The Bavarian Bierhaus — Restaurant in Glendale

The manager's curt, dismissive attitude soured our whole dining experience on April 28, 2024.

Some background:

On February 18, the official Facebook account of the Bavarian Bierhaus posted a photo of a salmon dinner: two portions of fish, accompanied by three scoops of mashed potatoes and a pile of bright baby spinach leaves covered in a white sauce, garnished with cucumber salad and slices of fresh lemon. The photo shows the logo of the Bavarian Bierhaus in the corners, and the words "Senior Sunday 1/2 Off Bavarian Specialties."

We are Seniors, and it was Sunday, and we had just encountered two older gentlemen who showed us the Facebook photo. They said they had just been to the Bavarian Bierhaus, and told us they drive from northern Illinois every Sunday to enjoy this salmon dinner because it's a great meal at a great bargain. We were intrigued. We live within walking distance of the Bavarian Bierhaus, and we were not aware of this senior discount, so we decided to try it.

Our server at the restaurant was also not familiar with the discount, but he told us he was new to the job, so we thought nothing of it. We ordered two salmon dinners and two non-alcoholic beers, and settled in to enjoy the early evening atmosphere of the Bierhaus.

When our meals arrived, I joked with my husband that they seemed to have also reduced the portions of the salmon dinner by half! Each plate contained one (not two) pieces of beautifully cooked salmon and one (not three) scoop of mashed potatoes with a white sauce dotted with huge capers. My spinach was also covered with the white sauce, but my husband had substituted applesauce as a side, due to a health condition. Neither plate contained cucumber salad or lemon slices, but we didn't complain because we didn't really need more food, despite the fact that the cucumbers and lemon would have added to our enjoyment of the meal.

The server returned with the bill, charging full price ($22 each) for what we perceived to be half-portions of the meal we'd seen on Facebook. He told us the manager would need to approve the senior discount, and went off to find her. We waited several minutes; our server rushed by our table a couple of times, obviously occupied with other errands. When he did come back, he said the manager had approved the discount and presented the reduced bill. (Note: two bottles of non-alcoholic beer totaled $14!) Meanwhile, we had been chatting about the contrast between the Facebook photo and our plates, so we asked lightly if the senior discount had also reduced the portions. The server seemed defensive, but said he didn't know anything about the photo on Facebook. We asked to talk to a manager just to find out what the story was. Our server came back with the manager's answer: the photo on Facebook was old (two months?!), and this was what they were serving for the salmon dinner now. Confused, we asked to speak with the manager anyway. She arrived after another wait. She was obviously annoyed, never looked directly at us, asked curtly if we'd liked our food, tried to deny the source of the Facebook photo, and asked for my phone to verify it was, indeed, the official Facebook account that had posted it. Finally, abruptly, she handed my phone back to me, and still without looking in our eyes, stated that the dinner we had, is how they are serving it now. And walked away.

We hadn't asked for anything but to understand the difference between what was advertised and what we received. Sadly, what we now understand is that we feel disrespected and will be reluctant to bring friends or family to this lovely local spot, because we'll never know how we'll be treated or what...

We've tried the Bavarian Bierhaus a number of times in the past and we always walk away unsatisfied with the overall experience.

We decided to try the restaurant again today and were very disappointed with the meal and the service.

Atmosphere - the facility is nice, but very loud, today there was a band playing and we couldn't hold a conversation due to the noise level.

Service - there was no hostess on duty, so people were coming in and sitting where ever they pleased. The facility was a little more than half full, there were only 2 or 3 wait staff to cover the entire facility and it wasn't nearly enough. Our waitress was really hustling, she was stressed and it showed. It took about 30 minutes from the time we ordered to receiving our food. We ordered chicken schnitzel, but they brought pork instead. I brought this to our servers attention and all she said was, "I don't know how that happened" and walked away. No offer to make it right by either comping the meal or bringing the correct entre. At that point, my meal had come, so we couldn't realistically wait for another entre without mine getting cold. At the end of the meal it took another 15 minutes to get our check and pay. I brought the error in the food to our servers attention and asked about a discount or having it comped, all she said was, "It wasn't my fault." I replied that normally the restaurant will discount or comp an entre that is wrong or not done to satisfaction. She again replied that it wasn't her fault. I recognized the fact that she was very busy and told her that we didn't fault her specifically, As she slapped my credit card on the table she sniped, "well, I hope next time you get the service you deserve, and she walked away. Yikes.

Food - the quality of the food was decent, but not great. The prices are rather high, so I expect a higher quality dining experience. For example a schnitzel plate is $23 and all you it comes with are fries, no bread or other sides.

The Bavarian Bierhaus as a lot of potential, but it is poorly managed and staffed. The facility is nice, but they need to do something about the noise level. Overall, it is not a good value for the price and the dining experience leaves much...

They advertise an early bird fish fry on Friday from 11am - 5pm. However, the only thing about this early bird fish fry is that it starts at 11am. I believe "early bird" suggests early as in 4pm with reduced pricing. See the showJerry Seinfeld. His parents take him to early bird for dinner. I ordered the only fish meal: cod with french fries or a potato pancake with a ketchup cup of applesauce and another of coleslaw which was tasteless and a half of a slice of marble rye which was tasty but why don'tthey give you a whole slice or 2 halves? As for the fish, 3 nice sizes were served. The bottoms were soggy which tells me, besides the fact that everything was cold, not even warm, that the fish was plated and then sat, thus soggy. This particular and only fish dinner is pricey $16 and not worth it. They offer a fish sandwich and you can order off the menu. I went specifically for the fish fry and was disappointed. No specials, no happy hour. But there is very loud noises, a very big screen, large picnic table seating or bar seating and tons of unruly kids running and yelling. The open space was their play ground. This is not acceptable restaurant behavior. It was not a game room. Very disappointing. The kids continued when a man and his sax tried to provide music. He played his sax with a sound track. This would have been good if he stuck to polkas. But he didn't. The songs that weren't polkas were unrecognizable. The restaurant is not handicap accessible and would definitely be hard for a wheelchair to navigate to a picnic table. (the kids are there every Friday I was told. Why, because they're allowed to run around.) And I didn't see any space for wheelchairs. Overall, it's not for me. I also took home 6 chicken wings that we're burnt. That's all I could taste-burnt. Had I opened the take home at the restaurant, I would have returned the order. The large pretzel was icky. It had a somewhat soft interior that was dry and bland. If you like German beer. They offer a large variety at regular prices on a Friday. No specials. The fish fry goes beyond 5p. So why does their advertisement say early bird fish fry like that's a...