Hofbrauhaus Pub & Restaurant

Delicious food,
I love to try new food I could said first time I stop in a German restaurant I love it. Parking in rear, spacious place, costumer service fantastic, clean and organized place. Definitely coming back when I will be around

I live over an hour away and will be back… briefly: an excellent meal.
First of all, when going to a place like this, you have to realize where in the hell you are and leave your arrogance at the door. The reviews that complain of slow service are just pricks and the water stained ceiling tiles and carpeted bathrooms must been on drugs… Neither were there as of yesterday, nor when we went several years ago.
The atmosphere is part of the charm, yes it’s old, but it’s authentic. If you want fancy go to an urban hot spot, this isn’t your kind of place. If you want a place that doesn’t cater to the popular crowd, that do what they do well, that are friendly and know the dishes because they are family recipes that they have eaten for years… this is your kind of place.
Yes service was slow… But when you have a slow night and the staff is scaled back and you get a decent sized crowd that happens — she told us when we got there it was going to be slow, but the experience and food more than made up for it. It’s not the waitresses fault and you’re a complete jerk if you blame her.
This is a German restaurant in a town settled by Germans. We had frikadellen, jagerschnitzel and zigeunerschnitzel… All excellent. The food came with cabbage soup and a house salad, both good… Not sure what else you can say about a soup and salad.
The kids loved the décor, and it brought back memories of growing up and visiting my German grand parents. A good place to stop in, but if they’re running slow sit back and enjoy the meal.

Service was great.
I wasn’t a fan of the potato dumplings. Some of the food wasn’t very hot. Almost like it was heated in a microwave. Food was good, not fantastic. The décor was very authentic.

We’ve gone here for several years and it is slowly getting more disappointing. Tonight’s dinner was a total let down. Time to find a new German Restaurant

Overpriced German food — we used to go here weekly — the food was excellent and the service was friendly and attentive. However, the quality of food and service has greatly declined over the past few years and i would never recommend this to anybody unless they get new management/​cooks. The Hofbrauhaus is very disappointing because it used to be so good and we used to love going here regularly. Unfortunately, not anymore.

Horrible service to start the meal. Due to food allergies I had questions. I was definitely annoying the waitress and she was downright rude. Bf order medium Burger, they were charred. I had grilled fish sandwich which didn’t even cover half the bun. My baked potato was green… and microwaved. Waitress was MIA. Definitely not going back. Just steer clear.

My family has gone here for as long as I can remember and we always have great service and leave feeling stuffed! All of their schnitzels are amazing and I always get double spätzle as my side because it is so good! Prices are reasonable and you definitely get the bang for your buck! Every entrée comes with a soup and a salad, your entrée and 2 sides! The green goddess salad dressing (the house dressing) is amazing! We live in Maryland but make the trip up to Hofbräuhaus very often! If you’re by there, stop in. You will be glad you did!!!

There was a group of us in the area for a wine tasting at the nearby Brookmere Tasting Room. The waitress here did not want our business. She said she she was the only server on staff and it would be «a while» before she could wait on us and suggested we leave. We decided to stay as there wasn’t a whole lot in the area to choose from and the six of us lived in opposite directions.
She did finally come to take our drink order after 20 minutes. In another 15 she took our food orders. 20 minutes later one person got a cup of soup he did not order. Five minutes passed and she brought the same person a salad… And the rest of us still sat hungry.
We did finally get our an hour and 20 minutes after we sat down. The food was good enough but I would not venture here again.
The restaurant itself has all the trappings of a German Brauhaus, complete with plenty of taxidermy animals and German music.
There was a musty, dank smell which was consistent with the water stained ceiling tiles. I doubt anything in this place has been updated since the 1960’s. And one particularly unforgivable thing: carpeting in the restroom! GAG!

Sadly we went to enjoy the buffet they have every first Friday of the month. It was very disappointing. The cook had forgotten to turn on steam table to keep the few items hot that we’re on the Buffett. The best thing on Buffett were the mashed potatoes, and they were instant potatoes. I would have loved to give more ten a single star rating but it was horribly over priced ($ 18.95 per person for hot dogs, cold fish, hard veal and a few veggies with potatoes). Not nearly the variety one would expect for that price.

Stopped in twice on a week long venture to Gettysburg and York for lunch. First time the server was helpful, attentive, the second time the server was lousy and rude to a point I was about to just walk out. The food was good the first lunch, the second it was not correct and server was argumentative about what I ordered. Never had that happen before to me, simply correct the order, as the experience ruined lunch. To add to it she took my drink left with it and forgot to bring it back until I asked where was my drink. Usually I would like to report on the food quality but with the service no matter what the food was the experience means I will never stop in again.

The staff here was really friendly. I had veal that pretty good. The food is very average, like the typical diner food. The place itself is very dated, thought I was back in1970. I wouldn’t say don’t go but I wouldn’t make it a point to go here.

Stopped in on the way to family it’s old looking inside food was ok. You can’t screw up sausage the spazel was horrible and the gravy had no tast

Oh where to begin. As we walked through the front door we were assaulted by a dingy entryway, filthy carpeting and an awful moldy cigarette odor. Robert Irvine would have a field day here!
We both have been in the Restaurant business for almost 40 years and this was one of our worst dining experiences to date.
We went on a mid-​afternoon on a Sunday. There were about seven covers of approx. 25 total seats in a restaurant that appeared to seat about 100 patrons. Our first flag was that the modest beer list on the table was not current. The server had to check on what was currently available. «They need to change this» was the comment.
My wife ordered the Shwine Schinitzel (apologies for spelling errors) sandwich and I ordered one of the Sausage sandwiches and each of us asked for a substitute of well done fries for the chips.
Cut to the server. When she wasn’t playing with her hair, she was hooking glasses by the inside of the glass and bussing plates and trash with no apparent effort of cleaning the tables or her hands.
When the sandwiches arrived, approx. 30 minutes later my wife’s fries were cold. The server was still in our area so she said that she would reorder the fries. Then my wife tried her sandwich. The bread was so cold that there were still ice crystals on the slices! My fries were barely cooked and my sandwich was lukewarm.
By the time that the server returned to tell us that the fries would be out shortly, we had decided to close our check and cut the damage.
Our server had the capacity to comp our meals for us and only charged us for the two beers that we had ordered with our meals.
I tipped her 20% plus, not because she was a great server, but because I think that she was confined by her circumstances and her training. A side note: The table adjacent to us was also comped several items by our waitress because of problems with their meals.
I have read several very positive reviews of this restaurant, and I would like to think that they were justified at the time, but we can think of no reason to ever advise anyone to ever dine here until the myriad of issues are addressed.
Post script: Note to the back of the house, i.e. kitchen staff, whoever sent out frozen bread on top of a sandwich should be thrown out of the kitchen and off the premises immediately! This shows absolutely no respect for the food, the patrons, or your craft. Shame on you!

My family and I recently dined at the Hofbrauhaus The food was wonderful and reminded me of my Mutti’s cooking. The waitress Mary was on point and cheerful we enjoy the German Traditional cuisine. Ich Komme Wieder !

My husband and I love this place. You get alot of food and the food is as good as his mom used to make. Ron love the Sauerbrauten and gets it every time with the red cabbage and spaetzel. My favorite is the Zigeunerschnitzel w/​o the peppers. With your meal you get soup & salad & 2 vegatables & your main course. We gladly drive 30 minutes to eat there and would gladly drive further. The staff (minus one or two) are really nice and the music is German. You owe it to yourself to try it at least once… Highly recommend this restaurant…

Great traditional German faire… fantastic sauerbraten and I so love the cheese and bread served before dinner. Best German food within 50 miles at least.

We’ve been eating here for years (since 1995) and the servers haven’t changed, just aged like the building. The clientel is the same local folk and Rt30 tourist types. Where H’Bhaus gets us every time is the food. High-​priced, but good portions of authentic german food. My Bavarian neighbor ran a restaurant back home and his food and the H’Bhaus’s food are equally good. Read the other reviews: expect old décor, older waitresses who haven’t mastered being nice, and expect good food and a cost.

Went with the family and we order wiener schnitzel, pork chops, meatloaf as main course. Sides were cold German potato salad, red cabbage, beet salad, and mashed potatoes. Meals also came with soup, salad, and bread. The food was good but not as good as Mom’s German cooking. The restaurant was almost empty but maybe that’s because it was a Thursday night. Prices were a little high but not expensive for what you get. If you’re looking for authentic German cooking I’d recommend giving this place a try.

It’s a good place allaround except for the fake mashed potatoes that we just called «spuds.» the beer selection was good place& they have hofbrau mugs. Def will have Tommorow go back.

Ok, let me start off by saying that I had mediocre hopes for the Hofbrauhaus to start with. Having grown up in Germany, my expectations for German food are pretty high, and over the years I’ve lived here (20 years and counting) I’ve come across some pretty lousy food that claims to be German… so, I always know to lower my expectations a good bit when patronizing a German restaurant in the U.S.
Now, when a new neighbor recently told me about the Hofbrauhaus, I told him that I’d check it out… boy, am I ever sorry I went. Let me break this down into bite-​sized chunks :-)
1) Décor — oldy/​moldy, dingy and outdated… but I can live with that.
2) Our server was probably one of the WORST I’ve ever had in my life, and I’ve been dining out since I was VERY young, and go to restaurants often (I also was a waiter myself for 5 years). She was surly, short, didn’t introduce herself, gave simple answes, and plainly did not want to be there and/​or waiting on myself and my family (plus my mother-​in-​law). She practically THREW things at us as she was placing them on our table. Again, I cannot stress enough how rotten this person was… sorely disappointing! I almost NEVER tip less than 20%, even if the service is pretty bad, because I was a waiter myself, and understand that it’s hard sometimes when you work for tips… so, I always want to give back to «my people!» But I only left her 10% and, honestly, she didn’t even deserve that much!
3) The food was downright terrible. Again, I will adjust my expectations of German fare, given my background, and even have become ok with American «Oktoberfest”-style sausages and sauerkraut… I can eat that, and often do. I had the Jaegerschnitzel (Hunter-​style pork cutlet, breaded and pan-​fried with a brown mushroom sauce). While the meat seemed only edible, the sauce was a dark-​brown, heavy gravy with a few mushrooms that had only one flavor: BITTER… just nasty stuff! My mother-​in-​law had the Sauerbraten (brined beef in gravy). She said that is was really bad, and only ate it because she was really hungry. We both had Spatzle (small noodle-​like potato-​flour-​based dumplings). Spaetzle are usually yellow and rather flavorful, as they are cooked in a heavily salted water bath and generally made fresh; nope, not here… these were a greyish white, and had ZERO flavor… simply filler, no taste… tragic! Even the basic boxed «Panni» Speatzle I’ve bought at my local grocery store are WAY better than this concoction!
When our server came by to ask if everything was OK, I was so angry that I couldn’t even say anything, and my wife, who is very nice & friendly, muttered a muted «Yes» (I know, our fault… we should have complained, but we saw nobody else milling around, and didn’t know if this woman was maybe related to the owners and they just wouldn’t care).
Speaking of which, we had read/​heard somewhere that ownership had changed recently, and that a new family now owned the joint and its adjoining Bar/​Biergarten. I have a hunch that this is to account for a large part of the problem:
A previously good restaurant falls under new ownership, and the proverbial ship sinks within no time, as recipes and quality control are disregarded, and the food & service just goes down the tubes.
Believe me, I really wanted to write a NICE & POSITIVE review, and get some more business for a German restaurant near us, but I have to be truthful and warn others: DON’T GO HERE!!! But if/​when you do…
…proceed at your OWN risk, and don’t say your weren’t warned!
For what it’s worth: For somewhat better, but a bit over-​priced German fare, check out the Schmankerlstube in Hagerstown, MD. The proprietor, from Bavaria, I’m told, has owned that place for more than 30 years, and he’s still doing well. While their food wasn’t great, I would certainly still go back to the Schmankerlstube any day over the Hofbrauhaus.