Fleischkuechle - Seasoned ground beef, wrapped inside a pastry and deep-fried. It is a hearty pocket filled to the brim with a flaky pastry exterior and deep-fried until golden brown.

Schmidt's Sausage Haus & Restaurant is known for two things: sausage and cream puffs.

That may be an odd combo, but at this German restaurant, it's totally the norm.

Man Vs. Food has visited the restaurant - for their very first episode!

So here's the gigantic cream puff. Which really was very good.

And I had to also try the Bahama Mama - which is their famous beef and pork, hickory-smoked sausage spiced with secret seasoning and stuffed in an old world, natural casing. It was awarded Columbus Monthly "10 Best Entrees."

Here's Dawn in awe that I wanted to try both!

The sausage was good, but it was odd to me there wasn't much in the way of sauces to go with it. The mustard at the table was not my preference, so I would've loved another. But it was tasty!


Bahnhof WVrsthaus and Biergarten, located at 747 7th Avenue in Huntington, has brought German-inspired food and beer to the city. The German gastropub opened in April, and has been the talk of the town, so when I made my way to Huntington, it was a must-stop along my tour.
The outside is pretty cool, with a large outdoor space on two levels that is shaded, and the interior features exposed brick, modern light fixtures, and a sort-of industrial feel.
The restaurant is under the same ownership as Black Sheep Burrito & Brews, so I was positive the food was sure to impress. The owners say everything they do is housemade - including grinding their own and casing their own sausages, as well as the sauces and sides.
The menu features various sausages served on kolache - a type of pastry. Sausages like their house brat, Korean beef, Mexican chorizo, currywurst, breakfst, chicken & herb, greek lamb, Moroccan lamb and frankfurter. They also have entrees lie wienerschnitzel, jagaerschnitzel and Appalachian pork schnitzel.
But, the best way to get a little of everything? Definitely the "Sausage Party" - choose from three of the haus-cranked sausages, haus pretzel, deviled eggs, cornichon, bread and butter pickles, pickled onion, charmoula ailoi, mountain mustard and bavarian mustard.
For the sausages, I went with the house brat (pork, beer, caraway), Korean beef (ginger, sesame, tamari), and currywurst (pork, vindaloo, tuermeric).
First of all, I forgot how good a soft pretzel could be. MAN, was this good. The giant flecks of salt and dipped in the Mountain Mustard - just the bomb. The deviled eggs were good, and the sausages were great! You can tell they are homemade. They were flavorful, intriguing and super filling.
It's definitely easy to get full pretty quickly here - but don't forget, they also have more than 30 beers on tap, including lots of local options too.
What a cool addition to the West Virginia food scene. If you're looking to indulge, get your fill and get a good beer while you're at it, look no further.
Grade: A







Grade: A

Milwaukee has a significant German population, which explains the beer and German restaurants in the city. When scoping out new restaurants, there were a few German places that kept coming up, amongst them was Mader's Restaurant.

Unbeknownst to me, on Sunday it's a brunch buffet at Mader's. I don't even think there was an option to order from the menu, which made it awkward when after we were seated, we were waited for a waiter to come over. After just sitting for a while, we realized the buffet was the only option, so we made our way to the buffet area.


They have a ton of stuff, from breakfast: made-to-order omelets, french toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon.

Then, there were the brunch entree items like Bavarian Sauerbraten, Kassler Rippchen, Hungarian Beef Goulash, Bratwurst and Knackwurst and chef's carving station.


Also: pasta, soup, mashed potatoes, red cabbage, smoked salmon, shrimp, cheeses, fruit, vegetables, salad and desserts.


The only thing here I actually really liked was this cheesy mashed potato dish. Everything else was, well, buffet quality. For $24 for a lunch, it's steep, too. So, a decent variety, but nothing mind-blowing.

LAST INDIANA RESTAURANT - The Shnitz. Schnitzelbank, to be exact, which is a German restaurant in Jasper.
As soon as we walked in, there was a little shop full of trinkets and whatnot. We then seated ourselves in the dining room. I heard nothing but good things about the salad bar, so I knew I was ordering that - it's dubbed "best in the midwest," according to their menu. And for my main course, I went with the German Sampler Platter with wiener schnitzel, bratwurst and knackwurst. AND that came with two sides: I got german potatoes and cabbage.
The salad bar was pretty great. Lots of fresh veggies, plus prepared salads. I particularly like a sort of cornbread salad they had. Super good. Plus a broccoli salad and a huge cheese wheel? Love.

My main gripe is that it was just SO expensive. I think I paid around $40 leaving there. Granted, it was a ton of food, but it was still pretty expensive.
Grade: B

All work property of Candace Nelson. Powered by Blogger.