Zum Rathskeller - Columbus, OH - Restaurant Review

I've never been a big fan of German food, and my recent visit to the Rathskeller confirmed my earlier impressions. It is pretty much sausage, and fried meats with heavy gravy. Sorry, not my favorite, but if you like German food, you might like Zum Rathskeller.

We were there at the Maennerchor to see Chuck Prophet (who was outstanding). We were running a little late so we decided we would just do dinner at the venue.

35 years in Columbus, and I had never been to or even heard of Maennerchor. Founded in 1848 as a men's chorus by 12 German Immigrants eager to preserve the music and memories of their homeland, it now serves primarily as a wedding, banquet, and event venue.

The restaurant has recently reopened, and is located in the basement Rathskeller. The place has a lot of character and charm, although the food is only so-so. It was rather odd to be seated while they were performing some sort of musical production in part of the restaurant.

The menu is limited to about 8 entrees, plus some soups and salads and of course potato pancakes. The entrees incuded traditional preparations of suaerbraten, pork schnitzel, veal schnitzel, rinderoulaten, and bratwurst. There were ten of us, and we ordered some of almost everything. Good; not great. A little greasy, but fried food is their style of preparation. They also had an all you can eat buffet of friend fish and sausage for $12.

They had some good beers, and a few uninspiring wine choices.