Conestoga Restaurant and The Waterfront

Two restaurants cling to the banks of the meandering Conestoga River east of Lancaster. Both have big parking lots, spacious outdoor decks and tacky interiors. The Waterfront offers a “waterside dining experience of casual elegance”; Conestoga makes much of the fact that an inn stood there in 1741, even though the current building is cinder block and formstone. Both serve mediocre food that they pretend is haute cuisine. 

And yet, after six years of sampling, I have a clear favorite: Conestoga.

1. Better river views. Where the Waterfront sits low on a bare mud bank, the Conestoga overlooks a landscaped yard that slopes down to the arched East King Street bridge. In the spring, there is constant entertainment from swallows darting to catch fat mayflies rising from the water. In the evening, the deck is ringed by gas torches that make it cozy and sheltered from the street.
2. Less attitude. I’ll be honest: I haven't experienced great service in either location. If you go to the Conestoga during the 7 p.m. rush you may wait forever to be noticed, and again to get your food. But just an hour later and you could have the deck to yourself.
   
   
3. Surprisingly good food. It’s all about managing expectations. Conestoga promises less than The Waterfront and delivers more than expected. The thing that I often order is a gyro sandwich with a small Greek salad. The salad is fresh and comes with stuffed grape leaves; the gyro is pleasantly warm and spicy. Conestoga has a funny thing about putting meat on burgers (consider the Lumpy Bleu Burger which includes fresh lump crab meat and house smoked cherry bacon) but none of sandwiches are bad. I wouldn’t recommend the spinach pie or the “specialty drinks.”

http://www.conestogarestaurant.com/dinner.asp