Casa Ramirez Mexican and German Food — Restaurant in Arizona

This review is a tough one to write because I want to be honest, respectful, and fair. New restaurants can be expected to go through some growing pains, usually for the first two or three months. After about 10 months Casa Ramirez is still struggling to find rhythm. This past Veteran’s Day weekend I came here for dinner with two local friends. Our overall experience, and first impression, was not all that good.

First, here’s what went right. For being a Mexican restaurant we found it quite interesting that German schnitzel is on the menu. Two of us ordered it and we all agreed that it was some of the best schnitzel we’ve ever had. Really, that good. The chips were good. The drinks were good also. The salsa was very good.

Beyond that, well… The third dish we ordered was a Mexican steak. It was dry, gristly, and tasteless. I had a hard time getting it down and was grateful that my friends shared their schnitzel.

I don’t know why but the owners were using two hired hostesses as servers (there were no actual servers). One of them is 16 years old and this is her first job. Bless their hearts but they were getting no support from the kitchen or management, and despite their efforts they both struggled and took the brunt of vitriol from other customers, many of whom just got up and left. My table decided to stay and see how this played out. It took us a full hour before we got water and menus brought to the table. In an effort to speed things up, some customers went to the counter to retrieve their drinks and bring them to the table themselves. At some point thereafter the owners, who were very nice and apologetic, finally started to help out on the floor but it was too little, too late as many customers had already departed. All in all we were at Casa Ramirez for two hours and 40 minutes.

My recommendation would be to come here earlier in the evening when it is not so busy or wait until the restaurant builds up steam and rhythm at some point in the future. I really do hope that they can pull through this because the potential for being a great and unique restaurant is most...

Now, this is what german food is supposed to taste like.

I placed a takeout order for a sauerbraten dinner, which included, of course, the sauerbraten, then along side this delightful entree it had red cabbage, spetzle, which both were definitely made from scratch and made to order. It also included a beautiful dessert and a very tasty german salad.

All that for a reasonable price.

I've been to several 100 german restaurants, and I have to say the dinner I got this evening was more to authentic german cooking than I have ever experienced in the US.

I also wanted to add something about most of these negative reviews this restaurant has gotten in the past. I think some of them are a competitive restaurant trying to get their star system down so they can get the business back that they lost when this place opened. I read every single review about this place, and 90% of the negitive reviews come from people that have less than 10 reviews, and 99% of them are 1 star. They are the types of people that have to be negative about everything to make themselves feel better.

Some of them might be true, it might have taken longer than 10 minutes to get your food, but these dishes are made to order. It takes time to make these dishes from scratch to your table. Maybe think ahead and order your food when you are headed out, and it will be ready when you get there.

One more thing. To the person that complained that it took too long to get their (unannounced party of 20 at noon) food, give us all a break. One little phone call would have saved you the time. Who in their right mind just shows up with a party of 20 at noon without calling the restaurant first. No one except for you, but to complain on a public platform that they had to wait for their food more than 10 minutes is absolutely ridiculous. Then you didn't even bring it to the attention of any type of manager or owners. Shame on you for bringing the ratings down on this restaurant because of your disrespect and mistakes.

Give this restaurant a try and see for yourself that the negative reviews are...

German food in Catalina! I recently read here that Casa Ramirez (or Haus Ramirez) was having a German menu, so naturally, as Germans, we had to try it last night, together with a friend who likes to eat out. All-in-all I would give our experience a solid 4/5 stars and have to say it might be one of the best sit-down German dinner experiences I had outside of Germany. I started off with a Weihenstephaner HefeWeissbier Dunkel (dark), which was fresh, delicious and transported me right back to Bavaria. I ate a Jägerschnitzel with Spätzle, salad and dessert. The schnitzel was cut very very thin but tasted good and the gravy had hardly any mushrooms. The spätzle were on the firm side, but were definitely house made! The density might be due to the type of press they used. The mixed salad was very small and was not my favorite, due to the canned beets and cooked red cabbage. The plum cake however, that we all had was delicious and we are excited that Mrs. Ramirez, who learned to cook German food while living there, is planning to bring more German delicacies like Käsekuchen (German cheesecake) or Bretzeln from Bavaria to the menu in the future. The prices seem to be on the higher end (for the type of food served) and the young lady who was our server was lovely and apologized for the wait. Since we were not in a hurry, that was not a problem for us. I actually prefer to wait a bit for fresh, good food.

I am excited we have this new restaurant in our area. If you like German food, or would like to experience something new,...