Viener Fest

You have to be kidding. O didn't know my old Mess Sergeant in Germany finally opened his own place. If I could give zero stars, I would. It is sad a city our size lacks a German restaurant, but it does. While the atmosphere

was nice, the staff very friendly, the food was really a turnoff. Perhaps it is because I know what real German food is. It would have been more appealing as some type of Southern fare. My Holstein Schnitzel was deep fried. And I am really not sure, but I would bet that it was a prepared frozen dish.

When we really do get s German restaurant here, please let me know. In the meantime, if I have any German friends visit, I will just take them for bar-b-que.

I grew up most of the time in the southern part of Germany, which is close to Austria. So I am fluent in this language and know well about the German culture and food. (which of course is one of the best in the world, if made correctly)

Recently, I had two good friends from Germany over here for vacation.

I told them that a German/Austria restaurant opened here and we decided to try it. We thought since it serves German and Austrian food it was owned by people of this nationality. But our waitress told us the opposite, that it was owned by Americans. We looked at each other and thought that they may lived there for years like I did and they know what they are doing.

So we ordered some Schnitzel. Wiener, Jaeger and Rahmschnitzel.

What can I say? None of that was even close to the original German Schnitzel.

The Wiener Schnitzel was greasy and it tasted like it has been in a deep fryer.

You don’t make a Schnitzel in a deep fryer!! The potato salad was coming 100% out of a bucket and wasn’t self made.

Then the Rahmschnitzel. A cheese sauce?? Cheese on a Rahmschnitzel??? If you do this than rename it in Swiss Cheese Schnitzel! You think you are getting the taste of a Rahmschnitzel as you know it and then you discover a different taste. That’s a no no.

Jaegerschnitzel. Haha. Let me give you the ingredients for a Jaegerschnitzel:

FRESH mushrooms, bacon, onions, heavy whip cream, thyme and parsley, just to name a few.

And you don’t cook the Spaetzle all the way through.

After all, everything was greasy and not almost close to the original German food.

The food is overpriced for what you get.

It was embarrassing for me to take my German friends out to this so called German restaurant.

We still talk about that, even if they are already back in Germany.

Ein Mal und nie wieder! Eine Schande und peinlich.

Saturday night 8pm, June 1 at a well decorated interior. Our arrival is not greeted, but there is chaos, the owner is upset and cleaning tables. I asked if we could take this one. "Just wait until I am finished setting it!" He seem peeved, so we waited and then opted for another that was already set. The waitress eventually noticed us, she had not realized we were there, interesting because the place was not particularly crowded. Then I looked at the bar and saw why the owner was perturbed. We had interrupted his meal. He was hovering over his own important dinner like a dog guarding his bone. That was promising, the food may be that good. I order the sampler, a selection of four Brats of Wursts, Spaetzle and red cabbage [$12.95].

I am not an expert on German cuisine, but I lived 6 weeks in Germany in my college years and have been back one half dozen times on later visits. I have never experienced such thin and mushy textured Brats. I asked for some mustard to flavor the selections, maybe some hot and spicy or stone ground? They brought instead their one and only in-house made mustard (?).

It was a yellow sweet lifeless sauce that could have been a salad dressing. The red cabbage was equally sweet, I think they must add a great deal of sugar to it and it could have been the dessert. Then I noticed the owner, who seldom involved himself in the work of running the place and should have stuck to decorating. My wife's salad was made up of yesterday greens and some other inedibles. [If you cannot even do a salad?] Our friends had a heavily breaded Schnitzel and white plain potatoes. We tried to close on a good note. "We heard you have a great Black Forrest Cake?" "Oh we do but we are all out of it."

As we left, I looked for a potentially better seating place. You can sit on the front porch, but there were only 2 tables for 6. You can sit on the side deck, but every table there is a double. You can sit in the fenced beer garden in the rear, but your conversation would be accompanied by 2 loud A/C compressors. Or you could find a better German meal at the Gerst Hous.



Visited June 2013