Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with MSDN.
Life is full of many mysteries. What is jumbo shrimp? What are chicken fingers? Why does Octoberfest fall in September? I guess we’ll never know. Even though Nancy makes excellent German food, such as rouladens, spaetzle, and has a dynamite recipe for red cabbage, we still wanted to go to a German restaurant and celebrate Octoberfest in September. We donned our lederhosen, jumped into our German car, and headed off to Schnitzel Platz in Glendale Heights.
Schnitzel Platz Restaurant
729 E. North Avenue
Glendale Heights 60139
(630)942-9900
schnitzelplatz.com
Directions: Take I-90 East to Rte. 53 South to 355, exit North Avenue, turn right (west) to restaurant.
Estimated Travel Time: 45 minutes
We traveled to Germany a number of times and the décor of this restaurant was straight out of a travelogue complete with lace curtains, beer steins, and cuckoo clocks. Even the dinnerware had a beautiful delicate floral pattern on it.
You know you are in the right place for Octoberfest when you are seated across from a husband and wife each drinking German bier from their own giant two-liter glass boot. When they were leaving the woman attempted to stand up and proudly proclaimed she finished the whole thing. You go girl!!! We were amazed when we found out that they offer an extra-large boot filled with three liters of German bier.
Nancy loves thuringer sausage so when she spotted the lunch Thuringer Plate ($18) for two thuringers, she thought she’d give it a try. This meal came with one side and she chose spaetzle. Our celebration took a turn for the “wurst” with the first bite of the thuringer. Nancy bit down on a piece of gristle and this was repeated throughout the sausages.
The spaetzle were different than anything we have ever seen. We have always had spaetzle that is shaped like little dumplings. Their spaetzle however, were chewy tubes that looked like they came right out of a bag and not homemade. They were tasteless and disappointing.
Jim wanted the Onion Schnitzel dinner ($24) which was breaded pork schnitzel smothered in sauteed onions and brown gravy. This came with soup or salad and he chose to upgrade his soup ($1) to the Gulasch Soup. The soup was really delicious. It had just a little heat to it which was unusual, but somehow it worked. The meal came with two sides and he went with the spaetzle and red cabbage. He was also disappointed in the spaetzle and the red cabbage was just average. It was basically cabbage cooked in a lot of vinegar with a little sugar. The two large schnitzel patties were tender but sorely lacking on seasoning. Even the onions and gravy were bland didn’t help it.
To accompany our meals, we decided on (2) Potato Pancakes ($7). These were large deep-fried pancakes that proved to be inedible for us. You could taste the oil it was deep fried in and the vinegar in the pancake was overpowering. Potato pancakes should be pan fried, not deep fried. We each took one bite and left the rest. No doggie bag for these.
Since it was just disappointment after disappointment, we took a pass on dessert, and Jim was okay with that.
FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible.
We reviewed this restaurant over 12 years ago and we liked it then. Sometimes you just can’t go back.
The price for this “Octoberfest Flop” was $77.21, we said what we said and we don’t give a schnitzel…
Jim’s take: I had high hopes for this restaurant and I was never so disappointed.
Nancy’s take: How can a restaurant go from really good 12 years ago, to really bad???
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