Try the German draft beer, the schnitzel and spaetzle, and don’t count calories
A.R. Wodell
Sun
Owners Kiran (left) and Sunny (holding house salad) Manihani and chef Michael Rick (holding wiener schnitzel) stand with fellow staff at the Old Bavaria Haus. Photograph by : Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
Despite its location on one of the less fashionable blocks of New Westminster’s Sixth Street, The Old Bavaria Haus is quite obviously a neighbourhood favourite. It’s located in a converted heritage house with a tiny vestibule, two divided dining rooms downstairs and a smaller one upstairs, plus a Biergarten outside for better times of the year.
The folksy decor is just what you’d expect: the chandeliers seem to be recycled wine casks, the walls bear faux carved plaques, and the washrooms through the swinging wooden doors are labelled in Gothic script.
On our recent Saturday visit the place was crammed, with everyone from teens to great grandmothers enjoying a noisy good time. The restaurant’s website promises “first class European cuisine nestled in a century-old home.”
We’d argue that what’s really on tap, besides two good German draft beers, is the relaxed offering of unconditional culinary nostalgia: no high concept, nothing trendy, just solid, homey food, with no one even thinking about calories.
Menu selections include steak, lamb, or chicken, but the focus is on schnitzels. We tend to be rather old school here, preferring just a squirt of lemon juice and perhaps a sage leaf as garnish, but more adventurous appetites can select from at least 13 varieties: toppings ranging from scallops and shrimp to baked Camembert or oysters Rockefeller.
The Old Bavaria offers a few vegetarian options but the menu’s core is traditional favourites. A first course of lentil soup was just what the term “hearty” was coined to describe. The house combination dinner offered three classics: a well-prepared schnitzel, bratwurst, and rouladen (beef rolls stuffed with almost melting onions, a hint of smoky bacon and dill pickle).
A generous plateful was garnished with veggies, a nice dollop of red cabbage, and spaetzle, that characteristic side dish striking a happy medium between noodles and dumplings.
The special, a pork loin cordon bleu, had dried out very slightly but was still delicious (though we’d quibble about a cloying bit of pineapple nestled inside the ham and cheese filling). The accompanying broccoli and cauliflower were crisp and flavourful, nicely complemented by sinfully good pan-fried potatoes and more red cabbage.
There’s a decent wine list, understandably heavy on German whites, but somehow beer seemed the better option — perhaps due to a subliminal message from a coaster bearing the cheery motto “Life is too short to drink cheap beer.”
Enticing plates of Black Forest cake whizzed past us on their way to other tables, but we passed on dessert on this occasion. It was time to let one of a number of patiently waiting parties have our table.
Current owner Sunny Manihani, who worked for several years in Hamburg, took the restaurant over from the now-deceased Helmut Wadler six years ago, and is looking to open another location in Vancouver. The secret of his success?
“You can’t get a proper schnitzel anywhere else around here,” he offers modestly. The restaurant’s take on “basically Bavarian” cuisine has developed slowly over its 33 years in business according to popular demand; Manihani notes that he sticks to the original recipes and, unlike many restaurants with inflated ambitions, “We sell absolutely every item on the menu all the time.”
The Old Bavarian Haus provides exactly what it promises, and does it well. You could call it determinedly old-fashioned, or you could see it as a model of niche marketing.
– – –
THE OLD BAVARIA HAUS
233 Sixth St., New Westminster.
604-524-5824, www.oldbavariahaus.com
Dinner from 4:30 p.m.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007