For starters, a kitschy spelling doesn't make you a German restaurant, and to be fair, I don't think that's what the owners had intended, so I think those that would judge this restaurant's German authenticity are a little off the mark. With that said, what I'm about to say may make a lot of fanboys and girls very upset, as I understand that Chef Curry is a star in the valley, and I've been to a few of his past endeavors and quite agree that the mans talents are undeniable...but for me and my party, Brat Haus seemed to have everything down except for the food. The decor is a very cool blend of modernist artsy, and industrial minimalist. Very cool. The service might have been a stretched a little thin, like one reviewer also mentioned, we were sitting at one of the few tables inside, when most of the servers tables were presumably outside, and we felt a little bit like we were at the "kids" table during thanksgiving dinner...a little slapdash "heres your order and your check, thanks for coming." First, the good. There is no shame in the beer list. No shame, Weihenstephaner Hefe, yes please...anytime I can. La Fin du Monde from Unibrou? absolutely...and these are probably two of the most commercial beers out of their selection, so if you've never heard of them, you can imagine what kind of paradise lies waiting for the average beer geek. Just wish those beers had gotten to us a little sooner, and that we might have been asked if we wanted another round. Again, when your at the kids table, just a sip of thanksgiving wine is all you can hope for. If we could rate the place on their beer and fries alone, this would be a whole different review. Belgian Fries, truffle aoli...they honestly couldn't have been more perfect. But it should be about the brats, yes? Partly on our failure, we went straight to the out of the box gourmet section. We had the rattlesnake rippers (rattlesnake sausage) , and the duck duck dates (Date and duck sausage), our logic being we can make beer brats at home, (Damn good ones mind you, if I don't say so myself. but, I guess I just did.), point being we decided to forego the mundane and see what an accomplished Chef known for his skill with cured meats could whip up instead. This was in retrospect a mistake. Both the rattlesnake and the duck at the end of it all, had us craving some good ole beer brats instead. We found these two dogs, uninspired and not nearly as exciting as the quirky names or exotic meats might suggest. The rattlesnake. tasting like dry chicken, was insufficiently seasoned, moist less, and awkwardly skinny in a consequently overwhelmingly sized bun. We could taste neither duck nor dates, in the Duck, Duck Dates sausage, and we had already polished off the fries before the stark realization set in that these dogs were not going to get even close to filling us up. Sharing our disappointments with each other, our party tried to place our proverbial fingers on the source of our ennui, and realized that everything was under seasoned, and we had failed in choosing the appropriate toppings for our peculiar dogs. (You have to pick one before they arrive) We chose pickled red onions, and spicy peppers. We agreed that given the Chefs history, we would have liked to see more of an active hand in his condiment pairings, rather than see a short list of condiments to choose from, i.e....we recommend apricot onion chutney with the duck and date sausage, or better yet, not even a suggestion, but more of an insistence, showing the confidence to say, we know how this rattlesnake shows its best and thus have served it with this fill in the blank accouterment. Left to our own devices and not having known that we wouldn't have classic dog garnishment, i.e...ketchup, mustard, relish...we were left there with our skinny, dry, under seasoned wieners, some sad not so spicy peppers, which helped a little with flavor but not with the dryness...and nothing else. Dessert was the Drunken Date Cake, which was so blase, it had us all hunger games dueling for the measly scoop of vanilla ice-cream melting at its side. Total: 2 dogs, 2 beers, some fries, and one dessert: $43 Yelp rating system classifies 2 stars as "meh, Ive had better" and really thats the best way to describe this experience. If you decide to check out brat haus, my advice is to skip the fancy for now, go straight for the classic, and enjoy some great beers. We however, chose not to take the chance on ordering more, and decided to go and get something to eat. Not something you necessarily want to have to think about as you're leaving a restaurant with $43 bucks less in your pockets, but the truth nonetheless.
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(1). negative
(2). positive
(1).