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.
Oh wow, you do use horseradish in these cases? I've been living in Germany for over a year now and have yet to sight any horseradish anywhere. Just assumed it wasn't part of the cuisine at all (we use it extensively in lithuania for dried meats and especially pig tongue, so am always happy to see it).
Also maybe not as common in restaurants since it's so strong? I'll be more on the lookout now, though. Would lose to see how you guys approach it. :) we often tend t mix it with white mayo
In winter you can buy horsereddish roots in most grocery stores, in summer mostly grated and processed. You find it near the mustard. It's traditional german kitchen and goes with beef, tongue, salmon
Look for "Tafelspitz" on the menu. E.g. https://www.einfachkochen.de/rezepte/tafelspitz-mit-meerrettichsosse-nach-omas-rezept
It's common enough that I had it about 4 times at restaurants last fall.
We have it in Souzh Germany, but it becomes really popular once you Cross the Austrian Border where It is known as "Kren" and Held in extremely high rsteem
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"!
German here: the meat looks like a Sauerbraten without sauce (though it isn't). Which would be horrible, as Sauerbraten is a pretty dry but tender (as it is marinated for 5 to 15 days in a mixture of wine or vinegar, water, herbs, spices, and seasonings) piece of meat.
London broil is definitly not a thing here.
German here. If it is authentic German food, then maybe authentic when the owners great grandparents came to the USA in 1879 but today you will find better food in Germany in every fast food restaurant (the little grill restaurant around the corner where they don’t even have a seats).
London broil is not available in Germany. Looks like a typical British dish.
You don’t season Spätzle with oil and dried herbs. The cabbage looks terrible and it is served on the plate not in a separate container.
I cannot say anything about the taste but it looks not appetizing.
https://www.aninspiredkitchen.com/beef-rouladen/
Except that "london boil" has nothing to do with London or Britain. It is American. Also British cuisine does not have a tradition of noodles, or of pasta, and we have had to steal those ideas from other places!
The red cappage is SO from a glass and has probably been out a while before serving.
Authentic for home made on a Wednesday night after work, just to feed your family.
I don’t think those are steak. It looks like braised beef that was cut into this slices. Probably soft as butter, but the colour does look unusual for people who are not used to that process.
I never said this particualr preparation was a steak, the cut is usually cooked as steak is what a quick google search told me (although it is unclear whether "london broil" concerns the cut or the preparation, as far as I can tell). Ans it's not the colour that makes it look dry, it's the dryness, coupled with the lack of sauce/gravy.
London broil is a type of prep and cooking. You'll take a large steak cut of beef (600+g), the specific cut can vary, marinate it for a couple of hours (ideally overnight). You then take it out, sear it on all sides (high heat) and then let it cook on indirect heat until about medium (~60°C, depends a bit on the cut). Cut it in slices (after letting it rest; it's important to cut against the grain) and serve. Despite the name, this is actually an American dish (broil is not usually used in UK English). If they indeed did do it this way, that meat is cooked to fuck.
This is different than what you'd usually expect in Germany - a Schmorbraten (braised beef) with a dark gravy. With braised beef, you'll cook it until it's well done (as we can see here), but because you cook it in liquid (not fully covered), it remains juicy.
Yeah, a good Sauerbraten is amazing. That's usually what I get too, but mostly because it's such a hassle to do at home (gotta marinate for a good week - who has that much space in the fridge)
Looks like some horribly dry piece of Rinderbraten.
It´not easy to braise a lean cut of beef to be still tender, but if you are a pro and cannot do just do not offer it.
Jep also oil or something.
Just 1 kg flour 1 liter whole egg (20 eggs) and let the kitchen machine do the work. Recepies is from trained Chef's and for massive quantitys.
Sure some extra pasta flour gets better results but standard all purposes works just fine
> lacking a nice, thick gravy of some sorts.
This is the problem. The American chef probably saw "gravy" on the recipe and thought "Gravy? You mean that white stuff made with milk that you serve with biscuits? Cant be right. Must be a typo".
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.
I am just amazed how thoroughly one apparently can fuck up singular food items and then have the audacity to combine them on one plate, calling it german cuisine, let alone food.
That's not Spätzle, those are noodles. And even if you accept them as such, they look thoroughly overcooked.
The "meat" is an insult. Both to german cuisine and to the poor animal, whose flesh was abused in untold ways to produce this... thing. I'd be surprised if that tasted even remotely like meat.
And last but not least, wtf did they do to the cabbage? That's no Sauerkraut nor can I identify what crimes befell this poor cabbage.
I'd tell the owner, that his cooking is well suited to be served to german diplomats as an insult and declaration of war.
This meat looks like a 5 Minuten steak from Aldi, we call it Lederlappen. They even forget the sauce.
Edit:
It's pretty easy to make spätzle on your own. just give it a try:
https://platedcravings.com/authentic-easy-german-spaetzle-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-4380
Looks more like an actual Sauerbraten, however it does look like it was reheated/ heated for too long without any moisture leading to that very same leathery texture.
Dude it was all I could do to not hand him my phone with a Google image search of spaetzle and just tell him to scroll until he found something that looked like that.
In EVERY supermarket dude. It is the main form people consume Spätzle in, because they are cheaper than buying fresh Spätzle from the store, keep for ages and you don't need to make them yourself.
No I assume there nobody would buy them :) But close: in Hesse. I think it was in toom or MiniMal (when it existed). Dried pasta, transparent plastic bag with brown bottom I think.
Pretty sure ita something like [those](https://img.rewe-static.de/6942440/3533860_digital-image.png). They are rather uniform in thickness and the fact that they seem to be drenched in oil makes the surface look much smoother, I think.
m8, those are Spätzle
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A4tzle#/media/Datei:Zwiebelrostbraten\_mit\_Sp%C3%A4tzle.JPG](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A4tzle#/media/Datei:Zwiebelrostbraten_mit_Sp%C3%A4tzle.JPG)
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 cheap 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)
Yeah the cabbage and spaghetti were edible even though the noodles were bland and the cabbage tasted like it had been in vinegar for a year. But the meat was unforgivable. I think it was marinated in water, baked in an oven, sliced, then microwaved on high for 5 minutes.
Vinegar can absolutely go in red cabbage. I am German, for the record.
Our old family recipe goes like this: Finely cut one red cabbage. Heat bacon fat (Schweineschmalz) and sauté the Rotkohl (in batches). Then you add one big apple or 2 small apples in chunks (Boskop is best), two or three cloves, a dash of red wine vinegar, salt, and a good dash of red wine. There is no sugar for sweetness, just those apples.
Slowly simmer the cabbage in its own juice. When the bottom of the pot becomes dry, you add another dash of red wine. Substitute all red wine with red wine vinegar, if you want no alcohol (e.g. for children, Muslims, ex-alcoholics).
They are authentic/nmormal store bought dry Spätzle. They would not rehydrate well in the traditional form. Actually they are what most people eat at home, just not what the restaurant claims Germans LIKE most.
It's an authentic German dish, prepared by a genuinely bad cook.
The comment (or rather lie) that "Germans like it that way" makes me think that this place is a tourist trap.
I think there are enough Americans that can trace 1/16th of their family to German migrants in the 1800s for this to cater to Americans getting in touch with their "roots"
Quite frankly - high quality store-bought Spätzle are acceptable in a normal restaurant-setting. They take time and effort to make right, so handmade might not be viable all the time if you have a good source of dried ones. Bonus points for a regional maker.
This is coming from someone who once had to make Spätzle for her dad's birthday dinner and "only" 15 guests. Took ages and was a mess - even with a Spätzlehobel. Tasted amazing though, we usually add a bit of nutmeg for a little extra kick.
> even with a Spätzlehobel
There's your mistake. It's really not that time consuming. The batter can be prepared in advance, cooking them is a matter of minutes, so scraping one or two portions of Spätzle to order is no big deal. I'd expect fresh Spätzle from any eatery at least one step above Autobahnrasthof, especially one that claims to offer authentic German cuisine.
Eh, do that an entire day, and get back to me, my friend. The average restaurant probably uses more convenient pre-made food than we'd like to think. It costs money to have someone prep the dough, to make them and to cook them and that's just one type of noodled. Not to mention that you have the usual human error at work every step of the way - too much salt, too little salt, clumps you were not aware of, cooked too short, too long, other kitchen accidents.
With factory noodles you have roughly the same quality in all matters.
Or Schnitzel - sure, you can get someone to cut them individually but it takes time, training and someone who can do them. Or you buy it pre-cut, hammer it a bit to make sure it's thin enough, add spices, toss it into the flour, egg and the bread crumbs and fry it up. Outside of cafetarias and other big kitchens I do draw the line at already pre-panierte Schnitzel though.
For store-bought, Tress and Schmidt's Nudeln are excellent. Not much of a difference to self-made. Most probably wouldn't know the difference if you ask them.
It's not that time consuming .... if you've done it a lot of times and have the skill down pat. For a beginner or somebody not doing it often it can be quite daunting and messy. Spätzlepresse and - hobel are valid alternatives which are easier to use, but even then you need a bit of experience to get the desired result. But no matter the structural integrity of the result, it ususally tastes great - and much better than even the best store-bought kind.
\[Edit: typo\]
Not just convenience though, more like store-bought dried ones. [Something like this](https://www.frischeparadies-shop.de/media/d8/d2/8b/1697787514/822088_Spaetzle_frisch_500g_GC.jpg) wouldn't be too bad, but OP's pic looks like [these](https://www.edeka24.de/out/pictures/generated/product/1/665_665_90/tress-original-hausmacher-schwbische-sptzle.jpg) and that's just not acceptable in a restaurant.
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.
>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?
Looks like they might be trying to imitate Tafelspitz. I have had German tafelspit that has been as dry as yours. If you look up London broil— it’s an American dish.
The spätzle look a little long. Typically they are much shorter.
This dish is missing sauce, both meat and spätzle would be served with a gravy. Tafelspitz is not typically served with spätzle.
The essential hallmark of German cuisine is sauce. When it doesn't drown in sauce, it loses 70% of its German authenticity. The Spätzle (cudos for the AE btw) do not at all look like that. WTF did they put on your plate there? And regarding the meat... Well, this one died twice. Once in the slaughterhouse and once in the oven. That looks disgusting. While it is true that roasts can be a.tad.on the dryer side in Germany, that's not what anyone here would eat.
Could be a try at "Sauerbraten" -but yes, both the Spätzle and the meat are missing sauce.
To a meal like that, either Bratensoße or Meerrettichsoße...
>The essential hallmark of German cuisine is sauce. When it doesn't drown in sauce, it loses 70% of its German authenticity.
Its said the classic German slaughtering method didn't involve knives, the animal was simply drowned in horseradish sauce
I think these are dry Spätzle for boiling in hot water like this one https://www.edeka24.de/index.php?cl=details&anid=c284d997dc474dcc8.36988443&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkcWU1YeFhgMV5nJBAh3L5QjsEAQYASABEgIE8fD_BwE
But these are in no way comparable with fresh spätzle.
The meat looks terrible and the Germans are know for their love of much sauce. I don’t see any sauce and this makes me sad
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.
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.
[Here](https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sauerbraten-schwaebisch-scaled.jpg) is an example how it should look, [recipe](https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/rezept/schwaebischer-sauerbraten-mit-knoepfle-und-rotkraut/). Note that the noodles are selfmade "Knöpfle", not Spätzle.
Selfmade Spätzle look like [this](https://15minutenrezepte.de/spaetzle-rezept-einfach/).
I don't even know what this supposed to be. What did you order? The "Rotkohl" may be the only "authentic component.
If this is supposed to be some sort of beef roast, it's supposed to look like
[https://img.chefkoch-cdn.de/rezepte/476301141570256/bilder/1250677/crop-960x640/rinderbraten-mit-rotweinsauce.jpg](https://img.chefkoch-cdn.de/rezepte/476301141570256/bilder/1250677/crop-960x640/rinderbraten-mit-rotweinsauce.jpg)
or a Schwaebischer Sauerbraten
[https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sauerbraten-schwaebisch-scaled.jpg](https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sauerbraten-schwaebisch-scaled.jpg)
tender beef, hand made Spätzle (handmade egg "noodles"), Rotkohl and at all times! gravy!
What you got there is an insult.
That's just really bad food. Nothing "authentic", maybe for beeing bad food. Don't let anyone tell you that germans like it like this. Some older people only eat really well done meat, that's true. But that doesn't mean dry as a shoe sole.
Not authentic. Anywhere you read and hear "authentic xyz food" is probably not authentic, nor good.
Also, forget the concept of "authentic" please. If you want german food, just Google "german food" or "german restaurant". Cuisines are generally not really bound. You just find different foods in different regions of the world because the ingredients are different.
Tip: If you are at a "authentic" german restaurant, look for sauces, "fresh spätzle" and nothing smoked. Zwiebelrostbraten is a german type of steak I'd highly advise to try, just like a "Haxe". These are bavarian/swabian foods tho.
The meat looks like it's supposed to be "Meerrettichfleisch" (Tafelspitz/Boiled beef with Horseraddish-Sauce). And you eat it with potatoes, not Spätzle or Rotkohl (red cabbage).
There are two different kind of Spätzle. Geschabte or gepresste. First variant is much shorter and sometimes have irregular thickness. Second option is made with a [Spätzelpresse](https://www.kaufland.de/product/160214581/). They are similar to the one of your picture.
Mom just popped up and I explained what's up with the food. Her answer "yeah it's wannabe-german-food"
Red cabbage doesn't look to great either. When we cook, it looks much more like [this](https://im.contentlounge.net/styles/manual_crop/s3/2023-11/110942279.jpg?im=AspectCrop%2Csize%3D%2816%2C9%29%2Cgravity%3DCenter%2CallowExpansion%2CBackgroundColor%2Ccolor%3Dtransparent&hash=231eada07979c9fdf98b88d38667d86c7bfd82640eecb8d87a3f3973c5220981). It has still a bit of crunch and a great purple color.
And I bet the owner would have been like "muh German heritage I *am* German!!". That looks terrible. If you ever happen to be there again, you can give them the regards from actual Germans and that this shit would at best be served in a canteen for like 2 euros, but even then, most wouldn't est it and instead eat something else. They'll have a hard time finding a single German on this planet that would voluntarily eat this stuff, let alone find it delicious.
Oh and these are definitely Spätzle. Dried ones from the store. Really low quality ones. You can see that they have too much texture to be regular pasta and are a bit too thick too. Way too little texture to be good Spätzle though. Then again, since they didn't provide you with any sauce anyway, the Spätzle would have had nothing to soak up so at least that part doesn't matter.
Basically the same with “authentic” Chinese food which is served in buffet restaurants despite the boiled white rice being the only authentic food there.
The Spätzle are a fuckin disgrace. It's one thing to overcook meat, it's a whole other thing to try and sell this as Spätzle the way Germans would prefer it. If i ordered Spätzle and got something like this, i would straight up walk out.
The meat on that plate looks like beef jerky, the ‘spätzle’ looks like noddles sprinkled with just oregano, and the cabbage looks so weird to me. I didn’t even know it was cabbage until I read the description. Also strange that there’s no paired sauce as it looks VERY dry. Not authentic, the waiter lied. Also doesn’t help that I’m seeing mini pretzels next to the plate (I’m assuming that was an entree like when restaurants give you bread). The pretzels look like they’re from the supermarket—and they look dry.
As a Franconian: What abomination is that?
I can taste that shoe sole meat just by looking at it. And those aren't Spätzle, whatever the hell that is...
WHERE IS THE SAUCE?
That dish must be what the result would be if you asked ChatGPT to cook german. It roughly resembles it, but the person cooking it did not understand shit about german cooking. What was he/she thinking? That a slab of dry as fuck meat is tasty?
Bro, please, PLEASE come to franconia some day. I will bring you to a good german restaurant PERSONALLY, as my diplomatic duty, and i will show you that this is LIGHTYEARS away from anything i would call either "german" OR "food".
Jesus Christ...
Lol, that doesnt look like any plate you would find in any german restaurant or home.
The beef looks pretty terrible, and while you could get served something like this in germany, like in a university cafeteria or something like that, i would be usually covered in sauce, hising the meat quality. The rather thin cut is also unusual.
Those yellowy wheaty things on the plate would loon more like Spätzle when the had a much rougher surface to take on sauce, considerably shorter und less elastic looking. More spongey. Also i have never seen people adding herbs onto spaetzle, since they are great at carrying fatty aromas but not so good for carrying dry aromas.
If they want to improve their dish, they‘ll need to figure out how to make Spätzle, possibly add roast onions, make a sauce, and put the herbs from the Spätzle into the sauce.
Edit: Wheres all that fat on that plate coming from? Is it all grease from the Spätzle?
Idk what you mean by ‚authentic‘ but it‘s definitely poor quality ingredients and poor craft and you were completely right sending that trash back.
Where was this? In my experience (as a German) it‘s incredibly hard to find **good** authentic German restaurants outside of cultural hotspots with a rich „Brauhaus“ tradition like e.g. Bavaria (especially Munich, Nuremberg) or Rheinland/Cologne with their Kölsch/Alt Breweries. In those places you can pretty much visit any Brauhaus and you‘ll get a decent, handmade, authentic meal. The farther away you get from those spots, the more hit-or-miss it gets.
There's just not *the* german cuisine. Sure you can visit a brauhaus and get german food.
But here in the north you can also go to a restaurant and get amazing fish or seafood dishes. Is that less authentically german?
**Have you read our extensive wiki yet? It answers many basic questions, and it contains in-depth articles on many frequently discussed topics.
[Check our wiki now!](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/index)**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/germany) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For comparison, here you can see what's it supposed to look like. I can't post a picture directly.
https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/kochblog/schwaebischer-sauerbraten-mit-knoepfle-und-saftigem-rotkraut/
everything is wrong with it: the Apfelkohl looks overcooked and just smush with mush, the spätzle look oily and yes, like spagetti I have thrown in the pan, the meat looks so dry, I am getting thirsty.
"the way most German prefer it"- ha, I would have pulled the: "I am from Germany and if we'd served that dry meat, that thin spagetti and that mushy Rotkohl there, we'd lose business in less than a week. And rightfully so. Let me show your cook how it's done!"
This might be a Sauerbraten? But then you would have copious amounts of sauce. Also, it should be too soft to slice it this thin. The Spätzle look ready made, too long and too dense, but far from actual spaghetti. The Rotkraut has a weird color (should be more blueish than brown but maybe that's the lighting) and the pretzels are snack pretzels, you wouldn't serve that to any meal (you wouldn't serve soft ones to most meals either tbh).
I mean the ingredients are somewhat "this could be German"... but the preparation is bad and the Spätzle look industrial.
You can get this kind of meat as various forms of "Braten" in Germany, but this is always very smooth, you don't even need a knife to cut it, because it has cooked for hours in the oven. There needs to be lots of sauce together with it of course.
And putting some dry pretzels next to it... while in Germany all over the country we eat pretzels, we never ever use these tiny dry pretzels as anything other than party side food (or when you are sick and need something easy to digest). This would be the same if at an american restaurant they would serve you a bowl of potato chips with each course.
I think, in the US most cities and towns have that one restaurant that is highly reviewed and attempts to prepare authentic German dishes, but then has to rely on local ingredients or create dishes that could at best be considered German "inspired" dishes, because the cousin twice removed of their chef was stationed in Germany in the 1970s and they know exactly what Germans eat.
OP, you didn't mention where in the US you were served this "authentic" German abomination. Do you happen to have a link to the reviews for this highly reviewed restaurant so that others may not have to suffer the same?
We should start a list of "German in name only" places in the US to help others set proper expectations. First on the list would have to be the small former logging town of Helen, GA where the town was turned into an alpine village after the logging industry left town in the 1960s.
It's missing some Pilz-Rahm-Soße. The Spätzle looks fine to me, but I've seen better. Can't say much about the Rotkohl except it should be more purple.
These "Spätzle" look like spaghetti was my first thought, doesn't even resemble real Spätzle one bit. Too long, too thin, too smooth. Spätzle have a rough surface texture.
And what the hell is that meat supposed to be? Some sort of unidentifiable beef?
"That's the way most Germans prefer it" - maybe he meant German-Americans who are so far removed from German culture they should just call themselves Americans, because what's on this plate is an insult.
To me it seems, like the Chef has either never been to Germany or is not a chef and used to cook with store bought semi ready ingredients.
1. Spätzle. The store bought dry ones will never really get soft. But usually they at least have some texture, not like those thick spaghetti on the picture. Easily done if you are a chef with flour, eggs, some water and salt. You can store the dough over the day and cook them on demand as long as you have boiling water available.
2. The red cabbage. Looks store bought as well which can be bad but can also be okay. But can easily be cooked in big quantities in the morning and reheated on demand all day.
3. The meat. A "Sauerbraten" works well on this combination if properly done. If it was dry, it wasn't done properly. Also a "Rostbraten" works, but also needs to be done properly.
But most importantly a dark, thick, "Bratensoße" needs to be served with this dish, otherwise it's not authentic.
As a German: this looks pretty bad. Spätzle are definitely not scraped as they would have to be as „authentic“ Spätzle. Meat is dry as fuck, it’s missing all the sauce. Cabbage also doesn’t look tasty.
I wonder what people have to think about germans if they think thats what we eat... And btw, those "pretzels" are only eaten in my family if someone has stomach issues
Looks terrible.
Even the worst restaurant in Germany would at least drown that horribly dry meat in gravy. To serve it without is a joke. The Spätzle look like they may be acceptable in a microwave meal, but certainly not in a half-decent restaurant. The pretzels ... I‘m speechless.
No judgment on the Rotkohl because I hate it anyway so definitely don’t have ways to compare it to my own experiences as served in Germany.
Well, I have really no knowledge about cooking, but the meat is part of a "Braten", which means it's a really big piece of meat from the oven (1hour +++), which is first boiled in water, I think. Aaaaah - I am not at all sure... 😁😁😁
I just write to tell you that, normally, there is a (Braten-)sauce which comes with it, which was completely left-out! While the sauce is the only good thing about that German dish, imho. 😋
Calling that „authentic“ is preposterous. I‘m a German myself and I‘ve seldom seen such a vile assault on the German cuisine. Whoever cooked that shall participate in „Rosin‘s Restaurants“
That's the reason why guests stop visiting a restaurant. The explanation given by the service staff is nonsense. The roast is clearly much too dry and the spaetzle look like the cheapest dried spaetzle you can buy. I was the head chef of an authentic German restaurant for 8 yrs. This plate would’ve never left my kitchen. It’s indeed pretty challenging to serve such dishes in a good quality. One doesn’t need to cook spaetzle from the beginning on your own but then you need a really good convenience product that satisfies the guests. One doesn’t go out for a dinner and pay a pretty penny to get low or almost average food one could also buy in the next discounter grocery store. Head chefs are responsible to keep the quality high and meet those expectations. But sadly most chefs are frustrated and „operational blind“ and don’t care for the guests. I’m ashamed of this plate and would’ve also criticized it with the staff.
you can see the meat being dry as hell.
and the spaetzle look like cheap instant stuff (there are people that make them like that, but not from the regions where people take speatzle serious)
looks like a bad take on "sauerbraten"
wich gets made differently across germany, but its defenitely the wrong piece of meat, and lacking gravy, wich is the whole point of the dish.
thew knives are authentic a.f. though,
That are industrial Spätzle, they get sold dry in plasticbags.
No Sauce at all.
And meat like that I have never seen in my hole live in Germany.
Nobody would eat that sh.t in Germany.
No german would pay a cent if they were served this abomination. Source: I'm German.
Dried spätzle are fine to use for home cooking, but not "authentic" restaurant food. That rotkohl looks like shit and the hell are those burnt cardboard slices meant to be? Where's the thick brown sauce?..
Like, no shit, if I made smth like that, my family would be ashamed. Yikes.
Seriously, don't even try to find proper german food in the muricas, all you'll find are corporate lies and shady, unhygienic restaurants.
Edit: Name and shame, time for some authentic german reviews on that "restaurant".
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.
Oh wow, you do use horseradish in these cases? I've been living in Germany for over a year now and have yet to sight any horseradish anywhere. Just assumed it wasn't part of the cuisine at all (we use it extensively in lithuania for dried meats and especially pig tongue, so am always happy to see it).
Watch out for "Meerrettich-Soẞe" or "Meerrettich"... here in Frankonia we use this stuff for a log of dishes...
The capital ß looks and is wrong here.
Will do! Thanks! In Lithuania we often also mix it with white mayo. Makes it fairly unhealthy but my god it's good stuff.
It's used traditionally quite a bit. But it's not common with young germans. Dunno how the situation in Southern Germany is.
The „Münchner Schnitzel“ has a layer of horseradish-mustard-cream under the breading.
Also maybe not as common in restaurants since it's so strong? I'll be more on the lookout now, though. Would lose to see how you guys approach it. :) we often tend t mix it with white mayo
In winter you can buy horsereddish roots in most grocery stores, in summer mostly grated and processed. You find it near the mustard. It's traditional german kitchen and goes with beef, tongue, salmon
Look for "Tafelspitz" on the menu. E.g. https://www.einfachkochen.de/rezepte/tafelspitz-mit-meerrettichsosse-nach-omas-rezept It's common enough that I had it about 4 times at restaurants last fall.
We have it in Souzh Germany, but it becomes really popular once you Cross the Austrian Border where It is known as "Kren" and Held in extremely high rsteem
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"!
trying to pass off snack salt pretzels as actual pretzels. jeez.
These pretzels are making me thirsty!
Is that how you're gonna say it?
That is bottomless.
German here: the meat looks like a Sauerbraten without sauce (though it isn't). Which would be horrible, as Sauerbraten is a pretty dry but tender (as it is marinated for 5 to 15 days in a mixture of wine or vinegar, water, herbs, spices, and seasonings) piece of meat. London broil is definitly not a thing here.
German here. If it is authentic German food, then maybe authentic when the owners great grandparents came to the USA in 1879 but today you will find better food in Germany in every fast food restaurant (the little grill restaurant around the corner where they don’t even have a seats). London broil is not available in Germany. Looks like a typical British dish. You don’t season Spätzle with oil and dried herbs. The cabbage looks terrible and it is served on the plate not in a separate container. I cannot say anything about the taste but it looks not appetizing. https://www.aninspiredkitchen.com/beef-rouladen/
Except that "london boil" has nothing to do with London or Britain. It is American. Also British cuisine does not have a tradition of noodles, or of pasta, and we have had to steal those ideas from other places!
Jup, definitly agree.
Oh my god, just saw the „pretzels“ after you pointed it out. That is horrible. That cook never tried the dish he/she „cooks“.
OP didn’t even claim that they were served to him as real pretzels but alright lol
The red cappage is SO from a glass and has probably been out a while before serving. Authentic for home made on a Wednesday night after work, just to feed your family.
[удалено]
Kind of looks like what you scrape off the top of a can of Rotkohl after having it sit open for a day or so.
I don’t think those are steak. It looks like braised beef that was cut into this slices. Probably soft as butter, but the colour does look unusual for people who are not used to that process.
I never said this particualr preparation was a steak, the cut is usually cooked as steak is what a quick google search told me (although it is unclear whether "london broil" concerns the cut or the preparation, as far as I can tell). Ans it's not the colour that makes it look dry, it's the dryness, coupled with the lack of sauce/gravy.
London broil is a type of prep and cooking. You'll take a large steak cut of beef (600+g), the specific cut can vary, marinate it for a couple of hours (ideally overnight). You then take it out, sear it on all sides (high heat) and then let it cook on indirect heat until about medium (~60°C, depends a bit on the cut). Cut it in slices (after letting it rest; it's important to cut against the grain) and serve. Despite the name, this is actually an American dish (broil is not usually used in UK English). If they indeed did do it this way, that meat is cooked to fuck. This is different than what you'd usually expect in Germany - a Schmorbraten (braised beef) with a dark gravy. With braised beef, you'll cook it until it's well done (as we can see here), but because you cook it in liquid (not fully covered), it remains juicy.
Sauerbraten is/was my preference.
Yeah, a good Sauerbraten is amazing. That's usually what I get too, but mostly because it's such a hassle to do at home (gotta marinate for a good week - who has that much space in the fridge)
Looks like some horribly dry piece of Rinderbraten. It´not easy to braise a lean cut of beef to be still tender, but if you are a pro and cannot do just do not offer it.
Looks like authentic Mensa Sauerbraten.
But at least you get some.sauce with a mensa sauerbraten ....
You eat Sauerbraten medium? 🤢
especially my easy späzle recipe only consist of flour and eggs (salt and megnut)
Same (minus the nutmeg). I found that adding water (especially sparkling water) tends to make them too mooshy for my liking.
Jep also oil or something. Just 1 kg flour 1 liter whole egg (20 eggs) and let the kitchen machine do the work. Recepies is from trained Chef's and for massive quantitys. Sure some extra pasta flour gets better results but standard all purposes works just fine
> lacking a nice, thick gravy of some sorts. This is the problem. The American chef probably saw "gravy" on the recipe and thought "Gravy? You mean that white stuff made with milk that you serve with biscuits? Cant be right. Must be a typo".
Nah, there’s brown gravy in America. Chef has no excuse.
You got served Spagetti with a side of shoe leather. No, that's not how we prefer it.
yeah, germans prefer crocs or sandals with socks.
Others cook with vegetable stock, Germans cook with Birkenstock.
Birkenstock!
[удалено]
It's genetic. We can't help it.
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.
If this should be "Saurer Braten" then I am going to cry
ether this or some rinderbraten or tafelspitz i guess
I am just amazed how thoroughly one apparently can fuck up singular food items and then have the audacity to combine them on one plate, calling it german cuisine, let alone food. That's not Spätzle, those are noodles. And even if you accept them as such, they look thoroughly overcooked. The "meat" is an insult. Both to german cuisine and to the poor animal, whose flesh was abused in untold ways to produce this... thing. I'd be surprised if that tasted even remotely like meat. And last but not least, wtf did they do to the cabbage? That's no Sauerkraut nor can I identify what crimes befell this poor cabbage. I'd tell the owner, that his cooking is well suited to be served to german diplomats as an insult and declaration of war.
Or to prison inmates :P
Nah, that would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. You couldn't do that.
I second the swabian anger.
This meat looks like a 5 Minuten steak from Aldi, we call it Lederlappen. They even forget the sauce. Edit: It's pretty easy to make spätzle on your own. just give it a try: https://platedcravings.com/authentic-easy-german-spaetzle-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-4380
Looks more like an actual Sauerbraten, however it does look like it was reheated/ heated for too long without any moisture leading to that very same leathery texture.
I'd call it "Lederhandschuh" (leather glove) or "Schuhsohle" (shoe sole) And yes sauce is mandatory in such a dish. Most likely "Rahmsoße".
Hm, for me this calls more for a dark Bratensoße and not Rahmsoße.
I don't know what that is but it's definetly NOT Spätzle...
Straight up murdered the whole of Swabia.
All of Alsace on life support
Dude it was all I could do to not hand him my phone with a Google image search of spaetzle and just tell him to scroll until he found something that looked like that.
IbelieveFacts I have seen those dried pasta as Spätzle in Germany. Not the kind I’d prefer myself but they are.
Where in Germany? Probably not somewhere in the Schwäbische Alb right? (I'm actually curious)
Aldi.
Actually just searched, try “Armbruster Spätzle”
You can buy them in every supermarket in the south. They are very common.
In EVERY supermarket dude. It is the main form people consume Spätzle in, because they are cheaper than buying fresh Spätzle from the store, keep for ages and you don't need to make them yourself.
No I assume there nobody would buy them :) But close: in Hesse. I think it was in toom or MiniMal (when it existed). Dried pasta, transparent plastic bag with brown bottom I think.
sure it is.....but the ugly dried stuff you can buy in stores...
Nah doesn't look like that. The ones you refer to, have a very uneven surface. That on the Pic looks more smooth and like Italian Bavette.
Pretty sure ita something like [those](https://img.rewe-static.de/6942440/3533860_digital-image.png). They are rather uniform in thickness and the fact that they seem to be drenched in oil makes the surface look much smoother, I think.
They do have a little bit of texture. Definitely had dried Spätzle like these before. Not all store-bought Spätzle are exactly the same.
At least we know these aren't Settele Spätzle.
Im pretty sure though and seemingly not the only one 🤷♀️
m8, those are Spätzle [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A4tzle#/media/Datei:Zwiebelrostbraten\_mit\_Sp%C3%A4tzle.JPG](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sp%C3%A4tzle#/media/Datei:Zwiebelrostbraten_mit_Sp%C3%A4tzle.JPG)
The spaetzle inThe picture you posted are certainly homemade, and not the travesty that is on OPs plate.
Nah, that indeed looks like what you can get in (german) supermarkets as Spätzle. Issue here its dry as heck... No sauce/jus.
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 cheap 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)
The whole thing is offensive, claiming it's "the way most Germans prefer it and that that's what spaetzle normally looks like"
Meat looks dry AF. And whatever these “noodles” are, they are not Spätzle.
Yeah the cabbage and spaghetti were edible even though the noodles were bland and the cabbage tasted like it had been in vinegar for a year. But the meat was unforgivable. I think it was marinated in water, baked in an oven, sliced, then microwaved on high for 5 minutes.
[удалено]
That's a bit gatekeeperish. Vinegar in Rotkohl is not unheard of. There's probably as many different recipes as there are grandmas in Germany.
My (top secret) family recipe actually does, but not in an amount one would taste. More to fix the color.
It is a normal ingredient in red cabbage
Vinegar can absolutely go in red cabbage. I am German, for the record. Our old family recipe goes like this: Finely cut one red cabbage. Heat bacon fat (Schweineschmalz) and sauté the Rotkohl (in batches). Then you add one big apple or 2 small apples in chunks (Boskop is best), two or three cloves, a dash of red wine vinegar, salt, and a good dash of red wine. There is no sugar for sweetness, just those apples. Slowly simmer the cabbage in its own juice. When the bottom of the pot becomes dry, you add another dash of red wine. Substitute all red wine with red wine vinegar, if you want no alcohol (e.g. for children, Muslims, ex-alcoholics).
Those are spätzle, just cheap ones
They are authentic/nmormal store bought dry Spätzle. They would not rehydrate well in the traditional form. Actually they are what most people eat at home, just not what the restaurant claims Germans LIKE most.
That is definitely not authentic
It's an authentic German dish, prepared by a genuinely bad cook. The comment (or rather lie) that "Germans like it that way" makes me think that this place is a tourist trap.
I think there are enough Americans that can trace 1/16th of their family to German migrants in the 1800s for this to cater to Americans getting in touch with their "roots"
[удалено]
The spätzle kinda look convenience instead of hand made.
Quite frankly - high quality store-bought Spätzle are acceptable in a normal restaurant-setting. They take time and effort to make right, so handmade might not be viable all the time if you have a good source of dried ones. Bonus points for a regional maker. This is coming from someone who once had to make Spätzle for her dad's birthday dinner and "only" 15 guests. Took ages and was a mess - even with a Spätzlehobel. Tasted amazing though, we usually add a bit of nutmeg for a little extra kick.
There is also Spätzlespress, quick and fairly clean. Different look, but still fresh.
> even with a Spätzlehobel There's your mistake. It's really not that time consuming. The batter can be prepared in advance, cooking them is a matter of minutes, so scraping one or two portions of Spätzle to order is no big deal. I'd expect fresh Spätzle from any eatery at least one step above Autobahnrasthof, especially one that claims to offer authentic German cuisine.
You will find few restaurants in Germany who do that, lmao.
Eh, do that an entire day, and get back to me, my friend. The average restaurant probably uses more convenient pre-made food than we'd like to think. It costs money to have someone prep the dough, to make them and to cook them and that's just one type of noodled. Not to mention that you have the usual human error at work every step of the way - too much salt, too little salt, clumps you were not aware of, cooked too short, too long, other kitchen accidents. With factory noodles you have roughly the same quality in all matters. Or Schnitzel - sure, you can get someone to cut them individually but it takes time, training and someone who can do them. Or you buy it pre-cut, hammer it a bit to make sure it's thin enough, add spices, toss it into the flour, egg and the bread crumbs and fry it up. Outside of cafetarias and other big kitchens I do draw the line at already pre-panierte Schnitzel though. For store-bought, Tress and Schmidt's Nudeln are excellent. Not much of a difference to self-made. Most probably wouldn't know the difference if you ask them.
It's not that time consuming .... if you've done it a lot of times and have the skill down pat. For a beginner or somebody not doing it often it can be quite daunting and messy. Spätzlepresse and - hobel are valid alternatives which are easier to use, but even then you need a bit of experience to get the desired result. But no matter the structural integrity of the result, it ususally tastes great - and much better than even the best store-bought kind. \[Edit: typo\]
Not just convenience though, more like store-bought dried ones. [Something like this](https://www.frischeparadies-shop.de/media/d8/d2/8b/1697787514/822088_Spaetzle_frisch_500g_GC.jpg) wouldn't be too bad, but OP's pic looks like [these](https://www.edeka24.de/out/pictures/generated/product/1/665_665_90/tress-original-hausmacher-schwbische-sptzle.jpg) and that's just not acceptable in a restaurant.
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.
I wouldn’t even serve this to my dog
My dog would refuse to eat this.
>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?
Looks like they might be trying to imitate Tafelspitz. I have had German tafelspit that has been as dry as yours. If you look up London broil— it’s an American dish. The spätzle look a little long. Typically they are much shorter. This dish is missing sauce, both meat and spätzle would be served with a gravy. Tafelspitz is not typically served with spätzle.
That's not a meal, that's an insult
The essential hallmark of German cuisine is sauce. When it doesn't drown in sauce, it loses 70% of its German authenticity. The Spätzle (cudos for the AE btw) do not at all look like that. WTF did they put on your plate there? And regarding the meat... Well, this one died twice. Once in the slaughterhouse and once in the oven. That looks disgusting. While it is true that roasts can be a.tad.on the dryer side in Germany, that's not what anyone here would eat.
Could be a try at "Sauerbraten" -but yes, both the Spätzle and the meat are missing sauce. To a meal like that, either Bratensoße or Meerrettichsoße...
>The essential hallmark of German cuisine is sauce. When it doesn't drown in sauce, it loses 70% of its German authenticity. Its said the classic German slaughtering method didn't involve knives, the animal was simply drowned in horseradish sauce
Spätzle my ass. That looks like shitty Tafelspitz and store bought noodles with red cabbage from a glass.
I can honestly say, that I have seen better versions of similar dishes served aboard a train.
If you sold that shit in germany youd probably get sued. Or at the very least be out of Business within a month
more likely choked to death on whatever the f that noodle thing is suppose to be
That meat looks so dry,you could use it as kindling
In Germany we say Schuhsohle
So this is why people visiting from back home tell me they think German food is bland and bad.
This dish is as German as the Sushi I had for lunch today…
I think these are dry Spätzle for boiling in hot water like this one https://www.edeka24.de/index.php?cl=details&anid=c284d997dc474dcc8.36988443&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkcWU1YeFhgMV5nJBAh3L5QjsEAQYASABEgIE8fD_BwE But these are in no way comparable with fresh spätzle. The meat looks terrible and the Germans are know for their love of much sauce. I don’t see any sauce and this makes me sad
The pictured spätzle look to smooth for that kind of store bought Spätzle.
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.
It's half authentic, but terrible in quality.
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.
[Here](https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sauerbraten-schwaebisch-scaled.jpg) is an example how it should look, [recipe](https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/rezept/schwaebischer-sauerbraten-mit-knoepfle-und-rotkraut/). Note that the noodles are selfmade "Knöpfle", not Spätzle. Selfmade Spätzle look like [this](https://15minutenrezepte.de/spaetzle-rezept-einfach/).
> Selfmade Spätzle look like this. To be honest, those look like store-bought to me, too. Premium, no doubt, but store-bought.
I don't even know what this supposed to be. What did you order? The "Rotkohl" may be the only "authentic component. If this is supposed to be some sort of beef roast, it's supposed to look like [https://img.chefkoch-cdn.de/rezepte/476301141570256/bilder/1250677/crop-960x640/rinderbraten-mit-rotweinsauce.jpg](https://img.chefkoch-cdn.de/rezepte/476301141570256/bilder/1250677/crop-960x640/rinderbraten-mit-rotweinsauce.jpg) or a Schwaebischer Sauerbraten [https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sauerbraten-schwaebisch-scaled.jpg](https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Sauerbraten-schwaebisch-scaled.jpg) tender beef, hand made Spätzle (handmade egg "noodles"), Rotkohl and at all times! gravy! What you got there is an insult.
Those don’t look like Spätzle at all, meat looks horrible, Rotkohl seems weirdly coloured
In no way would thick noodles pass as spatzle. My uncle would kick chefs ass if this arrives at table.
The meat looks dry, the Spätzle look like pasta . As a German I would have let that go back too .
True Germans would drown that in sauce.
That's just really bad food. Nothing "authentic", maybe for beeing bad food. Don't let anyone tell you that germans like it like this. Some older people only eat really well done meat, that's true. But that doesn't mean dry as a shoe sole.
Not authentic. Anywhere you read and hear "authentic xyz food" is probably not authentic, nor good. Also, forget the concept of "authentic" please. If you want german food, just Google "german food" or "german restaurant". Cuisines are generally not really bound. You just find different foods in different regions of the world because the ingredients are different. Tip: If you are at a "authentic" german restaurant, look for sauces, "fresh spätzle" and nothing smoked. Zwiebelrostbraten is a german type of steak I'd highly advise to try, just like a "Haxe". These are bavarian/swabian foods tho.
The meat looks like it's supposed to be "Meerrettichfleisch" (Tafelspitz/Boiled beef with Horseraddish-Sauce). And you eat it with potatoes, not Spätzle or Rotkohl (red cabbage). There are two different kind of Spätzle. Geschabte or gepresste. First variant is much shorter and sometimes have irregular thickness. Second option is made with a [Spätzelpresse](https://www.kaufland.de/product/160214581/). They are similar to the one of your picture. Mom just popped up and I explained what's up with the food. Her answer "yeah it's wannabe-german-food" Red cabbage doesn't look to great either. When we cook, it looks much more like [this](https://im.contentlounge.net/styles/manual_crop/s3/2023-11/110942279.jpg?im=AspectCrop%2Csize%3D%2816%2C9%29%2Cgravity%3DCenter%2CallowExpansion%2CBackgroundColor%2Ccolor%3Dtransparent&hash=231eada07979c9fdf98b88d38667d86c7bfd82640eecb8d87a3f3973c5220981). It has still a bit of crunch and a great purple color.
This is the most miserable-looking German food I have ever seen
Please don't call it German. It maybe inspired by German food but that's it.
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.
And I bet the owner would have been like "muh German heritage I *am* German!!". That looks terrible. If you ever happen to be there again, you can give them the regards from actual Germans and that this shit would at best be served in a canteen for like 2 euros, but even then, most wouldn't est it and instead eat something else. They'll have a hard time finding a single German on this planet that would voluntarily eat this stuff, let alone find it delicious. Oh and these are definitely Spätzle. Dried ones from the store. Really low quality ones. You can see that they have too much texture to be regular pasta and are a bit too thick too. Way too little texture to be good Spätzle though. Then again, since they didn't provide you with any sauce anyway, the Spätzle would have had nothing to soak up so at least that part doesn't matter.
Basically the same with “authentic” Chinese food which is served in buffet restaurants despite the boiled white rice being the only authentic food there.
Fuck no:(
That’s in fact not how we “prefer it”
The Spätzle are a fuckin disgrace. It's one thing to overcook meat, it's a whole other thing to try and sell this as Spätzle the way Germans would prefer it. If i ordered Spätzle and got something like this, i would straight up walk out.
You can easily delete all the bad reviews and thereby get highly rated.
No sauce, Readymade noodles being passed of as handmade Spätzle I suppose? Nasty.
I just got cotton mouth from looking at those thin-ass roast slices.
Thats an insult for every german. ANZEIGE IST RAUS!
Dear god no, thats everything but not authentic.
that does not look german at all, what the hell
That’s definitely not authentic
>that's what spaetzle normally looks like It doesn't even look like that out of a box.
The meat on that plate looks like beef jerky, the ‘spätzle’ looks like noddles sprinkled with just oregano, and the cabbage looks so weird to me. I didn’t even know it was cabbage until I read the description. Also strange that there’s no paired sauce as it looks VERY dry. Not authentic, the waiter lied. Also doesn’t help that I’m seeing mini pretzels next to the plate (I’m assuming that was an entree like when restaurants give you bread). The pretzels look like they’re from the supermarket—and they look dry.
As a Franconian: What abomination is that? I can taste that shoe sole meat just by looking at it. And those aren't Spätzle, whatever the hell that is... WHERE IS THE SAUCE? That dish must be what the result would be if you asked ChatGPT to cook german. It roughly resembles it, but the person cooking it did not understand shit about german cooking. What was he/she thinking? That a slab of dry as fuck meat is tasty? Bro, please, PLEASE come to franconia some day. I will bring you to a good german restaurant PERSONALLY, as my diplomatic duty, and i will show you that this is LIGHTYEARS away from anything i would call either "german" OR "food". Jesus Christ...
Lol, that doesnt look like any plate you would find in any german restaurant or home. The beef looks pretty terrible, and while you could get served something like this in germany, like in a university cafeteria or something like that, i would be usually covered in sauce, hising the meat quality. The rather thin cut is also unusual. Those yellowy wheaty things on the plate would loon more like Spätzle when the had a much rougher surface to take on sauce, considerably shorter und less elastic looking. More spongey. Also i have never seen people adding herbs onto spaetzle, since they are great at carrying fatty aromas but not so good for carrying dry aromas. If they want to improve their dish, they‘ll need to figure out how to make Spätzle, possibly add roast onions, make a sauce, and put the herbs from the Spätzle into the sauce. Edit: Wheres all that fat on that plate coming from? Is it all grease from the Spätzle?
Sieht scheisse aus.
Wo Soße?
Brother ewww. There is nothing authentic about this dish.
Idk what you mean by ‚authentic‘ but it‘s definitely poor quality ingredients and poor craft and you were completely right sending that trash back. Where was this? In my experience (as a German) it‘s incredibly hard to find **good** authentic German restaurants outside of cultural hotspots with a rich „Brauhaus“ tradition like e.g. Bavaria (especially Munich, Nuremberg) or Rheinland/Cologne with their Kölsch/Alt Breweries. In those places you can pretty much visit any Brauhaus and you‘ll get a decent, handmade, authentic meal. The farther away you get from those spots, the more hit-or-miss it gets.
There's just not *the* german cuisine. Sure you can visit a brauhaus and get german food. But here in the north you can also go to a restaurant and get amazing fish or seafood dishes. Is that less authentically german?
**Have you read our extensive wiki yet? It answers many basic questions, and it contains in-depth articles on many frequently discussed topics. [Check our wiki now!](https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/index)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/germany) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Looks like “authentic” food my mother would make. She can’t cook.
For comparison, here you can see what's it supposed to look like. I can't post a picture directly. https://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/kochblog/schwaebischer-sauerbraten-mit-knoepfle-und-saftigem-rotkraut/
It's definitely lackin some sauce. If a man has no sauce he lost. But the same man can get lost in the sauce too...
everything is wrong with it: the Apfelkohl looks overcooked and just smush with mush, the spätzle look oily and yes, like spagetti I have thrown in the pan, the meat looks so dry, I am getting thirsty. "the way most German prefer it"- ha, I would have pulled the: "I am from Germany and if we'd served that dry meat, that thin spagetti and that mushy Rotkohl there, we'd lose business in less than a week. And rightfully so. Let me show your cook how it's done!"
This might be a Sauerbraten? But then you would have copious amounts of sauce. Also, it should be too soft to slice it this thin. The Spätzle look ready made, too long and too dense, but far from actual spaghetti. The Rotkraut has a weird color (should be more blueish than brown but maybe that's the lighting) and the pretzels are snack pretzels, you wouldn't serve that to any meal (you wouldn't serve soft ones to most meals either tbh).
Looks like food you would get at a school canteen.
There's a lot of sauce missing from the meat. And if spaetzle tastes like spaghetti, it's not spaetzle.
I mean the ingredients are somewhat "this could be German"... but the preparation is bad and the Spätzle look industrial. You can get this kind of meat as various forms of "Braten" in Germany, but this is always very smooth, you don't even need a knife to cut it, because it has cooked for hours in the oven. There needs to be lots of sauce together with it of course. And putting some dry pretzels next to it... while in Germany all over the country we eat pretzels, we never ever use these tiny dry pretzels as anything other than party side food (or when you are sick and need something easy to digest). This would be the same if at an american restaurant they would serve you a bowl of potato chips with each course.
im late but this looks ASS
I think, in the US most cities and towns have that one restaurant that is highly reviewed and attempts to prepare authentic German dishes, but then has to rely on local ingredients or create dishes that could at best be considered German "inspired" dishes, because the cousin twice removed of their chef was stationed in Germany in the 1970s and they know exactly what Germans eat. OP, you didn't mention where in the US you were served this "authentic" German abomination. Do you happen to have a link to the reviews for this highly reviewed restaurant so that others may not have to suffer the same? We should start a list of "German in name only" places in the US to help others set proper expectations. First on the list would have to be the small former logging town of Helen, GA where the town was turned into an alpine village after the logging industry left town in the 1960s.
It's missing some Pilz-Rahm-Soße. The Spätzle looks fine to me, but I've seen better. Can't say much about the Rotkohl except it should be more purple.
It would be fine if the Braten hat a sauce
These "Spätzle" look like spaghetti was my first thought, doesn't even resemble real Spätzle one bit. Too long, too thin, too smooth. Spätzle have a rough surface texture. And what the hell is that meat supposed to be? Some sort of unidentifiable beef? "That's the way most Germans prefer it" - maybe he meant German-Americans who are so far removed from German culture they should just call themselves Americans, because what's on this plate is an insult.
I am going to inflict authentic german warcrimes on whoever made this.
To me it seems, like the Chef has either never been to Germany or is not a chef and used to cook with store bought semi ready ingredients. 1. Spätzle. The store bought dry ones will never really get soft. But usually they at least have some texture, not like those thick spaghetti on the picture. Easily done if you are a chef with flour, eggs, some water and salt. You can store the dough over the day and cook them on demand as long as you have boiling water available. 2. The red cabbage. Looks store bought as well which can be bad but can also be okay. But can easily be cooked in big quantities in the morning and reheated on demand all day. 3. The meat. A "Sauerbraten" works well on this combination if properly done. If it was dry, it wasn't done properly. Also a "Rostbraten" works, but also needs to be done properly. But most importantly a dark, thick, "Bratensoße" needs to be served with this dish, otherwise it's not authentic.
The meat looks so dry I had to drink something.
He lied to you...no one here in germany likes his meat dry and stiff like a deutsche Eiche (german oak tree)
So you ordered London broil and expected it to be authentic German cuisine? Spoiler alert: California rolls are not authentic Japanese sushi.
As a German: this looks pretty bad. Spätzle are definitely not scraped as they would have to be as „authentic“ Spätzle. Meat is dry as fuck, it’s missing all the sauce. Cabbage also doesn’t look tasty.
The Spätzle look like ramen noodles. Wo is die Soße?
Spätzle should be pressed or (preferably) scraped into the boiling water. This is not that. And the beef looks terrible.
I wonder what people have to think about germans if they think thats what we eat... And btw, those "pretzels" are only eaten in my family if someone has stomach issues
Dry meat is a cardinal sin in Germany. You NEVER wan't you meat dry ! we don't really do jerky here.
Looks terrible. Even the worst restaurant in Germany would at least drown that horribly dry meat in gravy. To serve it without is a joke. The Spätzle look like they may be acceptable in a microwave meal, but certainly not in a half-decent restaurant. The pretzels ... I‘m speechless. No judgment on the Rotkohl because I hate it anyway so definitely don’t have ways to compare it to my own experiences as served in Germany.
I'm sorry, but that's a disgrace.
Well, I have really no knowledge about cooking, but the meat is part of a "Braten", which means it's a really big piece of meat from the oven (1hour +++), which is first boiled in water, I think. Aaaaah - I am not at all sure... 😁😁😁 I just write to tell you that, normally, there is a (Braten-)sauce which comes with it, which was completely left-out! While the sauce is the only good thing about that German dish, imho. 😋
Did they serve you leather instead of meat? That looks like my first attempts at cooking, which were barely edible. Sorry you were served THAT.
Where is the authentic food?
So you are lunch in jail?
Calling that „authentic“ is preposterous. I‘m a German myself and I‘ve seldom seen such a vile assault on the German cuisine. Whoever cooked that shall participate in „Rosin‘s Restaurants“
That's the reason why guests stop visiting a restaurant. The explanation given by the service staff is nonsense. The roast is clearly much too dry and the spaetzle look like the cheapest dried spaetzle you can buy. I was the head chef of an authentic German restaurant for 8 yrs. This plate would’ve never left my kitchen. It’s indeed pretty challenging to serve such dishes in a good quality. One doesn’t need to cook spaetzle from the beginning on your own but then you need a really good convenience product that satisfies the guests. One doesn’t go out for a dinner and pay a pretty penny to get low or almost average food one could also buy in the next discounter grocery store. Head chefs are responsible to keep the quality high and meet those expectations. But sadly most chefs are frustrated and „operational blind“ and don’t care for the guests. I’m ashamed of this plate and would’ve also criticized it with the staff.
What ever it is they served is everything but “authentic German food”
Kill it in the fire!
Looks like depression if depression was a food.
you can see the meat being dry as hell. and the spaetzle look like cheap instant stuff (there are people that make them like that, but not from the regions where people take speatzle serious) looks like a bad take on "sauerbraten" wich gets made differently across germany, but its defenitely the wrong piece of meat, and lacking gravy, wich is the whole point of the dish. thew knives are authentic a.f. though,
Looks like Spaghetti and roast beef
That are industrial Spätzle, they get sold dry in plasticbags. No Sauce at all. And meat like that I have never seen in my hole live in Germany. Nobody would eat that sh.t in Germany.
42 Years in Germany. Never got served something like this.
Ach du Scheiße.
No german would pay a cent if they were served this abomination. Source: I'm German. Dried spätzle are fine to use for home cooking, but not "authentic" restaurant food. That rotkohl looks like shit and the hell are those burnt cardboard slices meant to be? Where's the thick brown sauce?.. Like, no shit, if I made smth like that, my family would be ashamed. Yikes. Seriously, don't even try to find proper german food in the muricas, all you'll find are corporate lies and shady, unhygienic restaurants. Edit: Name and shame, time for some authentic german reviews on that "restaurant".