Nurnberger Bierhaus — Restaurant in Lake Township

I've never had to write a review like this, but actions like this should be called out when they occur. This establishment denied my biracial family service today. Can I say for absolute certain that it was racism? No. But it sure looked and felt that way. Upon walking in, the host, who looked uneasy, asked for a reservation. Bearing in mind that their website does not have a reservation option, we acknowledge that we didn't have one. That said, we asked how long the wait would be. The gentleman, who didn't seem to want to give us a timeframe, very callously stated "it would be a while." I started getting a feeling that this may not go well. My wife was also getting a feeling about but said okay fine, how about we just eat at the bar, which had plenty of seats. The host reluctantly allowed it. The boss was behind the bar, and though there were plenty of seats, he rudely tried to say that we could not sit because another patron was seated in that area. We showed this bartender that we would be using the seats to the left of that patron's. That bartender then superciliously said we couldn't eat at the bar because we had our kid. The host immediately followed up to support the bartender, falsely stating that by law our kid could not be at the bar. But PA law 47 PS 493(14) clearly allows minors to be in licensed premises with a parent. Worse yet, as we walked out, there were three empty tables sitting there unused. Could there have been reservations for them? Maybe, but we sat in the parking lot of the premises for several minutes, and saw no one else drive in. This kind of thing is hard to prove, but it felt like this place simply did not want a Black man eating at their restaurant. Glad my kid didn't get what was happening.

Edit: To the alleged ‘owner’ that responded below, two things. First, thank you for confirming that the incident took place. I’ve screenshotted your response which will make it easier to pursue state action against you and your business, if we go that route. Second, your defensive response makes it evidently clear that I hurt your feelings, which I find to be absolutely hilarious. To the extent that you now try to hide behind the law in your weak attempt to hide your seemingly pretextual declination, the State of Pennsylvania disagrees with you. It is telling that you do not cite any authority that agrees with your position. Moreover, if it was the case that we could not sit at the bar with our child, then your host would have said so immediately, rather than seating us and bringing up that fabricated law after the fact. At worst, you're racist…at best, you don’t know how to ‘legally’ run your business. Let’s assume arguendo that it’s the latter. Concerning the law, YOU ARE WRONG. I suggest that you stop pretending to be a lawyer and go hire an actual one to explain it. In case you’re too lazy to go look yourself, here’s what the law I cited earlier says: “Minors may only frequent licensed premises if: (a) they are accompanied by a parent; (b) they are accompanied by a legal guardian; (c) they are under proper supervision…” To dumb it down further for you, look at this official PA doc that says “If a minor is with one or both of the minor’s parents, then the minor is permitted to be on the premises[…]The minor and parent(s) can sit anywhere on the premises, including the bar area, and alcoholic beverages can be served to the parent(s) or to any other adult with the minor” (CAN'T POST LINKS ON REVIEWS BUT IT'S THERE TO FIND). Perhaps you're too uneducated to realize that your response suggests even more so that you are a racist. In particular, your pointed (and inaccurate) usages of “mixed marriage,” “marital status,” and “family dynamic” seem highly racial in the context of your statements. In any case, I recommend you deal with your own anger and family dynamic before psychoanalyzing someone else's. Also, feel free to keep digging yourself...

My wife arrived a little early for our reservation, but were seated promptly. They were out of the beer that we really wanted (Köstritzer Schwarzbier), so my wife ordered a German Apfel Martini and I ordered a Erdinger Dunkel bier. My beer was 5 months expired from the best used date listed on the label, but decided that it was cold and didn't taste too bad so I decided to keep it. I lost my taste for it about 1/2 way through and it went flat quickly, but that was OK since I wasn't there to drink a gallon of beer. The wife loved her martini. We ordered appetizers (Reibekuchen served with applesauce and sour cream. And the Nürnberger Rostbratwürstchen served with 2 mustards and german potato salad). All of the appetizers were delicious. The potato pancakes were also very good, but were more like puffy hashbrowns without the typical spices and thinner crunchy pancake I am used to when I have these at Christmas markets in Germany. I ordered a side of Spätzle with cheese which arrived between the appetizer and the main course, really only a couple of minutes before as all of the food came out very fast. The spätzle was ok and the dish tasted more like a mac-n-cheese, but not really too authentic (I think maybe they use water instead of milk in their dough, but I could be wrong). The main courses ordered were Rindergulasch Mit Nudeln and The Farmer's Feast. My wife loved the Goulash after picking out the mushrooms that are not a traditional ingredient for this dish and weren't mentioned on the menu. I tried some and found the sauce too bland. The Farmer's Feast had 4 meats: roast pork, smoked pork chop, bratwürst & double-smoked bacon. The smoked chop fell off the bone and was tender, juicy and delicious. The bratwürst and bacon were also very good. The roast pork reminded me of my mom's home cooking (way overcooked, dry and not edible). The Farmer's Feast was also served with mashed potatoes, sauerkraut & red cabbage. I was very full from all of the different food we were eating, so in being picky, the kraut and cabbage seemed mushy and not so fresh and the potatoes could have really used some pork gravy in the middle of the mash. But wait, that's not all! We actually had dessert. My wife ordered the Apple Strudel and said it was excellent (I was too full to try that one). I ordered the Williams pear schnapps which they were out of, but the server suggested trying a fig schnapps instead and it was actually very good. The service never left us waiting too long and the bus staff was very prompt at clearing dishes that we were finished with. I am only knocking off 1 star for the expired beer and the dry roast pork. Overall we really liked the food and the service. We will definitely return very soon to...

We made a reservation 3 weeks in advance and drove 3 hours to bring our party of 11 from Staten Island to the back woods of Pennsylvania. We used to enjoy this restaurant when they were in Staten Island and thought it would be fun to bring our business to their new location. Our reservation was for 7:30, we arrived at 7 for drinks at the outdoor bar and didn’t get seated in their back room till 8:15. Our waitress did not take drink and appetizer orders for another 20 minutes, she didn’t seem to want to make her way around the large table so it was a lot of yelling over people speak to her. She actually sat down at an empty chair at the other end of the table. Obviously, the orders did not come out right or all together. I finally went to the bar to get 3 waters and glasses with ice that we asked for 3 times. Eventually, our waitress came back to take our dinner orders. We wanted to have one meal prepared to go, to bring back to a sick friend who missed the trip. We were told we couldn’t do that. We also couldn’t substitute any sides for the dinners and had to order full orders if we wanted a different side. After another 20 minutes of watching other tables get served piecemeal, 1 hamburger and an order of spietzel and gravy are brought to the table. 2 minutes later another waitress takes them away and tries serving them to another table. When they refused the plates, she put them back on ours. I watched as the other large tables were all being partially served and realized we were never getting our dinners all together. It took one table of 8 twenty minutes and 4 trips to serve and they were still missing stuff. This place had more than enough staff to handle the crowd and I’ve worked in restaurants that have done a lot more with less. It was like watching waitstaff pinball with the amount of workers that I saw come into and out of the room cluelessly not knowing what to do. The staff was inefficient, unprepared, incompetent and just plain bad at their jobs. Close to 10pm, when our waitress finally came to our almost completely empty table, leaned on a chair and said how nice it was outside, I exploded and we all walked...