Pennsylvania Food Experiences

04/18/18

Pennsylvania is well known for its wealth of culinary offerings, from fried delights to iconic snack foods and farm-fresh eats. While you’re traversing around the Keystone State, consider these one-of-a-kind food experiences, and view our listings of beer, wine, and food in Pennsylvania for more.

Fancy a culinary road trip? Check out Taste Buds on Tour, a road-trip itinerary focused on the best of PA beer, wine, and food.

Iconic Foods

The recipe for a unique culinary experience should always include a bite of something iconic.

  • PA Dutch Country’s whoopie pie, shoofly pie, chow-chow (a sweet-and-sour relish made from cabbage), scrapple (loaf-pressed pork scraps, cornmeal, and flour), and Fasnacht (a type of donut).
  • Drown a plate of pancakes with maple syrup (“the nectar of the gods”) tapped right in Northwestern PA.
  • Savor farm-raised-elk burgers at Medix, Benezette, and Weedville hotels in the PA Wilds.
  • Crunch the maple popcorn at Loch’s in Springville.
  • Sample anything and everything apple from Adams County, where 20,000 of its acres are dedicated to fruit production, or attend the annual National Apple Harvest Festival in October.
  • Taste Pittsburgh perfection: Squirt some Heinz Ketchup on a Big Mac, which was invented in nearby Uniontown in the 1960s, and eat a sandwich at Primanti Bros., with fries right inside. Follow that up with a plate of potato-and-cheese pierogi.
  • Pop a few pepperoni balls from Stanganelli’s and save room for sponge candy (honeycomb, sea foam, or sponge toffee) from Stefanelli’s in Erie.
  • Yocco’s, the Hot Dog King of Emmaus, dishes up a well-done dog in a steamed roll with chopped onions, tangy mustard, and Yocco’s chili sauce.
  • Pennsylvania invented a better way to eat a sticky bun: grilled, so the glaze gets all ooey and gooey. Try ’em at Millers in Lancaster County.
Unique Food Experiences

It’s not just the food that seals a great culinary experience. Take in the sights, sounds, and smells in this collection of unique dining encounters:

  •  Eat your face off at The Spa at The Hotel Hershey with an edible chocolate facial. Like the smell of fresh-baked brownies, the chocolate mask helps combat the visual signs of aging.
  • Before you enter the Cadet Restaurant in Kittaning, be sure to get a photo with Sam, a 30-foot-tall cowboy who has greeted diners since 1962. Then scoff down the double-decker Poorboy burger.
  • Unplug and unwind (no Wi-Fi for miles) at Two Sisters Amish Cooking, a home catering company near Lewisburg where you can enjoy a family-style, gaslamp-lit meal of homegrown veggies, fresh meats, and legendary baked goods.
  • If you don’t make it past the pool table at Joe’s Bar in Ligonier, the barebones dive may not impress. But head straight back to a two-story, glass-encased taxidermy treasure trove and take in the giraffe, elephant’s head, rhino, tigers, lions, and costumed squirrels.
  • Have your eggs with a side of Conneaut Lake views at Silver Shores in Crawford County, which offers Sunday brunch on a paddleboat dubbed “The Barbara J.”
  • Venture down an alley and up a steep flight of stairs to The Horse Inn, a converted hayloft above a former stable now transformed into a Prohibition-era speakeasy and restaurant in Lancaster. Dine amid the horse stalls and equine accessories  on the popular tenderloin tips on toast.
Factory & Food-Related Tours

Munch on made-in-PA snackables.

Find more factory tours in Pennsylvania >> 

Cooking Classes

Grab an apron and play with your food at a specialty cooking class. 

  • Learn the secrets of making flaky, flavorful piecrusts or bake a proper English scone you can slather with clotted cream at York’s Yorkitchen.
  • From homemade pesto and knife skills to canning apples and cookies for gifting, Carlisle’s Kitchen Shoppe & Cooking School has a sweet lineup of classes.
  • The Home Textile Tool Museum in Orwell is anything but cheesy, but you can take a beginner class there to learn the basics of cheese making.
  • Spend Thyme In Your Kitchen in Sharon and learn to cook sushi, soups, Korean, and Caribbean. You can even sign up for special kid-themed classes featuring after-school snacks and more.
  • Daily classes at The Hershey Story Museum’s Chocolate Lab offer insight into the science and history behind cocoa beans and feature the opportunity to create customized chocolate concoctions.
  • Learn how to twist your own pretzel at Tom Sturgis Pretzels in Shillington.
Fun Fair Food

There’s deep-fried everything and then there’s…

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