Restaurant Reviews- Starting with A

Altland House
Nate and I celebrated Valentine's Day a day early at the Altland House in Abbottstown, PA. The Altland House dates back to 1790 and includes a restaurant with several rooms, a bar area, a downstairs tavern and guest rooms. The place was packed last night and you needed reservations in order to get a table in the dining rooms. The atmosphere inside the restaurant is very nice, just ask for a table that is private so you do not have to listen to others conversations, some of the tables are close together. Last night I started off with the bib salad and Nate had a Cesar salad, both were very generous portions and tasty. My salad had a sweet and sour dressing that complemented the bib and cucumbers very nicely. Nate salad had homemade croutons and Parmesan cheese. The bread which served prior to dinner is wonderful and they offer seasoned butter, roasted garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil with it. For my dinner I choose the seafood scampi. The scampi included an angel hair pasta with shrimp, clams, scallops and tomatoes. I usually don't order scampi because I'm afraid I'll be overwhelmed with the taste the garlic. This was not the case with the this scampi as the sauce was light and didn't overwhelm the seafood. The portion again was very generous. The clams in the pasta were excellent and next time I'd like to try the clams appetizer. Nate had the filet mingeon which was served with a Parmesan risotto. I tried his steak; the flavor was excellent and the meat was very tender. For dessert, Nate had an apple dumpling and I had the Valentine's day special which was a chocolate cake with a thin layer of cheesecake on the bottom, all dipped in chocolate. Nate liked his dumpling but it was a served in a puff pastry and he prefers the traditional pie crust for the outside. My chocolate dessert was tasty but not what I expected. The waitress called it chocolate covered cheesecake, if I had know it was composed primarily of cake I would have chosen the peanut butter pie which looked excellent. Prices at this restaurant are on the higher end of local restaurants, comparable to the Blue Parrot and Cashtown Inn. My only complaint with the restaurant was that the service was slow last night. I think they were slightly understaffed for the amount of customers. Of course, if I were allowed to sip on wine I probably wouldn't have minded the wait.

The Avenue Restaurant
Our go to breakfast restaurant in Gettysburg is The Avenue. We go to the Avenue often on Sundays so I thought it was worthy of a review. The breakfast menu is extensive and you can get just about anything you are craving. They even have a few unique dishes that you'll probably only find at the Avenue, such as ice cream with cereal. If it's tourist season expect to wait for a table. In the offseason it's always busy but you can usually walk in and be seated right away. In the winter time it's hard to pass up the hot chocolate or vanilla steamer, both are excellent. Today they had a special, but I'm hoping it's on the menu all the time....eggs in a hole. I love eggs in a hole and these were very good served with homefries, which are the real thing at the avenue. Today Nate had french toast, he deviated from his normal two eggs over easy with bacon and toast. He seemed to enjoy his french toast, I didn't try it. Today, service was slow. We didn't have a waitress that I recognized. The normal waitresses are usually very prompt. The Avenue is affordably priced and real home cooking. You can also sign up for a frequent diner club to earn points towards free food.