Road Trip: Brau Haus - Oldenburg, Indiana

We have some friends from Cincinnati that we meet every so often sort of halfway between our houses—this puts us just about squarely in Oldenburg and now we have made it our personal goal to try all the restaurants in the very cute German town. This time we hit up the Brau Haus, a charming looking place set in what looks like an old house—it’s actually quite small on the inside. Just a 6-8 tables on the family side and about the same on the bar side.  It feels very German, with wooden booths throughout and plenty of Warsteiner available.

For our Vorspeisen (appetizers), we shared a couple of orders of sauerkraut balls with Dusseldorf mustard ($5.99). I was kind of wondering how much I would like these, but these were actually really tasty. Inside the breaded balls, there was chopped sauerkraut and some corned beef. They all sat on top of lightly browned sauerkraut and were served with strong spicy mustard—similar to Dijon but even stronger—a fair amount of kick. We all really enjoyed these. It was a great combo for sure.

This town seems to battle over fried chicken, and I am game to try it all of course. I had a half chicken with a side of mashed potatoes ($13.50) (it also comes with a salad bar, but honestly, we completely forgot about it with all of our catching up). This chicken was good—it was more of the seasoned really crispy skin with less breading than others—and while it was seasoned, it wasn’t as peppery as Wagner’s, which I assume is their main competition since the restaurants are shockingly similar—in décor and menu.  It is pretty tender inside though, which can always be a curse with white meat. They cut the breast into smaller pieces (including a keel), which may make it more even to cook. I enjoyed the chicken, but I’d say Wagner’s wins that particular battle.

However, hubby ordered the pork schnitzel dinner ($13.99) and it was outstanding. It was a big, fairly thick piece of pork tenderloin that is breaded and seasoned and pan-fried. Wow, was it good (and look they put wedges of boiled egg on top! How lovely!). The pork, while thick, was tender and cooked just right and the seasoning was more prevalent than in the chicken. There was also rich brown gravy on the bottom that hubby enjoyed, but I really liked it best with just a squeeze of lemon.

The schnitzel comes with red cabbage and potato pancakes (also the salad bar) and whoa—I loved, loved those potato pancakes. They were fairly dense patties made with shredded potatoes, a fair amount of seasoning, and then fried. Seriously, they had such fresh potato flavor and just exactly the right crispiness. You didn’t need anything with them. Nothing. There is no way I would ever go here again and not get these. Actually, I think with as generous as the portions are, hubby and I could easily split his dinner and be totally happy and full.

Overall, it was another positive Oldenburg dining experience. I can’t say that this would be the healthiest town to live in, and dine out in, as everything I have really enjoyed has been fried, but it’s tasty. And hey, there are still a couple of other places to check out on future visits.

Brau Haus

22170 Water Street

Oldenburg, IN 47036

812/934-4840

www.oldenburgbrauhaus.com