Hofbrauhaus Newport

After the hostess quoted us a 1 hour wait, we had been waiting for 2 hours at the bar, when someone came along and tried to force us out of our stools to take them away. I protested, and the manager came over. When I explained to him that we had already been waiting for 2 hours for a table and would like to stay seated until a table was available, his response was ""Well, that's the Hofbrauhaus on a Saturday night."" And he then forced us to give up our barstools. I've never been treated with such disrespect, or witnessed such a lack of hospitality on the part of a restaurant. I'm shocked to even be putting this in words. more

When we pulled into the parking lot if was valet parking only. Okay, we forked over our $5 and they then told us it was a hour wait or open seating outside. Never having been there before we thought, okay, we can eat outside. The young woman at the front desk did not ask, she only told us it would be an hour to wait for a table. We said the valet had said something about eatiing outside. She mumbled the way to go out there; we had to ask her to repeat it. We went out and found a table and waited. A server came over and gave us menus, turned to the beer and asked us what we wanted to drink. We ordered half stiens. SHe left and we then looked the menu and discovered it was a limited menu outside. No one had said anything. The waitress returned with full liter steins. When we pointed out that we had order half liter, she said not to worry, she had only charged us the half liter price. We went ahead and ordered....I ordered the potator pancakes and my husband ordered the brats. The brats were fine. The potato pancakes were tasteless and mealy. Another server put some preztels on our table. We questioned why...he said they were ours. We did not touch them and a few minutes later our server came to move them to the proer table. When she brought us our bill, it was someone else credit card slip. She never brought us an itmeized bill so we have no idea how right or wrong the tab was. We left and I took a moment to ask the woman at tront why we had not been informed of the limited menu outside and she said the front gets pretty crazy sometime. My feeling...if oyu want beer---go there, if you want food, don;t bother. If you want service with courtesy don't bother. Pros: beer is the big thing Cons: poor service, sloppy attention to our credit card more

Had a good time. A bit pricey but the food was decent. Certainly not the best German food I have ever had but it was good. What made the time disappointing was the absolutely terrible service. When someone finally finally finally took our order, he was semi rude and it took forever to get our food. Like I said, it was nice but really, just because of the horrible customer service, I don't think we will be real quick to go back. Pros: Fun atmosphere, decent food Cons: Terrible service, pricey more

The Hofbrauhaus has a really fun and authentic German atmosphere complete with a live polka band and wide selection micorbrew beers. The food is good, but very heavy traditional German fair. This is not a place for dieters. Pros: The atmosphere and micor brew beers are terrific. Cons: Service leaves a lot to be desired. more

The German decore, the huge vats, the polka bands; the Hofbrauhaus is a fun place. Their beer is brewed there and is above average. To me it tastes like it's 50% American beer and 50% authentic German beer. Slightly watery, but it has a little taste to it too. This place doesn't do dark beer very much. Their dunkle is pretty much as dark as their beers get. However, it's really the atmosphere that sets the place apart. Unfortunately, later into the night it gets a club atmosphere and it becomes so packed you WILL wait ages just to get a beer or food. Speaking of their food, it's good. It's not mind blowing, but I've never had anything bad there either. Everyone has heard of American-Chinese food, well the Hofbrauhaus is American-German food (and beer). If that's your thing then you'll love the place, if not... for more ""European-style"" micro-brewed beer I'd recommend Rock Bottom by Fountain Square, and for better tasting and more authentic German food I'd recommend Mecklenburg Gardens in Cincinnati's Corryville neighborhood. Of course, neither have that cheesy tongue-in-cheek, ""ah screw-it let's party!"" atmosphere that the Hofbrauhaus has. Pros: Fun place, next to Newport on the Levee, beer garden Cons: expensive, turns from a restaurant into a club rather quickly more

For hearty, peasant-style, slow-cooked German food, you can do no better than the Hafbrauhaus in Newport, KY. The roasted pork loin is a fantastic meat dish, and the portion generous. It comes with excellent saurkraut and a bread dumpling. Get the fried cabbage (with bacon) and potato dumpling as extra sides. They are well worth having. Order one of the four house draft beers or the seasonal beer. All were exceptional and fresh. If you prefer a quieter atmosphere, ask for the side room (non smoking). It's decorated with traditional carved wood and stained glass -- perfect for contemplating the delicious food. Pros: food, location, portion size more