little gretel restaurant

i have not been here in over 15 years since they first opened. passing through town and had a hankering for a goodgermanbeer and reuben sandwich. worth the stop anytime.

i would say that as i local--i will never come back to this place. uniformly bad food and service--and i have given it four tries over the years, each time hoping it would improve. the problem lies with the contentious owner/cook. any problems encountered with a meal become yours, not hers. responses are really rude excuses, here. it's not cheap either, so you should expect better. cutesy restaurant playing on our townsgermanheritage gives other good boerne establishments a black eye. avoid at all costs...

good pancakes, long wait, noisy. we went for breakfast on 9/1 labor day. we appreciated that they were open on a holiday, since a lot of places we called were closed. i had some out of town visitors in san antonio and we decided to take a nice drive out to boerne to have breakfast. the weather was nice, would have been really nice to sit outside on the patio but it was full, we were only able to get a table inside, they were really busy. we ordered 3 plates, the eggs with bacon and came with toast, the apple pancakes with sausage, & the regular pancakes with over-easy eggs, coffee and a latte. the food took a long time, so don't come starving. they seemed understaffed but not sure if they were just really busy. very nice decor inside and it was a bit cold but very clean and nicely decorated, friendly service. both pancake plates were very delicious. the sausages were regular links, notgermansausage which i was expecting, but i guess i shouldve asked the question. the scrambled egg plate was really a fried egg like an omelet almost and no flavor to the eggs- a bit disappointing, and the potatoes on the plate were just ok. the best part of our experience was walking across the street to river road park to watch the ducks and turtles. we had a nice breezy walk along the water on the nicely paved wide sidewalk before heading back.

good breakfast spot. we had a goodgermandinner here about a year ago and decided to come back for breakfast. i ordered the eggs benedict and my husband ordered an omelette. they won't win accolades for presentation, but the eggs benedict were delicious as was the omelette. at first i thought the hollandaise sauce was a bit skimpy, but it was rich and thicker, turning out to be just right. the potatoes were not up to the same standard being rather blah and a couple of larger pieces weren't cooked all the way through. they need to step it up to match the quality of the eggs benedict. the coffee, however, was especially good. we may go back just for that.

in our experience, the service can be dicey. when we went for dinner, the server was excellent. the waitress at breakfast was cheery and attentive, but she seemed to get orders confused at other tables leading to several errors. those were remedied quickly to everyone's satisfaction.

we will definitely go back for both breakfast and lunch/dinner.

sadly i will not be going back. having spent much of my childhood in germany i would say that they either need to hire agermanchef or switch to a czech menu. my schnitzel was not a bavarian style schnitzel. i like every othergermancook have my own interpretation on what the schnitzel should taste like, this one had a consistence issue. it needed alittle more time in the fryer. the breading did not stick and it was soggy even without the jäger sauce. my husbands bavarian meatloaf too left us questioning technique and interpretation. while the restaurant was a present meets old world environment sadly the food does not complimenting to building.

big clapping hans(el) for this little gretel. a littlegermanrestaurant on the rhine? well, not exactly. it is right across from the lake boerne dam though (i will spare you the location pun). the interior is small, but nice and bright with plenty of natural light to make the place cheery. they also have a small bar inside with a few stools though its not exactly where you would want to hold your next oktoberfest celebration (nor would they want you too most likely).
the draw is the charm and personal service of this small "chateau" to say nothing of the food, which i am getting to. a short chat with the affable waiter about schnitzel and an alternative suggestion made that was the waiter's favorite; kasseler rippchen (smoked pork chop for the germanic tongue impaired). how's that for a zuggenbrecher (tongue twister)!

moist pork chop with just a hint of smokiness smothered in an extremely mild horseradish sauce with slivered almonds, lighter than air spatzle to dip in that creamy sauce, and some of the best, mildest, least acidic sauerkraut with caraway that i have ever had. tremendous job chefkoch! i was not suprised when i asked if the sauerkraut was made here and found that it was like most of the offerings.

i also found out that they have events where they spit roast a whole pig on the huge pit to the side of the restaurant. i can imagine how good it would be to pork-out at this pig-in! reservations only!

my husband, son, and i came to little gretel's for dinner tonight. first off, we were shocked at the prices. not wanting to spend $60 on a meal for the three of us, he ordered the clam chowder and i ordered the blt salad. they offer abysmal choices for children, so my son settled for the grilled cheese. all of the kids meals come with fries... no healthy veggie choices. our food came quickly enough and the waiter was friendly enough, but i was saddened by my salad. it was basically a full head of lettuce that wasn't even cut up. i had to cut my salad up just to be able to eat it. it was supposed to be lettuce (which it had in spades) bacon (which it had, but only maybe one piece crumbled among the lettuce forrest) tomatoes (5 grape tomatoes cut in half) croutons (which were not present) and a buttermilk dressing (which was sparse and watered down). i was disappointed. my husband's clam chowder was pretty good however, but tasted more of bacon than it did clam. it's hard to screw up a grilled cheese, and it was a passible sandwich, but the fries are gross and arrived late. not coming back, which is sad because i long forgermanfood, but not at those prices.

great homemadegermanfood. right on river rd in boerne...(pronounced bur-nee) is a small growing city northwest of san antonio and it has landed one of the bestgermanrestaurants in the area and better than anything san antonio has to offer.

i had the rahm schnitzel which is 2 small schnitzel with creamy white sauce, homemade spatzel and red cabbage for $14.99. i dont care for red cabbage so they gave me more spatzel. the lunch portions were actually quite large so be hungry when visiting this place. i have found another really goodgermanrestaurant to go to.

i guess get em drunk at the beer garden. that's a solution. i read some of ??? chef's responses (typo) excuses.. pretty sad.. need to taste your food.


-----18 jan, 2013-----

horrid strudel and ...... shocked at some reviews ... must have lots friends...
i've had the best ever so far from czech andgermangrandparents.
the food was way overpriced
the strudel was bland and mushy. yuk..yuk..yuk !!!
the meal had no flavor at all.
that was wilted cabbage with the weirdest flavor ever... yuk...
service was pathetic. never again

food was terrible. the top three items on the dinner entree menu were not a available for ordering. they did not tell us this until after we had our drinks and appetizer. so we were basically left with two choices,germansausage or red snapper stuffed with crab. we ordered the snapper and it was fried and no crabmeat to be found. also nothing more than a piece of fish on a plate without any sides. the salad was lame, just lettuce and a small amount of shredded carrots. the clam chowder was wonderful and thegermanchocolate cake was delicious. our waitress was sweet but will never go back again. total cost was $91.00 before the tip (wster with lemon for drinks), and was definitely not worth anywhere near that. if you want goodgermanfood go somewhere else. if we had wanted snapper we would have gone to a seafood place, not agermanrestaurant!

hill countrygermanwith a contemporary flair. i've not eaten a formal meal at little gretel yet, but i am headed back next week for both breakfast and dinner. we stopped off for afternoon coffee and had a delightful experience. two of the desserts were no longer on the menu - the lintzer torte and one other.

but we tried the apple torte and the hansel kisses... very tasty! the apple torte was a truegermandessert as it wasn't too sweet. the hansel kisses had meringue with almonds, and homemade ice cream. it was rich, so a little went a long way. strong, good coffee was the accompaniment.

the chef/owner, denise, even came out and visited and her husband who works in the cute shop next door also came over to chat.

based on this experience alone, i highly recommend this restaurant. there are also two neat shops that you can visit before or after your meal.

read first. i recently found little gretel and it was a blessing in itself. i've been back about twice a week and i've yet to have a bad experience or meal. the food is an amazing combination of czech, american, andgermanfood. i find it amusing people comment on how this restaurant was not "german" considering no where do they claim to be a strictlygermanrestaurant. they offer food to appeal to everyone's palate and an atmosphere that is unrivaled. thank you little gretel for serving boerne and the san antonio community.

nogermanfood! settled for over salted flounder.

i left hungry. i was looking forgermanfood and the selection was sparse. the plate that me and my wife got were small portions and the price was high for what we got. the food we got was good. the atmosphere was unusual and notgermanstyle. the restroom was nice with a modern style. the sink was nice and unusual.

service was slow. the food was lackluster and overpriced. one thing on the menu and the special of the night were not available. not goodgermanfood.