Restaurant Review: Kaiserhof Restaurant & Biergarten in Ocean Beach

Restaurant Review

Kaiserhof Restaurant & Biergarten
2253 Sunset Cliffs Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92107
619-224-0606

It’s been almost 30 years since I have had a meal at Kaiserhof. The last time I did they were still located in the Mission Valley/State College area.

I remember going with my husband Bob, and not being allowed in because he was not wearing a jacket.  (Times have certainly changed!)  They had jackets available for him to wear and it was very comical, because he had long arms – wore a long jacket – and all they had available for him was a regular.  Reminded me a little of “Popeye”!

When my friend Barbara suggested that we go to lunch at Kaiserhof I jumped at the chance.  My background has German/Hungarian heritage and I thought it would be nice to see how authentic Bavarian food would taste compared to what I make in the kitchen.

Although there is a parking lot in the back of the building, there were no available parking spaces available and we parked in the Chris Liquor lot.  I don’t think that is acceptable, and I did notice that parking is available at the oil change lot after 5:00pm.  The inside of the building did not look as busy as the parking lot indicated, and we wondered if the employees were parking in the lot.  (Not a wise thing if this is the case.)

Beef Goulash

The inside of the building reminded me of “Thee Bungalow” – when that restaurant was in its heyday.  The paintings on the wall are beautiful and beautifully framed.  There are two dining rooms, a bar, and, of course, the “biergarten”.  Several tables were occupied in each of the dining rooms, but I did not see anyone in the outside patio.

The menu is very extensive, and, there was also a Lunch Special menu that was intriguing because it was a “Martini $2.95 Friday lunch.” The specials were served with soup of the day, which happened to be lentil, or salad and choice of one side dish.

Paprika Schnitzel

There were six entrees; stuffed peppers ($16.50); Baked Meatloaf ($14.95); Lamb Shank ($18.25); Leberkase – which is a sausage loaf, onions and au jus, for $15.95; Seared Bigeye Tuna ($18.95) and Halibut ($19.95).  German pretzels were listed – Regular $3.75 and Giant $8.75.  For an additional $2.95 Beer-cheese sauce made with Spaten Optimator was available.

It appeared that this menu was a special only for the Friday we were there, and I wonder if every Friday has luncheon specials.  They are closed on Monday, and only open for lunch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They close at 3:00pm and open again at 5:00.

Their regular menu is very extensive.  The lunch menu appears to be the same as the dinner menu, but the prices are more expensive at dinner time.

There is a very extensive wine list – I was disappointed to find that they did not have a “May Wine” – (a white wine flavored with Woodruff, that only grows in the Black Forest in the month of May) – but did have Liebfraumilch, one of my favorite German wines.

cucumber salad

There are hot and cold appetizers; cold entrees; veal, pork, chicken, seafood, steaks, sausages, and beef to choose from.  There are many side dishes to choose from – apple sauce, bread dumpling, creamed spinach, spatzle, red cabbage, Potato pancakes, etc.  Almost all of the entrees come with your choice of a side dish.  The deserts are two “in-house” made – Apple Strudel and Crème Brulee.  The pastries are purchased at a bakery.

As expected, there are many different varieties of beer from draft to bottles, to imported.  The liquor list was very extensive, even listing “bitters” from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc.

The items are not inexpensive; what one would expect to pay at a nice, atmospheric restaurant.  It was obvious that they were many regulars eating lunch there because of the repartee between the servers and the customers. (Note:  There were at least two male servers and one female server that we saw.)

Potato pancake

Barbara and I did not order from the lunch special, although the idea of a $2.95 martini was appealing, I was driving and do not drink and drive. I also felt that since this was a German restaurant, I wanted to have German food, and with the exception of the “Leberkase”, all of the other items were American.  We ordered off the dinner menu, not realizing that there was a lunch menu also.  When the server – Scott – asked Barbara if she wanted her order off of the lunch menu we were surprised, and it wasn’t until we got the bill did we realize that there was a difference in price – $17.50 for lunch; $24.95 for dinner.

Barbara ordered the Beef Goulash Kaiserhof.  This was cubes of beef round braised with paprika.  I ordered the Paprika Schnitzel, which consisted of pork cutlets in paprika-sour cream sauce.  We both opted for the cucumber salad – we could have had lentil soup or a regular green salad – and she had potato pancakes and I ordered creamed spinach as our sides.

Cream spinach

To say that we were both very disappointed in our meals would be putting it mildly.  Barbara’s goulash was so salty that neither one of us could eat it.  If our waiter would have come back and asked us how everything was, we would have requested it to be taken back, but he was very busy and never came to check on us.  He seemed to enjoy talking to the “regulars”, but it was difficult to even engage him in any kind of conversation.

My pork, although very thin, was tough to chew.  The flavor was a puzzlement to me, because I make a paprikash but I could not place what the flavors were in the sauce.  Neither of us finished even a half of our meal.

The potato pancake was very good; might order that again if we ever go again, and the creamed spinach was good. The cucumber salad was good, but nothing different that other cucumber salads.

(I do want it on record that this was the third time Barbara has been to this restaurant in the past six months.  She was satisfied with the previous meals; and was satisfied with the service.  Our waiter just seemed to have too much to do  – he had sweat dripping down the side of his face – and this was not very conducive to presenting a clean environment.  And yes, the air conditioning was on and the inside was quite pleasant.)

Apple Strudel. All photos by Judi Curry

We decided to split an Apple Strudel, and we were told it was baked there.  We declined whipped cream or ice cream, and it was very good. Hot, nice crust, and just a hint of raisins.  We would order it again, too.

Our total bill, without a tip was $49.46.  I had an ice tea, which was refilled continually.  Barbara only had water.

I have lamented the fact that there are  not really many “nice restaurants” to take out-of-town guests for dinner in Ocean Beach.  Many of them are too noisy; do not have the ambiance wanted in welcoming people to San Diego.  I was hopeful that Kaiserhof would give me one more establishment to choose from.  But alas, based on this meal that will not be the case.  Will I try it again?  Maybe.  But $49 for a meal that could not be eaten and for service that was almost non-existent – the tea was refilled by a young woman that seated us – is not a “draw” feature for me.  Too bad; I was hoping for better things.