Schulzes Schnitzel Kitchen — Restaurant in Knoxville

New to the area, we searched for German food and decided to drive the 50 minutes to try this Schnitzel Kitchen. We were disappointed for several reasons. The sauer braten gravy tasted like it was from a mix. "Potato salad" on the menu wasn't German potato salad, it was mayonnaise based with relish. The schnitzel was bland, and one of the eggs was very undercooked, even for sunny side up. (See picture.) All served on cardboard.

As far as the service is concerned, we walked in and were ignored, until they realized we didn't have masks on, and needed masks to walk the 15 feet to the first empty table. (Many TN restaurants aren't enforcing the mask edict.) Fine, we complied and donned masks for a few seconds while we walked a few steps to a table. We sat there a bit until the same young man came to our table to inform us, there was no table service.

We understand current pandemic restrictions, but in 38 degree weather were told we had to go outside to the beer garden to order, then "set a timer" on our phones to come back outside to get our food. They wouldn't walk inside a few feet to walk our food in to our table. We could place drink orders at the bar, but they would not take our food order to the kitchen, a few feet away, inside.

When we questioned it, we were told, "we're really more of a brewery than anything else." Maybe they should change the name, as it's less, "kitchen" and mostly brewery by the staff's own admission.

So, come for the beer, not for the food or the service, and you'll likely be happy.

Come for over priced German food and you'll be...

Neat concept. The atmosphere, small Christmas Market and German Christmas music are the closest reminder of our visit to Christmas Markets in Austria and Germany. We arrived just after opening with sparse customers at the establishment. We ordered two giant pretzels and an apple strudel with ice cream. Thirty five plus minutes later our food pager had still not gone off. On inquiring at the cash register, the employee stated they had forgotten our order and finally gave us our food without any apology or extras. With the long wait, we had our hopes for fresh, hot pretzels. But they turned out to be cold, hard and not fresh even with the wait. Obviously not baked that morning. The strudel was also cold but decent. So what was the point of issuing us a buzzer (which was ultimately faulty) when they could have just handed us the cold pretzels 35+ minutes earlier while paying? Very disorganized establishment with poor customer service skills. Mistakes do happen, but with that big of a blunder, they should have made it up to us on the spot. Instead they have lost potential...

Schulz Brau is one of the two gems of Knoxville's craft brewery scenes and one of the main reasons for this is it's kitchen. The food is authentic German with plenty of the ingredients being sourced from Germany.

There is a fantastic spread of choices, from light (for German food) dishes to heavy fulfilling meals which pair perfectly with their Rauchbier (my favorite). There should be something for everyone on the menu but this is a chance to really try and step outside of your comfort zone and try something different as you probably have not had a lot of their menu items.

The food is made to order and there is typically a decent line on your typical busy nights as the venue itself holds a large amount of people due to the fantastic mezzanine so be prepared to have a bit of a wait.

If you are looking for one of the best atmospheres, beer selections and authentic German food, you are in the right place at...