Time: 9/10/09 7'ish
Place - Heidelberg 85th street and 2nd ave.
I first heard of this restaurant from a few coworkers of mine. We were sitting in our usual bar when I overheard one of my coworkers say "...you would believe the size of this thing. We ordered the platter of sausages and ***** and I were like OH MY GOD we're so blown away, there's so much MEAT. There was no way we could finish it all."
When I hear things like "SO MUCH MEAT," my interest becomes immediately piqued. I asked my coworker what restaurant he was referring to and filed it away in my iphone "restaurant" directory for future use.
I finally got around to going this week with my mother, because the prices were kind of steep, who better than to have mommy pay for the meal? My first impression walking into the place was "German bar," which if you think about it, makes a lot of sense. It's a German beer/sausage place, and it lives up to its name, but maybe it tries too hard, its dark inside, there's old dingy furniture and there is a latticework above our heads with fake clusters of grapes hanging randomly throughout, biergarten wannabe. I ask for a table for three and the hostess says "let me take you to a quiet place," an alcove a few feet from the bar with furniture you'd expect to see at grandma's or in an old beachside summer home that maybe has seen its last days come and go. There's a small Tiffany-esque lamp that splutters fitfully besides us before finally going out. Next to us there's a 40 something man polishing off his beer and waving his AMEX around futiley looking for a bill.
Now i'm not one for flash and glitz, in fact, my usual rule of thumb is, the dingier and cheap looking the place, the better the food (more on that in a later post), both in quantity and quality. There's nothing like getting an order of fries in which the cook hasn't bothered to change the oil and sometime in its sordid history, said oil was used to fry a whole chicken, pig, cow, and sheep in that order (mmm....barnyard fries...).
Having done a little perusing of the menu online before walking in, my brother and I are pretty sure we know what we want. Its the sausage platter, and its for two. It comes with Weisswurst, Bratwurst, and Bauernwurst, along with pig's knuckle and potato pancakes. My brother has a thing for Bratwurst, and isn't so certain about the rest of the platter. I tell him "come in, its white sausage, and Jack Bauer Sausage, its gotta be good." He relents with some difficulty and we also order Suelze, which is something like headcheese in vinegar with a side of salad. I've never had headcheese, but i've heard nothing about it that I couldn't possibly like, and I love a good exotic/weird meat/meat product.
Our headcheese arrives a few minutes after our waiter, who appears to be wearing a gigantic ornate green leather saddle over his crotch, takes our order. Its wonderful. I will forever be getting headcheese wherever I go from now on. A lot of restaurants that "pickle" or marinate their meats in vinegar tend to overdo it, or maybe that's just the Argentine style, where the shrivled slices of beef tongue must also shrivel your tongue to an equal or greater degree in order to be considered a culinary success. Heidelberg managed to do it right, it paired well with the salad, which was remarkably fresh, and topped with a few raw onions, made a tasty appetizer. The headcheese reminded me of a Shanghainese dish, jellied ham, only more concentrated. A medley of assorted meat tidbits suspeneded in an equally flavorful meat flavored jelly, brushed down with a bit of vinegar. Delicious.
Our sausage platter however, takes a great deal longer to arrive. While my mother and brother sit around the table awkwardly making conversation, it occured to me, that perhaps this interlude would have been better accompanied by beer, which shame to say, I could not partake of. Maybe I had missed the whole point of this restaurant? But no, a good bar/restaurant must stand up on both its legs, both in alchoholic beverages and the quality of its fare. This service, she is abominable.
When our meal arrives, I am greatly dissapointed. The platter is served on a metal plate, there are exactly 5 sausages on it, a heap of sauerkraut, and a giant pig knuckle. It does not seem enough for us. Where were the huge piles of sausages my coworker expounded upon? On the side, the waiter also drops off some German potato salad, red cabbage salad, and two potato pancakes. One of the reasons my brother and I chose this place was for the rumored sausages, we should have ordered the platter for 3, but the pig knuckle in the platter for 2 appealed more to us than the bacon in the platter for 3. So here's my take on what was had.
Weisswurst: utterly boring. tastes like it was steamed.
Bauerwurst: meh. it was ok, but it didn't really do anything for me.
Bratwurst: pan fried, it was juicy, crisp, and bursting with an almost intangible herby flavor. my brother and I ordered 2 more.
Pig knuckle: delicious, cooked to tenderness, each bite is flavorful, soft and smooth. Its grey appearance indicate nothing special happened with it, and while it may look unappetizing not drenched in some snooty sauce, those who appreciate the true taste of meat lightly flavored are definitely in for a treat here.
Sauerkraut: tasted exactly as it should.
red cabbage salad: really really too sweet.
German potato salad: consisting of potatos, onions, vinegar and assorted spices, this salad was both delicious, and surprisingly refreshing. I would definitely have that again. Its cool tartness helped perk up the senses and really got my salivary glands going. Bravo Heidelberg.
Potato Pancakes: tasted like fried batter. boo you.
at the end of the meal, i found myself replicating the lone 40 year old man, desperately waving my credit card around looking for a bill until i flagged down a hostess to grab a bus boy to find our waiter to find our bill.
final verdict? while the food has its moments, i stay, stick with the beer.
- Z
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