Restaurant Review: The Glen Mills Restaurant and Brick Oven in Glen Mills, PA

On a quiet country road, just off of Route 1, the Glen Mills Restaurant has been serving up their diverse array of gourmet and comfort foods for the past three years. Their eclectic menu ranges from Babaganush to baked ziti. Points of interest in between include grilled salmon, baked crab cakes and freshly prepared veal Parmesan.

With nine appetizers, six salads and more than three dozen different entrees offered nightly, Glen Mills' menu can only be described as ambitious-- perhaps overly so. No restaurant can, after all, be everything to everyone. Nonetheless, recent visits to the establishment have yielded several exemplary meals.

My New York strip steak with sauteed mushrooms was competently prepared-- an accomplishment all too rare these days. My dining companion's baked spring chicken was notably tender and flavorful-- complemented perfectly by the accompanying pan sauce. On a subsequent visit, the salmon stuffed with crab was on par with the best and freshest offering from a summer seaside shanty.

Other noteworthy dishes included the stuffed grape leaves platter and baked tilapia in a light and subtle lemon-butter sauce. Another nicely executed dish, the Seafood Di Mare, consists of plump shrimp, scallops and crab meat in a perfectly balanced, zesty garlic sauce served over penne pasta. The baked meat lasagna represents Italian comfort food at its best.

With such a varied menu, though, it becomes difficult for any chef to perfect all of his dishes. The Spanakopita, a spinach and feta cheese pie, was at best, lacklustre. The Chicken Napoleon with sun-dried tomatoes seemed sadly uninspired and outdated, almost to the point of being cliche'. No doubt, both the patrons and kitchen staff would benefit from a judicious scaling back of the current exhaustive menu.

In addition to the Greek, Italian and Continental culinary highlights, Glen Mills is equally well-equipped to entice diners with their more casual cuisine. A warm and inviting old-world brick oven sits center stage, poised to produce crusty, golden-brown calzones and specialty pizzas. Comparing the product of a brick oven to it's conveyor-belt baked cousin would be somewhat akin to the contrast drawn between a steakhouse burger and a Big Mac. For the record, the Glen Mills Restaurant uses their brick oven to great effect.

Philadelphia is known for their cheese steaks and hoagies and the meaty sub sandwiches, grinders and gyros at the Glen Mills Restaurant all receive excellent grades. For seafood fans, the "Crabwish" offers an unexpected twist by adding fresh tomato and American cheese to a grilled crab cake sandwich. For landlubbers, a full 8-ounces of quality Angus beef goes into every char-broiled burger that hits the grill.

The restaurant makes their homemade soups fresh daily. The extensive menu is rounded out by a wide variety of made-to-order club and deli sandwiches, quesadillas, subs, wraps, chicken on sour dough bread and homemade pitas. For a quick lunch, their Reuben is absolutely top-notch.

Entrees are reasonably priced, ranging from $10 to just under $20.00. Glen Mills Restaurant and Brick Oven can be reached at 610-358-1666. They are located at 711 Concord Road in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. The restaurant is open 7 days a week, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The entire menu is available for take-out.