Chippewa Inn is a large supper club in Hayward that has been in business since the 1930s. They specialize in dry aged meats and German entrees. You enter into a large full liquor bar with many stools and a few tables. The friendly owner Tom Landgraf is the bartender and his wife Debbie manages floor operations. The vibe is relaxed and comfortable and there is fun conversation between those sitting at the bar. The place is filled with souvenirs of many years in business. There are 2 main dining rooms and the second one has some fabulous doll houses (I’ve included a few pictures of them that I took a couple years ago at the end of this post) that were made for Debbie. Even if the room is not in use when you go make sure to go in and see them. Service is efficient and super friendly. Kelli, our server, couldn’t have been nicer.
There is a large menu and while deciding there is a tasty relish tray to snack on. It includes cheese spread, pickled herring, olives, liver spread and cut vegetables alongside an assortment of crackers and butter. The olives are marinated in house and the peppers have been soaked in port wine.
All dinners include a choice of potato, soup or salad, rolls and butter. Salads come with dressing on the side and include fresh greens, oranges sections and cucumber slices. The blue cheese dressing (an extra charge) did have a good strong flavor of blue cheese and was thick and creamy. Rolls were soft and doughy and came out warm.
The menu includes a page of Bavarian fare and one in our party chose the Jaeger Schnitzel which is their Viennese style Wiener Schnitzel served with a rich mushroom gravy. It was crisp with a tender interior covered with a thick, rich gravy. A tender and juicy piece of veal breaded with a perfect amount of crust. For starch they chose spaetzel which was nicely plump and had some flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon.
The New York Strip steak was a 18 ounce cut, listed as the finest New York Strip steak which is closely trimmed and char-grilled to perfection. Indeed it was. It was cooked a perfect blue rare with a good sear on the outside – a tender and succulent piece of beef Served with it were the potato pancakes (extra charge) that had a crisp exterior and a creamy middle. Another steak came with German fries that were nicely cooked but less satisfying than the potato other starch choices.
The Smothered Sirloin was topped with gorgonzola cheese and sautéed mushrooms. The mushrooms were fresh, not canned, and there was a wonderfully generous covering of them and the cheese had a nice amount of flavor. Another juicy piece of meat that was cooked perfectly. It you find yourself in the area check this place out!
