Kaiserhoff New Ulm — Restaurant in New Ulm

If I could give this place zero stars, I would. We planned a day trip on our Harleys specifically for this place and the sauerkraut balls. We were so excited! If I could go back and tell my little group… turn around; go to White Castle instead.

The meal started off with a small brown something in friend 2’s soda. We think it may have been a bug. He sent it back and stuck with water. We should have ran right then and there.

The sauerkraut balls. insert gagging here The outside looked delicious. The inside? Mush. Nothing inside this ball of mucous resembled sauerkraut. It had a distinct taste of actual vomit to me (my 2 companions disagreed, but they hated them too).

Me and friend 1 played it safe and order fried mushrooms and fried cauliflower after the nasty vomit balls and bug soda. Friend 2 had the German sampler. How can you screw up fried mushrooms/cauliflower; typical bar food, right? Well, this place can. The cauliflower was edible, but the mushrooms were over-fried on the outside and really wet and undercooked on the inside. Friend and I each tried one and couldn’t choke down another.

Friend 2 took 1-2 bites of everything on the German Sampler and that was enough for him. Friend 1 and I tried a small fork tip of each of his items and that was more than enough. The 2 sausages were probably from the Walmart clearance freezer. Dry and tasted like cardboard. The ribs may have been decent when they first cooked them 3 days ago. Their “special” BBQ sauce I suspect is just ketchup and mayo mixed together. The red cabbage is nothing but vinegar and you really shouldn’t have more than 1 tiny bite. The potato salad seems to have had an entire 5 pound bag of sugar mixed in it. The mushy warm “sauerkraut” under the Walmart meat didn’t look anything akin to kraut. I refused to even taste it after the reactions from my friends small bites. We all ate some hard candy friend 1 carries on her bike to get the taste out of our mouths immediately after leaving.

Bonus: There were actual German tourists at the table next to us. They left the same time we did with lots of food left on their plates. Outside, I asked what they thought of the food. They all chuckled and looked at each other and politely said, “That’s not German food. It was not good.”

The waitress was friendly and nice. I did give her a decent tip. It’s not her fault the recipes were given to the place from Helen Kellers Book of...

The inside of the building is gorgeous! Wow—everything is put together beautifully, and I love the atmosphere. Staff was friendly and service was quick.

The food was overall alright, but the main dishes weren't my favorite. We ordered the soup of the day, Kaiserhoff's Famous Sauerkraut Balls, Jaeger Schnitzel, and the Kaiserhoff German Sampler.

The soup we chose was a cabbage soup. This was one of my favorites: the texture was very pleasing—Cauliflower was soft and varied in size. It was noticeably cauliflower, but in a mild and delicate way, and very creamy. There was also a very unique spice in there, but I couldn't recognize what it was. Maybe nutmeg or caraway? Either way, it was delicious.

The Sauerkraut Balls were very good as well! They were crisp on the outside and very soft and creamy on the inside. I liked that there was cheese, but not an overwhelming amount.

The Jaeger Schnitzel was okay. I found that it was unpleasantly salty from both the breading and gravy, but that may be a personal preference. The first few bites were good though, and the mushrooms were nicely cooked. The spetzel that came with it was alright too.

I appreciate that there is a sampler platter to try multiple things. Potato salad was delicious and I would order this again. It's creamy with potato chunks, and a very unique taste to it. The bratwurst and landjaegar were pretty good—bratwurst had nice flavor to it. I found that the landjaegar was a bit too salty from my preference. Their ribs were tender and sweeter than I expected—it almost reminded me of cha siu ribs, minus some slices. I liked their rye bread, and it was really good with butter and their sauerkraut and red cabbage. I don't think I would eat the two plain, but again, personal preference.

Overall, I think this was an alright place. I loved the atmosphere, and that the building was so huge! but I wasn't amazed by it. Some of it, yes, but overall, no. I'd say it's around 3.3–3.6 stars. Last note: the women's sink handle is broken, and will pop off unless pulled straight up.

I love the soup though,...

I was in town visiting some family, and apparently this is The place to go to for a nice dinner. We drove to downtown New Ulm, checked out the evening cuckoo clock show, and got seated right at reservation time.

They served 1919 Root Beer, which was all I needed, so while I downed about three mugs of that, I had my meal. The main thing I got was the..

Kaiserhoff German Sampler (Kaiserhoff Ribs, Landjaeger, Bratwurst, red cabbage, German potato salad, sauerkraut, and bread). Dear lord, these ribs. Fall off the bone, and surrounded in some sort of sauce-based crust that had some amazing crunch around those moist, succulent ribs.

The two sausages were also good. If you like sausages, you'll get a kick out of these two very different flavors and textures. Good stuff. And the potato salad, very different from anything I've ever had before, ooey and gooey, no texture really, but acidic, which was nice compared to the meaty ribs and sausages.

I also got to try the Wiener Schnitzel (Breaded veal complimented with red cabbage) (Served with spaetzles with gravy and coleslaw). Oooh I loved this. Breaded perfectly, very crunchy. Cooked perfectly, not dry at all. And spaetzle is like my favorite side dish. Slathered with grazy, like schnitzel and dumplings. What a meal.

Overall, this was a lovely meal in a lovely little town. I would come back and hope...