Ole Farmstead Inn

Good American food. It’s a nice alternate to Bob Evan’s and Cracker Barrel.

Decent food for what it is. Don’t come expecting a fancy meal or exceptional food. Good, basic old style of roadside restaurant.
The bacon cheese burger was good, service efficient. The lady at the register was pleasant.

Just had the cheddar bacon burger, it was very good, if the waitress ever come back I might try some pie. Very friendly waitress, but she needs to check on the table more. Never did get my pie.

This is the reason flyover country has given over to the big chain restaurants. We want so badly to support local businesses. We want to badly to eat fresh fish with dill sauce and a side of broccoli– we really do! What could be a better remedy for the gut bloat of a day of travel?
Not this. All frozen and heat lamped, and they really need to change the grease in the fryolator. Next time it’s Bob Evans for us. Or an airplane.
Two stars because they were very nice.

Olé Farmstead Inn sounds homey right? Where you could get a fresh, home cooked, down home country breakfast?
Absolutely not. The country potatoes were clearly from a bag and were completely dry and flavorless. The omelette was undercooked with diced ham (the kind you get in a bag at the store) and a slice of cheese melted on top. The biscuit gravy had not real taste and the coffee was bland as well.
The people were nice enough but it was startling for me to hear the christian music blaring in the place… and the gift store had an abundance of christian themed things. I don’t mind all of that but it does occur to me that their belief system on equality might not match mine so, just to be safe, I won’t go again. It won’t be a loss as you could get better tasting food at McDonalds.
I did hear people going in ask another person if the place was good. She answered «it’s the only place to eat around here.»
Blech.

OFI represents how average food gets here in middle Ohio. Nothing special on the menu, no specialty anything, bland, bland, bland food. And ‘canned’. Wow, that was like poetry. Been here a good chunk of times based on others requests and just incredibly average and a notch down. You get the idea that this is a place that puts the absolute least amount of effort into the food and preparation. Yes, it is clean and cheap and stinks like scented candles from China. And that is about it.

I’ll start with the good. They’re friendly, and I enjoy the gift shop.
But the not-so-good…oh, I wish I didn’t have to give Farmstead 2 stars. This is a place that has a lot of potential: great location, large dining area. It’s disappointing that they get so much wrong.
The food is no better than a school cafeteria. Vegetables are dull and canned. There is clearly no attention paid to the quality of ingredients and it seems to be the cheapest stuff they can get off the truck. It’s like they don’t even try.
One time I went in for lunch and ordered ham and beans, which is a classic comfort-​food dish when done properly. Mine came out watery and tasteless, so bad that I just couldn’t eat it, and when I told the waitress her solution was to just bring me cornbread and use some pepper. Again I objected and she told me to pick something else, so I went with chicken and noodles (because usually you can’t go wrong with that!).
So out came the C & N, which was equally disgusting. The only chicken in it was those reddish bits that come in Cambell’s chicken noodle soup, and the roll I was offered was stale. The mashed potatoes were instant and school-​cafeteria quality. I gave up, and still had to pay for not one but two nasty meals. I might stop by the gift shop, but I won’t eat there again.
Edison Depot outside of Mt. Gilead has real, homemade, from-​scratch chicken and noodles for $ 3.99, in comparison.
Edit: I just noticed the reviewer who said they serve local beef. The first time we are here, we all had burgers and they were good. So if you go, skip the entrees and go for a burger!

Good food and better service.
We usually eat here in Saturday evenings. On Friday and Saturday they have all you can eat Fish with 2 sides.
Have ate breakfast here a few times, pretty good also. As I said above, The fish is good enough reason to eat here.
The Steaks are good, Farm raised about 6 miles away. Good burgers also.

Really had high hopes for this place hoping for a good home-​cooked meal… but it wasn’t. Everything tasted like it was from a TV dinner… bland and tasteless and seemingly pre-​cooked frozen stuff.
The ‘half chicken dinner’ special was a leg and wing. How’s that half a chicken?
Cole slaw was AMAZING though!

This place is owned by the local millionaires (you would never know, they have oil, apparently, but they’re down-​to earth, hardworking people) you will see them working there from time to time. If they’re selling their sweet corn, GET IT! they grow it themselves and it’s delicious!
The Farmstead is across between Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel. I am not originally from Marengo, so, to me, this place is a little kitchy, and the food somewhat bland, but my husband’s parents really like it (they love the all you can eat Friday fish fry, i don’t eat seafood). I can say I like their country-​fried steak, and their cheeseburgers are pretty good, but, in general, I prefer food with a little more flavor.
I’ve always had fairly good service. Every once in a while we get the one waitress who doesn’t refill drinks and forgets your dinner rolls, but most of the other ones are pretty attentive and they’re all friendly.
I like this place for it’s local charm and convenient location, but if you’re looking for amazing, mouth-​watering, blow-​your-​mind-​away food, you’ll have to go into Columbus.

We had breakfast. I had the blueberry pancakes, they were dense with bubbles, which is the best way to have em! Hubs had the western omelette, he said it was good. The baby had a grilled cheese & fries, he was happy eating it & making his usual mess. It was good food, tasted likesomething I would make, except I didn’t have to make it. Score. Our server was prompt & friendly & our bill was low, like $ 20 for the 3 meals. The other customers were friendly also, a few of them stopping to say hi to the baby. Nice hometown feel. We’ll be returning for a good meal that tastes like home-​cooking when I don’t feel like cooking.

Tired of my recent daily commute from Cols to Cleveland (and back), and especially tired of fast food in the car, I decided to pull over and give the Olé Farmstead Inn a try (yes, «Olé» is in the name, I’m not just being colloquial, as I am want to do).
OFI’s menu is highly similar to what you might find at the olé Cracker Barrel (but you can’t order breakfast all day here. .. only a waffle — yeah, I didn’t get that either). OFI serves up solid, down-​home country cooking. What differentiates them from a chain is that their meats all come from a local farm. Soooooooo, my advice is to order your meal accordingly.
Me? I ordered up a burger as the very thought of some fresh, local beef grilled up right got my mouth a’waterin. OFI’s burger is an homage to Wilson’s/Wendy’s/Dave Thomas/​Ohio burgers. Yep, the patty was small and a bit squared — squared and delicious! The bun was nicely toasted as well. The fries? Freezer stuff thrown in some oil.
The bottom line on the Olé Farmstead Inn is that the service is down-​home and great. The place seemed to be filled with locals. It’s worth a visit if you’re passing by and hungry, but as you can see from other Unilocal,you need to choose your food wisely. When a place advertises on the menu that they offer meats from a local farm — that’s not just information, it’s a HUGE CLUE on what to order. My burger was delish.

The price is right. $ 5.29 for 3 pancakes and either bacon, sausage or ham. But the pancakes were very chewy and the thin slice of country ham was overcooked.

My first experience with the Olé Farmstead was the first Christmas that I lived in Marengo. I called and asked if I could purchase a whole pie to go and the rude old bag on the other end told me «Not unless you order one in advance!» and then hung up on me.
I vowed to never give them my business but 3 years later my wife convinced me to give it a chance because she had heard from some other locals that we were «missing out on some great food». I now believe that the people who told her that were missing their tastebuds or have never eaten anything remotely good.
We went on a Sunday after church with our two kids. We waited close to twenty minutes for a table because they were moderately busy and had two servers bouncing around the entire dining room while a man and woman manager just watched. The food was terrible. One would think that a named itself after a farmstead would have awesome comfort foods like mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and fried chicken. One would be wrong. The mashed potatoes were from a box and the gravy from a jar. The cole slaw was bland as was the chicken.
Definitely a place to avoid if you value service and taste with your meal.

Located just off I-​71 north of Columbus is this home-​cookin’ joint. I reckon that if you’re not a trucker, or someone living fairly close by, you don’t know about this place.
The food is classic American meat and potatoes. The décor is country, the place is clean and the service is excellent. This is the kind of place the temperance crowd hits Sunday after church, no offense intended.
The wife had the fried fish platter. Lots of fried fish. It was ok. She had a side of candied beets that stole the show.
I had a bowl of the Wisconsin Cheddar soup. It was more like a dip and it really needed to be Wisconsin Cheddar Beer soup. It was very good though. My main dish was chicken and dumplings. It tasted like it came right out of a can. No recommendation.
If you’re looking for a place to sit down for some comfort food right off I-​71, this is a decent place. I wouldn’t make the trek up from Dublin for it ;-)