A Shoreditch Stodgefest*

Friday was a special day as Anne, Nicola and I went to the Bavarian Beerhouse near Old Street. I wasn't really sure what to expect but can confirm an authentic German experience was had by all. Dirndls, dodgy music and stodgy food were all in abundance, though we managed to restrain ourselves and not order Kleiner Feigling, even for old times's sake.

Tempting as it was to try some Weisswurst again (yes, I have had it before for my sins), we decided to forgo starters for fear of never reaching pudding. This turned out to be a wise move indeed and instead we kicked off the evening with pretzels (hurrah!) and beer. The pretzels really were everything a good pretzel should be - tasty, bready and crunchy, though I'm pretty sure we were brought margarine instead of lovely German butter.

In some ways, the beer menu was a little disappointing, but they have the main favourites and serve proper German measures of 0,3; 0,5 and 1 litre. I still can't quite bring myself to drink 1l measures outside of beer festivals though, not least because there is something hugely disturbing about having to lift up your drink with both hands. Anyway...Paulaner, Erdinger and Warsteiner were the main menu choices. I went with the Erdinger Hefeweizen which tasted predictably great. I tried to encourage people to order Diesel (beer and coke, for those who have never seen the horrors) but sadly nobody would.

Our genius idea for the main course was to order three meals and share them. I was particularly keen on this, as this was my first Bavarian style meat extravaganza since renouncing vegetarianism in all its forms a couple of years ago. A second tricky decision was made and we decided not to order Kaesespaetzle (lovely German pasta in cheese sauce) and instead plumped (I fear this may be the operative word for the evening!) for Kartoffelpuffer with salad, Schweinebraten with potato dumpling and red cabbage and Biergulasch (my views as an eduator means I am not prepared to translate!) with red cabbage and Spaetzle. I'd say all the food was very authentic - certainly tasty and very stodgy! The Biergulasch was probably the best dish though although the Schweinebraten (roast pork) was very tender and the Kartoffelpuffer (potato cakes) really got the mix of outer crispiness and inner fluffiness just right.


Potato dumpling has never been one of my favourite bits of German stodge, but that was good, especially mixed with gravy. The Spaetzle however were fantastic and if anyone has not tasted the brilliance of Spaetzle in general, then I'd certainly recommend trying them here. The red cabbage was also very good. It was sweet in what I thought was quite a sugary way, but there was a nice subtle aftertaste of what I suspect was cloves, and, being a German dish, caraway seeds.

None of us actually had any space for pudding, but that didn't deter us from ordering what is in my mind one of the finestfoodstuffs ever, Kaiserschmarrn. My Austrian cookbook doesn't offer a translation, though does note that the word Schmarrn iself means 'a trifle tossed off easily'. I however would describe Kaiserschmarrn as a kind of messed up pancake with raisins and this is exactly what we were given, with the added bonus of icing sugar, cream and orange. Delicious. And a perfect end to my pancake week.

*I am pretty sure the Beerhouse is not actually in Shoreditch. But I am not letting geographical accuracy interfere with the best title I could think of for this post. After all, it is certainly not far from there...