
— Leave a Comment

Review: Michael’s Restaurant

Berks County is blessed with roads.

Lost in the complaints about potholes and the seemingly endless construction projects is the fact that Berks County has one of the best networks of roads in the state.

There are no two points in the county that are separated by more than an hour’s drive.

Yet the city of Reading becomes a roadblock for cross-county travel. For those of us living on the west side of town, places like Boyertown and Douglassville can feel like an eternity away.

One look at the Berks County Eats map shows that my trips to the “other side” have been few and far between. Part of it is the incredible dining options west of the city, but there is a part of me (the Pennsylvania Dutch part) that keeps me from wandering too far from home.

One of the few eastern Berks County restaurants I have frequented is Michael’s Restaurant in Douglassville.

Just two miles from the Montgomery County line, Michael’s Restaurant is your typical diner. A pair of dining rooms flanks the long lunch counter just inside the doors. A row of booths sits against the wall opposite the counter, each one equipped with a small jukebox filled with songs from the “Now That’s What I Call Music” series. I’m not brave enough to drop a quarter in to see if they actually work.

Michael’s menu is expansive, eight full pages plus daily specials, so there are always going to be hits and misses when you’re serving that many dishes. That’s why  I always stick to the Sautéed Specials page.

The Sautéed Specials includes Asian-inspired stir-fry, Italian pasta dishes and unique creations, each one mixing meat with vegetables, sauce and either pasta or rice, all for between $10-14.

salad bar items sitting on a bed of ice

A trip to the soup and salad bar is included with all of these sautés (those without pasta also get an additional vegetable). Though not the best or biggest salad bar in Berks County, Michael’s does offer two kinds of soup and a rainbow of salad ingredients.

chicken noodle soup with noodles and shell pasta

On my most recent trip, I opted for one of the more original sautés: chicken tossed with spinach, white beans and bow-tie pasta in a light cream sauce.

chicken, beans and spinach stir-fry

My dish had a beautiful presentation, and everything in it was really good (the flavor of the spinach really came through, and there was more than enough to ensure some in every bite). The only downside to the dish is that instead of coming together as one dish, it was more like a collection of individual items than a true sauté.

pierogies, chicken, and broccoli in a stir-fry

The same held true for my wife’s sauté, which included chicken, broccoli and pierogies over angel hair pasta. Though everything in it was very good, I can’t help but think that it would have been better served as a pasta entree with broccoli and pierogies on the side.

I enjoy Michael’s for what it is – a family restaurant at a convenient location with good food for reasonable prices.

It’s also a marker on the right side of the map, the first of many trips to the “other side” of Berks County.

BCE Rating
Food: Good
Service: Good
Ambiance: Good
Price: Reasonable

Michael’s Restaurant
1211 Benjamin Franklin Hwy
Douglassville, PA 19518

More Diners in Berks County

Diners Lunch & Dinner Reviews
— 1 Comment

Marion Fire Company

long tables with folding chairs pre-set with plates

Editor’s Note: The fire company no longer hosts the pot pie dinner.

There is no doubt that Berks County is blessed with a plethora of amazing restaurants. From upscale, downtown dining to back country bars, the options are seemingly limitless.

But sometimes the best meals are the ones you can’t get in any restaurant.

Pick up a copy of the Reading Eagle or the Merchandiser and you will find a treasure trove of dining options at local churches, fire companies and social clubs.

Homemade meals from pancake breakfasts to roast beef dinners are available every weekend. But the true specialty of Berks County is chicken pot pie.

I’m talking about genuine Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie, the three-part dish of dough, meat and potatoes served in a bowl. (Sorry KFC, but what you serve is chicken pie, not chicken pot pie).

And some of the best pot pie in Berks County is only served once a year, in the small village of Stouchsburg.

Every March, the Marion Fire Company hosts an annual pot pie supper at its social quarters along Stouchsburg’s Main Street. The wood paneling adorning the walls of the social hall is broken up only by the large bingo board used on Tuesday nights.

Dinner is served family style. Large bowls of pot pie, peas and applesauce are passed around the table for diners to take as much as they would like. The only downside is that some people (i.e., me) put so much pot pie on their plates that the rest of the table has to wait for another bowl to be delivered.

The reason I take such large portions is that the fire company is serving near perfect pot pie.

white plate with pot pie and applesauce

So what makes it so good? Any good pot pie starts with the dough. More than an over-sized noodle, the dough is thick enough to chew, but soft enough to slide right down.

The second piece to the pot pie puzzle is the meat. Unlike most places where chicken is the only option, the Marion Township Fire Company also serves the under-appreciated beef version of the dish, with large chunks of roast beef mixed in, the juice from the meat combines with that of the dough and potatoes to create a pseudo-gravy that helps keep the dish moist. It’s everything you could hope for in real Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie.

Like all good social dinners, dessert is included with your dinner ticket. An array of pies and cakes tempts the diners. My choice is the spice cake, which is served with cream cheese icing, a short and sweet finish to a hearty meal.

There are plenty of organizations across the county serving delicious dinners so you don’t have to make the trek to the Lebanon County border. But for me, the yearly trip is a family affair, a mini reunion built around a home-cooked meal, all for less than $10 per person.

Upcoming Food Events in Berks County

More Filters

Lunch & Dinner Reviews
— 2 Comments

Good Eatz Green Cafe – CLOSED

stained glass sign that says "Good Eatz Green Cafe"

The Good Eatz Green Cafe is closed. The restaurant had relocated from West Reading to the Fairgrounds Farmers Market in April 2014 before closing in February 2015.

When Good Eatz Green Cafe opened its doors, it was an anomaly. Berks County is a meat-and-potatoes kind of place. I honestly never thought an organic cafe that specialized in vegan and vegetarian dishes could survive.

Five years later, Good Eatz is still going strong.

The cafe is tucked neatly at the entrance to Designer Place at the VF Outlet, having moved from its former home along Penn Avenue more than a year ago.

Brick walls with white and maroon tile floor harken back to the building’s industrial roots, but the stained glass sign at the entrance – Good Eatz set out in bright red set against blades of grass and a brightly colored ladybug – perfectly captures the Cafe’s chic vibe.

The menu is a lot larger than expected, with plenty of choices for the hungry meat-eater like the Andouille sausage burrito, grilled chicken wraps and Kobe beef sliders. But Good Eatz caters to those with special dietary needs like gluten free, vegetarian, vegan and dairy-free (many menu items fit all four categories).

Though Good Eatz is open for all three meals, lunch items dominate the menu. Soups, salads, sandwiches, paninis and wraps make up the bulk of the menu, but everything has its own twist. There are salmon burgers, gluten free pizza and my wife’s choice, the raspberry and brie grilled cheese (an interesting combination that worked surprisingly well together).

grilled panini with a side of pasta in red sauce

For me, this trip was all about stepping out of my comfort zone.

If  you’re a follower of Berks County Eats, you know how much I love good meats. Whether it’s a tender steak, a perfectly smoked rack of ribs or a rotisserie chicken, I have spent many a meal satisfying my inner carnivore. It would have been easy to order up a burger or a stir-fry.

Instead my eyes locked in on the 11-item vegan menu, and I was surprised to see so many familiar dishes – sloppy joes, meatloaf, burgers and my choice, shepherd’s pie.

bowl of mashed potatoes and mushrooms made to look like shepherd's pie

Traditional shepherd’s pie is my ideal dish – mashed potatoes loaded with meat and gravy. Vegan shepherd’s pie looked the same, but the flavors were very different.

And that’s not a bad thing.

“Textured vegetable protein” mimicked the look and feel of ground beef. The use of red-skinned mashed potatoes as a base was a great way to make up for the lost flavor from the missing meat. Mix in peas and carrots, and top it all with mushroom gravy, and you’ve got a dish that’s almost as good as the original.

To my surprise the food was not only delicious, but very reasonably priced. My shepherd’s pie, complete with side salad, cost just $10. In fact, the most expensive item on the menu, the seafood stir-fry, is only $16.

I won’t be giving up meat anytime soon, but going with a healthier alternative every now and then can’t be a bad thing, especially if it’s as good as my first trip to Good Eatz.

More Vegan & Vegetarian Options in Berks County

More Wyomissing, PA Restaurants

Closed
— 8 Comments

Review: Alebrije – Perkiomen Avenue

hot sauces and salt and pepper shakes sit next to a wire cactus holding the specials menu

According to Wikipedia.com, an alebrije is a piece of Mexican folk art, a brightly-colored sculpture of a fantastical creature.

It’s also a really cool name for a restaurant.

Though the name is catchy, it’s the food and the atmosphere that hooks people on a restaurant. The owners of Alebrije must be doing something right to have three locations in Reading: 5th Street Highway, Perkiomen Avenue and State Hill Road.

Alebrije’s Perkiomen Avenue location is set in a repurposed Bojangles. The old drive-through window still juts out awkwardly from the side of the building. Inside, guests are greeted by a parade of cardboard cutouts, including The Most Interesting Man in the World who invites you to “stay thirsty, my friend.”

A large mural is painted across the back wall of the dining room. The clichéd southwestern scene features a desert complete with cacti. A door to nowhere betrays the fact that a wall has been removed.

The old order counter is now the bar where the wait staff were tending to a man who had his coat draped over one stool and his briefcase on another. All told he took up three of the four bar stools, and the fourth was blocked by the collection of empty margarita glasses.

We got a seat at one of the high top tables that were shoe-horned into the bar area. A forged-iron cowboy stick figure held up a dessert card and guarded the three bottles of hot sauce (two red, one green).

blue basket with tortilla chips with a cup of salsa

Like all good Mexican restaurants, the meal starts with unlimited chips and salsa, and for my wife, a frozen banana margarita.

woman drinking a frozen margarita from a tall sugar-rimmed glass

There was definitely no skimping when it came to her drink. It was big, and as her eventual hangover proved, not watered down.

When it comes to main courses, my wife and I each have our Mexican favorites. For her, it’s ranchero sauce, a traditional mild red sauce.

For me, nothing beats a good mole sauce. Though there are thousands of variations on this chili pepper-based sauce, my favorites are the ones that have that dark brown color that comes with the addition of chocolate.

plate of enchiladas topped with mole sauce on a plate with rice and refried beans

When my enchiladas poblanas came out, they looked like they were covered in the darkest chocolate. The sauce was amazing, the mix of heat and sweet balanced perfectly with the chicken. Admittedly I have not made it to every Mexican restaurant in Berks County, but of the ones I have, this is the best sauce of any kind that I have found.

While my enchiladas were excellent, I was very disappointed to see the light brown puddle next to them on my plate. I like refried beans—they’re great as a side or rolled up as part of a burrito—but they should at least look like beans. Though the beans tasted fine, they were runny and just did not look appealing.

Overall though, Alebrije was impressive. The building may have been a little cramped, but it’s pretty impressive what they’ve done to turn it from fast food into a real restaurant. The prices are impressive, too. Even with the margarita, our bill was less than $30. That’s hard to do without a drink at most restaurants.

I am sad to report though, I saw no mythical creatures during my visit.

BCE Rating
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Ambiance: Good
Price: Very Reasonable

Alebrije Mexican Restaurant
3805 Perkiomen Ave
Reading, PA 19606

More Mexican Restaurants in Berks County

More Exeter Township Restaurants

Lunch & Dinner Mexican Reviews
— 4 Comments

CC’s Wooden Grill – CLOSED

brick building with a sign that reads "CC's Wooden Grill"

CC’s Wooden Grill in Kutztown is now closed. The restaurant went out of business in the summer of 2014. The location is now home to Saucony Cafe.

I was watching an episode of BBQ Pitmasters recently when I heard a quote that stuck with me. Myron Mixon, owner of Jack’s Old South BBQ, was smoking some of his award-winning ribs when he said, “real barbecue ribs don’t fall off the bone.”

Thanks to the marketing of chains like Chilis and Texas Roadhouse, “fall-off-the-bone” has become synonymous with good ribs.

But as Myron Mixon said on the show, real BBQ pitmasters strive for ribs with texture. When you bite into the perfect rib, it should leave a beautiful bite mark.

If you like your ribs to have a little meat on their bones, the best place in Berks County is CC’s Wooden Grill.

CC’s doesn’t look like much from the outside, a non-descript brick building along Constitution Boulevard in Kutztown. The inside isn’t much to look at either. A handful of paintings provide the only decoration in an otherwise drab dining room.

Even the menus are plain, a simple 8 1/2″ by 11″ piece of paper, folded three ways.

What the restaurant lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for in flavor.

Many restaurants make the mistake of trying to be everything to everyone, but CC’s has a formula that works: keep the menu small, but offer quality in every dish.

CC’s only offers three entree options (ribs, 1/4 chicken with ribs, and sauteed vegetables), six sandwiches, two appetizers, two soups, a salad and a handful of sides.

I made several trips to CC’s over the summer, having an opportunity to try most of the items on the menu, and from appetizers to main courses, I have yet to be disappointed.

cup of corn chowder next to a bottle of orange soda

The smokey corn chowder is a great way to start your meal, and it really is smokey. The bits of smoked sausage in the chowder dominate the flavors, but that’s not a bad thing as it adds a uniqueness to a dish that you wouldn’t expect at a barbecue joint.

plate with half dozen smoked wings

But if you’re dining in a group, you can’t go wrong with an order of wings. Just don’t expect the wings you get at your local bar. These wings are meaty, juicy and smokey. Served without sauce, the wings are coated in the crisp bark from the grill. It’s the perfect way to whet your appetite for the main course.

And if you have never been to CC’s before, your main course has to be the ribs.

plate of ribs, fries and baked beans

Myron Mixon would be proud of CC’s because these ribs don’t fall off the bone. Taking a bite out of these ribs leaves a beautiful mark.

smoked rib with a bite mark in it

Like the wings, the ribs could stand on their own without any sauce, but they are even better with the house BBQ. The sauce is thin, very different from anything you would brush on your ribs at home, and very sweet, Carolina style. The sauce is irresistible (which is why I used my fries to soak up what little was left) and blends perfectly with the already flavorful ribs.

The only downside to CC’s is that there are no desserts. If you are craving something sweet after dinner, there are plenty of options in downtown Kutztown, but most diners won’t have any room left after the main course. I ordered a half rack of ribs, and that was more than enough to keep me full for the rest of the night.

A half rack of ribs costs just under $20, with a full rack at $25. The sandwich options are very reasonable, starting at just $5.50 and appetizers and sides starting under $3.00.

That’s a small price for a lot of flavor.

More BBQ in Berks County

More Restaurants in Kutztown, PA

Closed
— 11 Comments

The Tomcat Cafe – CLOSED

awning over the entrance to a corner restaurant that reads "The Tomcat Cafe"

Edito’r’s Note: The Tomcat Cafe is now closed. The family that owned the restaurant relocated to Viriginia where they now operate a mobile food truck. The location is now home to JD’s Steaks.

Breakfast is probably my favorite meal of the day. There’s something special about sitting down to a homecooked breakfast of french toast or pancakes, homefries or corned beef hash. Top it off with a big glass of orange juice and you have the perfect start to the day.

There’s plenty of places in Berks County to get a good hot breakfast. Let’s face it, it’s hard to screw up french toast.

By the same token, it’s hard to find a place to eat a memorable breakfast. Pancakes and eggs are essentially the same from one place to another.

That’s why The Tomcat Cafe is so special.

Located right on Penn Avenue (Route 422) in Sinking Spring, The Tomcat Cafe does breakfast better than anyone else because that’s all they do. The restaurant discontinued their lunch options in early 2013 to concentrate on making some of the best pancakes, omelets, crepes and more.

Blues rock pumps through the speakers. Leonard Cohen’s “Old Ideas” record hangs prominantly on the wall. An Elvis Presely cat stares down from above the door.

Even the menu, with specials like the Rhiannon, Hey Joe and Don McLean, is as diverse as the decor. And man is the menu is expansive.

There are are 56 different topping combinations for pancakes alone, allowing you be as adventurous as you choose. Enjoy a simple order of pancakes with blueberry topping, or try something a little different, like the Paradise City: fried eggs and Gouda sandwiched between bacon cheeseburger pancakes.

French toast topped with strawberries and fruity pebbles

I opted for the Dazed and Confused: two thick slices of French toast dipped in Fruity Pebbles and topped with strawberries, bananas, strawberry syrup and whipped cream.

If you want to satisfy your sweet tooth at breakfast, this is the way to go. The Fruity Pebbles made the French toast that much sweeter, while the fresh fruit on top tricked me into thinking that there was some redeeming value in the sugary shortstack in front of me.

plate of pancakes topped with mini marshmallows and powdered sugar

My wife decided on one of the unique pancake offerings. The No. 27 comes complete with bananas, peanut butter, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. If the ghost of Elvis walked through the door, I’m pretty sure this is what he would order, and he would not be disappointed.

Of course no breakfast is complete without an order of homefries. For the extra dollar, I added grilled onions and peppers to my order. What I got was a small mountain.

plate of homefries piled high with sauteed peppers and onions

The homefries could stand on their own, but the peppers and onions were worth every penny. They were sauteed perfect, soft enough to slide right down while adding a hit of extra flavor to the meal. It was the perfect counterbalance to the sweetness of the main course and are easily sharable between two or more people.

Many area restaurants try to make up for the lack of flavor in their foods, especially at breakfast, by giving giant portions. Tomcat is just giving you more of what you actually want, a unique breakfast you can’t get anywhere else, all for around $10.00.

A trip to Tomcat takes a little bit of planning. The Cafe is open limited hours, 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. But for breakfast, lunch or brunch, it’s well worth the trip.

BCE Rating
Food: Excellent
Service: Good
Ambiance: Very Good
Price: Very Reasonable

The TomCat Cafe
3998 Penn Ave
Sinking Spring, PA 19608

More Diners in Berks County

More Sinking Spring Restaurants

Closed
nighttime view of the Stouch Tavern in Womelsdorf
— 3 Comments

Review: Stouch Tavern

historic home with a sign out front that reads "Stouch Tavern 1785"

(Editor’s Note: The Stouch Tavern has changed owners since this blog. The menu remains similar with a mix of Pennsylvania Dutch meals and steakhouse favorites, including their daily lunch buffet).

The business section of the Sunday Reading Eagle is not normally a place to look for inspiration – I spend less time looking through section D than I do catching up on the adventures of Prince Valiant and Hagar the Horrible – but inspiration can strike at any time.

As I leafed through the classifieds one week, one ad, in particular, stood out to me:

Historic
Stouch Tavern
Restaurant
Real Estate, Business Equipment
Liquor License, Living Quarters
Plenty of Parking
$295,000
 

I already knew the business was for sale before my last visit to the Womelsdorf establishment in February. Former owners William and Diane Crumrine passed away within a few months of each other last year, leaving the business in the hands of their children. To the family’s credit, the Stouch Tavern continues as it did in the years before, minus William playing the piano in the first floor bar room.

For more than 200 years, the building has served as an inn, restaurant and meeting place in Womelsdorf, a small town on the western edge of Berks County. Now the oldest tavern in the county, the historic inn played host to George Washington during a 1793 trip to Carlisle. Our first president now lends his name to the ghost that is said to inhabit the building’s upper floor.

From the moment you walk in, you can feel the building’s history. A steep staircase rises in front of guests at the main entrance. Portraits of former owners peer down on diners in every dining room.  The wooden floor creeks with every step.

Tables are shoehorned into the narrow rooms, fitting as many patrons as possible. It’s a lesson in how not to design a restaurant, but the building has lived through four centuries, and sometimes you just have to forgo modern luxury.

cup of asparagus soup

Our waiter weaves between tables and the salad cart to deliver my first course, a bowl of cream of asparagus soup, the soup du jour for the night. I love asparagus so I loved the soup. Though it was a little thinner than most cream soups, and a little saltier than I would have preferred, I still lapped it up quickly.

steak topped with mushrooms with a side salad

Then came the main course. a juicy filet mignon, cooked to my liking (always medium well), covered in mushrooms. There are no choices for the sides. Every entree is served with the fresh vegetables of the day. Our waiter used the back of two spoons to grab the potatoes, squash and carrots and place them, one at a time, on our plates. It’s an awkward process, but the vegetables are fresh and cooked to a perfect al dente.

steak topped with fried onion ring and cheese with a side of assorted vegetables

As good as my food was, I suggest any first-time visitor try the Specialty of the House – beef medallions and a slice of ham, smothered in mushroom sauce and Monterey jack cheese, topped with a fried onion ring (a surprising addition considering it’s the only fried item on the menu). Everything melts together into one meaty, cheesy, salty dish. It’s a unique combination of flavors only available at the Tavern.

server making bananas foster in a pan with a large flame
bowl of bananas over ice cream

No true Stouch Tavern experience is complete without dessert. More than just a sweet final course, dessert is a show. The bananas foster (as well as the cherries jubilee) is made tableside. Start with a heaping helping of butter, add brown sugar, bananas, rum and fire, and you get part dessert, part performance art. The gooey bananas mix is then poured over a giant bowl of ice cream. The sugar rush is worth the wait.

The late William Crumrine used to make the bananas himself. “I do the easy jobs,” he said. “I play the piano and make the bananas.” The Crumrines can never be replaced, but hopefully a willing buyer can be found, preferably one who is willing to make bananas foster.

The Stouch Tavern is open every day except Tuesday for dinner, and open for lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. In addition to its regular menu, the Tavern offers a buffet during lunch hours.

BCE Rating
Food: Good
Service: Good
Ambiance: Very Good
Price: Reasonable

Stouch Tavern
138 W. High St
Womelsdorf, PA 19567

More Fine Dining in Berks County

More Restaurants Near Womelsdorf, PA

Country Inns Dessert Finer Dining Lunch & Dinner Reviews
— 3 Comments

Panevino – CLOSED

Editor’s Note: Panevino is now a special events host and catering company. The business moved to Wernersville in 2021 where it operates a small venue and offers event catering.

The Goggleworks has truly been a blessing to the City of Reading. Thanks to this community arts center, the neighborhood has truly blossomed into the city’s cultural district. Reading Area Community College opened the Miller Center for the Arts in 2007 and the IMAX theater opened a year later. 

What the area lacked was a signature restaurant, a place to go before or after the cinematic, musical and theatrical events taking place every night.

That changed in 2011 with the opening of Panevino.

The restaurant actually sits under the Washington Street parking garage, directly across the street from the IMAX theater. It’s nothing glamorous from the outside, but it’s beautiful on the inside with low lighting, fine china and glassware, and modern styling.

Self-described as “rustic Italian cuisine,” the menu mixes traditional favorites like rigatoni and thin crust pizza with Panevino’s unique dishes, like the straw and hay – spinach and egg fettuccini served with lamb meatballs, eggplant, tomato, raisins and pine nuts.

Every meal is served with a unique appetizer I have never had anywhere else. It is served in two parts to eat together or separate. The first is a slice of bread – more closely resembling a thick pizza crust – topped with fresh tomatoes. The second, a wedge of polenta and a thin slice of roast beef, drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. It seemed like an odd pairing, but somehow it worked. All of the flavors blended nicely together.

I started my meal with a bowl of pasta fagioli, a staple on any Italian menu, and a great indicator of the meal to come. The fagioli is served in a small crock, a paper doily resting underneath. It was very good, sweet and spicy, meaty with a hearty serving of beans. The dish was completed with thin cut slices of farfalle pasta, one of the many pastas Panevino makes from scratch.

Salads have never been my favorite, but I had to try the Arugula, a mixture of arugula leaves, pears, gorgonzola and leafy greens drizzled with white balsamic vinaigrette, and served in a parmesan bowl. Despite my general disdain for salad, I found myself enjoying this, especially the edible bowl. The parmesan flavor was strong and concentrated, much more so than the flavor of grated parmesan. The closest thing to compare it to is the pre-packaged breadsticks some restaurants serve, but with a better, fresher, stronger (sometimes a little too strong) flavor.

There was a long wait in between courses, not unexpected because every dish is prepared fresh. Panevino is not a diner. It’s dining – a living reminder of the old adage, “good things come to those who wait.”

Salads have never been my favorite, but I had to try the Arugula, a mixture of arugula leaves, pears, gorgonzola and leafy greens drizzled with white balsamic vinaigrette, and served in a parmesan bowl. Despite my general disdain for salad, I found myself enjoying this, especially the edible bowl. The parmesan flavor was strong and concentrated, much more so than the flavor of grated parmesan. The closest thing to compare it to is the pre-packaged breadsticks some restaurants serve, but with a better, fresher, stronger (sometimes a little too strong) flavor.

There was a long wait in between courses, not unexpected because every dish is prepared fresh. Panevino is not a diner. It’s dining – a living reminder of the old adage, “good things come to those who wait.”

That didn’t stop me from ordering dessert, a warm piece of pecan pie with caramel drizzle and vanilla ice cream – good, but nothing special as far as pies go. The crust was a little overcooked, but the ice cream hid it well.   

The wait staff worked as a team – at times this was helpful, and at times it wasn’t. At the end of the night, it took long time for us to get our bill, and two separate team members wanted to take our dessert order.

For all the food we got – two entrees, a cup of soup and dessert – the bill was surprisingly reasonable, about $25 per person. With the delicious food in a fine dining atmosphere, it was $50 well spent.  

More Italian Restaurants in Berks County

More Restaurants in Reading, PA

Closed
— 2 Comments

Review: La Cocina Mexicana

I have high expectations every time I visit a restaurant for the first time. I want a reason to come back, something that sets it apart from the hundreds of other restaurants in Berks County. I’m looking for a unique experience. I’m looking for attentive service. Above all, I’m looking for great food.

Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that I will be disappointed from time to time.

La Cocina Mexicana has been a staple in downtown Kutztown as long as I can remember. Throughout my college career, a wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube man beckoned patrons into the nondescript two-story brick building on the corner of Main St. and Constitution Blvd.

But inside the building comes alive. Vibrant shades of red, yellow, orange and green pop from the carved wooden tables. A self-portrait of Frida Kahlo hangs on the wall, her ominous unibrow staring at the diners below.

wooden table with carved fruit design


I ordered the mole poblano, described as “pieces of chicken smothered in rich, red or green mole.” Mole poblano is normally a delicious dark sauce made of chili peppers, a dozen different spices, and sometimes chocolate. The flavors should dance across your tongue, a perfect blend of spicy and salty.

plate with mole poblano, rice, refried beans and a small salad


My meal hit none of those flavors. The chicken was boiled, dry and tasteless. “Pieces” is a great way to describe it because it was hard to tell what type of meat I was eating. Some of it was dark, some white, all of it flavorless. The sauce was as flavorless as the meat. There was no hint of chili peppers, or any other flavor to speak of.

Every order comes with rice, refried beans and a side of guacamole. The rice was yellow and dry while the “beans” were a brown, watery mess that was all filler and hardly any beans. The guacamole at least looked appealing, even if it didn’t taste it.

Mexican food, when done right, is flavorful and exotic. It uses spices that other ethnic foods don’t, and opens diners to a world of flavors that otherwise go undiscovered. My meal at La Cocina wasn’t even close. There were four of us in total, and everyone left disappointed with their meals.

The only redeeming part of our meal was dessert, fried ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce piled high atop a fried tortilla shell. The shell was like one you would get for a taco salad, deep fried, yet still light and airy. The ice cream was covered in a delicious, crumbly fried shell. It’s the only reason I would have to go back again.

bowl of fried ice cream with two spoons


The service wasn’t much better than the food. The food came very shortly after we ordered, which should have been the first clue that it wasn’t going to be a hand-crafted meal, but we had to wait a long time to order. When the meal was finished, we split the check, part cash and part credit, but our waitress missed a $10 bill and charged my card for the additional amount.

Berks County has plenty of other options for Mexican dining, so save the trip to Kutztown and try someplace else.

BCE Rating
Food: Poor
Service: Poor
Ambiance: Very Good
Price: Reasonable

La Cocina Mexicana
107 W. Main St
Kutztown, PA 19530

More Mexican Restaurants in Berks County

More Restaurants in Kutztown, PA

Dessert Lunch & Dinner Mexican Reviews