Mader’s Restaurant - Milwaukee, WI
Beer & Cheese Dip with Pretzel Crostini - Munich’s Spaten beer, Wisconsin cheddar and cream cheese dip, topped with pico de gallo
This was pretty disappointing. It was good, but was ultimately a dish I’m used to seeing only at potlucks served in a sloppy, boring, lack-of-attention caterer style. I expected more from a ... restaurant. This could have come out of a jar. It tasted good, but doesn’t belong on a menu at a place like this.
Bavarian Sauerbraten - roast beef marinated for ten days, oven roasted and topped with gingersnap sauce, served with red cabbage and spätzle.
Sauerbraten is, somewhat obviously, more of a classic German (rather than German-influenced American a la beer and cheese dip) dish. In a city of rich German heritage but a dwindling number of German restaurants, Mader’s would be first in my mind of any restaurant to represent authentic, baseline-worthy German food. I’m not sure that’s what I was served. I’ve only had sauerbraten once or twice before, so I’m not an expert on what to expect, but this felt lacking from a generically critical perspective. The beef seemed overcooked and was a little tough, though plentiful in serving size. The sauce was dominatingly sweet with no other obvious layers of flavor. The cabbage was all-together missing from the plate; a major strike. The spaetzle was quite good - nice egg flavor, springy texture, and unfortunately adulterated the sauce flowing off of the beef. My rating of Mader’s is saved by the spaetzle from a worse fate.
