Lederhosen on Grove

[Nathan]

to be clear, here is what Lederhosen is NOT:

1. haute Austrian. it's not Wallse, Danube, Cafe Gray or even Blaue Gans.

2. it's not contemporary upscale German either...(there are a number of Michelin three stars in Germany today)

what Lederhosen is:

1. based upon one visit, probably better than Zum Schneider, Lorelei, Hallo Berlin, Rolf's (though not necessarily as "fun" as some of those places).

2. traditional German food...the kind you can still find both in bars and white table cloth places (Karl Ratzsch's, Mader's, the late John Ernst) in Wisconsin....think rouladen, sauerbrauten, and kassler ripchen.

3. the wurst is good, but not the main draw compared to other NY places...(though the weisswurst is quite good....delicate but juicy...the currywurst needed a bit more oomph)

4. sides are exceptional and copious. very good spaetzle.

5. fish dishes are prepared properly (very traditional....lots of herring and smoked mackerel....served with onions and mustard)....

don't get me wrong, traditional German food is not a great cuisine. it's just not. (once you start going east in Europe the traditional foods start getting poor pretty quickly). but if you want to try it, this is the best I've had in NY by some margin.

BTW, the beer selection is excellent...lots of stuff I haven't been able to find elsewhere in NY....like Spaten Optimator (one of my favorite beers ever)....

prices are EXTREMELY reasonable....including on alcohol.

Edited December 13, 2007 by Nathan (log)

[raji]

Wow they're still going strong? Good to hear that they're still better than all those other places, how about the Astoria beer garden and the new place in williamsburg?

It was first opened by Felix from Hallo Berlin, but he's not part of it anymore - we're buddies so I was there a lot before it ever even opened, which means something to some people....

That said it's a good crew that care about the food quality and have raised standards while the food quality really dropped at hallo berlin

I haven't been in maybe a year or so, but it was first opened it was consistently great and beer cheap to attract customers. Good to hear they kept them down -

I love beer, their standards and open lines are outstanding and they've even took me on a tour of their taproom which is really nice. I'm quite fond of the Homer Simpson state where there are visible bubbles popping around of me

[Nathan]

the beer garden in Astoria servers mediocre Czech food.

[Nathan]

I should say that a simple nice touch for a restaurant at this price point was that the rolls were served warm.

Edited December 13, 2007 by Nathan (log)