Wednesday, August 17, 2016

German Food in LA


Schnitzel with spaetzel at Wirtshaus

This summer, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Germany, which should be considered more of a food lover's destination (maybe I'll write something up about that but if you're interested, I covered it on Instagram).  Upon returning home, I was craving some traditional German food. There aren't a lot of options in LA, but here are two that I really liked.

Wirtshaus, on La Brea, has many traditional German dishes including sausages and schnitzel. I enjoyed the schnitzel and spaetzel (a German pasta) and they make a really great pretzel. Their strength, though, is really their beer and pretzels. They have a massive German beer selection and the pretzels are baked fresh, come out piping hot and have a great crusty outside and chewy inside.

Alpine Steinhaus, in Torrance, is located in the Alpine Village, a bizarre, cheesy recreation of an Alpine Village with a mix of German themed shops. It feels like a cross between Epcot Center and a horror movie set, but the food is great. There is a German market with a fantastic selection of salami and house-made sausages as well as German packaged food. The restaurant is also surprisingly good with some of the sausages offered at the market, very good schnitzel and a garlicky, pan fried spaetzel. The food is comparable to Wirtshaus though Alpine does a better spaetzel and Wirtshaus does better pretzels and has a much better beer selection.

Bratwurst with spaetzel at Alipine Steinhaus

If you know of any other good German food in LA, let me know (but no currywurst places please; I'm really not a fan of currywurst).

Wirtshaus
345 N La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036 
(323) 931-9291

Alpine Steinhaus (Alpine Village)
833 W Torrance Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90502 
(310) 327-4384

3 comments:

Steffen said...

I am also a big fan of german food. Like everywhere else you just have to look for the good restaurants. I really dislike currywurst as well, in general not a big fan of the common sausages served in germany. You should try to get to the festival in Limburg, which is a very scenic little town, with great restaurants and decent beers

Steffen

ilium55 said...

Glad to see you visit Alpine Village! It's always been pretty run down (l hear it was nicer in the early 70s), but my family and I have frequented the market for 30+ years. Rolls are great in the bakery, as are the weisswurst and nurnburger brats.

sku said...

ilium55, I loved their Bavarian Weisswurst. Will have to try the brats and rolls.