Altstadt

First I want to say that my wife and I love OpenTable, and try to use it where ever we go. Normally all of the restaurants on OpenTable have been great; however this one was our first flop. When we arrived to the restaurant it was not busy maybe only 5% full, there was a small stand with menus close to the door just in inside of the restaurant. We waited for a couple of minutes and no one came or even said seat your self, so we decided to find a seat on our own. We pulled up to the bar and sat down, three chairs down from us was who appeared to be a manager, she had a pile of receipts and was working on a laptop. She never said a word to us, as well as the bartender that was behind the bar. I would say a good four minutes went by and we were just about to walk out when finally the manager came to us and gave us a menu. We decided to stay and ordered, the food was ok, my family is from Germany and I have to say the food was just ok nothing great, but the service was horrible, it felt like we were an inconvenience to the staff. I would not recommend this restaurant.

Great food & fun atmosphere! The beer was great too!!

Decent bierstube in Pioneer Square. The area is a bit dicey in the evenings. The meats are German, but the sides are mostly American. I had Wiener schnitzel, which was good and not greasy. But it came with French fries, rather than spaeztle, and the "sauerkraut" was raw cabbage with a vinaigrette. There was house-made brown mustard, which was a bit sweet and not as pungent as real German brown mustard. Decent selection of beers. There weren't enough servers for the number of people, so it was a bit slow.

All-in-all a good meal, but not quite the full German experience.

German Food is hard to find. This was not the case in the recent past. 20 years ago many of the folks who had emigrated to the USA and were responsible for the the great profusion of German joints were alive and well and their restaurants were going strong. But in the past 20 years, German places have become rarer and rarer and most of the German restaurants that we used to love are simply gone (along with those who originally built them.) So, when we travel, we look for German food. There were very few choices in Seattle. And not one place offered the prize of the German menu - sauerbraten - not one. But the kaesespaetzle on Altstadt's menu intrigued John - so we went. I had a plain schnitzel (that was anything but) and some hand-cut fries that came with some (great) sauerkraut salad - very lightly pickled - and some sweet, whole-mustard-seed mustard and a liter of some nice draft weisse beer. JP had the aforementioned and we shared some lamb maultaschen that sported a few peas and some very tasty gravy. Schnitzels are hard to make delicious. Everyone tries - few succeed. Altstadt succeeds. It's a fat thing. They leave enough fat on the pork - IT REQUIRES SOME! - and their breading was superb and oh so right. The lamb "dumplings" were terrific. Great lamb. Great gravy. And John's kaesespaetzle tasted nice - he added the speck - the cheese was fine as well as the consistency. The noodles themselves were cut too long. We make the dish a lot and we just prefer smaller spaetzle. We have seen them like Altstadt's often - so they are not wrong - it 's just a texture thing and they are missing an opportunity for even better texture and caramelization. The dish is delicious as is. We had a large table to ourselves - we reserved it - against the wall. In the center of the room are communal tables - about 8 feet away - and there were at least 75 people seated there. Their noise level ranged from a dull roar to a bright shiny one. That may keep us from visiting again!

Birthday Dinner with family. Wait staff remembered us from our last visit. Food is all made there (except the bread). Authentic German and delicious. Fun bar with picnic tables. They compted the birthday cheesecake and they put on special birthday music. So nice, along with friendly service. And great value. We will go back again.

I felt welcome, atmosphere was energetic, I do not drink but almost everyone was getting the very large mugs of beer. Altstadt looks like they have an awesome beer selection.
Next the food. I cannot express how fantastic this is! My girlfriend lived in Germany and she says the food is authentic with a huge smile. I will and am visiting this place again without hesitation. Take the time to visit, you will not be disappointed. But, be prepared. It is in an area with very little parking. ENJOY!!!

We had a good time with our kids and watched the Sounders and Mariners games. The food was delicious.

I can't remember the bartenders name but he was all alone to bartender and serve still did a great job. The rest of the employees were out on a cater event and he still had a smile, he explained everything on the menu, and refilled our water and drinks constantly. I would recommend this place to any one and definitely come back. Plus I hope they figure out who this employee was and give him a pat on the back. It was Thursday night march 30th

Excellent service, great food, and a wonderful selection of imported and craft beers.

This place was great... Great service, great food, recommend beer cheese, fun darts

Fantastic meal and fantastic service! Get the Boot!!

Not German at all. Get your sausages at Bavarian Meats they are 10 times better! Uli's aren't bad either!

The Schnitzel was very salty and appeared to have been deep fried.
The Spaetzle did not have the right texture, they were too soft, more like mac and cheese in consistency and for the price, and being listed separately as an entree, the portion was too small.
The flight of beer and chocolate was the best part of the dinner. I may return for beer but not for Schnitzel.

Excellent food and drinks

Great food! The kraut braised in duck fat is phenomenal

The food is nowhere close to anything in Germany....and once you have had the real thing, you keep looking, and looking for it here in the USA.
If real German food is what you crave, try Brunos european in Tacoma, or Andreas Keller in Leavenworth.

Cool little bier hall in Pioneer Square that makes their sausages and sauerkraut in house. Very tasty lunch at a fair price, though maybe not ideal if you're pressed for time--it took about 35 minutes for our food to emerge. Really outstanding service, and dig the atmosphere and their cute wolpertinger logo!

Fun place, great food and beer (the charcuteries are so good!), but really, really slow service. I'm talking...two hour meal. We came here 2 hours before a show at the Wamu, thinking that it would take an hour to get some appetizers and drinks. However, service was so slow that we had to go track down our server and pretty much run to the show after we paid the check.

Beers were not refilled at a normal rate--we each had one beer in the first hour or so. Then in the last 20 minutes we finally were able to flag someone down to get another.

Also, there were 6 of us and we all ordered food at the same time. However, all of our dishes came out at the weirdest intervals. There was a 20 minute period where everyone had some of their dishes, and my boyfriend and I had nothing.

Food and beer were awesome and service once we got some. Sadly we are wondering why they bother with open table. No body to greet us. Place was packed. Only two person wait staff in entire place.

Thankfully cleared out by 8pm. So service was more attentive.

Great place but you can do better.

The food is fantastic! Can't wait to come back again and I definitely recommend the Goulash if they have it!

Good food and great waiter. Very casual, super neighborhood hangout.

Altstadt is an outstanding german restaurant with excellent german food and beer. Best german food in the area. Highly recommended.

Enjoyed our meal. Good German food.Reminded us of our tour of duty in Germany.

Very good house made sausages and kraut. Nice beer selection. Fries were really crisp, very very good.

Jager schnitzel and kale salad

Food, beer and service were all excellent. Authentic German cuisine but with an American twist. They source their food from quality purveyors like Carlton Farms, Carlton OR. We tried a sampling of several dishes including chicken bratwurst, pork schnitzel and spätzle. All were delicious. Very good value for your money. We will recommend it to others, and will return ourselves.

The jagerschnitzel and saurkraut were outstanding! Eating at Altstadt reminded us of our time traveling and dining in Germany. We are so glad that you are in Seattle.

Fun, vintage atmosphere. Attentive - but not overbearing - and friendly service. Food was uniformly tasty. Not blown away, but very enjoyable meal, in that "comfort food" kind of way, with some good dark lager beers to wash it down. Portions could have been a tad larger, but this is a very minor quibble, if even a quibble. We could all do with smaller portions, right? Maybe not the most romantic place for a date, but perfect to bring a group of friends, as the seating is "family-style," if you will, with long "picnic tables" that seat 12 or more! Very likely you'll be sitting next to people you don't know, a la Oktoberfest bier garden-style. "Roll out zee barrel..."

There are few German restaurants in most cities outside Germany. Germany is not noted for fine cuisine but if your taste includes wurst and schnitzel, potato salads of all kinds, and red cabbage you have found a home. Including real German sweet mustards. A bonus was dessert. Not since my mother made have I ever seen "rosa grutze" on a menu. A combination of rhubarb and strawberry in a soft gel over demon cream with soft almond cabe swimming alongside. WOW.

Homelike atmosphere, community seating, great mostly authentic food.