Mountain Brauhaus — Restaurant in Town of Gardiner

I have driven by several times and the parking lot always looked busy and the place looked cute. I always wanted to go and a few friends said it was good. Tonight the parking lot was fairly full but the restaurant just wasn't full at all.

Now if you want some unusual beer this is the place. But don't stay for dinner.

Some of the beer is served in small glasses and you must understand that they have 11% alchohol and with Dram Shop Laws in NY State you must be able to count your guests drink consumption and 2 of these is not like having 2 Budweisers. The bar is what you would expect of an older German spot with a collection of steins on the top shelf. Cute.

The hostess was smartly dressed with a chic haircut. And this is where the good stuff ended. They tell people No a lot. No you can't have a reservation later than 6:45 we close at 7 (7? Yes really.) No, we are out of that beer. No you can't have a hamburger or sandwich written right on the menu. I overheard "No we don't have that Rioja wine but I brought you a Cab.

Some of the servers wear Fraulein peasant outfits which would be cute if they hadn't been washed 200 times. The dining room had no atmosphere. There appeared to be big oil stains on the carpet. Lots of tchotchkes adorn the walls but they really are not cute.

So all the meals come with pumpernickel bread. I love a loaf of warm pumpernickel with some soft whipped butter. My dinner companion bet me $10 it would be foil wrapped iced butter. He won. The hint he said was the cheap paper napkins. The bread was thin, somewhat hard with raisins, likely bought at Restaurant Depot in Newburgh. Totally disappointing. Their house made onion vinaigrette was nothing exciting either. Now there was a lot of ellaspsed time between courses yet they were not busy. (Was it not the regular chef?) I had chicken snitchel with Jaeger sauce. It was decent but my companion said the piece I gave him was dry. The red cabbage was excellent. The spatzel, well I bought some at Aldi last week, it was no better. The flavor was the same as Aldis this texture was too fluffy and Aldi's wasn't fluffy enough. I'm like Goldilocks here. My companions meal was a sausage platter. Sausages should roast or get sauteed to get a nice unami flavor. I guess these were boiled. The casings gleamed like plastic and the flavor was bland. Super bland. I think they said they make them there (did I remember that right?) Shoperite has better.The saurkraut was OK not too tart but nothing too special. The German Potato salad was mushy, like they should have made mash potatoes with those potatoes instead.

All through dinner the phone (actually 2 phones, different rings) rang. Almost all the time. I'm wondering why considering how much I'm enjoying my meal. I over heard No repeatedly too. Eventually we heard an Austrian waltz.

The servers and bussers by 7:15 were looking around knowing they were closed wondering how much longer we might be there. I wanted Black Forrest Cake but we were told they made their desserts on the premises and my companion convinced me that might not be a good thing so we had dessert at another restaurant

Damn shame. I haven't had food at a German Restaurant in a long time and really wanted something charming and delicious. I guess I must go to NYC. This place could be wonderful but it has a bad case of...

Deeply disappointed with our recent experience at The Mountain Brauhaus. We have been here before...Maybe five years ago and were very pleased with the meal we ordered. Fast forward five years to yesterday and how things have changed. We started by sharing a Reuben Strudel and Absolutely Perfect. It was perfect in every way. That's where the fun ended. Our foursome ordered These four menu items and this is how they went:

1.SPRING CHICKEN SALAD – House Salad with Grilled Murray’s Chicken, Local Apples, Toasted Almonds, Oranges, Basil Pesto & Citrus Vinaigre"e $19.00 Assessment: A tiny amount of salad with EXTREMELY dry Chicken strips.

A LA HOLSTEIN – Wiener Schnitzel w/ Fried Egg, Anchovies, Capers, Spaetzle & Seasonal Vegetable Pork $30.00 Assessment : A paper thin piece of Schnitzel-ed pork with way too many capers, sardines and anchovies. So much Tart and pucker from those ingredients made it very hard to really enjoy the Pork. The pork was quite "flavored" by all that tartness even after removing all of it from the plate.

SAUERBRATEN – Choice Beef marinated in Vinegar & Spices; w/ Sweet & Sour Gravy, Spaetzle & Braised Red Cabbage $28.00 Assessment: The flavor was on point, the spaetzle was great, Red Cabbage was the perfect accompaniment for the braised beef. However, the Beef was so over cooked and dry it required a sip of drink after each bite. Kinda sucked the wind out of the entire dish. This cut of beef requires 200 degrees (exactly) to render the fat and break down the meat fibers properly. This meat was brought to a minimum of 210-215 , which cooked the meat to beyond the point that it could retain any moisture.

HÜNCHENSANDWICH – Bell & Evans Chicken (Grilled or Schnitzel-ed) with Melted Emmenthaler Cheese, Black Forest Ham, Garlic-Parsley Aioli, Baby Greens & Tomato, on a toasted Pretzel Bun; served w/ Fresh-Cut Fries or House Salad, Coleslaw & Pickle $18.00 Assessment: Even all the delicious sounding ingredients couldn't help that (exactly like the Spring Chicken Salad) Super dry Chicken placed on that bun with such a tiny amount (maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoons worth) of the Garlic-Parsley Aioli ( you could still clearly see the bun through the Aioli), which could have ....may have.... helped that chicken out a drop at least.

Final Thoughts: They've been in business since Moses wore short pants. A degree of complacency has developed to where they're just doing it by the numbers and sending it out the door like they have forever. Management has stopped tasting what's coming out of the kitchen for whatever reason. I know this because if someone was randomly checking what the cooks are putting out, they would have caught all the over cooked/ dried out meat being served. So close....yet so disappointingly DRY.

We will not be making the drive (one hour) again. Time marches on....things change.....Not always...

We were looking for a place to eat after our strenuous hike through High Peter's Kills Trail and we found this place on Yelp. Very close to Minnewaska State Park Preserve, and we had never tried German food, so we were interested and had no expectations.

We walked in and we're greeted by all the workers in our vicinity. The place was very clean and inviting. It felt as if you were going into a family member's home. The interior decor was beautiful and they even have a fully functioning payphone that they still use to this day. We were seated quickly and given our menus by our server Danielle (who was a phenomenal waitress by the way), which said menus are clear and easy to follow (remember, we never had German food and we had no idea what most of the names of the dishes really meant).

We started by sharing the Goulash Soup and Pretzel with the Smoked Gouda, and got the Satin Solitude Stout and the Braggot cocktail. Everything was bursting with so much flavor and cooked perfectly. The pretzel was literally the best pretzel we ever had, and the smoked Gouda was the perfect pairing. Even their mustard and horseradish that came with the pretzel was phenomenal. The goulash was very tender and just delicious. The portions were perfect for appetizers. Our drinks were absolutely delicious. I especially loved my Braggot cocktail, as I had never had anything that tasted like that before. I ended up getting a second one.

The entrees we got were the Pot Roast Dinner and the Zwiebel Rostbraten. The pot roast was so savory and flavor, but never salty or overbearing. The gravy is amazing with the mashed potatoes and the meat was super tender. The Zwiebel Rostbraten was our favorite though. Nothing against the pot roast, but it was just literally the greatest thing ever. Everything on the plate went perfectly together and we couldn't stop saying how delicious it was. We barely were able to finish our plates as the servings were generous (especially the amount of meat they gave) but it was perfect as we were so hungry from our hike.

We were disappointed only for the fact that we ate so much that we didn't have any space for dessert. We're planning to come back to try more things on their menu. The food is also not expensive at all, considering how perfectly everything is portioned. Combined with the excellent customer service and the warm, welcoming atmosphere, it's really a no brainier for anybody in the area to try this place. We live pretty far (Westchester county) but it's absolutely worth the drive. It really...