Kuhn’s Delicatessen

You won’t find too many good German deli stores in the suburbs… but you will find Kuhn’s! The front of the shop has meats, cheese, pickles, cookies (oh, how I loved the cookies as a kid!), and other offerings that you would hope to find at a German deli.
But the best part of this place? The little café in the back! Growing up, I looked forward to the days my family would huddle around one of the tables in the quaint café, eating their deicious hot dogs. The hot dogs (which aren’t hot dogs, but weiners) were unlike any other I had ever tasted. Sooooo good. I drool now, thinking about it. Friendly service, friendly people, great food, smiles all around. We also had a waitress that would remember us every time we came — I think our family kind of became friends with her (I do hope she’s doing well).
I’m glad Kuhn’s has survived all these years!

I was for lunch today first time there. It is a little German deli store including a restaurant. I have had a nice Rinderroulade with dumplings mmmm hat Mir sehr gut geschmeckt. Very good.

We stopped in Kuhn’s today after not having visited in a few years and honestly, I don’t really see much of a reason to go back.
I’m all for supporting small, locally run places and generally love places like Kuhns but their pricing on everything was absolutely INSANE. I’m okay with paying a bit more versus online shops or big box stores but when things like a jar of pickles are $ 2 – 3 more than other places for the exact same thing… sorry, nope.
Some examples:
*Pickles and sauerkraut (exact same brand) all $ 2 – 3 more than places like Cermak or World Market
*Tins of German Nivea are $ 10 here versus $ 7 at Merz’s
*Most of their meat/​sausages are Stiglmeyer (made in Chicago, not Germany) and prices per pound are at least $ 2 more than at Cermak
*Beer prices are insane as well and they had bottles of schnapps priced literally double vs. other places
The little restaurant in back never seems to be open when I’m here so maybe that is a better way to go? The deli itself just isn’t worth the trip — there really isn’t anything truly «unique» and what they do have can be found elsewhere at significantly lower prices.

Overpriced food with minimum effort. I can go to a Polish store and buy sausage that they cook or reheat for fraction of the price. $ about 9 for it! that’s way way too much. The lunch was made very simply… I could easily prepare it from ingredients purchased at a grocery store., piece of bread, cooked sausage, kraut from a jar., zero creativity, extra decoration or flavor. Nothing in that place is made from scratch. Everything is made or given to you like it came straight from a microwave but make sure you have at least $ 10 – 20 dollars for this microwaved lunch.

So — I’m not a fan of German food but I’ll try not to let that affect my review! Some friends took us to Kuhn’s and we had a great time.
German food can be on the bland side and the food here at Kuhn’s was in that tradition. So why 4 stars and not 3 stars? Well, even though it wasn’t too flavorful it was authentic and well made!
There’s a limited but decent selection of beers in the refrigerator (help yourself!). The service was good and the atmosphere is friendly. The deli & grocery sections are the majority of the store with the restaurant tucked away in back.
It ain’t fancy nor flavorful, but it is a good hang with friends, and a nice deli.

No frills German food. Don’t expect anything fancy here, just expect fantastic German food.
Would definitely recommend Schweinshaxe; I have dreams of that fat chunk of meat. The service is friendly, albeit slow, so I wouldn’t eat here in a rush.
With that said — I love the restaurant, but not a fan of the deli here.

This place has the best German food in Chicago outside of the Brauhaus. I love the seating in the back of the deli and ordering the schnitzel or brats. Excellent German beers can be taken right off the shelf and the servers are always great.
In addition to the restaurant, there’s a deli with great sausages to take home and a grocery with a lot of miscellaneous German goods.

The other day, a Los Angeles area newspaper had me write an article about the recent closing of an iconic traditional delicatessen. They do seem to be vanishing at a rapid rate, but I never gave much thought as to why, until the owner of this one that was giving it up set me straight. It’s kind of a result of several things happening at once in America’s dining habits — the infatuation with ‘fast casual’, the number of people following special diet regimens, like vegetarian and gluten free.
The traditional deli is mostly meat and baked goods. RIP. There are very few left; one of my all time favorites is still around, Cecil’s in St. Paul.
So as I was thinking about that, I was on my way out of Chicago for the winter, and had a deli craving. I was in Des Plaines, not far from Ray Kroc’s first McDonalds, and some locals suggested «Kuhn’s», a German deli. So I rolled into the parking lot.
You walk into the door into the market portion of the deli, a counter ringing the interior room full of sausages, smoked meat specialties and salads; the outer walls are lined with shelves chock-​a-​block full of European groceries.
At the rear of the market, you can step through a door into the café section table seating for maybe 24 people. The menu offers a variety of German traditional dishes, including schnitzels, rouladen, sauerbraten, and of course, sausages. They also have a good selection of ‘traditional’ hot and cold sandwiches.
I went with the sausage assortment plate, which came with one each of knackwurst, thuringer, and veal bratwurst. A choice of sides had me opt for «German fries.» Now I have a question about that dish. They looked suspiciously like «American fries.» Now if they would have looked like «French fries,» I would have assumed the recipe was just one more thing the Germans pilfered from the French during WW2, but how the heck did they purloin our American fries? In any case, they were very tasty. As were the sausages, which were actually more than I could eat at a serving. (Yeah, I know, shut up). The plate was accompanied by three slices of fresh bread and a ramekin of coarse mustard.
Chicago’s ethnic pockets and restaurants, German, Czech, Polish have some real gems, unfortunately, most visitors to the city don’t realize instead of Chicago being one big city, its really a collection of very unique neighborhoods.
Being as I’m on the road, I couldn’t load up on sausages from the deli case. Damn.

Nice place. Excellent food. Great selection. Quaint little dining area (about a dozen tables).
Most of the time I just visit the deli counter. There’s a lot to choose from and all of it is high quality. If I were rating the deli alone it would be 5 stars.
Service in the restaurant area is friendly, but can be a little laid back, so it’s not the best place if you are in a hurry. This would be easily fixed if the waitress would just engage you immediately after you are seated.
Prep time for the food is fine. I would be suspicious if it were too quick. Also, sometimes they are out of some things on the menu, like potato pancakes. Nonetheless, The food is outstanding. The goulash is amazing. I have never had a bad experience here, and I have never had better German Potato Salad!
Prost!

Really disappointed to see cooks now use microwave to reheat foods. Container after container went in and out the microwave! We always came for FRESH German food. Also, kase spaetzle is made with Swiss not Munster. The deli should carry only German products-​I found Japanese candy on the shelf! Do it right or close the doors. You’ve really lost focus…

I like Kuhn’s for the groceries. Many German treats that are difficult to find in the US — right now the Christmas stuff is for sale. I haven’t yet tried the restaurant.

This review is for the restaurant portion only, not the deli.
It is a bit hidden in the back so if you don’t know they serve food you might miss it, you poor thing!
I have come here maybe 4 – 5 times for lunch by now and I love this place more every time. The waitress is charming and funny. They are open for dinner too but in German style they close pretty early (8 during the week, 9 Fri and Sat). Those times don’t match what’s posted on Unilocal.
Back to the point of this review, the food! I have only had the Wiener Schnitzel (veal) but it is wonderful. I hear their Jaegerschnitzel is great too. They also have Schweinshaxen (pork shank) which is a big piece of meat.
Back to the Schnitzel. I like to order mine with the sauce on the side so I can dip the spaetzle and not have the schnitzel get soggy from the cream sauce. I like to order lots of lemon to douse the schnitzel as I go. The cabbage is. well it’s sour and takes your breath away a bit as it should: D
Go to a fast food chain if you want a $ 5 lunch. It’s not cheap but you get your money’s worth of food. It’s excellent and the portions are generous. The beer is comparatively very cheap. A Stiegel (the big one) costs under $ 5.
Living in the burbs, Chicago Brauhaus or Edelweiss are a bit far. I’d rather travel 2 miles. Also, Brauhaus seems much more expensive, don’t remeber Edelweiss. Maybe you pay for corny Elvis with his Hawaiian shirt ;)
Ein Prooooosit, ein Prooooosit, der Gemuuuuueeetliiiiiichkheiiiiiiit! Eins, zwo, druueeee, Gsuffa! I’ll go back with Lederhosen.

My husband is of German descent and we have been to Kuhns several times in the past and found the food to be good. The café does lack ambiance, but there is a good selection of beer.
However, this last visit was a dreadful disappointment. I ordered a bowl of goulash and potato pancakes for my dinner. My husband had the «special» pork shank.
In the past the goulash was rich and thick and was nearly like stew. What I got was a bowl of soup, with a broth rather than a thick sauce and a few pieces of meat and some cubed potatoes… very odd. Tasted OK, but for the price I expected something else. The goulash came right away rather than holding until my husbands food arrived. When he received the pork shank it seemed and tasted OK. Ditto the spaetzle and red cabbage, but he did not get any sort of gravy. The potato pancakes, however were an entirely different story. They were HEAVY in both weight and taste. They were thick and I could barely cut through them. They tasted nothing like they had in the past and I was only able to take a couple of bites, then gave up. My husband tried them as well and concurred. We wondered if the place had changed cooks. Definitely lacking.
When we packed our boxes to go, we left the pancakes. I ordered 4 and there were still 3 left. The waitress asked if we wanted to put those in a container, we said no and she did not ask if there was a problem with them. Very poor service.
The place rarely has more than 2 – 3 tables occupied at the same time, the ambiance is completely lacking, now the food is starting to go south.
Hope they manage to figure this out. It was nice and convenient to have a German restaurant in the area, however for the prices paid, the food needs to be a little better. Particularly the staples.

Unfortunately I had to give it even one star. We went to Kuhn’s Deli in Des Plaines with a group of friends. I was shocked to see how little is left in the store itself, a mere shadow of the store just a few years ago. But then we sat down for dinner.
My friend ordered the lox with caviar and was told by the waitress there was no longer caviar on the dish. When we pointed out that was what the menu described the dish as having, she shrugged her shoulders. He went ahead and ordered the dish since he really wanted to try the lox. The waitress returned shortly to say there were no lox, either. He ended up ordering the special which consisted of a huge plate of potatoes and 3 links of what looked like breakfast sausage. Needless to say, he ended up eating a lot of bread to satisfy the hunger this $ 12.00 item didn’t.
I ordered saurbraten with spaetzle and red cabbage. My portion was generous, but instead of spaetzle, noodles were substituted. Red cabbage was OK, the first bite was so vinegary it made me cough!
My husband ordered the pork shank. He ate only the side dish because he said the meat was at least 2 days old, not fresh, fatty and mushy.
Others in our party had similar experiences. Everybody left hungry and disappointed.
There is no chef, or even a cook, in the kitchen. There is a waitress and a deli worker who reheat and/​or microwave food when the order is placed. From our table, we could watch this happening in the kitchen. It’s a crime to charge for such horrible food and claim it’s «authentic German cuisine». Maybe 5 years ago they served that, but surely not any longer.
Obviously, the owner is hanging onto the business by a thread. It’s probably time to let it go instead of cheating paying customers, baiting and switching menu items and passing off stale reheated food as fresh… or as food.

Mixed review. I went there for lunch and had a sandwich which was good. The other items on the menu looked good. I would be willing to try those.
However, I was not impressed with the store. There were not too many items, and the deli case was terribly lacking. There was a good selection of sausages, but as for other deli meats, not much.
There was a nice selection of wines and beers.

Browsed through several times, and finally sat down inside their restaurant/​café to have a meal. I had the veal schnitzel plate: the schnitzel was quite tasty, the beets were awesome, the gravy good, but the Spätzle was too plain for my liking. I also tried a slice of Sachertorte (see my pic!) for the first time and it was indulgently rich; I was hoping for apricot jam, but I think it was raspberry.
I was there before normal dinner hours, so I was all alone until an older couple arrived as my food did. My impression is that the clientele skews that way, but I could be off. For some reason they were seated right in front of me, so when they started having an unpleasant passive-​aggressive argument I couldn’t avoid overhearing, I hurried to take my leave. Service was pleasant, with what I assume was traditional/​touristy German tuneage piped in for ambiance.
Probably won’t be in a rush to return for a meal – I may stop in to pick up a dessert for the girls – but I do wish Kuhn’s the best, as I don’t think there’s anything else like in out in this area.

What a little gem! Good was amazingly good, excellent portions and fairly priced! Schnitzel was amazing and I will be back for what looks like some very delicious sausages!

Kuhn’s has gone down a lot in recent years. The selection is lackluster, and the things we came here to buy have skyrocketed in price; case in point: my mom’s beloved nougat went from $ 2/​piece to $ 5! Who has $ 5 to spend on a chocolate bar the size of your finger? We came here just last week and were both in awe that they’re still open. Sad :(

My husband and I went here for lunch on a Saturday. I’ve driven by here a dozen times and never realized there was a diner in addition to their deli. Walk straight through the deli and into the back where there’s a diner.
Our waitress was so friendly and helpful. We told her it was our first time eating there, so she walked us through the menu and explained the traditional German dishes to us. I had the corned beef sandwich and my husband had a bratwurst. We also had the German potato salad and spaetzle with gravy. The food was awesome! Very authentic German food like I used to eat at my Great Aunt’s house. I look forward to coming back for dinner and trying their schnitzel.

Make your way past the deli and grab a seat in the cafeteria. Order any schnitzel with rahm sauce and be happy. The schnitzels are all delicious. I usually alternate between the veal and chicken. The rahm sauce is a cream sauce that makes the schnitzel that much more delicious. It usually comes with red cabbage and spaetzle.
Also, they have a bunch of german beers for sale in the deli. Just pick any out and bring it to your table, the waitress usually has a glassand a bottle opener at the table waiting for you when you get back.
I’ve had a sub from there as well as tried their sausage dishes, but the schnitzel is where it’s at.