Magnolia Pancake Haus - San Antonio, TX

The Magnolia Pancake Haus in San Antonio was really enjoyable.  It was a very family-friendly, clean restaurant with great service and great food. The thing that made them special was that one of the owners brought back some recipes from Germany but you don't find very often in United States.

For example, I ordered the pfankuchen which is basically an apple pancake.  It is not dry like a typical American pancake. It is more like a big flat apple pie. The edges are let to caramelize slightly .  It has the consistency of a sticky bun and is about as addictive.  I'm afraid to know what the calorie count on something like this. You wouldn't want to eat one of these every week. The serving size in this case was huge. I could not finish even half of this as delicious as it was.

The orange juice was very good.  I think that it may have been fresh squeezed. The syrup came in A small metal beaker which had been heated up.  The pfankuchen was plenty sweet enough for me. I didn't think that the syrup was necessary.

Atmosphere-wise, there were a lot of young families there. If you don't like loud toddlers then this is no place for you. The location was very close to the San Antonio airport. This would be a good place to meet for breakfast before a morning flight.

I would rate the Magnolia Pancake Haus 9.1. It's well worth checking out.

Magnolia Pancake Haus
606 Embassy Oaks #100
San Antonio, TX 78216
www.magnoliapancakehaus.com

Harry's Roadhouse - Santa Fe, NM

Harry's Road House should have been called Harry's surprise house because I found a few.  The first thing is that it looks like a tiny cafe from the outside.  Even when you first walk in there is a small counter with some 1950's diner looking stools.

But it wasn't tiny.  There were lots of little rooms, each with its own wood burning stove.  One room had a complete bar including a wall full of the expensive alcohol.

The next big surprise was that I would call this a German restaurant.  Not only did they serve German food but it was pretty darned authentic and good.

I ordered the schnitzel and spaetzle.  The pork for the schnitzel was pounded nice and thin, breaded and baked.  I came with just a thin layer of apple sauce. The spaetzle or potato-pasta was not quite as I remembered it in Germany.  I think that the spaetzle was a little over-cooked making it a little dry.  It was still quite enjoyable.

The portion sizes were refreshingly normal versus the huge portion sizes that only seem normal in the US in the past 15 years.

They also served cabbage on the plate.  It very much seemed authentic German to me. A lot of times the cabbage in German restaurants in the US serve Americanized cabbage which is sweet rather than the real stuff with is sour pickle-like.


I also ordered a Santa Fe pale ale which I found to be smooth and not too hoppy.  Something about the mountain air that makes the beer taste soo good.  I was there during the winter but, they had a very nice outside patio area.  Beyond the parking lot, the seating area looks out on the beautiful high desert.  I would like to go back in the summer.


Harry's was not a dive just a divy looking bit of a surprise.  The service was okay.  I would rate Harry's at 8.7.  It was a nice restaurant but, didn't blow my socks off.  I would and probably will go back.


Harry's Roadhouse
96 Old Las Vegas Highway
Santa Fe, NM 87505
(505) 989-4629
www.harrysroadhousesantafe.com

Ingrid's Kitchen - Oklahoma City, OK

Ingrid's calls themselves Euro-American cuisine.  I would probably consider them a German bakery/deli/cafeteria with a mix of  Other-European and American thrown in.  When you first come in the door, you have to grab a menu and wait in line to order.  When you pay they give you a number on a stand so that the food runners can find you.

The menu has a lot of German dishes.  It looks like they make their own sausages (wuerst) onsite.   I had the Weiner Schnitzel sandwich with a tabouli salad.  Wein is German for Vienna which is in Austria but, you find it everywhere in Germany.  Tabouli is a Mediterranean dish which has nothing to do with Western Europe.

While you are waiting in line, you have to stand in front of the glass bakery cases.  The cakes and pastries looked really good but, I was good and stayed away.  Not good for blog reporting but good for my personal health. 

After you pay there is another set of cases with freshly baked bread and an evil guillotine looking thing presumably to slice bread or punish patrons who get out of line.

We arrived at the lunch hour, so the food took a little bit of time to arrive.  There is not much in the way of service to talk about.  One of the waitress had a thick German accent.   I'm guessing that she might have been Ingrid herself.  She was in much too much of a hurry to strike a conversation up with. So, I may never know.

The tabouli salad was very good.  The tomato that they used was especially good for this time of year in February.  It comes on a plate with a leaf of lettuce.  The Weiner Schnitzel was pretty good but, the bread that they served it on was really good.  It must have come from their own ovens in the back.

My lunch partner just got a turkey and cheese sandwich.  He was really impressed with the gouda cheese.  The sliced bread looked really good and he said that it was.

The restaurant is in a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood a little off of the beaten track in Oklahoma City.  The building is painted with the German national colors along the roof line.  German signage is everywhere inside and the men's room was wallpapered with old editions of German newspapers and magazines.

This is probably a good place for drinks after work and on the weekends.  They served lots of different kinds of German beer.  There was a room in the back that looked made for drinking.

Overall, I would give Ingrid's a 8.5 on the triple-D scale.  The food was really good but, not necessarily unique like you would expect out of a triple-D joint.  The atmosphere was good but again, not blow your socks off.  It is worth checking out and I would definitely go here again. 

Ingrid's Kitchen
3701 North Youngs
Oklahoma, OK 73112
405 946-8444
http://www.ingridskitchen.com/

Brat's Brothers Gourmet Sausage Grill - Sherman Oaks, CA

When I saw kaesespaetzle on the menu on Brat's Brothers web site then I knew that it would be worth checking out.   Kaesespaetzle are potato based noodles usually served with cheese. It is a classic Swabian dish.  When I got there, they actually had what I would characterize as Jaegerspaetzle or "hunters spaetzle" which is the spaetzle with a mushroom gravy sauce instead of cheese. So, that's what I went for.... But, not before ordering a bier.

I found it charming when the very nice Mexican-American chick wearing a dirndle with tatoos and Toms sneakers brought over a refreshing beverage in a genuine brewery supplied glass. 

They have quite impressive selection of German biers on tap.  I had an Erdinger Weissbier.  It really hit the spot.  It had been ten years almost exactly since I moved back to the states from Germany.  The German bier gartens were one of those things that I really miss.  It wasn't just the bier, it was the whole atmosphere.   Wow, how I miss that.

They had Erdinger, Hoffbrau, Spaten and. Franziskaner brand beer on tap. These are all the national brands which to the Germans are very ordinary but, for us "Ami's" are not at all ordinary.  It was definitely a treat.  A normal $6 genuine German bier on tap is $4 during happy hour.  

When I visited Brat's Brothers, they had just moved locations, which explains how they might have gotten on Diners, Drive-Inns and Dives in the first place because this restaurant was none of those.
It is a nice place with outdoor seating to enjoy Southern California weather. Inside in the center of the restaurant is a 30 foot single slab of wood of a table that people are supposed to sit around European style, only this one is 3 feet across versus the real deal foot and a half width.


I almost want to withhold a triple-d rating because they really no longer qualify under any of the three "d's."   But, I think that just like what they did for the homerun king baseball player that is later found to have taken steroids, I'll issue a grade with an asterisk.

I'm giving Brat Brothers a 7*.   Here's why. The food was good but, probably not as good as any mediocre German restaurant that it was trying to be.   The menu was trying to be a straight copy of a Bavarian restaurant.   My opinion is that Triple-d restaurants have to be something unique and noteworthy unto themselves.   Although I really enjoyed Brats Brothers and would go there again, it wasn't unique.

I found the atmosphere to be artificially produced. For example, there were two sets of lederhosen under glass cases on the wall.  That's like hanging your underwear up in a restaurant.  There is just something wrong about that.

So, check out Brat's Brothers if you want some good food and good bier but, don't go there looking for a triple-d experience.

Brat's Brothers Gourmet Sausage Grill
13456 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
(818) 986-4020
www.bratsbrothers.com