Edelweiss Biergarten — Restaurant in Phoenix

Great beer, great food -- that is IF THEY'LL ACTUALLY GIVE YOU A TABLE! We've been there five times and have had table hassles three times, including two times we just left without spending money we were very willing to spend.

The very definition of a biergarten is "an outdoor area in which beer and local food are served". Edelweiss seems to ignore that the word biergarten figures prominently in their name.

Visit #1. Asked for a table outside and everything went normal. Great food, great beer.

Visit #2. Asked for a table outside. We were told 'you can sit outside, but it's hot out there and no one will be able to serve you'. Not a very welcome greeting. We turned around and left without spending a dime.

Visit #3. Figured we'd give it another try. Asked for a table outside and everything went normal. Great food, great beer.

Visit #4. Asked for a table outside and were told there was a 20 minute wait. Fine and we were content to wait. In the meantime, another gentleman showed up and asked to take an empty seat at the bar. He was told he had to wait until after us. For an empty seat at the bar? Why? Either way, we were seated after about 10 minutes. But, when we were escorted outside, we discovered a seating area with literally only 1 out of a couple dozen (or more) tables occupied. Why'd we have to wait 10+ minutes when there were a plethora of empty tables? Why'd the other guy have to wait for an empty seat at the bar? Perplexing. Nonetheless, great beer, great food. (The included photo of the empty biergarten is from Visit #4)

Visit #5. It was 4 pm on a beautiful, Spring Friday. The place should've been packed, right? Nope, parking lot was near empty. We entered and asked for a seat outside. The response was "the tables outside haven't been cleaned". I asked if she knew when the tables would be cleaned only to hear a trite reply of "I don't know". Geez, no wonder the parking lot was near empty! We quickly vacated our car without spending a dime.

How can you have a biergarten without an actual biergarten (or one that you actually allow people to sit at)? What a missed opportunity by the place.

Great beer, great food, but needs new management.

UPDATED FOR OWNER'S RESPONSE: Sorry, but that is not the reason -- unless you're writing you're too short-staffed even for a near empty parking lot?! Also, it wasn't a wait, we were sent out the door twice because the 'biergarten' had its 'biergarten' closed. A polite, customer friendly response could've been "we're a little short staffed now, so the service is likely to be slower in the biergarten, but you're still welcome to sit there". Instead, we were met with trite, rude responses to our requests to sit outside. Forget that an actually opened biergarten is an enjoyable experience, isn't there something called Covid going on where most restaurants are leveraging and taking advantage of their outdoor seating capacity? It seems there's probably a reason behind fewer and fewer cars in the parking lot each time we've visited. Still the same, great beer, great food, but needs...

I have been coming to Edelweiss Biergarten for over 3 or 4 years now, and have thoroughly enjoyed it every time, but unfortunately my most recent visit was deeply disappointing.

I took my partner to Edelweiss recently for a birthday celebration on a Monday evening with my parents, as this has been our choice for many birthdays over the years.

The first strange part of the meal experience was that we were given a pitcher of water with paper cups, instead of the usual plastic cups. Looking at the other patrons, they were given the usual plastic ones as well, which I thought odd.

I asked for a bottle of Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier as it is my favorite beer, on a menu with many amazing beers. Strangely this time the server did not give me the bottle and glass, as they traditionally do, gave me the beer in a glass poured presumably in the back.

We had the big pretzel with beer cheese as the appetizer, which was exceptional as always. The beer cheese here is fantastic.

My mother ordered the knackwurst, which was excellent, no complaints. My father ordered the hühnerschnitzel, as did I, and my partner, whom was having their birthday celebrated, ordered the wienerschnitzel.

The hühnerschnitzel was excellent as always, however the spätzle was absolutely revolting. Normally spätzle has a soft, chewy texture. The spätzle we received however had the consistency of baby food, it was complete mush.

I mentioned this to the server, who left and returned with another serving of spätzle, but had the same unfortunate consistency. We ended of requesting a side of fries, which is unfortunate, as this is a German-Hungarian restaurant, which normally has amazing spätzle.

Lastly one of the two wienerschnitzel pieces was completely inedible. Both myself and my mother tried it, and it was quite tough and inedible. When you spend $29.95 on an inedible piece of veal, it is quite frustrating.

We were not charged for the fries, but nothing else was done to rectify or address these issues. Spending this kind of hard earned money on a disheartening meal leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Needless to say, I'm not sure we'll be coming back for more birthday celebrations. I have fond memories of coming for family celebrations, and listening to the fantastic Larry Roberts.

I'm quite sad as this is, or was, the best and truly only good German restaurant in Phoenix, and likely the entire Southwest. I truly hope this was a one time occurrence, and not a sign of changing standards...

I used to go here all of the time before Covid and it was Amazing!! I am not sure what happened… but it was so disappointing. We are from out of state now so we were very excited when we came back to AZ to have some Hungarian food (we are Hungarian). We went in during an off time, there was only one other table (inside) and 4 people at the bar. Our server quickly sat us down with no real greeting and left to talk to the people at the bar. He eventually came back to take our drink order, he made the margarita with the wrong tequila when we specially asked for gold. He fixed it and it was fine. Then we asked if they still had chicken paprikash which was no longer in the menu. The server said they were waiting on getting new menus printed but that they did still have it. I was very excited because this is my favorite dish and I know how delicious it USED to be… i dont know what happened but it was awful… the chicken tasted like it was dropped in the bottom of a smoky BBQ… it was so smoky… and the sauce was very thin and oily… I believe they forgot to put the sour cream in which thickens the sauce and makes it nice and orange… because it was just an oily liquid mess that tasted of nothing other than smoke… I tried to convince myself I just was trying something new bc it tasted NOTHING like chicken paprikash in order to get it down and I literally could not eat it. I asked my husband for some of his schnitzel and did not eat the paprikash . He said he would eat it (he eats everything) but he took two bites and said I can’t do it. When we received our bill I told the server.. (I have never complained about food once… I just take it and move on) and he could not care less.. he said “oh yeah.. i dont know what they did, it’s $50.” (We ordered waters and 2 meals, chicken paprika was $30).

I get it’s not a traditional meal but please don’t say you have it when it was not paprikás csirke at all… it truly was in edible even when you try and convince yourself it’s something else… and when it’s that horrible and you see I still have a full plate… maybe have a little sympathy… the service was basically as bad as my dish…. I’m so disappointed. (the schnitzel was good though atleast… but not worth $50 when thats all we ate...