My in-laws are very mild mannered people and I try not to pick places to eat that are loud and obnoxious because we end up spending the meal asking each other to repeat ourselves and exercising politeness that absolutely nobody around us is exercising. Just isn't the right mix.
That's why when we went to Gastovs over in NE many years ago it was a TERRIBLE idea! We went with my whole family - people who are the quintessential opposite of mild mannered. In fact it is a complete and total prerequisite that das boot makes an appearance, at least a whole meter of sausage is eaten and snuff is a competitive event.
I told myself I could be a bridge between the two families. Ya, a bridge to hell. My poor in-laws were swallowed into a sea of loudness, booze and completely overwhelmed by the restaurant.
But, being a good German girl I wanted German food for my birthday so when we picked a restaurant i decide we should try the Glockenspiel in St. Paul. I remember being there with KG a while back and the food was good - we had a swine hawk - it was brazed and really delicious. The spatzle was good, the red cabbage was good and the German potato salad was good too. The atmosphere was relatively calm and it wasn't overwhelming in the least.
So, I probably wouldn't blog about this if everything went as planned. Instead we got the last table in the open area by the entrance, our appetizer - a $7 custard bowl of pickled herring and about a dozen ritz crackers before we got our drinks. When the food came they dropped it off and never came back. Fortunately everything was completely marginal and we didn't have any looming issues that would drive us to have to hunt our waitress down or sit and give her the stink eye until her back is warming from the shear determination and irritation my gaze.
I had the jagerschnitzle, it was marginal, not really tender, a bit gristly and bland, the spatzle was flaccid and totally flavorless. And my mother in law got the spagzle type mac n cheese and it looked like wall-paper glue and she said it was fine but a bit bland. Remember at this point that the family is a Midwestern Norwegian family so they know what bland is - and that was bland as bland could be.
Everyone else had the sausage.. it was fine but a plate of sausage with cabbage and nothing else is a little lite for the price - unless you are on an adkins diet in which case you would order two.
They ran out of hi-chairs and booster seats so the group behind us had their toddler on a chair with a pillow. What a bummer. That group also had the host come and apologize more than once about the long wait.
The menu was unremarkable - slight variations on the same ingredients. A lot of pork, sausage, spatzle and kraut.
The table just to their side told the waitress when she finally came back around that they were given the wrong dinner. By that time the other people in the party had already finished their meals and that poor guy hadn't had a bite. Apple strudel and a smile was not going to fix that.
Finally, the candle on top of the birthday cake happened when a little old guy left to his car and slapped his waitress on the tush so hard the crack actually caught my mother-in law's attention. My eyes were as big as saucers and when I told her what made the noise she thought it was pretty funny. The old guy had such a happy look on his face - he knew what he was doing. I hope to be naughty and get away with it when I am an old woman too.
So, all in all - I give the Glockenspiel a super C rating. In my husband's words - the price point did not massage the value.
Gastovs was loud but it was fun and the food wasn't too bad. Next we are going to the black forest in Mpls.
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