Bauernschmaus Restaurants — Restaurant in Greater Strathcona

We have been coming here on and off for years. Leberknodel suppe was always a draw for me. We were shocked when we went at 1pm the other day with a friend who had never been there. First page of the menu was soups and salads. Leberknodel soup up to 12.50$ with a bun is a dollar extra. But...the rest of the menu, 32-38$...at lunch!!! This is NOT a fine dining restaurant. Liver and onions 34$ schnitzel ( 4oz of pork with 4 baby carrots and 2 tablespoons of mashed potatoes)34$. We have been here in the past. The price point was reasonable. The prices now were delusional. Again this is NOT fine dining. The fact that we had to listen to the constant hammering of schnitzel in the kitchen, is the first clue. I was in the restaurant industry for almost 30 years, most of it was higher end and fine dining. I worked in a bistro that served schnizel. Twice as much, that was more Austrian than what i was served here. And they prepped schnitzel in the morning before there were customers, and he asked us if all the customers had gone before he pounded out schnitzel for evening service. The server did the best she could and weathered my disdain for the unreasonable prices, without a modicum of emotion.

The restaurant was very clean, but the food was disappointing. I was willing to pay 12.50 for a flat dinner bowl worth of soup for a favorite i looked forward to, but the broth was tasteless, and the 2 liver dumplings looked lost in their lake of mediocrity. I had tried to order potato salad and a sausage with my soup, but the austrian restaurant was out of potato salad at 1pm. I was happy to spend 12 $ on potato salad and another 3 on a sausage...its not the fact that the main courses were too expensive for me, they were just ridiculously priced for the product. I decided to order the fried cheese just so i could have something i could feel good about, 17$ for 4 small triangles of what i suspect was mozzarella with no sauce( mozzarella needs sauce it is quite bland). That may have not even bothered me ( because i took half of it home to give my dogs), but when i was looking at other reviews i saw people had previously gotten 5 triangles...in the pictures. I have to say, i am a frequent customer at Bistro Praha downtown, over 30 years now. The prices, portions, and quality are excellent. Maybe I am spoiled because of their excellent business, but if you want excellent schnitzel and menu items you will love, go there. Bauernschmaus will never see us again, so sad, another traditional restaurant...

First of all I am sorry to be posting this review, but I was extremely disappointed with this restaurant over all and felt others should know. We were part of a seniors group TCRCC (SWESA)which frequently have lunch meetings trying supporting different places for local unique food. Our recent visit to your place after a $450. total left a bad taste which will not be removed for some time, if ever. We reserved well in advance of 1 week and when we arrived we were told they had a choice of 3 items we all had to agree upon from the full listed menu. For a group of 18 people this was very bizarre situation or if there were food shortages we should have been informed beforehand. They could have printed a limited select menu on paper so there was less confusion for both staff and patrons. The entire meal took too long to prepare as there were few staff in the establishment. What arrived after a full 1 hour wait was also disappointing the Goulash which usually is a thick stew consistency was more of a both with a few scraps of meat a a few vegetables in a small bowl. The buns were good but the side salad turn out to be a basic green garden salad with a few grape tomatoes on top, a very sad pathetic effort. The Pork Schnitzel was thin and crispy with good flavor but did take a very long time to arrive at the table( I believe they had to catch the pig first), it was albeit the lone highlight of the visit. The menu shown on the website was erroneous as many in our group saw a special which was non-existent when we arrived. We were told these were from a menu from 2020 which no longer existed, please update your listings. Also there were ZERO Gluten Free items available but on the website said there were gluten free items available. Except for a small side salad and a bowl of fore mentioned goulash, our two celiac seniors struggled to find anything they could consume without being sick. In this day and age there is no excuse for the oversite. We were prepared to give them a chance to impress us for a future visit however, we left in total frustration and disappointment of our visit. Other reviews we saw did not reflect our experience but perhaps there was a change in ownership or management which led to the poor result we had. Service was pleasant from the two servers which waited while the food was being prepared. Overall an experience which shows a lack of preparedness which is in excusable due to incompetence or indifference, both which will eventually destroy...

If you have special dietary needs or allergies DO NOT EAT HERE! They will not substitute anything for what you are unable to eat, disregard your needs and still charge you full price, even if you ask them not to put what you can't eat on the plate.

I have over many years frequented this restaurant and have been happy with the food and service.... until now.

I have had to change my diet due to health reasons and found myself unable to eat the 'starchy' sides that were the options. I asked to get a little more salad (which comes with the meal) to makeup for not getting one of the sides I couldn't eat. I was told that the salad was complementary so they can't increase the size, which made no sense at all as the menu stated it came with salad and a choice of the 4 items I'm not allowed to eat. The description of the dish I ordered said that it came with sauerkraut or red cabbage, both items I could eat, so I requested that I get both or more of one to make up for not getting the 'starch' side. I was told 'No, we just don't do that'.

The only reason we didn't leave then was because my friend had her heart set on schnitzel. I settled, and said to put the starch side in a separate bowl so I could give it to my friend so that at least I got the amount of food that they are charging me for.

I thought the matter was settled, but when the salad arrived almost a quarter of what was on the plate was potato salad, which they already knew I couldn't eat and they didn't even tell me that when I ordered it, which was after clearly stating my food limitations. When I pointed this out to the waiter he just shrugged and offered no apology at all. What would have happened if I had a life threatening food allergy to a substance that I couldn't readily see? Would they disregard the information, serve it anyway and potentially risk a life?

The food (that I could eat) was still tasty, the only reason I gave them any rating at all, but I will unfortunately not be returning because of thier inflexibility of accommodating my...