Spring House Tavern

Brace yourself. Welcome to the land of way back when. Upon entering the downstairs, dark tavern you will be immersed in a pre-​historic land.
The staff is great. The food is incredible — so flavorful yet VERY SIMPLE. Feels like Grandmom cooked the food. Then again, she probably did

Many people call this the Dobbin House tavern but it’s actually called the Spring House. It’s below the Dobbin House Restaurant. We live in PA and eat here multiple times a year. It’s a great, comfortable atmosphere. I especially like it in the winter with the fireplaces roaring. The food is pretty good. I get tired of the potato chip or potato salad option with many sandwiches because I don’t like either. I enjoy the french dip sandwich, the crab dip and the soups the most. Servers are friendly and in costume and are very helpful and efficient. There is a lot of history and it’s just really fun. Tables are very close together and you will basically be eating in the dark (candlelight only). If it’s crowded you will be very close to those sitting next to you. You can enter through the main door for the Dobbin House or the next door down. The parking can be tricky if it’s crowded.

Great ambiance and food. Try the French onion soup — awesome! Their Spiked apple cider is good on a cold night. Friendly wait staff wearing period correct costumes. Museum and gift shop attached to restaurant are worth a look. Check it out!

This place is very typical of Gettysburg. It’s built in an old Gettysburg tavern that also served on the Underground Railroad. It’s beautifully refinished. The cider with is served warm is delicious.

Nice little touristy stop. Slightly cheesy, but a good experience. Decent «traditional» food. Service was friendly and very scripted. There was a guy who comes around and plays a guitar-​like instrument at your table. I’d go back.

Delicious! Great service staff was very professional. Loved the atmosphere of the dining area. Onion soup and grilled chicken was delicious! Only downfall was our table was VERY small. But went with the atmosphere will definitely be back.

The Springhouse Tavern is one of Gettysburg ‘s most authentic dining offerings. Located in the basement of the Dobbin House, one is transported back to the 1800’s instantly. Throw in a few Civil Was reinactors, and a fife and bugle band out front, and you might forget where you parked your horse.
It’s true that the tavern is cramped, and that it would be tough to be a waitress here. It’s true that the tables are close to each other, and it is dark. That’s called atmosphere, my friends, and it is the price of authenticity. And authenticity, my friends, is why you. ome here. This place is a real tavern, and it is maintained as it was in the 1800’s. Appleby ‘s is probably out on 30 east, if that’s your idea of a real hometown tavern. But for period authenticity, this place can’t be beat.
Food is good. Not amazing, but good. We had the roasted chicken ($ 15) and the tavern special of glazed pork chops ($ 18), and both came with salad, starch, and bread. Yes, the food for us was perfectly adequate. Service was fine also.
Plus, upstairs you. an see the hiding place for slaves for the underground railroad. Authentic.
Weekends, this place is packed. Probably best on weeknights.
We ducked off 15 to grab dinner here, and I will do so every. chance I get. A favorite in Gettysburg.

The spring house tavern is located in the basement of the Dobbin house. It gets it name because of the working spring that runs through the restaurant. It is the oldest standing building in Gettysburg so for all you history buffs its a great place to try. The menu is casual, they describe it as lite cuisine for casual dining. It is definitely more of a casual setting compared to upstairs. Reservations are a must if you want to dine at the Dobbin house. The Spring house is mostly lit by candlelight and it can get crowded at times. As for the food I enjoy the baked king’s onion soup and the fresh garden sallade. They also have sweet breads that are delicious and I usually get a order to go. The prices are abit on the higher side but it won’t break the bank by any means. Parking is limited in the lot in front of the restaurant but they have additional parking in the rear.

Maybe it’s better that it’s such a PITA to find — hopefully you, reader, will continue on when you can’t find your way in, and end up somewhere else, with better food and much better service. The room is cramped and claustrophobic, tables in the middle are right on top of each other, and the lighting can be so dim that they could probably transition into one of those dine in the dark type hipster establishments without really having to do much else.
I’d been here once, about ten years ago, and had maybe a decent meal? Or a bad one? Either way, all I remember was the room itself. This time I wanted to try to remember the food.
The food is passable, and a hell of a lot cheaper than upstairs, obviously. Well, it’s passable if it’s actually cooked. I ordered a grilled steak sandwich on flatbread — or at least, that was the idea. What arrived was ice cold. Not even lukewarm from cooling down — more like it had cooled for hours then put on ice. I asked our elusive waitress if this were how it was supposed to be served, and she said no and whisked it away. Then the wait began…
Well, it had actually already begun, since after dumping our plates, our waitress went AWOL for about 20 minutes, and I just sat… and sat… and sat. We finally flagged her down after she reemerged from the kitchen or upstairs. Then she whisked it away and said she’d get me another. Meanwhile, my poor DC had her meal in front of her. I implored her to eat. The minute she finished my new and improved (and this time, to their credit, HOT) sandwich showed up — a good 45 minutes after the initial order. It was decent, but again, not memorable.
What we will remember is that there was a) no apology and b) no attempt by the waitress or management to somehow make it «right». I didn’t even really want to be comped the meal, I just wanted… well, something. Like just a simple «So sorry», and maybe a little hop in their step.
Plan B if the wait here was too long (which it turned out to be) was to just saunter up the street to McDonald’s. Which in the end probably would’ve been the better option. At least I wouldn’t have been profoundly disappointed (since, you know, it’s McDonald’s, so, expectations=0 anyway).
And here’s the moral: never ever be the worse option to McDonald’s.

Cozy, inviting and steeped in history. We were concluding an 8 day road trip and this was a happy find for dinner. The spitfire chicken was amazing! It also happened to be my sister’s birthday. I asked the server if he could do anything festive with her dessert. He added a sparkler and with absolutely no prompting from the staff other diners began singing happy birthday… The atmosphere and coziness of this establishment lends itself to this kind of camaraderie. Our next time thru we will definitely come back in.

Interesting cellar tavern under the Dobbin House where you are packed in very tightly. If you like making new friends this is the place. We loved the onion soup made with small cubes of beef in the broth. If you order a salad my advise is to ask for the dressing on the side. My spinach salad and my wife’s Caesar were drowned in dressing, so much that we couldn’t eat them. The servers were really busy and it was hard to get their attention, no one offered to refill our water glasses. Actually we had to track down a waitress whenever we needed anything. I wouldn’t go back.

Located in the basement of the historic Dobbins House, Spring House Tavern is my favorite place in Gettysburg to grab lunch or a late evening drink. Housed in a building erected in 1776 and a survivor of the Battle of Gettysburg it exudes with atmosphere and charm, but not only for those reasons. The food is great, and the service top notch.
During my most recent visit I had their Maryland crab cakes which contained plenty of jumbo lump crab, were tasty and not at all loaded with fillers. Then, for drinks, I’ve always been served with a decent pour for the price.

It’s a great place to have lunch or dinner for lunch it has an extensive lunch menu try the hot roast beef sandwich soup of the day I had the chicken rice soup excellent and try the onion soup there’s plenty of parking in front or if you want to walk a quarter-​mile there’s always free parking by the sightseeing companyall the staff wear colonial period unforms

Took us a minute to find the entrance. Take note that it’s the same place as Dobbin House.
Really nice setup inside, fits well with the theme of Gettysburg, that alone is worth the stop in. Beer prices were good and the food was good, about average. Definitely worth the stop in while you’re in Gettysburg, take the 10 min to drive there and skip the cafeteria at the visitor center.

I ate at this restaurant last night for dinner after arriving in town. It was a lite hard to find the entrance but when you enter you go downstairs into a basement. It’s dark and full of wood and has a lot of ambience. At every table and at the bar is a wax candle burning which gives the restaurant a Civil War period feel. The waitresses are also dressed in period garb. After looking at the menu by candle light I asked for the pit roasted chicken but was told they were out. I then went with the steak sandwhich and some of their homemade Cole slaw as the side. I was really hungry so I ordered their onion soup for an appetizer.
The soup was very hot when it arrived. After letting it cool a little it had a lot of cheese in it and was very good (4). It was $ 6 and I really enjoyed it. Then the meal came out. The sandwich was large however I was a little disappointed with it. The steak had very little flavor to it. Other reviews had stated how good theirs was but mine was basically flavorless. I have to give the sandwich a (2). The Cole slaw was very good. Nice and creamy (4). My service was good (3.5).
I really like this restaurant. The atmosphere is awesome and I recommend you come here. You decide if you want to take a chance on the steak sandwich. If I come back I won’t. I am giving a 3 for my meal but probably should give a 2 because of the steak. However I believe this place is worthy of at least a 3. Come for the atmosphere. It’s cool especially at night.

The Tavern is located in the basement level of the building. It feels a little crammed and is very dark, but the setting feels very authentic to the time period.
I had the onion soup and the steak sandwich for lunch. The soup was delicious but the portions were pretty small. It seems like the bowl had more cheese than soup. The steak sandwich, however, was absolutely amazing. Well worth the 13.50. I had the steak cooked at medium. The steak portions were generous and the steak was very very very tender.
On top of the great food, the service was friendly and efficient. From the time and I sat down and ate my food, I was out in under an hour.
So far, out of the three restaurants I visited in Gettysburg, this is the best place to eat.

The Spring House Tavern is in the cellar of the Dobbins House. We had a very nice dinner there. Food was very good. Our waitress, Emily, was on top of everything. We had the fruit and cheese appetizer, although it was delicious we took some of it with us. She boxed it up and gave it to us at the end of our meal. Now that is something that could have easily been forgotten. I have left food that I meant to take with me more than once, and it was my food!
I had the crab cakes, quite tasty. My husband had a corned beef sandwich he found to be excellent. The atmosphere is charming, you are in a home built in the 1700’s. Perfect spot.

My family and I ate here 3 weekends ago on a Sunday for lunch. We had to wait about 30 minutes to be seated as it’s very small inside. The décor is cute, looks just like you’d imagine it to look in the 18^th century.
The menus are paper, and written to appear from that time, as well. The food descriptions use old time words and sayings.
My biggest complaint for our entire meal comes from our drink order. On the back of the menu, they talk about «Sparkling Cyder ‘a country drink locally pressed of sustenance from breakfast to bedtime…’» Cost was listed as $ 3.50 for a glass or $ 11.50 for a bottle. Figuring I would order one for each of my daughters as a treat, I might as well order a bottle for the price. I was kind of excited, it seemed super fun to have hand pressed cider. Imagine my shock and disappointment when the server arrived with an already opened bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling apple juice!!! I said to the server in a surprised tone that I couldn’t believe it was the same cider I have in my fridge right now for New Years Eve. The menu was completely misleading!!! She smirked and poured it for us. I couldn’t refuse to accept it as my kids were excited and didn’t understand that I just paid almost $ 12 for a bottle of sparkling juice that you can get at Costco for 4 for $ 9!!! That really angered me and she didn’t even apologize.
The food itself was good, but not amazing. The kings onion soup was good, like French onion soup with beef chunks in it. They didn’t skimp on the cheese, either. Other than that, our meal wasn’t anything to write home about.
Atmosphere was fun, food was ‘eh and menu was misleading.

This is a great place to visit, but it’s a 45 – 60 minute wait for a table and then another 40 minute wait for your food. If you have the time to wait, it’s worth checking out because the tavern is pretty cool. The servers are friendly and dressed in costume.
I ordered a crab cake sandwich and the crab was great, but it was served on boring sliced white bread, the side of cole slaw was fine, but nothing special. My partner liked her burger and chips. We also ordered the Oregone dark ale on tap and that was quite good.
If you’re visiting Gettysburg for the first time, I think this place is worth a visit.

This colonial tavern, which is Gettysburg oldest standing building, is set among 3 natural springs and 2 glowing fireplaces. There are candles at each table as well as at the bar, which is where we sat. The dining tables are communal style-​like at Hofbraus House if you are familiar with there. It opens at 11:30am, we arrived at 12:15pm, and were able to grab the last two seats at the bar. Apparently the dining room was already on a 45 minute wait. Going back to the history of the house, it was also used as a stop on the underground railroad and you can go tour upstairs and see the crawlspace that was the main hiding place. All of the walls are stone and the handcarved woodwork has been restored throughout the tavern to it’s original 1800s appearance. All of the staff wears period clothing which is another neat point of interest. Now onto the dining experience…
We each ordered a beer (Troegs perpetual IPA for me and Yuengling for him) and it came served in a goblet as it would have back during the Civil war era. Service was very friendly and quick. I chose to do the «Gill of Porridge and ½ sandwich». I chose to substitute the baked King’s onion Soup for the porridge. For the sandwich I chose ½ of a turkey sandwich on wheat with lettuce and tomato-​dijon on the side. It came with a choice of side too and I chose potato salad (other choices were chips or coleslaw). The soup came first and instead of a cup it was a massive bowl! It was very freshly made with chunks of beef in the soup and lots of onions. The cheese ontop was plentiful and the pieces of bread in the soup were delicious too. This was handsdown the best french onion soup I have ever eaten! Only way it could have been improved was if it were served a bit warmer. My boyfriend ended up finishing it for me since there was such a huge portion. the sandwich was basic-​no explanation needed. it was ok. The potato salad was really, really tasty with a bit of a mustard taste to it which I enjoy. My boyfriend ordered th e Dobbin’s hot beef sandwich-​Tender roast beef piled high on a hearth baked roll. Served up with its own juices for dipping. He chose coleslaw for his side. He said this is the sandwich he always gets and he was practically salivating coming into town looking forward to this sandwich! We will be back here the next time we are in Gettysburg and I highly recommend this as a must-​see destination while in town.