Karl Ratzsch's, Milwaukee

Not impressed and very disappointed in this restaurant. First, I ordered the fish fry which according to their web site is 12.95, but on the check , they charged 16.50 for the fish fry. Second, my German mother was not impressed with her rolladen dish at all. Third, they charge $5 for valet parking. Maders, doesnt charge anything for their valet parking. Plus, the fish fry was very average and even the bread basket sucked. I dont understand why some people rave about this place. Its just a money pit. Wouldnt mind paying high prices if the food is exceptional, but it was very very average. I will never go to Karl Ratzsch s again.

My review is mixed. My wife and I learned about this restaurant from Living Social and decided to try it out. As most of the reviews stated, the food was great with relatively high price and the service was excellent. The server who was in her 50's and she was very helpful deciding what to order as this was our first time. Her service was excellent and we talked about coming back due to great food and service. That was the case until we asked for the check. We mentioned about having a Coupon from Living Social and her attitude changed drastically. She hurried up and said "can I get a copy now?" and before we said how wonderful the food was, she basically ingore and went to casher. I asked my wife was it me? or did her attitute suddenly changed right after mentioning Living Social Coupon, she felt the same way. We tried to have small conversation as there were no other customers, but she was almost like "yea yea yea" attitude. Regardless of having coupon, we gave her a beneift of doubt with 20% tip before discount. She should be happy that despite of her drastic attitude change, she still got paid well. We were the last ones to leave, but everybody working there was so busy chit chatting at the bar rather than greeting to say thank you or good night, except one person. First impression is not everthing, this restaurant screwed up and forgot last impression is more important.

I love both Mader's and Ratzsch's. Ratzsch's has good food, but is a bit on the pricey side. It's also more formal. It's kinda crowded. The tables are very close together and you have to squeeze past people to get to the entrance/exit of the restaurant. The restrooms are on the second floor in the furthest back corner, and you have to walk up a very narrow, creaky staircase to get to them! Food was good, but there was a bit too much ginger snap sauce on the sauerbraten. Usually, if there's too much sauce, they're trying to hide something. Also, they didn't have German chocolate cake or black forest cake! What German restaurant doesn't have at least one of those?!?! Also, there were a bunch of drunk, middle-aged people on a "prom flashback." They all came in yelling, shouting, and one of them even had a beer stein! They were even talking about thong underwear. The only thing that'd make me come back here would be the food.

Although it's touristy, crowded, noisy, and pricey, you can't dispute that the food still is good. It is little changed from 30 years ago and maybe that's a good thing. The German fare is reliably good if overpriced. All of the German dishes are good except for schnitzel which is dry, greasy and tasteless.

Cook needs to go back to Germany for lessons. Potato dumpling is a scoop of mashed potatoes with some crunchy stuff on. How German is that??!! Mushroom soup was OK with green asparagus, OK how often do you see that in Germany? Rest of the meal was so so, not worth the price,

Perfect German cuisine and "takes you back" decor. It makes me feel good to know it is still here.

Even after 106 years, it's the best German Restaurant in the Midwest, maybe the country. And where else can you dine under chandeliers made from antlers?

Old World German with an updated menu.

As good as German food and decor get in the midwest, with a more interesting menu than many, i.e. goose dishes, etc.

my favorite midwestern restaurant hands down. the spaetzle is great, the apple pancakes are the best and the sausage platters are to die for. this is even better than ermany since the beer is local