Garmisch Inn Restaurant is in the main lodge of the Garmisch USA 65 acre resort. It is a large complex, where the main lodge and many of the guest homes date back to the 1920’s when they were built for a wealthy Chicago family’s vacation retreat. The large dining room overlooks the south shore of Lake Namakagon. It was completely paneled in wood with large wood columns and beams in the ceiling. Some art hung on the walls but the main decorative touch was the curved window that looked out on the lake the the surrounding woods of the Chequamegon forest. The well spaced white clothed tables were set with black napkins and heavy weight flatware. The larger tables were in the center of the room and the walls were lined with tables for 2-4. The lights were lowered. An equal sized bar was off to the end with the bathrooms in between. On the way you pass a spiral staircase that led down to guest rooms. They had a large menu with some German specialties. Service was super friendly and accommodating. Our server Bree had just been there 2 weeks but she couldn’t have made our meal more fun.
It seemed the right place to start with a Wisconsin staple, brandy old fashioned. We got it “press”style which is a less sweet version and the bartender knew how to do it right.
Bread service was “Parker House rolls” that were soft and doughy. Butter came in small foil wrapped rectangles.
Meals all come with soup or salad and starch. We chose salad with blue cheese dressing and lots of crumbles. It came with the dressing on the side but it was covered with tasty crumbles. The salad was a mix of lettuces, cucumber, red onion and a tomato wedge. It was fresh and crisp but a little hard to toss on the small filled plate. Once you got it done though it was good.
For an entree I had the Garmisch Combination Plate of German food. It included Jaegerschnitzel veal cutlet with a sherry mushroom sauce, a knackwurst, a stuffed cabbage roll, apple sauce, sweet and sour red cabbage and sauerkraut. For an additional $3 I chose the potato pancake for my starch. It was a lot of food with variable quality. The veal came without any sauce and looked rather pitiful as such on the plate. Our server brought me some sauce but it couldn’t save this dry piece of meat with the soggy coating. The cabbage roll came with some tomato sauce and was pretty nice but the star of the plate was the knackwurst sausage. Juicy and finely ground it exploded with flavor and was equally good with a dab of the nice mustard on the plate. The sweet and sour cabbage was tasty whereas the sauerkraut fell a bit flat for me. The potato pancake was the biggest disappointment,though, cause I’d read how delicious they were. This was not crisp, not tasty, greasy and cool with very little potato flavor. I don’t know if it was an off night or the b-team in the kitchen, but this didn’t work.
The Steak and Lobster combo included a char-broiled 8 ounce tenderloin steak and a 6 ounce broiled lobster tail. For a starch we got a baked potato with a $4 surcharge to make it ‘loaded.’ The steak was nicely cooked but for rare it was well warm all the way through. It was topped with garlic and herb butter and sautéed mushrooms. They were a good flavor addition to the meat. The lobster tail came with a nice sized dish of melted butter to dip in and was good. The baked potato came with the sour cream and scallions on the side. The top was totally covered with cheese and studded with bacon but it wasn’t fluffy as it should have been and almost tasted like it had been microwaved.
For dessert we tried their Own “Phenomenal Homemade” Bread Pudding which was bread pudding loaded with cinnamon and raisins, baked to a golden brown and served warm with a pecan caramel sauce. I told our sever I loved caramel sauce and she helped me out with putting a lot of it on this huge dessert. You could pay extra and have it with ice cream but thankfully I did not cause it was plenty on its own. The sauce was thick, sweet and loaded with crunchy tasty pecans. The warm moist bread was topped with whipped cream. It tasted strongly of cinnamon and had lots of raisins. It was really good.
