Essen Haus Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Madison

In town for one night and wanted authentic German food. Found Essen Haus online and thought we'd give it a try. Used GPS which took us to the back of the building and saw the beach volleyball court. HUH? OK, anyway, drove around the court to park. Walked to one door, found it to be the bar and not the restaurant. Not well marked. Went in the correct door, hostess seated us kinda in the middle of the room. OK, not the best table but we'll see. Very dark, seemingly run-down decor, but definitely German theme. Maybe the food is great. Went to the mens' rest room and was surprised how bad it smelled. WOW. How can this be OK? Went back to the table wondering about the place now. Ordered German meals and waited. Watching the staff. Older guy cleaning tables, seating people, getting silverware and such. Seemed like he'd been there for years. But...every time he bussed a table, he dropped the plates into the bus tub so loudly it was crazy. That's OK here? It was crazy loud. He didn't care. Then, one server was wearing German garb and looked great. But she was the only one. Our server was wearing a Guns 'n Roses T Shirt. Really? Clearly no uniform required. Wear whatcha got, no matter how it looks. Guy carrying food from the kitchen to the central tray stand in shorts and tennis shoes. WOW. Anyway, the food was good, but not great. Service was OK. Overall, I'll bet this restaurant was really good at one time.... a long time ago. Seems like quality and standards just don't matter anymore. I wish we had made another choice and I couldn't recommend Essen Haus....at least not based on what we experienced on this night. It's...

Inedible. My wife and I ate here tonight, November 25 around 4:00. I ordered the spinach spaetzl with no meat, the baked dish. I asked the waitress twice if it had any raw or even partially cooked onions in it. I love cooked onions and cannot eat raw onions. She said they were cooked, but I asked here to tell the chef that I do not want the dish if it had uncooked onions in it.

Also I asked if I had a choice of potatoes like the menu said and she said no that the potatoes were in the spaetzl dish. This was supposed to be a baked dish. It was inedible. The onions were not cooked and neither were any of the other vegetables. There were no potatoes in the dish and it tasted like it was mixed with mayonaise. Even the little bit of cheese on top was not even melted. Furthermore the spaetzl was sitting in 1" of water and mayo-like liquid. I know that vegetarian dishes have not made it to the top of the heap as far as restaurants go, but why would any owner or chef even put something on the menu that they wouldn't stand behind and make just as good as any of their meat dishes. My wife's meat dish and not watered down spaetzl was delicious. At the end of the meal of which I did not eat, my wife tasted my dish and agreed with me that it was inedible. I might have sent the dish back early on, but after serving us the waitress never came back except to bring our check. Our bill was $43.00 and I got 1 1/2...

We visited the Essen Haus on 4/21/19 for their Easter Sunday buffet and we were thoroughly disappointed. From the moment we were seated at a table that positioned in a manner that made accessing all the seats difficult , I began to question our choice for an Easter meal.

The food could be described as adequate, at best. The buffet line was poorly kept and staff were wearing street clothes. The eggs had a funny taste that everyone in our group noticed and the fresh fruit and salad bar had a very limited selection. The lunch options faired a little better than the breakfast options, but still none of the food was outstanding.

The most humorous part of the whole meal was the omlette menu. Omlettes had to be ordered through the wait staff, which wasn't a big deal, however a quick observation of the menu and I noted that 4 options were the same thing less one ingredient:

Denver omelette - ham, cheese and green pepper Ham and cheese omelette Cheese omelette Scrambled eggs

Anyways we thought it was pretty funny.

The buffet was $25 per person, and it tasted, and was presented, like a $10 - $15 buffet. We were very disappointed and we will not be back nor could we ever recommend...