Otto & Anita's Schnitzelhaus — Restaurant in Portland

The description says old school, but this little gem is OLD SCHOOL like you time traveled 30-years back to Portland in the '90s. Set your expectations accordingly and you won't be disappointed. The quaint dinning room boasts Lions Club and Key Club plaques and hand-painted German countrysides. The dining is paper-napkin casual with excellent service.

First out was superb sourdough brotchen rolls with butter in a basket lined with a coffee filter. Then, an amazing, surprising, delicious creamy dill pickle soup reminiscent of the Moosewood Cookbook/Old Wives Tales Hungarian Mushroom soup if you subbed out grated pickles for mushrooms. This is a must try, it's simultaneously rich and creamy but bright. The salad was little clear plates of pre-assembled simple salad with lettuce, a few cherry tomatoes, pickled onion, packaged croutons and a plastic monkey dish of store-bought dressing.

Then came the schnitzel entrees. Each with cooked carrots, cooked spinach, yummy spätzle and several pork tenderloin schnitzels. My daughter's Kaiserschnitzel came with an amazing caper-cream sauce, my wife's Rhamschnitzel with a delicious brandy-mushroom cream sauce and my Jagerschnitzel with a disappointing beef mushroom sauce that tasted like packaged brown gravy mix. Don't get me wrong, I ate every bite. All the meat was perfectly cooked.

I considered being disappointed in the narrow beer offerings from a spoiled nouveau-Portland perspective, but in fairness, they offered some 4 superb German beers on draft and another four in bottles. We were very happy with our beers.

I've tried to be honest here. We had a great time and would return. I'm excited to try my hand at making a pickle soup. I'd avoid the jager next time and try something else. They had to close during Covid and are making a new go of it with the chef (Anita's) newly replaced hip. We were treated like family and this place was fun...

Pretty good German restaurant. Definitely local, definitely "mom & pop". It looks a little dingy both outside & inside but don't let that fool you. Otto & Anita know what they're doing; and if you're looking for home-style German food, let Otto & Anita take care of you. You'll find all the fan favorites -- schnitzels, Bavarian pretzels, bratwursts, etc. I definitely recommend the breaded schnitzels over the non-breaded ones. All the entrees come with either salad or their dill pickle soup. The soup didn't sound good to me but apparently it's what the restaurant is known for (in fact the recipe for the soup is on the back of their business card!). I felt obliged to order the dill pickle soup and it was the right decision. I really can't describe it...it was a little creamy, very briny, and definitely tasted like a dill pickle. There were tiny bits of pickle in the soup. It was surprisingly good. There was also a huge selection of pastries & other dessert items. The real winner was the apple strudel. The presentation of the food wasn't very pretty. It definitely looked like a family dinner at home. And like I mentioned, the inside feels a little old & dingy; I remember it had a burgundy carpet. I wouldn't go out of my way to eat here, but it's a good restaurant for those who live in &...

Here is what you are going to get. It's a very Portland restaurant-a bunch of tables and décor tossed around an old residential house with uneven floors and no parking lot. There are two serving staff and two cooks. It will probably take a while at each step-seating, getting your order, etc, but they clearly all work very hard. You will get a plate of food-meat, vegetables and spatzel usually. The spatzel is amazing-the right combination of doughy and crisp, very tasty. The food is excellent, but it's very home-cooked style (your Rahmschnitzel may look very different from your SO's Rahmschnitzel) which can be good or bad depending on what you are here for. If I had a German grandmother, I imagine this is what it would feel like to eat at her place, right down to eating my veggies so I don't make her mad. If you want homey and satisfying, go here and you won't be disappointed. If you want stylish and professional with restaurant food, you will be disappointed.

We had: Swiss Chicken, Rahmschnitzel, Pickle Soup. The Pickle soup is like any good creamy soup but with pickles-definitely...