Lil' Schnitzel — Restaurant in Bradford West Gwillimbury

Review of 'The Goulash House' restaurant, located at 200 Main St South in Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 3Z2 - visited on December 10, 2013.

We dropped in to have a late lunch around 2:30 pm and were pleased to meet Judit, the owner and driving force behind our favourite restaurant in the vicinity of Toronto. This was our seventh visit since our initial introduction to this establishment early this year.

It is a modest-sized restaurant, very comfortable and the atmosphere is very pleasing. The service we received was topnotch, low key, friendly and unpretentious. No hokey ethnic gypsy music and folksy paintings of Hungarian life here, which is just fine with me.

I had the customary Goulash Soup as the first appetizer and then the Cabbage Roll as my main course. My wife had the Mushroom Caps as an appetizer, and then the Chicken Paprikash with Dumplings, lunch portion. To cap it off, we ordered tea and coffee.

The Goulash Soup came as close to perfection as anyone can make it – soft chunky beef cubes without the fat or grizzle, small cubed carrots, potatoes and dumplings in a broth that had the ideal blend of spices and vegetables. I would have used slightly less salt, but that is me with my two cents worth of culinary opinion. The bread slices which came with the meal were fresh and tasty, just right for soaking up the remaining sauce.

The stuffed cabbage roll has become my customary main course, whenever we dine at The Goulash House; although listed as an appetizer, its size is very generous. Sauerkraut drizzled with some sour-cream and sprinkled with finely chopped parsley completes the picture. This dish is consistently satisfying and that's why I like it.

When we finished lunch, we ordered Jókai Bean Soup and Crepes with Apricot Jam for takeout – this thick soup had pieces of smoked ham, bacon, pork hocks and Hungarian sausage to give this hearty dish a very satisfying flavour; it is a superb blend and quite filling. The crepes ('palacsinta' in Hungarian) tasted great when warmed up, once we got home, with whipped cream added, together with a good cup of freshly brewed coffee.

For quite a long period we had given up on finding a decent restaurant in the Toronto vicinity which serves good central European food from Austria and Hungary, the way it was prepared traditionally, before the influx of other ethnic food cultures became more prevalent on the North American scene. The menu is very attractive and written in good English. On the whole, the restaurant has an aura of simple minimalistic elegance. Try it!

Review written by...

my bf wanted to show me this place last night after a hard day, i was exhausted and just wanted some comforting european food and to go sit in nature and eat it together, unwind.

the atmosphere upon entering was homey, blends of european cultures decorating the walls and the big window keeping it bright and open. i have pretty bad social and public anxiety and don’t feel typically comfortable in a lot of places, but this one immediately felt natural to me.

we came about 20 minutes to close as my work schedule only gave us that time frame, so we were hesitant and ready to be turned away, or limited to the menu— and were okay with that potential, but the second i saw the signs with the full schnitzel meals i just Needed to get it, and thankfully, Judit was more than happy to take our order and the chef had it made Just in time for close. we had a lovely little chat with her before leaving, which i always love when an owner or manager are conversational like that, it really adds to the homey atmosphere.

my boyfriend got the pierogis, which is his favourite food, and i got the large pork schnitzel, which is very high on my disorganized list of favourite foods. when we got in the car and closed the doors the aroma of the schnitzel hit us both and we couldn’t even hold back our excitement, just drove right to the park and found a nice spot to set up as quickly as possible.

needless to say, neither dishes lasted more than a few minutes. i ordered a large pork schnitzel, not expecting how massive it was, but my goodness it was literally spilling over out of the sides of the container, we were amazed. the pork was so good, the batter and a little lemon drizzled over top just like i remember when i was a kid. best way i can describe the experience was the food reviewer moment from ratatouille. i’m a small girl, so we shared it and i feel like that’s probably going to be our thing now lol.

i wish we took pictures but we were so excited we wasted No time digging in. i will make sure to get some to edit my review next time we return because this has officially became a new spot for us, so we will definitely be back.

i would highly recommend to anyone looking for a really nice spot with really nice food and really nice...

I will start off with saying that the schnitzel plain is great. Thats the only nice thing I have to say. I was excited to they had spaetzel and asked if I could change my potatoes for that and would there be an extra charge. The waitress said as long as you switch starch for a starch there is no extra charge. Well guess what there is. I ordered the house garden salad and to my surprise the dressing was spices and seemed to just be in water. I asked for the jager sauce on my schnitzel. it came on the side which I am happy about now because not only was it mostly just a gelatin thing with mushrooms in it and tasted like smoke. The drinks took forever to come and the waitress served 2 meals and I had to wait for mine. Almost all of us at the table had our orders wrong and the waitress had to apologize to 4 other tables while i was there for getting their orders wrong too. We had brought someone from out of town and Im very embarrassed that we did. I would not recommend this place. I really wanted to love it because I love almost all the places on main street newmarket. Sorry to the owners but service was really slow and this place doesn't compare to...