Trying New Restaurants: Teske's Germania
Apr. 12th, 2023 07:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerContinuing with our quasi-New Year resolution to explore more restaurants in the area we recently tried Teske's Germania. It's a German restaurant and pub in downtown San Jose. Like many "new" restaurants we're trying it's not really new; it's been there for at least umpteen years. It's only new to us.
I've been meaning to try Teske's for years. It's just never been that high on my priority list. What spurred me to try it finally— aside from that quasi-New Year resolution I mentioned— was a friend inviting us for dinner at Mezcal several weeks ago. When I mapped directions to Mezcal, Teske's appeared on the map a few blocks away. Both restaurants are in downtown San Jose.
From the outside you can barely tell what Teske's is. It's in a fairly anonymous low-rise building on a quiet-ish edge of the core downtown district. The only marker of what's inside is an old-style wooden sign hanging over the door. Once inside, though, it's a different matter. Right away you know you're someplace different. The doors open into a darkly paneled room, cramped in a cozy way, with an old-style bar near the door you have to sidle past to get to the host's stand to ask for a table.
While the bar just inside the door might be as far as some patrons venture, that's only a tiny fraction of the restaurant's space. There are two dining rooms with at least a couple dozen tables between them, and there's also a full menu of German entrees. I emphasize entrees as it's not just Germanic finger-food like sausage appetizers and pretzels but plenty of baked and sauteed dishes with beef, chicken, pork, and fish. Hawk ordered beef paprika goulash. I thought I might try the wienerschnitzel but then got interested in one of the chef's specials, sauteed beef in a white wine sauce. Friends of ours we met at the restaurant ordered a variety of other things including, yes, sausages and pretzels.
Then there's the beer. I did mention beer, right? 😅🍺😋 Teske's has a good selection of German beer, both on tap and in bottles, including some brands I don't think I've seen carried at Total Wine. I mention them as a point of comparison because they stock several dozen German beer brands. Another local restaurant that bills itself as a German biergarten only has half Teske's selection. Along with a sausage-and-pretzels-heavy menu. 🤣
On the whole, the food was good but not great. Did we enjoy it? Yes. Would we go back? No. Except for maybe a special occasion when we decide we really want German food and are willing to venture to downtown SJ for it. ...And even then, we'd likely check first for another German restaurant we haven't been to yet.
I've been meaning to try Teske's for years. It's just never been that high on my priority list. What spurred me to try it finally— aside from that quasi-New Year resolution I mentioned— was a friend inviting us for dinner at Mezcal several weeks ago. When I mapped directions to Mezcal, Teske's appeared on the map a few blocks away. Both restaurants are in downtown San Jose.
From the outside you can barely tell what Teske's is. It's in a fairly anonymous low-rise building on a quiet-ish edge of the core downtown district. The only marker of what's inside is an old-style wooden sign hanging over the door. Once inside, though, it's a different matter. Right away you know you're someplace different. The doors open into a darkly paneled room, cramped in a cozy way, with an old-style bar near the door you have to sidle past to get to the host's stand to ask for a table.
While the bar just inside the door might be as far as some patrons venture, that's only a tiny fraction of the restaurant's space. There are two dining rooms with at least a couple dozen tables between them, and there's also a full menu of German entrees. I emphasize entrees as it's not just Germanic finger-food like sausage appetizers and pretzels but plenty of baked and sauteed dishes with beef, chicken, pork, and fish. Hawk ordered beef paprika goulash. I thought I might try the wienerschnitzel but then got interested in one of the chef's specials, sauteed beef in a white wine sauce. Friends of ours we met at the restaurant ordered a variety of other things including, yes, sausages and pretzels.
Then there's the beer. I did mention beer, right? 😅🍺😋 Teske's has a good selection of German beer, both on tap and in bottles, including some brands I don't think I've seen carried at Total Wine. I mention them as a point of comparison because they stock several dozen German beer brands. Another local restaurant that bills itself as a German biergarten only has half Teske's selection. Along with a sausage-and-pretzels-heavy menu. 🤣
On the whole, the food was good but not great. Did we enjoy it? Yes. Would we go back? No. Except for maybe a special occasion when we decide we really want German food and are willing to venture to downtown SJ for it. ...And even then, we'd likely check first for another German restaurant we haven't been to yet.
