The Restaurant at the Station

Cue up the Maple Leaf Rag! This gorgeous historic refurbished station is surrounded by train cars (kids and males of all ages will love, fun for pictures too) and has an amazing history. It was dilapidated when I went to school in this town, and I never really even looked at it, a shame on my part. The process to restore it was lengthy and precarious and quite a story. I am so glad this station (built in 1874) was saved. It is amazing to see beautiful things in the scrappy town of Tamaqua.
My dad just told me about a stream called the Wabash that runs under the town which caused terrible floods. How did I not know about this? Anyway, the station…
Reported to be haunted by Irish workers’ hero Jack Kehoe of the Molly Maguires, the station’s bar is where his body was laid after he was (unjustly, imo) hanged in Pottsville in 1877, and his remains were NOT treated with respect, so I was told. So it is understandable why his spirit might be pissed! I could fill an hour simply walking around the station and looking at all the pictures and reading the pamphlets, and the kind staff let me.
Aside from that story, the bar is otherwise quite lovely and gives the total feel of 100 years of passengers stopping in. Only PA wines are served, a disappointment, though this adherence to local food is admirable. Average wine price is a cheap $ 5 a glass. The selection by the glass is huge, and one wonders how they manage to keep all those open bottles fresh without breaking the bank. I am sure you can get a Yuengling too. Photographs show how the bar originally looked, with tables separated from the bar with a rail as it is still arranged.
The gift shop has a great photo of Doris Day sitting outside the station, and staff is quite eager to tell stories. The large brick patio with newsprint tabletops is a perfect place to relax on a warm day. There is also a candy shop, but its hours are limited.
I have not eaten is the restaurant because the food is nearly all animal-​based and traditional, but I would love to and hope the menu will be updated at some point.

I always make it a point to eat at the Station when I am in Tamaqua. It is, without question, the nicest place to eat in the Tamaqua area. The ambience is warm and welcoming, and the staff is the same. Will, the bartender and host the night we visited, is an incredibly gracious host, and a great guy to chat with. I actually found the prices to be a little lower than what I would have anticipated. Our waitress was inexperienced, and working her fourth night as a waitress, and I think will be fine given some time, and a bit more training. There were two areas that could use some attention. The first would be consistency. My sister-in-law’s salad arrived and had shredded carrots on it. My brother’s salad, and mine, did not. While not a huge point of contention, it should be noted, and is also easily fixed. The second area of concern I had was a bit more important. The scallops I had were not prepared well. The seasonings were tasty, but the scallops were undercooked. My scallops were slightly browned on one side, and not cooked at all on the other. This led to a less than terrific taste, and consistency. One lone scallop was so undercooked as to be inedible, and remained as a lone sentinel on my plate. The pierogie wings with butter and sauteed onions were cooked perfectly, not gummy, and I enjoyed them. I believe they were Mrs T’s pierogies. It was a Thursday night, so perhaps the regular chef was not there. Definitely make it a point to taste one of their great Pennsylvania wines!

My husband and I stopped here as we were passing through town on a Sunday afternoon. We were drawn to the building because of the architecture, it is a former train station, and the location. It is a wonderfully restored building adjacent to privately owned railroad tracks. The staff in the restaurant was very pleasant and very knowledgeable concerning the town and the restoration of the building. We sat at the bar, our original intent being just to have a lager. To our disappointment the barmaid told us that they had just «kicked» the lager keg and offered us other options. We wondered why they didn’t just tap another keg of lager. Strange. We ordered a different type of beer and the owner, dressed in period style clothes, chatted us up for a while. She was interesting enough and being that we were there longer than we had anticipated, we decided to order some food.
We had never heard of pierogie wings, so we decided to try them as an appetizer. My husband and I both ordered burgers, I ordered mine medium and my husband ordered his medium rare. The pierogies were interesting-​we got the crab and cream version, which consisted of 6 pierogies toppped with a creamy crab sauce. The pierogies were overcooked and tough but the sauce was delicious. The burgers looked handmade and were served with wilted pickles and corn tortilla chips. The owner had told us previously that potato chips were getting too expensive. My medium well burger was so rare it was mooing. I took one bite and decided it was way too undercooked for me to feel comfortable eating. The roll was rather stale and readily broke apart. My husband’s medium rare burger was cooked a little more than mine and he said it was just Ok. Unfortunately, no one came around to ask if everything was ok so I didn’t send my buger back. We left disappointed and felt kind of ripped off. The beer was rather expensive and the food was not that great. If you are passing through town, it is an interesting place to stop, look around, pick up some literature and talk to the staff but as far as eating goes, find someplace else.

Food was good and a bit too much money for this area before. Now the prices have gone up a bit and the portions are a lot smaller. There are better places to spend your money around here.

Every time I head home to Tamaqua, I have to stop in The Restaurant at the Station, whether it’s for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This place has a wide variety on the regular menu, and always have interesting specials. I absolutely love their brie and pineapple appetizer.
I’ve had pasta, chicken, steak, and seafood dishes here — all have been superb. I highly recommend their filet, with blue cheese melted over it — mmmm, so good.
The décor is set up to be similar to the original 1874 train station, the staff have always been friendly and always a great experience!

While passing through Tamaqua yesterday, the wife and I decided to eat here. I liked the old architecture and that the station was beautifully restored. Great old photos on the walls, a souvenir shop, etc. For lunch, I ordered a steak salad – marinated pieces of beef over romaine lettuce while my wife had the chicken salad. Prices were average. My food was good but not quite enough to fill me, even with the parfait we shared for dessert. Guess I should have ordered the burger or a sandwich but the salad was enough for my wife.