Biergarten (Germany) Epcot

[gwennie81]

OMG. I HIGHLY recommend this place.

I ate there with my ma, gramma, and aunt this week and we SO enjoyed it. Some tips below:

#1. It's pricey, but worth it. I recommend eating for lunch. I think it ran us $22 pp. That included the buffet and non-alcoholic drinks (soda, tea, coffee). Dinner goes up another $10 but they only add a couple more items to the dinner menu like sauerbraten and some dumplings. Big deal. There's enough on the lunch menu to satisfy.

#2. They serve beer and wine. Get the beer. I had the 1/2 liter of Oktoberfest. It was $7.50 and fabulous.

#3. On the buffet there are cold salads such as typical lettuce salad but a delicious tarragon vinaigrette dressing. Cucumber salad, beets, coleslaw, and other various German-type cold salads. Assorted sausages, cold cuts, etc. Delicious breads, pickles... The hot side had sliced meats, more veggies, salmon, chicken schniztel, potatoes, and the best preztel rolls...(ma and I snuck a few of those out in our purse for later...) An absolute BOUNTY of the most delicious foods you will eat at Epcot.

#4. Dessert was apple strudel with vanilla sauce, a berry compote, chocolate cake, and cheesecake. Pick your poison.

#5. Entertainment starts at 1:15pm. Our rez was at 1pm. We got to see the band twice. They were fantastic and getting people to sing German drinking songs. LOL! They played the Alpine horns and encouraged kids (or anyone) to go down front and dance.

#6. The Decor. It was Soooooo cute in there! A moonlit outdoor German venue during Oktoberfest. Decorated like a small German village with banners representing the regions of Germany, a stage for the performers, dance floor, and water wheel.

#7. The seating is on 3 levels, each level with ~5 steps. I did not understand this and said my party had to drive their scooters in. However, there was no place to park scooters once inside. Leave your scooters outside unless you are competely immobile. They will accomodate and put those with limited mobility on the same level as the buffet. I recommend the lower level to enjoy the entertainment, the mid level to be on the same as the buffet, and the upper level if you don't care about either.

#8. I will SOOOOOO be eating again at the Biergarten! Eating at 1pm, I was full the absolute rest of the day! Only room for drinks. LOL! PROST!

[Wendy]

It sounds really good Gen :yes: we had planned to eat there this year, but weren't able to unfortunately.

It's on our list of "must do" for next year.

[Tink]

Isn't Germany fun? :yes: Even us with our "not so thrilled to be seated with strangers" enjoy it here.

I love the schnitzel and their sausages! :yes:

Nice that you had a good time! (Oh, and we love the pretzel bread too)!

[uscwest]

I believe we have this on our list to take Donna's brother in a few weeks.

[Johnie]

This is a fun place!

[Britchick]

I'm not too keen on the food myself - my boys are though. I do enjoy the entertainment and i love the feel in there oh and the beer :tongue:

[Beccaberry]

Pretzel bread :drool:

This is one of Jon's "must do" places when we go now. It's usually a 2-liter-beer-lunch ;-)

[Britchick]

Pretzel bread :drool:

This is one of Jon's "must do" places when we go now. It's usually a 2-liter-beer-lunch ;-)

that's a lot of trips to the rest room:tongue:

[Beccaberry]

that's a lot of trips to the rest room:tongue:

Holy cow...you have NO idea!! Jon's bladder is roughly the size of a fruit fly!

[Britchick]

Holy cow...you have NO idea!! Jon's bladder is roughly the size of a fruit fly!

i think i may be related :yes:

[Beccaberry]

i think i may be related :yes:

HAHAHAHA!!!

[Johnie]

Holy cow...you have NO idea!! Jon's bladder is roughly the size of a fruit fly!

Him and Dana both but she doesn't drink beer :tongue:

[uscwest]

i think i may be related :yes:
Me too, especially since I've gotten older.

[gwennie81]

The good thing about that is that there is a restroom inside the restaurant.

And there is a restroom at the Germany pavilion.

I use every restroom in the pavilions. Norway, Germany, America, Morocco, UK...I don't pass one up. LOL!

[Deafjeff]

We like it there especially my hubby was living at Germany for a short while when he was young.

Sadly the vegetarian choice is fairly restricted :sorry:

[Tink]

Jeff, you can have the restaurant contacted ahead of time and informed that you will need vegetarian selections.

[Deafjeff]

May try that next time.

[Mags]

Oh I love the biergarten (not as much fun as the Hofbrauhaus in Munich but still good)! The entertainment is kitsch but great fun and we seem to have been very lucky with the people we have been seated beside. I like the food but yes, it is Bavarian and that means a fair amount of pork and sausage in various guises. The desserts are very nice and we love the mini pretzel breads which are like a mini version of the yummy ones at Le Cellier.

Maggs

[gwennie81]

Ma and I were waiting for .38 Special to start playing at the America Gardens Theater, sippin beers, and she hands me a pretzel bread. I'm like, HEY! Where did this come from? Turns out she had snuck about 5 of them into a paper towel in her purse. LOLOLOL!!! Smart thinkin', ma!

[Deb]

I'd never even looked at this before as I know it's somewhere you have to share a table with other people, and though it might sound antisocial, it's just not something we feel comfortable doing :redface: Having looked at the pics of the inside it looks really cute, and the food and entertainment looks good too.

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old woman :D will I be able to cope with it? :lol:

[uscwest]

Deb, it will seem odd at first, but I think you'll find it lots of fun. I know, while I was living in Germany they did that share the table everywhere.

[Wendy]

I must admit, the sharing of tables has put me off as well, even more so now that I have to use a stick, I'm really self conscious and I hate to get in anyone's way.

[Beccaberry]

Unlike me (GUFFAW!), Jon is a very shy person. He TRULY hates feeling as though he is being "forced" to engage in conversation with anyone. Luckily, the beer was enough of a draw to encourage him to set that aside for what has now been, many, lovely lunches (we prefer lunch there to dinner based on price point and the knowledge that they really don't add much to the dinner menu).

Each experience has been different. Interaction has sometimes been limited to a polite nod of acknowledgement upon sitting down and afterwards nothing more than a smile during the "ooompah loompah band" (sorry, family joke) and a polite goodbye upon leaving. There have also been times when a conversation naturally occurs based on some common ground and continues on throughout lunch until you realize that you've now heard the band 4 times and you've not even had dessert! I actually still exchange emails with a lovely couple we met there during the Food&Wine Festival a few years ago! And that was all from JON'S conversation with the gentleman over his choice of beer!!

All that to say it truly can be as little or as much as you'd like it to be. All in all, it's not much different than having tables sat very close together in a "regular" restaurant. Give a try! I think you'll enjoy it!

[uscwest]

I must admit, the sharing of tables has put me off as well, even more so now that I have to use a stick, I'm really self conscious and I hate to get in anyone's way.
Some time when we are there together we'll have to do this.

[catrancher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR8VmCDdt5o

Tom (:macwave:... Oans, zwoa, drei, g'suffa! Prost!)

[Wendy]

Some time when we are there together we'll have to do this.

:hug2: :hug2: that would be good :)

[Watchinherskip]

Sounds like a good time Gwennie. I guess we never put it on our radar when at Epcot probably because to us it is way to close to our Bush Gardens experience. We have a BG park in nearby Williamsburg that used to be called the Old Country but is now called Bush Gardens Williamsburg. It features European themed parks. One of the largest is the section of Germany. There is a huge festhaus there with the band, dancer, German food and oh yeah BEER. Old Anheiser Bush brewery there.

So for us it was been there done that. We had many years of season passes so the Epcot offering was just too similar.

My brother and I always find a way to stop there for a beer. Sometimes a pretzel. We find a nice place to sit and people watch and look out over the water....ah good times...good times.

[gwennie81]

We were seated with another family but didn't really start talking to them until well into our meal. We were too busy chatting up our waiter.
But, we started talking about beer somehow. The dad turned out to be a Miller distributor. And I was sitting by the grandpa who was a Vietnam Vet.
We chatted for a little bit and then it was time for them to leave (they were already on dessert by the time we were seated).
I come from a naturally chatty family so, we didn't mind the sitting with strangers part.

I was more afraid of being seated by someone that DIDN'T want to talk more than someone who did. LOL!
But honestly, you don't have to chat with your table-mates if you don't want. Like someone said before, just smile & nod. They'll get the point.

[Johnie]

We did have this family give us dirty looks for drinking one time though. That was weird. Otherwise, it is lots of fun and the food is tasty!