Biergarten Lunch or Dinner?

[jacksgirl]

I'm sooo excited about our dinner ADR at Biergarten in November! This is usually one of my son's must-do's, but for some reason (I can't remember exactly why) he chose something else on our last trip. This year, when I asked for must-do's when planning ADR's, Biergarten and Sci-Fi were his short list! Works for me

 

[Mousemommy1]

We always pick lunch because it's cheaper and literally the same exact food choices.

 

[Wanna be Ariel]

This is one of our 'MUST' do's. We always do lunch(because of the savings) but this time we are doing a later dinner. We thought that maybe in the August heat it would be better to eat dinner then lunch. Walking around full in the heat is no fun.

 

[Kimosabe]

Dinner has sauerbraten and beef rouladen, lunch doesn't usually.

This was our experience. We have eaten there twice, with the first time being dinner...at which the beef rouladen was far and away my favorite item on the buffet. When we ate lunch there several months later, I had planned to eat my weight in them and was disappointed to find them absent from the lunch menu. It makes sense, given the price difference, and there was plenty else to fill me to the point of delightful misery. By the time lunch was over, I didn't really miss it.

My wife had a bad experience at Biergarten as a kid, so we had avoided it, but when we knew we were going with some other friends who seemed interested in it, we agreed to try it. I loved it...my wife loved it...and our kids asked why we had been hiding this place from them their whole lives (all of their 9 and 12 years, respectively).

 

[smiths02]

Thanks for those photos, HopperFan. You've convinced me to make my ADR, even though I'm not sure about the communal seating (I'm hoping not to be sandwiched between two families).

The communal seating was fine, but disappointing because the people acted like we didn't exist. I'm not sure if they were shy or they didn't understand communal seating or having 3 kids there was annoying to them. (And for the record, our children didn't do anything to bother the other people.)
If you don't have a problem with children or people who drink beer, you'll probably be okay.

 

[dmc6469]

This place sounds so much fun. I grabbed a lunch ADR for it since my sister put me in charge of doing the planning and she said that she ‘doesn’t care for German food so not sure about this place’. L It just looks like so much fun considering I’ve always wanted to go to Oktoberfest in Germany and used to do Oktoberfest festivals in Los Angeles growing up. The food photos are making me hungry but I want to go more for the fun experience of the show and such. I hope I can convince her to keep the ADR

 

[Kimosabe]

This place sounds so much fun. I grabbed a lunch ADR for it since my sister put me in charge of doing the planning and she said that she ‘doesn’t care for German food so not sure about this place’. L It just looks like so much fun considering I’ve always wanted to go to Oktoberfest in Germany and used to do Oktoberfest festivals in Los Angeles growing up. The food photos are making me hungry but I want to go more for the fun experience of the show and such. I hope I can convince her to keep the ADR

It is definitely possible to eat there without feeling like someone is forcing traditional German food upon you, so hopefully you can keep your sister on board. Of course, there are plenty of sausages and kraut available for those who prefer the "authentic" experience, but the price is nearly worth it for the mac and cheese alone. Pretty sure neither of our kids ate a single sausage or bite of kraut, but as I implied above, this place is now always on their short list of restaurant requests.

 

[dmc6469]

Thanks for your input. I'm so sending her your response

 

[once]

How do they seat you? Let say that when you come in, there are empty tables and tables with a few people. Would they try to fill the table first or would they ask for your preference?

I’m so excited about my lunch reservation. Even though I’m not a heavy eater and do not drink, the atmosphere seem wonderful. I have no problem starting conversation but I hope to be seated next to nice/interesting people.

 

[hildarumpole]

How do they seat you? Let say that when you come in, there are empty tables and tables with a few people. Would they try to fill the table first or would they ask for your preference?

They like to fill up tables. We've never been asked our preference. We ate there last week and saw lots of empty tables throughout our lunch. In past visits we were added to an already seated table or had another party/parties join us shortly after we were seated. This time, the host seated us and another family at the same time to make up the table of 8. I don't know if this is a new procedure, but it seemed to work out well for the server. She was able to introduce herself, explain the buffet, and take all drink orders without having to come back to the table multiple times going through the same speech.

 

[PantherPete]

My group would like to try Biergarten on our upcoming vacation. I've noticed there is difference in pricing in the lunch price vs dinner price. Is there any reason that we would want to pay more for dinner.....is there a show at dinner or more options on the dinner menu???

If the time of day doesn't matter to you, then the only reason I can think of that you would not want to do lunch would be your desire to sample the biers and your tolerance. The last thing you want to do is throw down a couple of the big biers and then try to function the rest of the day in the park.