Yoder’s Dutch Pantry is best described as Amish breakfast meets Tractor Supply. I am always a fan of homestyle breakfasts and Yoder’s Dutch Pantry comes through. Be warned; the wait time may be long and seating is limited.
In the Middle of Where?
Yoder’s Dutch Pantry is located just West of Vanceboro near the coast. The location has mostly informal parking areas with little makings. If the main area is packed, you can park across the street. Being as close to the middle of nowhere as possible means minimal traffic coming in or leaving but it will likely take you 30 minutes to 1 hour+ to get there.
Lets EAT!
Yoder’s Dutch Pantry is arguably the most popular breakfast spot for the general area and for good reason. When you enter, be sure you enter the left door for the restaurant. This will put you into a very cute lobby area with some preserves and other miscellaneous merchandise. Unless there is a line, you walk through this area, into the dining area and up to the host station. This was a little counter-intuitive for me but I believe this is to allow for minimum staffing. Good wait staff must be hard to come by in the middle of nowhere.
Chances are, you came to the mainly breakfast restaurant for breakfast on the weekend along with everyone else. As a result, it is not uncommon for there to be more than an hour wait to be seated on weekends. The first time we came, we were told 2 hours to be seated and 1 hour for a to go order. That being said, this time we showed up at 8AM and had less than a 30 minute wait. Consider giving them a call when you are roughly 30 minutes away to see what the wait time is. When we came last time, we asked if they take call-aheads or reservations and they said no to both.
If you are someone who does not like to wait, consider ordering a to-go order. These come out in half the time and they are completely OK with you eating outside on the patio furniture if you want.
The Store
Wait Why Am I Shopping?
So what are you supposed to do for 1-2 hours while you wait, you ask? Great question which brings us to the Yoder Farm and Garden Supply. The wait staff will likely direct you to walk through the bakery area and through a door into what looks like a warehouse. This is technically an entirely separate store from the restaurant.
In here you will find everything you might expect from a hardware store, convenience store, souvenir shop and more. It has a feeling of a true general store with some modern twists. In this way, you may feel like this draws a parallel to Cracker Barrel’s old country store but Yoder’s Farm and Garden Supply is true to its name. Much of the area in this store has hardware for various tool and rural necessities. You can get a spare key made here too if you like.
What We Liked
There is a parrot near the main stair case. He is a local celebrity and rather nice. We chatted for a little while before Madilyn lost interest. As we continued to peruse the isles, Kaitlyn found some lovely bird houses with reasonable prices. There are also plenty of boots and clothes for sale here too. Near the entrance to the nursery area, is a toy section with puzzles and some other kids specific items.
Madilyn enjoyed going up the stairs to overlook everyone in the store. The connection between the two sides is a little arched bridge. The upper area seems to primarily serve as a little more display area but primarily just access for some offices for the staff.
We came when they had chicks available for sale in the garden area. We had no clue this was happening until we walk into the little room in the garden area. The chicks were happy and healthy running around in their warm little areas. The Garden area has seasonal plants for sale.
Now if you would rather not walk through this rural capitalist mecca while you wait to be seated, feel free to sit outside on the various furniture. Most of this stuff is also for sale as well if you like it. There was also a play ground that was adjacent to the parking area. We could not tell if that was also just a display for sale or actually for us to use.
Lets ACTUALLY Eat Please
When your buzzer rings, you will likely do the little run-walk to get seated. The seating area is not very large. The servers are prompt and polite. If you did not already decide what you want to eat while you were waiting, that is no issue. I recommend getting the Dutch Breakfast if you are feeling especially hungry. We typically come here on our way to a beach so we have not had a chance to try the lunch menu yet.
The breakfast food is great. Madilyn really likes anything except what we put on her own plate so I think that means she liked it too. The non-Disney mouse shaped pancake they have for kids is a nice touch. Not too sure how long they can go on selling them before the House of Mouse takes notice.
Realistically though, the food is on par with most solid breakfast restaurants. The seating area is not particularly large and is ill-suited for groups larger than 4.
When you are given the check, you go to the cashier in the bakery to check out. I do not find sweets look very appealing after I eat a waffle, or French toast with syrup but other seem to really like this. You then walk out the exit only door unless you want to go back into the Farm and Garden Supply area.
I do hope they convert the entry way you walk through into more seating since wait times are their biggest issue on Google Reviews. Most people hang out in the store or outside since there is ample seating.
Overall
We enjoy the novelty of Yoder’s Dutch Pantry with Yoder’s Farm and Garden Supply but the over all experience has an issue with wait times. The owners have created a neat set up but need to scale the seating area to meet the demand they are seeing regularly. Though we liked Yoder’s, there is nothing else in the area to visit so it is hard to recommend anything besides stopping in if you happen to be in the area
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