Just moved to Salem from Orlando, FL
So far I LOVEEEEE New England
I keep finding all of these wonderful gems but have yet to come across a good German Restaurant
Any and all suggestions will be graciously accepted.
I will be posting weekly about all of the new one of a kind eateries I come across here in beautiful New England.
-Kristan
kristanloveskrautchow
Sep 16, 2007 04:05PM
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Hi,
The Boston area is not a hotbed of German cuisine. There's only one German restaurant I know of, Jacob Wirth in the Theatre District. It's fairly good, but I've had much better German food in NYC and in Milwaukee. There's also an excellent butcher that sells homemade German sausages, in Saugus. It's Karls Sausage Kitchen.
142 Broadway, Saugus, MA 01906, USA
31 Stuart St, Boston, MA 02116, USA
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Thank You! I love homemade sausages I will give them a try and pick up some spatzle at the market!
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It's not in Boston, but there is a butcher in South Deerfield, MA called Pekarski's that specializes in fresh and smoked German and Polish sausages. It's at 293 Conway Road (Rte 116), and the phone number is 413-665-4537. I strongly recommend calling for hours before you head out there, and you should also bring a cooler.
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Nothing worthwhile, sorry to say. Jacob Wirth serves German food but it's not very good, and it's the only German place for a long ways around. Springfield, MA is a good place to go for this -- try The Student Prince or (for a somewhat less good option) The Hofbrauhaus.
There's also a Polish place in Andrew Square near the South Boston/Dorchester line called Cafe Polonia, which admittedly isn't German but is very good.
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Polish food will suffice for the time being. I like Borsch sp? The polish make good sausage and pieroges. Thanks for the suggestions!!!
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For Polish try Cafe Polonia in Dorchester. Excellent pierogis and borscht!
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It's expensive, but Sandrine's in Harvard Sq. is a French/Alsatian restaurant with some krauts and wursts on the menu.
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If you're up for a little travelling, try the Student Prince in Springfield. Great german food, beer and it's worth the trip just to see all the beer steins and memorabilia on the walls.
They have fried camembert cheese as an appetizer and it is tremendous.
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I haven't been, but friends really enjoy the Wirsthaus in Methuen, north of Boston.
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You might want to post on New England, there are some outside of Boston that people have raved about. If you don't mind traveling a bit some weekend, I've heard wonderful things about the Danbury Inn in NH.
http://www.innatdanbury.com/dining.htm
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Wirth's is the only one I know of but there's also Sandrines in Harvard Square (Alsatian) and if you want a weekend destination there's the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe Vt (Austrian).
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Jacob Wirth's is horrible, IMO.
You must check out The Smokehouse in Norwell. It's a very small retail shop for an outfit that makes handmade sausages for Boston's finer restaurants.
The sausages are INCREDIBLE. The manager trained in Germany so there are German sausgaes of various types, plus stuff like leberkase and other German delicacies. He also sells imported German foods like spaetzle, etc. (and my favorite, licorice cats).
The Globe food section wrote an article on them recently: http://www.boston.com/ae/food/article...
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I agree that Wirth's isn't a great choice, just the only available place -- with good beer and atmosphere but marginal German food. Too bad.
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The Inn at Danbury in Danbury, NH is great. It's about an hour and a half from Boston and worth it. The have an Oktoberfest around mid October that is fun for the family, but probably not as good as going there and ordering off the complete menu. They've got schnitzle every which way and then some.
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From Salem, Karl's sausage kitchen in Saugus, Rt. 1is delicious and convenient. Take some home and cook it.Not German, but Sandrine's in Harvard Square offers Alsatian cuisine. Yummy choucroute.
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In general, our Middle European options in Boston are pretty grim. Jacob Wirth's American food is pretty decent compared to its German food, most of which tastes like it is prepared in bulk and kept on steam tables all day. It's got good beer and great atmosphere, though, a rare surviving 19th-century tavern here.
In addition to Sandrine's, Alsatian specialties can also be found at Brasserie Jo and Gaslight Brasserie du Coin.
Besides its excellent sausages and cold cuts (including speck, multiple kinds of bratwurst, and fine house-smoked bacon), Karl's Sausage Kitchen is a good place for German specialty groceries, including breads.
As mentioned, Cafe Polonia does fantastic Polish food. I'm particularly enamored of their potato pancakes, a very thick, crisply-fried rendition. Don't miss the same owners' Baltic Deli across the street in Andrew Square.
There are a few German- and Austrian-leaning dishes (like wiener schnitzel a la Holstein) at Jasmine Bistro in Brighton Center, a fascinating little place whose menu focuses on Hungarian, French, and Balochistani food. The "noodles" under some of their gulyas and paprikash dishes resemble German Spätzle.
Boston also isn't a great town for traditional Ahskenazi Jewish food: probably the best example of this style is at Rubin's Kosher Deli in Brookline. Zaftig's down the block from it represents a more Americanized version of this cuisine.
We've got a couple of Turkish places with good döner kebab: Brookline Family Restaurant does my favorite, followed by Sultan's Kitchen downtown.
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Husbands family always raves about the Green Barn in Salem, NH
http://www.greenbarnrestaurant.com/
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I haven't been since last winter but I always liked the German dishes at the Green Barn. I want to check out Wirsthaus in Methuen mentioned above. I always forget about that place.
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you said you just moved to salem and if polish food will suffice there is a place called polonus in the east india mall, on the brick part of essex st. Its a polish deli, fairly small but worth checking out if you live in the area. Other than that i would highly reccomend karl's on rt. 1 like others suggested.
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I think in the immediate Boston area, Cafe Polonia is going to be your best bet, especially if you focus on the pork dishes and sausages, as well as the potato pancakes and some of the desserts. Shouldn't be to hard to tell the Germanic dishes from the Slavic ones (e.g. pierogies or the paprika laced goulash).
The Alsatian dishes at the French places in the area tend to be very limited, usually just the choucroute garnie, and perhaps tarte flambees. And of course foie gras, although I've yet to see any Alsatian foie gras in this country -- it's more of the ingredient quality than the preparation in this case. Eastern Standard served baeckoffe for a short time, but this was a while ago, near the end of Jamie Bissonette's tenure.
As you know, bread is amazing in Germany, and if you can track down the guy who used to bake for the late Oxford Street Grill in Lynn, you're in for a treat.
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If you are in Salem NH, you may be in luck because its a closer drive to Nashua NH where the Euro Deli on Amherst Street reigns. I buy weekly cold cuts and have started to buy my Bockwurst from them. But as others say ... not a hotbed of German food around here. I like Jacob Wirths because their chef was very accommodating last time I was there and grilled up a handful of different sausages which I had enjoyed on their "fixed platters" - and charged me a nice priice for them - while doing a better job the second time around. In New England, you soon get used to restaurants who say "..no ....we don't do that" to simple requests, that I am very appreciative of those who place customer satisfaction over rigid rules.
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This is by no means a German restaurant but the Sunset Grill and Tap in Allston has a crazy Oktoberfest going on. They have a sample platter with bratwurst, knockwurst, weisswurst, metwurst, cheddarwurst, all steamed in beer and then grilled and served with a hot cabbage and apple slaw, German potato salad with egg and a great beer mustard sauce for dipping. They also have the largest selection of oktoberfest beers in the city. They are at 130 Brighton Ave in Allston. They also have pumpkin beer ice cream. Give them a try.
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Do people really think Jacob Wirth's is that bad? I've been there recently and thought the Sauerbraten was really good. However, I hadn't been there in about 4 years after a fairly awful lunch one day with co-workers.
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I do indeed think JW's is very bad foodwise, though it has a cool atmosphere.
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I would rather starve, and it's not too often that I post negatively.
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This time I agree with Pegmeister. The last time my co-workers and I ate there the food was for the most part literally inedible. I'm pretty critical, but a few in our group will eat just about anything and they left most of their meal untouched.
BTW no sense of concern on the part of server or management.
We didn't complain because it was sooo bad and we vowed never to return.
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We just tried the Wirtshaus in Methuen. Not bad at all and good bier, but a narrow selection.
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I'm happy to report a find this past weekend of a quite good German restaurant, although sadly not in the Boston area, or even in Massachusetts, but about 140 miles north in Topsham, ME - A Taste of Europe/Old Munich Restaurant (http://www.oldmunich.us ). I wrote it up on the New England board. Much as I love the Student Prince in Springfield, I think Old Munich may actually offer better and more authentic German cooking, though on a more modest scale.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/448597
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