Food Reviews

There are few places that we've had meals at that's worth writing about.

Hotel Maxmilian This is our breakfast/brunch place in our hotel.  Although the service is wonderful, the food is dull.  German food mostly consists of bread (brot), sausages (wurst), and saurkraut, it's isn't a cuisine that people rave about however there's potential to make it taste good, especially for breakfast/brunch.  Our daily selection includes some type of sausage, deli meats of sorts (pastrami, salami, bologna), smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, variety of breads, cheese, jelly and a sweet cake/dessert (Kuchen) on most days.  On alternate days, they switch out the sausage with chicken wings and bagel bites (American version) or  mini pizzas.  That's where I have a problem with this place, I am okay with sausages but when they're switched out for a lesser tasting bagel bites pizza, that's not good.  Starting tomorrow, we plan to venture out to a new breakfast place down the street.

Sangam is an Indian restaurant we went to with an expat group.  The group meets at a different restaurant each week, it's my kind of group.  The restaurant itself is in a prime spot in old town, blocks from the u-bahn station.  We were part of a group of 8 so nothing unusual for a restaurant you would think, but the service was terribly slow.  The server that took our drink order, 30 minutes after we were seated (no exaggeration), said he couldn't take our dinner order.  Another 30 minutes later, the owner took our dinner order.  At 9:30, 2 hours after arriving at the restaurant we got our food.  He and I shared an appetizer, Chicken Tandoori, and the main course, Bhuna Ghost with Roti.  The chicken was well seasoned and tender, the bhuna ghost was rich in a creamy tomato sauce.  Others in the group got butter chicken and daal which they all liked.  However they said this was their 2nd or 3rd visit and each time got the same slow service.  Overall the food was good but definitely not worth going back due to their repetitive slow service.

Now onto the food places we've liked.  The first was a German restaurant in old town, Hütt'n.  I ordered Nuremberg wurst special with bread dumplings and he ordered pork loin roast with potato dumplings.  My wursts came in a thick brown sauce that was rich, flavorful and lemony at the same time.  And it paired fantastically with the bread dumplings, a Franconian local specialty.  His pork loin was braised to perfection with crunchy skin, like pork rinds.  The crunchy pork skin isn't for everyone but I tried it for the first time and loved it.  His potato dumplings were a tad bland but we can't expect too much from boiled potatoes formed into a ball.

The other German place that we enjoyed was Kartofell, literally translates to potato.  This restaurant is a block from where we're staying so it's a nice 2 minute walk.  It was recommended by someone so we were excited to try it.  It has an outdoor patio that everyone was drinking bier and having their dinner in so it was only fitting we sat there.  Everything on the menu has some sort of potato- fried, boiled, steamed, baked or shredded & fried.  I ordered the schweine schnitzel with boiled potato and white asparagus.  He ordered the chicken burger with green salad.  When we got our plates, we were both surprised to see that they created burger buns out of potato pancakes (Latkes).  The filling for the burger was marinated boneless chicken pieces.  Although unsure at first, he really liked his burger.  My schweine schnitzel was perfect, not overcooked or dry.  The asparagus was boiled and overdone but according to our server, 'this is the normal way of eating asparagus here'.  Side note: it's Asparagus season and many German restaurants are serving Asparagus like it's going out of season, pun intended.  My boiled potatoes were perfectly seasoned with salt, pepper and butter.   
 
Finally, a Greek restaurant, Delphi.  The food was exceptional and the service was exactly what you'd expect from a Greek restaurant, very friendly and accommodating.  We started with ouzo (anise flavored liquor); that'll get any customer to be a fan of a restaurant.  For the first course I ordered Bean Soup (Bohne Suppe) which was made with tomato base and tasted great.  For dinner I ordered Pork Gyro with Tomato Rice (Schweine Gyro mit Tomatenreise) and he ordered chicken in butter sauce with white rice (Hähnchen in Buttersauce mit weißer Reis).  Both of our meals were delicious; I could've used a little less salt on my gyro meat but overall a decent meal, especially with the impeccable service.   

You'll notice we haven't ordered desserts at any of these restaurants.  To our surprise, restaurant portion sizes are quite large so we never have room for dessert.  I, in fact, have brought home to-go boxes from restaurants because I don't finish my dinner. Speaking of to-go boxes, it is generally frowned upon to ask for boxes so I know I am breaking rules but I don't have the heart to throw out food so I kindly say "Alles war sehr gut, aber ich bin voll."  (everything was very good, but I am full) And then they offer a box.