Das Dutchman Essenhaus - Middlebury

We thoroughly enjoyed our experience at this restaurant. We believe it is far superior to the Blue Gates buffet. The food is much tastier, the desserts are more delicious, and the overall cleanliness is impressive. The space is also more spacious, allowing for a more comfortable dining experience where you don't feel cramped or have people bumping into you as they go to the buffet or get up from their tables.

Situated in Middlebury near Shipshewana, this Amish restaurant is definitely worth a visit. We opted to dine inside a black buggy, which was a unique and comfortable experience, complete with lanterns for ambiance! The restaurant offers several dining options: a buffet, family-style service, or you can order from the menu. We decided on the buffet, which came with two fluffy rolls and included their homemade peanut butter and Amish butter. I especially enjoyed their handmade noodles—absolutely delicious! The fried chicken was perfectly crispy and tasty as well. There was a wide selection of dishes, including lasagna, dressing, turkey, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and much more. Our waitress was very friendly and attentive throughout our meal. Don’t forget to check out the gift shop and bakery they have on-site, where you can buy a variety of pies, rolls, jams, peanut butter, and other treats.

Amish owned and operated! Everything authentically country home style offerings. I inhaled my fried chicken and mashed potatoes with a Boston cream donut bigger than my head for dessert! My wife loved her chicken noodles over mash potatoes and my stepson devoured a huge cheeseburger with all the trimmings.For dessert both enjoyed donuts and we brought home a beautiful apple pie from their bakery! Great day.

We sampled a few items from Das Dutchman Essenhaus, that our friend brought us from Middlebury, IN. This is an Amish establishment in Amish country, and my friend stopped into the bakery to pick up some things. We took extreme caution not to choke on cinnamon when sampling the large cinnamon bun/loaf item that was a newly introduced product. It wasn't very sweet and the dough was soft like a bun, although the filling inside was vanilla cream flavored. I would say this was ok, more appealing to the eyes because of its grandeur of scale. The peanut butter topping on the donut was the best part, it had the same sweet dough as the loaf but the chocolate filling was very scant inside. The glazed donut was fine. My disappointment was that my high expectations were not met. I had envisioned that Amish made baked goods would taste a certain way and be made with high quality sourced ingredients. The Essenhaus Amish peanut butter, the first ingredient is Light Corn Syrup and the third ingredient after Peanut Butter is Marshmallow Cream (which also contains corn syrup and sugar). These are produced products with an Amish Country Kitchen label but similar to what you would find at your neighborhood grocery aisle.

Really nice experience here. I stopped for a late lunch, arriving around 1:30 pm on a Monday, so it wasn't especially busy. I ordered the buffet and everything was excellent. The server was very pleasant and efficient. She took my drink order right away and brought refills before my glass was half empty. She brought hot, fresh rolls, one whole wheat and one white. The salad bar items were very fresh, and there was a nice variety. All the usual salad items plus some unique salads including old fashioned jello salads. The hot items were delicious, including mashed potatoes, noodles, gravies, dressing, corn, green beans, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and much more. I especially loved the noodles. They were thick and truly just like the noodles my grandma made. Definitely homemade! There were two soups available, chicken noodle and the soup of the day which was cheeseburger. Desserts on the buffet included bread pudding and peach cobbler, plus two varieties of donut holes. I look forward to returning the next time I am in the area. A great experience! .