Ronneburg Restaurant — Restaurant in Fairfax

I've been here several times and the only thing I didn't care for was the sauerbraten, but it could be I'm just not a sauerbraten kind of guy. I've tried most everything and it's all fabulous. My favorite is the Jägerschnitzel.

Then they load down your table with tons of side dishes, such as cottage cheese, coleslaw, sauerkraut, vegetables and on and on... and when they see you've finished one, they refill it. Only the pickiest of eaters will go home hungry from here.

A little update two years after my initial review: The only thing I don't care for about the Ronneburg is the service. It's a bit iffy. Sometimes you get a fantastic server, sometimes you get one like we had last night. Several times we had to ask for refills on things and then remind her a few minutes later we were still waiting for refills. I won't change my rating as this doesn't happen on every visit, but the times it does can be a bit annoying.

ADDING 7.1.25:

This past weekend we visited the Ronneburg again. As stated above, sometimes the service is iffy. We have had great service lately when we have visited, but not so much this past weekend. Oh, the guy tried to be friendly by telling us how much he liked the food we were ordering and so on. I got the Amana Poutine, which he highly recommended. I probably won't get it again. It was probably the most underwhelming thing I've ever gotten there. My wife, however, got a fish dish (sorry, I don't recall which dish specifically). Her first piece of fish was fine, but the next had a hard lump in the middle. She could not eat it and I messed around with it with a butter knife. It was kind of slimy on the outside and definitely tough in the middle. Not flaky like fish should be. She had another piece just like it. So, we paid for a meal of three pieces of fish while two were inedible.

This is where the server could have shined. I wasn't particularly fascinated by his critiques or experiences with Amana Poutine. However, when a customer complains that the food is not good, a decent server will try to help fix the situation. He did not. He took the fish to the kitchen and came back and said, "The cook will keep an eye on it." That's it. No offer to bring out some fish that was properly cooked or prepared. No attempt to remove a charge from the ticket. Not even an apology. Just a meaningless promise to "keep an eye on it." Keep an eye on what? It was already poorly cooked. What's to keep an eye on now?

I rated this place five stars a long time ago and I'll keep that rating for now, as this kind of thing is pretty rare at the Ronneburg. I just hope it's not a sign that things are about to go downhill there. That would be a shame. I hope this was just a solitary poorly handled fluke and...

We made a detour specifically to have dinner at this establishment after having read about the historic building. We are history geeks and especially love historic eating establishments.

We visited on a Friday night and came through the door around 6:30pm. As we entered, a young man (serving staff) was having a conversation with the man behind the register. There were no customers at the counter, just the two of them - in friendly banter. The young man-made full-on eye contact with us, as we were literally standing right in front of him, and he turned his head to continue his conversation with his coworker. Neither of them seemed to have any kind of motivation to seat us.

After standing there awkwardly for a couple of minutes, we were finally seated.

Perusing the menu, we tried to shake off the bad vibes and were excited to try some more traditional style meals. We started with a pretzel and beer cheese appetizer. Our main courses were the Bavarian Chicken and the Schnitzel, we chose coleslaw for our side and a side of Spätzle.

The pretzel and coleslaw were the best part of the meal. The pretzel was cooked & salted perfectly, the beer cheese was tasty. The coleslaw was very creamy and tart.

The main dishes were really bland and unremarkable. It wasn't BAD food; it just wasn't anything remarkable.

We each ordered a slice of pie - apple and a rhubarb. The pies were good but not award winning.

We left the restaurant with more than enough leftovers for a second meal. Sadly, they never sounded good enough to have again and we ended up throwing it out.

Very pricey for the quality. The food was good but not appealing enough to crack open the leftovers box later and that says a lot. The items we enjoyed the most are typically things that aren't that hard to get right - coleslaw, pretzel & beer cheese. Even pies are hard made un-passable.

We were just passing through but hope to return to the area someday, when we do - we will not be giving this establishment a second chance. They lost us from the first few minutes and never recovered.

We expected so much more from the experience. Poor service, passable food, and way too pricey.

I am a first-generation immigrant from Belgium. My father is half German. I grew up in a home with meals cooked very similar to this, nothing was ever seasonless and bland.

If things don't change, we expect this place will again be under new ownership by the time we make it back...

The staff was very nice and accommodating. Couldn't have been more politie. My problem is with the food. I've been all over the country and in every new place I go I try to find a German restaurant. This is the first one I ever went to that I was actually really disappointed. I always order wienerschnitzel wherever I go and it was no different here. I enjoyed the "endless" sides, the beets were very good, cottage cheese was good also. My first real disappointment was noticing that in both the veggies and the sauerkraut there was red peppers chopped up. First time I've ever seen that, not my cup of tea, but whatever, maybe that was just something they did special here, I could have looked past it. Then my heart sank as the schnitzel was laid on the table. At every other restaurant it will usually be served on an oversized plate and the thing is still falling off the plate, pounded paper thin, covered in excellent crispy batter, etc. This was not a schnitzel but a fried pork chop in the most pathetic batter I've ever seen. No effort was taken to pound the thing out. I'm not exaggerating when I say it was a fried pork chop. After taking one bite, I debated on leaving right there, but I decided I'd eat it since I already had some of the sides. I thought, well at least let me get some good mustard, and I can still enjoy this. For those who don't know, mustard at a German restaurant should be hot as hell with horseradish. So I ask for the mustard. My heart sank like the battleship Bismarck as I saw the waiter bring out the ketchup and mustard bottles like you'd find at a fast food joint. I tried it, and sure as day, it was yellow mustard. I see this place has many good reviews, and I think maybe these other people just don't know what a real German restaurant should be. I'm leaving this review because I want to see this German restaurant succeed and improve. Beat your pork out, find a crispier fuller batter, and for god sakes, if someone asks for mustard, don't bring out yellow mustard accompanied...