Well folks, we've come to that point...my #1 TS restaurant from our WDW trip! It's an old favorite from 2 years ago, a place that has now officially become a tradition for us, a dinner we look forward to returning to once again on our next trip!
And coming in at #1 is...
BIERGARTEN!!!
This is absolutely my favorite WDW restaurant I have been to (so far)! Many may disagree with me, but please keep in mind that we have not yet been to a signature restaurant at WDW!
Biergarten is a German buffet at Epcot, in Germany of course!
Now, let me just tell you guys...my grandfather's mother was from Germany. She passed away when my mother was a baby. According to my grandfather, she cooked the best German food! When I was a kid, there was only one restaurant where he would eat German food...it was in Queens, NY. My family had been going there since as far as I can remember (and way before that, I'm sure!), and my husband and I also used to go there a lot. Then, unfortunately, about 6 years ago the original location closed but they were in a different location. The place was nice inside, but did not have that true German feel to it. However, the food was just as good as always. A couple of years back however, it closed down for good.
Once our favorite German restaurant closed down, we couldn't find another one that was as good. There is one about 15 minutes away from us in Brooklyn, and it is very good, but it's just not the same. However, Biergarten is now our favorite German place! I know that sounds silly since we could only go there every 2 years, but it really is that good! Put it this way...my grandfather would have been very impressed by the food here, everything from the sauerbraten to the apple strudel!
Sometimes I think he "sent" this place to us from wherever he is looking down upon us!
OK, enough spiritual talk...onto my review!
We were originally going to go to Biergarten on our last evening of the trip. We figured it would be a wonderful last dinner. However, one afternoon when we were having lunch at MK with the rest of the family, my sister and mom started asking us about Biergarten. They also miss the old German restaurant. They asked me if I thought we could get into there for dinner the following night when we were going to be at Epcot. Originally, we were going to just eat around the world (CS), because we had lunch at Akershus the same day. But, I was able to score an ADR for 10 people the following night for dinner, at our requested time of 5:45pm!!
That was when I switched our last evening for an ADR at Marrakesh.
When you enter Biergarten, you completely feel like you are outside in a German garden! But it is comfortably air-conditioned which is a nice treat in the FL summer heat. I thought they would seat us at 2 different tables, since I was under the impression that all the tables at Biergarten were only for 8 people. However, we had our very own table for 10! That was very nice for all of us, even though we wouldn't mind either way. All of us knew we just NEEDED to have some German beer! All 6 adults ordered the beer flight. I can't remember all the beers in it, but they were all delicious! I think the first one, on the left in the photo, was Beck's. The one next to that was very smooth, and had a little bit of an aftertaste like root beer! The other 2 were heavenly! All adults at the table were VERY happy with their beer flights! Hre's a pic, sorry I had already had some of the first one...just couldn't wait!
Now, onto the buffet!!!!! Wow, endless possibilities here! A HUGE display of salads, including wurst salad (with German sausages, cut up), herring salad (my parents enjoyed that), etc. I had very little from the cold section of the buffet. I had enjoyed the cold buffet earlier in the day at Akershus when we had lunch there, and I was more interested in the hot food. Here's my plate:
Top left: cucumber salad, to die for!! This was the only thing I took from the cold section of the buffet! Next, going clockwise: we have warm German potato salad with bacon bits in it
, 3 different types of German sausages with German mustard
, a few roasted potatoes
, chicken schnitzel covered in hunter's sauce
, and spaetzle
. OK, now for the description!! The warm German potato salad was so amazingly good that I went back up to the buffet to get a very generous second helping! The bacon added a wonderfully smokey flavor, and I was in heaven! I took one bite of each sausage. I wish I could have eaten more of it, but sausage tends to give me heartburn if I eat too much of it. Plus, it fills me up and I wanted more of the other food. But every single one of these sausages were delicious! And the German mustard is wonderful too. Has a nice kick to it, but not too spicy. I still like to be able to taste my food!
The mustard was the perfect complement to the sausage. The roasted potatoes were very good. Perfectly cooked, tender inside, and had a nice flavor, with rosemary. The schnitzel...oh the schnitzel. Now, I am used to veal schnitzel, that's always what I have eaten. Occasionally I have had pork schnitzel but the veal is my favorite (sorry to the folks that are against eating veal...I love it!). The chicken was delicious. Basically, a breaded and fried chicken cutlet. The hunter's sauce is like a mushroom gravy. At the buffet, you put it on yourself. So, the schnitzel was very crisp since it was not covered in sauce until you put it on yourself! The hunter's sauce was some of the best I ever had! So yummy and delicious!!! And the spaetzle was delicious too!! Spaetzle is sort of like pasta, I guess that's the best way to describe it.
I went back up to the buffet for more warm German potato salad, and I also went over to the carving station to get some German meat loaf. This was delicious too! The CM working the carving station said it would taste like a big hot dog, and it did...but a very high-quality and delicious hot dog! I also had that with German mustard but forgot to take a pic, sorry. Another thing we all enjoyed were the pretzel rolls on the buffet. These were so delicious, I could make a meal out of just those and the warm potato salad!
Another thing I enjoyed with my second plate was sauerbraten. Now this dish was my grandfather's all-time favorite German food!! It was what he ordered every time we went to the German restaurant growing up. For those not familiar with it, sauerbraten is like a pot roast, but with a sort of sweet 'n' sour sauce, kind of...hard to describe completely without trying it. Traditionally, it is served with red cabbage (also sweet 'n' sour), so I took some of that as well. This was so delicious!!!! My grandfather would have enjoyed this, as it was just as delicious as the one he used to get. I didn't get a pic of mine, but DH also got some sauerbraten (minus the red cabbage...he won't touch cooked cabbage). So, here's a pic of it on his plate along with a pretzel roll:
Then it was onto dessert. I didn't get a photo because I had to eat my dessert quickly (you'll find out why in just a moment). But, I tried a little of everything...well, a LOT!!!
The best dessert here by far was the bavarian cheesecake. It's not like a traditional NY style cheesecake, and it's not made with ricotta like an Italian cheesecake either. It's a very soft cheese (softer than cream cheese), with thin layers of sponge cake and powdered sugar on top. It was so decadently good, yet so simple at the same time. My mom was very impressed and so was I. There was also vanilla pudding with mini chocolate chips in it, so I had to have some of that. I took a couple of bites because I wanted to enjoy the other dessert. Then there was the apple strudel...oh the strudel!
This was so perfect. Buttery, but not overly buttery, delicious pastry on the outside, juicy sweet apples on the inside. And vanilla sauce on the side so you can put on as much as you like. Heavenly!! Definitely the best strudel I have ever eaten...even better than the one at our old family favorite in Queens! I went up for a second helping of both the apple strudel AND the bavarian cheesecake because they were so so good!
To top off the experience at Biergarten, they have some wonderful entertainment. They have a band play some really great German music. There is pretty big a dance floor in front of the stage, and DS5 and his 6-year-old cousin decided they wanted to go up there and dance to the music! This is why I forgot to take a pic of my dessert...I was keeping an eye on them and taking turns with DH, my sister and my dad watching them. They had so much fun and loved this place. They asked to go back and of course we have no problem with that!!
Throughout this entire meal, DS3 was sleeping. He fell asleep just before we arrived at Biergarten, even though he took a nap late morning when we were in Future World. The CMs were so kind that they allowed us to bring the stroller right to the table so he could continue sleeping. I know they don't allow strollers in the restaurants, so I thought this was extra nice. He was still sleeping when we were about to leave. Our server told us that although we can't take any food to go technically, that since they had to charge for him because he is 3 and was present in the restaurant, she could give us a large to-go cup (like they give you for coffee) and we could take some food for him in that. We didn't expect them NOT to charge for him, but I didn't want to ask for anything to go because I knew you couldn't do that at a buffet. It was so nice of the server to do this for us. We took some mac 'n' cheese from the buffet for him, and she also said to bring his juice with us because it is already in a paper cup anyway. She just asked us not to tell anyone we were bringing food out of the restaurant, and to do this very discreetly because it is technically not allowed. So we did just that. Then I grabbed a plastic fork from the CS outside. DS3 woke up about 10 minutes after we left the restaurant! He enjoyed some of his mac 'n' cheese and I was glad he got to eat dinner!
No doubt, Biergarten is our favorite Disney restaurant! As DH says, where else could you have meat for dinner, with a side of meat?!
It's truly a carnivore's paradise, and they have simpler things on the menu like the breaded chicken schnitzel, mac 'n' cheese and the pretzel rolls. They also have hot dogs in the kids' section. If we lived locally, we would probably go there at least twice a month! All the kids and adults LOVED this place and agreed they had the best food of the trip in there! And, the staff went above and beyond the call of duty, from allowing my son to peacefully sleep in his stroller during dinner, to allowing us a cup of mac 'n' cheese so he could still eat dinner after he woke up.
If you haven't given Biergarten a try, I HIGHLY recommend it to ANYONE!! Even if you are not into German food, there are familiar more plain things as I said above, and you can't beat the entertainment and the atmosphere!! A definite Disney gem!