The Rathskeller

Address: 1205 Quadra St.
Info: (250) 386-9348
Website: rathskeller.ca
Price: $20 dinner entree, under $10 for lunch.
Notes: A good place for birthdays, or if you like your beer served in a boot. Great lunch specials!

The Rathskeller is Victoria's Schnitzel house. Their claim to fame is that you can get your beer served in a giant glass boot. The boot comes in two sizes, and will pretty much satisfy and/or stoke your desire to go to Oktoberfest. They also are probably the only place in town to get Bavarian style cuisine, or authentic German beer.

I like the idea of the Rathskeller, and it must do well because I think it's been around forEver, but the value just isn't there. A dinner entree will cost you around $20. Sure, you get a house-schnitzel or sausage but when the veggies on the side are a frozen veg mix it's hard not to fee a bit ripped off. This is especially true when I think that for around the same price I could be dining at some where ultra-fancy, with mostly local ingredients. Since the beer is imported, it's pretty expensive too. It kind of feels like I'm dining at Disneyland. Which is fine if you like that kind of thing...


Service
January 19, 2010
I can't make too many critiques of the service, but I probably shouldn't either since our waitress was a work acquaintance.  The serving staff all wear little outfits that remind me of Heidi. Despite a fairly large menu, most things are quick to plate so it doesn't take too long to get served.

Food
January 19, 2010
I had the two-sausage combo plate, which was a fairly good deal since it was under $20. It came with my choice of sausages and I opted for the bratwurst and the frankfurter-style sausage (I can't remember what they call it. I think it was frankwurst or something similar). I opted for the delicious potato pancakes and the severely disappointing previously-frozen mixed veg on the side. I'm just not a big sauerkraut fan, which limits the options. The two sausages were quite nice, although the frankfurter really is just a nice hotdog.

My partner-in-food-and-life ordered the mega-combo-plate aka the "Rathskeller Plate" which came with weiner schnitzel, cordon blue, jeagar schnitzel, potatoes, spatzel, sauerkraut and mixed veg.  This was actually a pretty good deal if you're hungry because you can try just about everything. The jeagar schnitzel is pretty good - it comes with a mushroom and onion with red wine sauce on top of a schnitzel. I also quite liked the cordon blue.