Alpine Haus Restaurant — Restaurant in New Braunfels

We visited for the first time Easter 2025. We live in Switzerland for a while and got to appreciate Germanic food there and in Austria and Germany. We are a bit picky. We picked up the college yute and headed south to New Braunfels. The restaurant is unassuming from the outside. There was plenty of parking. When we went inside - boom - we were transported to a restaurant in Europe. Wow. The tables were mostly full. Be sure to make a reservation. There are several rooms with tables. The inside is decorate with brick and decor just like a place we like near Zurich. Very nice looking. The service was excellent and efficient. We started with some fried zucchini - I don't mind saying the best I ever had. The appetizer is very large and easily fed the three of us. Then the yute and I had a side salad with a fantastic dill dressing. They lady had a mushroom soup that she liked. A pumpernickel / rye type of swirled bread was served also, with butter. The lady had pork Jager schnitzel and mushroom gravy, potato salad and red cabbage. She said it was great, but could only eat half and got the rest to go. The yute tried the double sausage plate (smoked and bratwurst) with German potato salad, red cabbage. It came with a mustard and a cheese dipping sauce. He enjoyed the smoked, but like the bratwurst better. I had the chicken zigeuner schnitzel with spaetzle, and red cabbage. Let me take a moment - that schnitzel was so large, flattened, moist and cooked perfectly that I don't think I had it better in Europe. Cheers to the chef. I had a Hungarian type gravy with paprika and peppers. Delicious. The red cabbage was excellent - not too sour or sweet. The spaetzle were fresh and just great. I had my gravy on the side in a small bowl as I wasn't sure what it would taste like. I would recommend for everyone to get the gravy on the side so you can share flavors. We were so full we forgot to try a dessert (next time). I am not sure how long Alpine Haus has been in business, but it was a great experience with delicious...

Not what is used to be! It is still expensive but the quality is now gone! All entrees here are overpriced, however the taste used to make it worth it! They have lowered themselves to below Krause's If that is even possible. Waitress was gone most of our meal. If you need water, order at least two glasses per person. There are only like 4 sections in restaurant so 4-5 tables per waitress. We were alone in our section. Wine was good. You can expect basically like everywhere else, an $8.99 bottle of wine from HEB will cost you $13.99 - $15.99 per glass. Appetizers are $18 for a pretzel for example. The Bread is still wonderful, red cabbage & Sauerkraut is still yummy, potatoes were YUKKY! My spouse got the chicken cutlet Jagerschnitzel $29.99, it is $34.99 if veal, and I got the Zigeuner Schnitzel also a chicken cutlet for $29.99. They looked and tasted exactly the same. I used to love their sausages but I am on a special diet and cannot have pork anymore. The kitchen has always told us the Zigeuner schnitzel has no pork or beef stock. Thought that was odd considering the brown gravy. The new kitchen staff says that all the sauces are pork based and has always been. WOW! The waitress had told us the potato soup and potato salad (cold) had no pork, but they were both chocked full. I understand that pork makes everything taste better, well in most cases!, but they should put this information on the menu. All it says on the menu is the Zigeuner gravy is bell pepper and onion based. The Jager is mushroom based. Eating area is still cute, smell in hallway to bathroom will curl your stomach. They may need to get the old kitchen staff back, even if they lied, they were far better. The chicken cutlet used to be so tender that you could eat it with gums alone, I used to wonder if it was actually veal.. maybe it was? Chicken we ate last evening was kind of tender, but I had a tough time swallowing some areas before I gave up. Hope they do something new. This used to be the best German food in New Braunfels....

Atmosphere, decor and service was great. Our server was very sweet and attentive. Now, I’m German (not german descent or born in Germany and raised in the US). I only moved to the US 12 years ago and absolutely know what simple German food should taste like. First things first, the baked Brie was amazing, definitely enjoyed it BUT its traditionally served with compote Lingonberries. Now if that’s not available Cranberries will do, but raspberry jam? Seems lazy and cheap to me. Nonetheless we really enjoyed it and was willing to actually just ignore the jam.

Now onto the The Schweinebraten. Oh my. First things first. The sauce, gravy whatever you want to call it was barely existent, Color was off (nice dark color would be ideal) and there war zero flavor. I had to add so much salt and pepper to even make it edible. But then I cut into the meat and lets just say it was dry as an off tasting that I had to order something else. The waiter was super nice and let me order a Schnitzel which I enjoyed, but here again the breading (Panade) definitely lacked flavor. (A little s&p is all it needs).

The dumplings were ok, nothing special. Definitely had better. Bratkartoffeln are just fried potato cubes.

Now onto to the Cordon Bleu. My husband was first shocked to see the cheese and ham laying on top of the super thin Schnitzel and we laughed it off since we never tried it like that before, but was disappointed with the first bite. It’s definitely a lazy and overpriced schnitzel that I could have cooked better myself. The special thing about a cordon bleu is when you cut in and the gooey cheese melts from in between your two layers of schnitzel. There was non of that. One layer of thin schnitzel with a layer of cheese and ham on top. Takes less than 3 min to prepare this and therefore tasted absolutely underwhelming. For the price we paid we expected more and definitely better food.

Overall this restaurant could do better as it’s a really simple menu.

P.S. adding parsley to every dish...