There are some great dining experiences waiting for you in Las Vegas. There are some big disappointments as well but that’s a story for a different time.
Of course you want to visit the big name places. Most of the great chefs of America have put their names to them–Charlie Palmer, Wolfgang Puck, and more. But you owe it to yourself to take a cab off of the Strip and visit the Hofbrauhaus.
Back in the year 2000 Stefan Gastager began the plans for Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas. It was his dream to bring high quality Bavarian food, premium beer brewed in Bavaria and “Gemutlichkeit” to the United States. Las Vegas opened its doors in 2004 to millions of visitors and Nevada locals as a major attraction.
The Hofbrauhaus is built to the specifications of the original, which stand in Munich. It is a large single room with long picnic-style tables, ideal for singing along to favorite old German drinking songs. The wait staff dresses in traditional beer wench dresses or lederhosen.
The band is brought in from Munich and they know more polkas than even my dad could have named. (Back in Cleveland weddings were not considered consummated until the bride and groom danced at least one polka at the reception.)
As for the food, it is as authentic as possible. Not just the chef and the recipes, but the food as well, whenever possible, comes from Germany.
And oh what food it is.
We started with a pretzel, which may not sound exciting, except that this is a soft German pretzel and it comes with Obazter cheese as well as sweet mustard and onion mustard. A couple of these, with good cold German beers in cold glass steins are a treat in itself. The schnitzel is a giant breaded chicken breast. Have it with hot German potato salad or with real sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Again, let’s have another round of German beer.
This last visit I rolled the dice and ordered the Hofbrauhaus platte. This came with a large cut of smoked pork loin that was as tender as a good ham steak. It also had a dark pork roast. Add to that an incredible smoked sausage with a remarkable dark beer sauce as well as the already mentioned sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.
By the way, the dark beer sauce went extremely well with the potatoes as well as the sausage. This platte could have served five of us. I am so ashamed that I ate it all but I just couldn’t help myself.
Dessert. We didn’t need dessert. We had no room for dessert. But we ordered it anyway. Apple strudel–traditional homemade Bavarian apple strudel. It came a la mode with real vanilla bean vanilla ice cream.
Meanwhile, the band played on. You know that long mountain-top horn that they use in the cough drop commercials? They played it. They balanced it on their mouth and played the Recola tune. They played “Close Encounters” as well as “Star Wars” on that horn. Then they picked up a regular trumpet and played a medley of “Hogan's Heroes” and the “Great Escape.” Then they played more polkas and German drinking songs.
Drinking and dancing contests continued on through the night. Even early on a Saturday afternoon the dining and drinking and singing and dancing go on. Plans abound for traditional Bavarian celebrations like Oktoberfest and the Christmas holidays
Now I understand that everyone has some landmark in Las Vegas that they believe they should visit every time they go up there. And I understand that they recommend this favorite spot of theirs to everyone who will listen. So please listen now to me. Visit the Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas. Visit hungry and thirsty. And be ready to sing. Even if you don't know the words.

Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas is at 4510 Paradise Rd. Las Vegas NV 89109 (across from the Hard Rock Casino) Phone 702-853-2337 (BEER) www.hofbrauhauslasvegas.com.