Chef Klaus' Bier Stube — Restaurant in Frankfort

Rubber Duck, Salty Food and Attitude

Decided to try Chef Klaus for a special late lunch (2ish) on a Saturday. Have been customers off and on when we lived closer and thought we would try it again. Note, in the past we have had some issues with the food – but were hopeful. My wife is German and I am Czech and grew up with this food.

Ordered off the Dinner menu as I wanted duck and my wife wanted Rouladen. Our waiter was Stimson. He took our drink order and then we ordered our food. We had to ask for bread and the usual accompaniments, in spite of it usually brought before the dinner service.

I ordered Liver Dumpling soup; my wife ordered the Goulash Soup. We spaced on the upcharge for the Goulash until the bill came. My soup was cold, salty and the “liver dumpling” was mostly bread and slimy. My wife’s Goulash Soup was ½ full, cold, salty and had one piece of meat in it and a few chunks of potato. Would not have gotten the Goulash Soup if the waiter reminded us that it was an up charge; it certainly wasn’t worth it.

The main courses came. My duck was grey, rubbery and the skin was not even close to crisp. I could hardly cut it with a sharp knife and could not chew the piece I tried. Likely warmed from last night’s dinner service. I sent it back in exchange for veal schnitzel. Red cabbage was ok. I had the potato dumpling which was ok. My wife ordered the potato pancakes. These were again an upcharge that we only realized when we got the bill. They were soggy, greasy, rubbery and cold. Again, hardly acceptable without an upcharge. I encouraged her to send them back but she was hungry and tried to eat some of them.

I got my schnitzel and it was limp and the yellow breading was anything but crispy.

Our bill came which was over $100. Not an issue for me, but given the quality we complained. We complained of no mention of the upcharges. We complained about the quality of the food and we asked that the upcharges come off. After a time, Stimson said he called the manager “who was not there” on a Saturday. He said if we ate some of the food, the manager would not take it off the bill.

I paid the bill with my AMEX and went for a quick pitstop. I fully intended to leave a cash tip on my way out. The food quality and the substandard service from the manager wasn’t Stimson’s fault. But as I went to the bathroom, I overheard Stimson talking to someone in the kitchen describing what the “couple” had said to him. While at the urinal, someone came in behind me into the stall and said, “Your balls are too big for one stall.” He then hurriedly left without me seeing him and without washing his hands. At that point the tip was off the table.

Don’t waste your time. Terrible food and lots of animosity...

Although this is a wonderful place that has had a long history and the Frankfort area, I have to say this last trip was disappointing. I'm going to give you my reasons why and then I'm going to tell you how the service was.

To start off the meals are moderately priced to some maybe on the high side. That said my meal was $32 before tip. The Wienerschnitzel is a staple and is always great. All the vegetables however were bland overcooked and tasted like they were from a can. The potato pancakes were seasoned well but way over cooked. The breads with the exception of the pretzel stick were stale. Now, all of this might be overlooked had I paid $10 to $12 but I didn't I paid $32 dollars. I think it's unacceptable to pay that much and take away the only thing that was good was the Wienerschnitzel. The soda taps need to be cleaned or updated as the soda was subpar ended up switching to tea. All of this was confusing because in the past it's always been great but I haven't been there in about a year-and-a-half I guess that much time it's just enough time to take it down several notches.

The service however was wonderful the server was great and the atmosphere that's perhaps why people come here. I have to say that this luckily made the trip enjoyable and we gave our server an ample tip. I may not have been happy with the food but that is not our service fault, and I made sure we didn't fall short on our treatment.

I am going to say that if you haven't been there in a while you'll probably be disappointed if you come back. And if you're visiting and you want to go to a local place, there is LaVoute, and the original Aurelio's in Homewood. Gourmet Pizza in Flossmoor. Carlos Lorenzetti's in Chicago Heights. And Tokyo Steakhouse as well as Francesca's and Rosie's in the Frankfort area. All of these I would go to...

First time coming here today it was amazing on so many levels. I’m a World War II reenactor and military antique enthusiast. If you know somebody who is into that sort of thing they will thank you so much for taking them here for a special day out.

The food was really really good, I wouldn’t say it’s the best German food I’ve had. But it was still awesome. My partner and I both gobbled it down. They do need to reconsider are some of the pricing. As some items are unnecessarily expensive.

The bartender/waitress, was the best (Cindy) She has such a great personality! She is very knowledgeable of mixed drinks and beers. The bar is out of this world. So many selections of different types of liquor and an OUTSTANDING Selection of German beers. They had several different types of Oktoberfest style beers, even in January! Honestly, the beer selection here or is one of the best I’ve seen for German types as opposed to any other place I’ve been to EVER.

Now, let me get to the AWESOME decorations and ambience. I was so excited to see all the cool World War II stuff and historical Figurines. (Yes, I’m a 🤓 nerd) There was a display case full of Hummel knickknacks, a massive cuckoo clock, and all kinds of World War II planes, tanks and action figures. I could spend a good hour just looking at every little detail. It made me so happy to see all of this cool stuff displayed! Lots of funny little details I noticed, the stuffed animals hanging up had masks on. I had to laugh about that.

I cannot wait to come back. Would love to have a birthday party or a meet up with pals here.. I know our friends will love it just as much as we do! Highly recommended to any...