I live in the US and have been to a few German and German(ish) restaurants before. I've always loved the rotkohl and spaetzle as accompaniments to a good meat. Tonight I went to a local place that's pretty highly reviewed and purports to serve authentic German food. Saw their spaetzle entree with red cabbage and london broil and was excited to try it. I ate probably 3 bites and sent it back. When the waiter asked if everything was OK, I said it wasn't what I expected; the meat was incredibly dry and the spaetzle was more like lightly flavored spaghetti. He claimed the entire dish was the way most Germans prefer it and that that's what spaetzle normally looks like. Whats the verdict?

by BrickTamland77

31 comments

  1. I don’t know what that is but it’s definetly NOT Spätzle…

  2. Meat looks dry AF. And whatever these “noodles” are, they are not Spätzle.

  3. The spätzle kinda look convenience instead of hand made.

  4. The meat does indeed look incredibly dry (and this is coming from someone who likes his meat done medium-well). Also, I had to google “london broil”, which appears to be a cut usually used for steak… not exactly the most German of meat dishes. The Spätzle are store-bought dried Spätzle. They’ll do in a pinch, but definitely not what I’d expect to be served in an “authentic” restaurant. The cabbage looks very unappealing, too. Also, this dish is definitely lacking a nice, thick gravy of some sorts.

     

    Edit to add: And don’t get me started on those “pretzels”!

  7. Where’s the sauce? That kind of roast meat has to go with lots of sauce. Either with gravy or sometimes you serve cooked beef with a white horsereddish sauce. If you serve it with white sauce then it has to be with potatos.
    And in a restaurant I would expect homemade Spätzle and not this kind of dried pasta from the supermarket. The cabbage could be kind of to sour for an average american taste.

  8. That meat looks so dry,you could use it as kindling

  9. You got served Spagetti with a side of shoe leather. 

    No, that’s not how we prefer it.

  12. Is London broil something like Tafelspitz or Kochfleisch? If so, this looks just dry and unpleasant. When my mom cooks Kochfleisch, it’s tender, and you almost don’t need a knife to cut it. AND it’s served with Remoulade, which is a German tartar sauce.

  13. As a Swabian, I’m offended.

    Where the fuck is the sauce?
    The Spätzle are too long – even most store brands are shorter.

    And the slices are too thin. Again, what kind of Braten is this suppossed to be, because something is definitely missing.

  15. As a German I must say, it became hard to find restaurants where it is worth eating. Unfortunatly most restaurants use convenient food and I often had the thought “well, I cook that better”. As someone who doesn’t make homemade Spätzle, I expect homemade Spätzle in restaurants. But you rarely get them in my area – it’s mostly the ones in your picture.

  17. This is the most miserable-looking German food I have ever seen

  20. As a swabian, these ‘Spätzle’ really offend me. It’s pretty simple to make them yourself (handgeschabt or with spätzleshex). These are store bought (and one of the worse/cheap variants). It’s like serving frozen Pizza at a ‘authentic’ italian restaurant.

    The meat is supposed to be some kind of Braten I guess? Also, no sauce? Looks awful, sorry. Better diy.

    [Recipe in german ](https://www.swr.de/rezepte/sauerbraten-mit-spaetzle-100.html)

  21. It does kinda look like typical German food, but the kind your German single mother cooked hastily while doing ten other chores between her two jobs.

  22. You did good. Many people I know are too self conscious to send bad food back but it’s important

  23. Yeah. It’s actually authentic. For real. Thats authentic German food.

  25. The Spätzle are likely store bought. For home cooking they’re fine but usually you’d expect hand-made Spätzle in a proper restaurant.

    The red cabbage looks a bit strange, but it’s kinda hard to tell from the picture.

    London Broil is an American creation, it’s a cut of beef that is marinated and then seared. It is then cut into thin slices and served. From the pictures I’ve seen it’s supposed to be sorta medium rare inside. Obviously, this is so well done it would merit a standing ovation.

    In conclusion, you got served a poorly executed American meat dish with store bought Spätzle and red cabbage. This isn’t authentic.

  26. So this is why people visiting from back home tell me they think German food is bland and bad.

  28. >the entire dish was the way most Germans prefer it and that that’s what spaetzle normally looks like

    Hell no! As a German I feel deeply offended by this!

    Also what are the American stadion pretzels doing there and where’s the sauce?

  29. I am german but never liked this kind of meat. It’s very often dry. It is called Tafelspitz and usually you eat this with horseradish.

  30. As somebody wrote already, this might have been “Tafelspitz” [www.google.com/search?q=tafelspitz](http://www.google.com/search?q=tafelspitz)

    But it is a very poor implementation. There is sauce missing, there are for example potatoes missing. But at home, my mother cooks Tafelspitz with this noodles, but this ist just at “home”. 🙂 We always have enough sauce then, potatoes or other vegetables, salad and stuff…

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