Chacarero Steakhouse — Restaurant in Kaiserslautern

OMG! I'd researched on YELP for the BEST Steakhouse nearest me & Chacarero Steakhouse came up as #1. After reading the first reviews by Americans that were ALL positive, I'd NEEDED to check this place out for myself! & I'm SO GLAD that I did!

This was for an early celebration of the American's Mother's Day, a day before, along with the combined European Father's & Christian Ascension Day, next Sunday & I can't tell yall that even though the meal for my husband & myself was a little on the pricey side, it was well worth every euro.

We'd placed our phone order yesterday for Saturday ONLY take away orders because of the COVID lockdown restrictions. The owner is AMAZING & is very passionate about his restaurant. Strongly emphasized to my husband & myself that his Chilean wife, himself & their staff cook with heart. For me, a Hawaiian Islander to hear that someone cooks with "ALOHA" was a HUGE marquee with bright lights screaming for me to go here.

My husband & myself had arrived a little early to the restaurant before they'd opened. So, we'd parked in the parking lot, when we'd received a long distance call from our daughter & grandchildren. While we were on the phone the owner - to which I'd forgotten to get his name - walked out to politely let us know that our order was ready for us to pick up. When we'd walked in to the restaurant, the owner greeted us &, actually, took us on a short little tour of his restaurant, he'd shared that he'd spent the last 5 months renovating his restaurant. It was very inviting & I love the addition of the electric fireplaces for a cozier effect. He'd even shared with us that they'll have live music on Fridays & Saturdays when the restrictions are lifted. I can't wait!

He'd shared stories of the Chilean Red Wines that they'd served. We'd bought 2: Cabernet Sauvignon & a Carmenere. He'd shared with us that the second wine is highly sought after by the French because of the specific grapes that's used to make it had originated in France but it'd died out because of some type of disease in the vines in the 1980's. It was later discovered by wine enthusiasts to be thriving in vineyards in Chile in the 1990's. He has many others to choose from: Whites, Rose & Blended - all from Chile. But, he'd shared that the 2 that we'd bought were his favorite. Even shared to blend the 2 for more flavor. I love learning new things.

Since, we were celebrating American Mother's Day for myself & German Father's/Christian Ascension Day (which is next Sunday) for my husband, I'd decided to go all out for our dinners. We'd ordered their largest 500 grams Ribeye Steak with sauteed Potatoes. The owner & his wife had blessed us with fresh baked Pan de Casa (a WHOLE Loaf of Bread) & extra servings of their fresh homemade San Andreas Salsa. The bread was so soft & the crust was crispy like a French Baguette. When we'd dipped our pieces of bread into the San Andreas Salsa, OMG! IT was SO DELICIOUS! The Salsa had a little kick to it, but just enough to savor all the flavors of the herbs & spices in it. Not overwhelming at all. Then, OMG! The steak was SO TENDER! It, literally, MELTED in my mouth like butter! The owner was SO PASSIONATE when he'd shared that our steak had been slow cooking since noon! Our pick up time was for 5pm. Because they'd wrapped our steak in foil, it was still warm when we'd gotten home 25 minutes away from the restaurant! With SO MUCH juices, too! We didn't even have to warm it up again. Just plated it all & we ate our dinner in COMPLETE BLISS!

The only sad thing is because of the restrictions, a lot of their side items on their menu weren't available. Like their Seasonal Salads & Corn Casseroles. But, that just means more reason for us to go back to visit them again. If you enjoy good food & appreciate Passionate Chefs that cook from their heart - with ALOHA - then this is a place that you won't want to miss! Check their website for...

Chile is in Germany and it brought steaks. Now with that said I'm sorry to say that it's not the greatest steak that you'll ever have but it is good. The flavor and thickness is there but the temperature is hit or miss. The service is slow and sloppy. To be honest I was looking to give this place a five star for it's decor, atmosphere, and authentic Chilean dishes but the service destroyed the five star attempt.

Now to be honest I did come with a very large group, but to our defense we called hours ahead (which they recommend) to have our steaks ready by the time we arrived. That didn't happen. The reason why the restaurant requests that you call ahead for your steak orders is because they cook on a small griddle on low head. This takes longer for the steaks to cook and causes the hit or miss temps but chef says that's what keeps the flavor stops over cooking.

On to my experience, I ordered the Steak del dia at 400 grams, a side salad, and a Pisco Sour that is a true Chilean drink. The Pisco Sour is like a Tequila Sour and a Mojito. It's a sweet lime refreshing drink but it's very small for the price, so expect to buy another one or something else. I thought because we called ahead that our steaks would be ready for us since we were a very large group but we still had to wait 15-30 minutes for our orders. The waiter took our orders on a tablet that was also the cashier for the entire restaurant. So the waiter had to walk away to check out a customer while taking our order. This slowed the process down. After everyone's order was taken, we had to wait for our drinks and a different waiter started serving us, this brought confusion to the order.

Cutting to the chase, I'll say about 13-15 different steaks were cooked in my group and a couple of them were undercooked. I ordered a medium steak and it came out medium rare, I know because it was still blue in the middle. I sent it back to continue cooking but it got slightly over cooked. The flavor was still there but the texture kind of got cooked too much. Switching waiters caused problems with a couple wrong orders, like a Rib Eye that no one ordered and the waitress tried to leave it on our table but we sent it back. We also had appetizers that was delivered with the main course which is a constant problem in Ramstein. The worst part was when we had to pay for our meal. We had to walk to the front desk to checkout on the waiters iPad one by one and tell the waiter our order. This was extremely unprofessional and kills the experience of dining out. It's funny that we had to call several hours ahead to place the orders, then give the order again at the restaurant, and again at checkout. By now you would think they would have our orders memorized! Not to mention the waiter didn't charge me for one of my drinks after I had gone through my order with him and then after cashing out all the guests one of my drinks popped up as not paid! That was the last star I was taking away.

So in the end, if it's just you and a friend on a slow night, I say go for it. But in a large group, or on a busy night, go somewhere else. They don't have the right people or the right equipment to support large orders and in a timely manner. The steaks are thick and flavorful, and the dishes are authentic but the service kills every part of this...

Gestern war ich beruflich mit der Kollegin auf der Durchreise und eigentlich wollten wir uns nur einmal die Air-Base und das Drumherum in Ramstein ansehen und ein paar Fotos machen. Eher zufällig standen wir plötzlich vor dem Chacarero und sind mit einem Erlebnis der besonderen Art belohnt worden. Sie aß ein "Steak del dia", ich aß ein 500g Rip-Eye-Steak der Extraklasse. Der Laden war bedingt durch die Ferien- und Uhrzeit wie "leer" gefegt, so ergaben sich mehrere Gespräche mit der Dame vom Service als auch dem Inhaber-Pärchen. Schnell stellte sich heraus, dass es sich hier um Perfektionisten mit Liebe zum Detail handelt. Er - ein großer schlacksiger niederländischer Weltembummler in den Fünfzigern der privat und beruflich nahezu überall gewesen ist und viele Geschichten zu erzählen hat und sie eine kleine sympathische Chilenin mit dem gewissen Etwas die ihm auf einem seiner Abenteuer begegnet war. Ein ungleiches Paar das konträrer nicht sein könnte. Ein Europa-Südamerika-Mix das es in einer solchen Konstellation nicht so häufig geben dürfte.

Hier isst man wirklich anders, dafür müsste es einen sechsten oder siebten Stern geben! Ich bin kein Freund von Bewertungen und solchen Portalen wie Yelp, deshalb wird das wohl mein einziger Eintrag hier bleiben, ich habe mich extra für diese Bewertung angemeldet, denn dieser Laden gehört weiter empfohlen. Wer mich für einen Werbetexter hält macht einen großen Fehler! Überzeugt euch selbst vom Chacarero in Ramstein!

Mit niederländischen oder deutschen Tomaten aus Gewächshäusern gibt man sich hier nicht zufrieden - zu wässrig sei der Geschmack. Ein Niederländer der das Gemüse aus dem eigenen Land ablehnt - irgendwie witzig wenn man bedenkt, dass der Deutsche dazu neigt alles heimische blind zu vergöttern.

So fährt man regelmäßig - nur für gute Tomaten - nach Frankreich um sie dort frisch einzukaufen. Das Fleisch ist von bester Qualität und kommt aus Argentinien. Pommes Frites aus Süßkartoffeln die ich selbst schon oft zubereitet habe schmecken hier noch eine Klasse besser - einfach purer Genuss in Perfektion. Das Dessert war toll - wir teilten uns Churros die hier mit Eis und süßer Sauce serviert werden - heiß - frisch und lecker. Zum Schluss lud man uns noch auf Kosten des Hauses auf eine chilenische Version der Pina-Colada ein. Diese war süß und angenehm - keinesfalls so süß wie man das von einer typischen Pina-Colada aus einer hiesigen Cocktailbar kennt.

Immer wieder sprachen wir mit dem zur Bestform aufgelaufenen Inhaber der inzwischen einen guten Rotwein zur Verkostung an den Tisch gebracht hatte welcher zu den besten Rotweinen zählt die wir je tranken - auch hier machte sich die multikulturelle Reiselaune des niederländischen Inhabers bemerkbar, man merkte sofort - er weiß wovon er spricht und das setzte sich auch beim Kaffee fort. Laut eigenen Angaben trinkt er nur einen Kaffee am Tag - aber der muss entsprechende Qualität aufweisen. Wir orderten zwei Espressi und bekamen zwei Espresso in vorgeheizten Espresso-Tassen aus einer kleinen Siebträger-Maschine serviert und waren abermals geflasht vom Geschmack. Beruflich bedingt gastieren wir in vielen Restaurants in Europa - da waren sicher viele gute Gastronomen am Werk, einen solchen bleibenden Eindruck hat jedoch noch kein Haus zuvor hinterlassen - wir kommen wieder und das sicher nicht nur einmal - sobald wir uns mal wieder beruflich im Umkreis von 150km befinden.

Zum Schluss lernten wir auch noch seine Frau, die Inhaberin und den kolumbianischen Koch Alexander kennen. Ein nettes Team - sehr gastfreundlich und...