Kevin L.
Yelp
Solid German food. Good service. Comfortable room.
I love German food. I'll drive miles out of my way for a good meal, so it was a natural to drop in here while on an I-81 road trip.
I've been here twice. I dropped in a year and a half ago without a reservation, and spent a few minutes waiting around for a solo seat at the bar. It didn't take long, but as other folks have pointed out, there's really not much of a place to wait. The bartender was friendly and took great care of me, including a tasty beer and what a I seem to recall was some kick-butt kasespatzle.
I just returned, with my partner in tow. This time we had a reservation, although the place was pretty quiet at 8pm on a Friday night. Service was prompt and efficient without being super-friendly.
My partner had a half carafe of wine, which turned out to be three and a half glasses worth -- a pretty generous pour for $10. I enjoyed a dunkel on draft, and then a glass of my partner's wine, which was dark and fruity and pretty tasty.
They started us off with some house-made bread, which was crusty and reasonably nice. The butter was fine. The soft cheese spread with spices was awesome, really delicious and flavorful. We ate all of it, and probably would've eaten more, although they'd provided a generous serving.
We decided on the combo platter for two, so that we could try a little of everything. We wound up with two beef fillets the size of the palm of my hand, and probably a little less than an inch thick. Mine was definitely pink inside, while my partner's was a little more well-done (we weren't asked how we'd like it, and this was fine, although it was weird that the two pieces turned out differently). Both were tender enough to easily cut with the table knife, but there wasn't a whole lot of flavor, despite the peppercorns and sauce on top. This was kind of a waste of meat.
On the other hand, the schnitzel was pretty damn solid, as was the sausage. The sides were the star of the show. The potato salad was delicious, with most of the flavor coming from the potato. The spatzle was awesome (as I recalled), and I'd definitely be back for more of that. The red cabbage was absolutely delicious, with a delicate apple flavor, and I'd've happily made a meal of that.
I wish that, rather than the two fillets, we'd gotten a wider array of meats with the platter for two. There's plenty of tasty-looking stuff on the menu.
In any case, this was a generous serving, and we probably took half of it home with us. We didn't have room for the desserts, but they looked pretty good.
I'm not sure why the front of house staff is almost all women, or why they're wearing dirndls, but it's not a problem. This isn't exactly Hooters. Whatever works.
All in all, this was a workmanlike German meal, and I'll happily return when I'm back on I-81. I wouldn't drive far out of my way for it, though.