FAYETTEVILLE – Traveling up and down Route 30 between Chambersburg and Gettysburg a lot of dining options may tempt motorists. One stop that should be on every diner’s agenda is the Flamingo Restaurant. This cozy diner has amazing food with low prices and a staff that always has a smile to share.
The dining section has two rooms with about 10-15 booths. While there are no tables in the dining area, the booths are wide and comfortable. There is also additional seating at the counter. On nice weather days additional seating is outside on the small dining patio in front of the main entrance. The décor inside the dining room features some charming artwork of street side bistros and of course, flamingos.
The menu features a wide variety of American style diner options. There are hamburgers and a long list of sandwich options. Some options include grilled cheeses, cold cuts, tuna and patty melts, hoagies, egg salad and tuna salad, as well as hot sandwiches like cheese steak, roast beef, meatloaf, crab cakes and fish. One of the highlights on the sandwich menu is their triple decker clubs. These also come in hot and cold options.
For those looking for a more homestyle cooked meal, the Flamingo offers up some great entrée options. A few popular items shared by the staff are the roast beef with filling and gravy, 10 oz. fried haddock, and roast turkey with filling and gravy. What stands out the most on the menu? The prices. Everything on the menu is between $5-15, with the exception of the crab cake entrée which is $16. Still not a bad price for crab cakes.
I started my meal with a house salad and a bowl of their homemade chili. The salad was not your run of the mill, lettuce, cheese and carrots. This salad had cucumber, green peppers, cherry tomatoes and tiny bite size croutons. There was so much flavor that I could have eaten another bowl. Then there was the chili, which alone was worth the trip for dinner. Like the salad, there were a lot of flavors with generous chunks of beef, beans and diced tomatoes. The sauce was perfectly seasoned, not too spicy or salty, and, of course you can’t forget the crackers for dipping. With having only had the appetizers, the Flamingo was off to a good start.
Next, it was time to decide on my entrée. While everything on the menu sounded wonderful, my eye quickly caught the BBQ grilled chicken. This consisted of two breast fillets that were coated in tangy BBQ sauce, and for sides I chose the mashed potatoes and coleslaw. I get a little leery about chicken breast because it can often be too dry, but that was not the case here. They also didn’t go overboard with the sauce, which I also appreciated.
To finish off my meal, it came down to choosing cheesecake or ice cream for my dessert. Now, I normally go for the cheesecake right away, but my server mentioned a word while giving me the ice cream flavor options that immediately got my attention: pumpkin. This time of year (or really any time of year) I cannot pass up on pumpkin, so I decided on a scoop of pumpkin ice cream. It was the perfect ending to a great meal.
Friendly, affordable and delicious are the words that best describe the Flamingo Restaurant. The family-owned business was founded in 1993 and is truly one of the treasures of Franklin County dining. The Flamingo is located at 5600 Lincoln Way E. and is open seven days a week from 6:30 a.m.-8 p.m., except on Sundays, when they are open 6:30 a.m.-1 p.m. For more information, readers can find them on Facebook http://:%20www.facebook.com/flamingorestaurantfayettevillepa
www.facebook.com/flamingorestaurantfayettevillepa/.
