Tastebuddies: Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant

By Elie - 5:00 AM

Happy midweek! I hope you're all overthrown by hunger pangs right now because then this post will do you good on deciding where to go for lunch! You see, Nuffnang has recently been on a roll (Note how they took me to LA CREMERIA's Re-launch Party last Tuesday!) to make most of us fat and invited a few of us to Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant in Midvalley for a food tasting session on last Thursday! A few of them mentioned that it was difficult to find the restaurant but I was totally okay with it. ~~Ask concierge la!~~

Simply head to the Ground floor of Midvalley where you can walk over to The Gardens and when you're standing smack in between Starbucks and Delicious, just turn to your right (which means you will walk to the row of shops along where Delicious is) and head all the way straight. Brotzeit is located past Maybank and a makeshift police hub. I think it's also next to Spaghetti Grill so that's a good hunt for you. You can't miss it actually just look out for the spanky Paulaner Munchen sign outside and the big Brotzeit signage on top of it!

The exterior of Brotzeit. With an unmissable signage on top though there isn't one like how regular shops do...

It isn't difficult to hunt down German restaurants in KL but to find a GOOD one is the real task! Located on the outer section of Midvalley and facing The Gardens, Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant is definitely a good pick. The name Brotzeit is a typical Bavarian expression where "Brot" stands for bread in German and "Zeit" means time. Putting it together refers to a small meal or snack accompanied by bier...or better known as beer to the locals.

The insides of Brotzeit is truly bright and spacious!

A designated bar area for drinkers alike

The interior of Brotzeit itself stands out really well, giving you a very German feel whereas their unique wall designs shows the craft of German brewing as well as the journey of these beers from Munich to the bellies of Malaysians. Bright, open and casual, this place does serve as a very nice chill out place be it in the mid-mornings of the day, afternoon and even in the evening when all you want is a sip of cold and fresh beer.

Bright open space on the outside for smoking customers

Judging by the seating, I trust they have quite a crowd at night too!

Here you can expect an array of beers from the Paulaner family, all brewed accordingly to the Purity Law of 1516 and uses pure spring water from it's source. The food that they serve also takes in stand in German authenticity using premium and original ingredients in the process of preparation. As they have it on their menu, "Guten Apetit und Prost!" which according to Google translate means "Good Appetite and cheers!".

Beer selections go by the tap

Well stocked bar area!

Unfortunately, it isn't a restaurant for our Muslim friends as they do serve an array of pork dishes

I also noticed that they have a selection of cigars by the bar so I suppose that's available for those who prefer a finer puff. We were ready to put the food to the test after a warm greeting from the friendly Maryanne, Saravana who is the Operations Manager and Helmut, the executive chef of Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant.

One of those classy shots of cutleries. I try.

Grapefruit juice

They initially offered us soft drinks but I was super thick face and asked if we could order juice instead because I was having a flu. These people were so nice we got to order whatever we wanted after that and I picked this out because I thought it would be interesting. The taste itself was okay - truly like a grapefruit with the tinge of bitterness and sourness with a hint of sweet to boot. However, I did ask for less ice but it was...fully iced anyway. Need to double remind them I think.

Brotzeitflade Speck (Bacon Pizza)

Some of the bloggers were running a little late so Maryanne thought it would be better if we were served with a type of German pizza first. This is called the Fladen and is different from regular pizzas because it is made of rye for the crust and the toppings consists of tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, bacon, onions, vine ripened tomatoes and chilli. Notice the green stuff? That's cili padi for some Malaysian touch to it. I thought this was really good because I've never tried having bacon on my pizza and the crust was noticeably more fragrant than regular crusts. Each bite was flavourful and I could chew on the bacon...so much indulgence oh my God.

Biermischgetranke (Beer mixes) Here are the names of these variants in order as per the picture:

Radler (A mix of the original munich lager with Sprite)

Bayrischer Longdrink (Vodka, lime juice and the original Munchner Urtyp)

Churchill (Campari with the original Munchner Urtyp)

Affensaft (Weissbier with banana or mango juice)

Russ'n (Weissbier with Sprite)

Schwarzer (Weissbeir with Coke)

According to Saravanan, real Germans order these to pair with their lunch meals. This is because they do want to have some alcohol in the midday but they may have to get back to work after so they made up beer mixes to tone down the level but still give the right oomph to live with. There are 7 types of beer mixes from Brotzeit and we were served 6 of it. My personal favourite was the Bayrischer Longdrink because it's a mix of vodka and lime juice and that's my regular bar drink. Henry and Jackie from CleverMunkey and Jackieloi.com really liked the Affensaft and actually ordered one each after sampling from the ones above!

Salat mit Schafskose / Feta Salad

Chef Helmut was really nice to have noticed that there were quite a number of lady bloggers that day and figured he would serve us with a full sized portion of feta salad in order to balance things out. In this there was (OBVIOUSLY) salad with feta cheese, red bell peppers, semi-dried tomatoes, onions, olives, garlic croutons and sour cream served with their house dressing. For a non-vegetable eater like me, I thought this is...TOO HEALTHY. The dressing however was quite appetizing with a little hint of sourness in it and I think that's what got my attention. The feta cheese was also really good when tossed with the salad though I don't think I would personally order it if I was there alone.

Knoblauchwurst / Garlic pork sausages

No German meal is complete without German sausages okay? This comes from the Oktoberfest set that Brotzeit is ready to roll out so it isn't quite on the menu yet. The sausages were super succulent and not to garlic-ish possibly because of the smoky taste that covered it up. I liked it loads but with only 3 to share with other bloggers, I had to really control myself. REALLY.

Pork chop!

I wasn't really expecting to see pork chop on the tray but they had it anyway! It was a little dry for my liking though until Nuffie Joelle suggested we pour a little of the brown sauce they had for us and it was fine after. There was a minty aftertaste so I suppose it must have been marinated in mint sauce before being put on the grill. Something mediocre to wash down after the knoblauchwurst.

Belly bacon!!!

Oh my God the belly bacon was so good I cannot even...the fats were just right in consistency with the meat portions plus the way they cooked it...I'm completely speechless. For someone who doesn't really enjoy fats in her meat, I had ~~seconds~~ thirds of this belly bacon. Sorry ya'll. I couldn't help it.

Roasted chicken

I thought this was...sort of a misfit on a tray full of pork. While it was still delicious to eat WITH the skin, the chicken was still a tad bit bland after all the flavourful dishes around it. It was however quite moist to bite so that's quite a plus point. Dip it with the brown sauce and it's not too bad to go with.

Chef Helmut preparing our next dish. Executive chef serving us okay? We're super grand!

Schweinshaxn / Pork Knuckle

This is the famous pork knuckle of Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant. The crispy hind shank of grain fed pork was so good and so fragrant, Nuffie Joelle had to take seconds although she was filled with guilt. I normally don't like dishes like these because it's quite oily and fatty but I thought this was pretty good to taste. It was truly crispy to bite and even when you're chewing on it inside your mouth, there's still that crunchy sound you could hear in your own ears. You really should get this if you've got a company of 3 or 4 people to share. Indulgence!

Potato salad

A side dish to the Oktoberfest set, I thought the potato salad was really disappointing. I love potatoes regardless how it is prepared so I had quite an expectation for this only to be let down because it was a little too sourish for me and the taste was fairly unexplainable. I didn't really like this but others seemed to be okay with it because it was lapped off anyway.

A side dish

I'm terribly sorry I didn't get the name of this side dish that came with the Oktoberfest set! I believe it's sauteed onions however and it was really sour to palette so I avoided it as it went around the table. Someone enlighten me how I was supposed to eat this please!

Nuffie Joelle and I! I like her smiley eyes!

Interfering between food pictures to show you a picture of Nuffie Joelle and I instead. To kill your craving, you know...of course next up is desserts because you are NEVER too full for desserts. Ever.

Kaiserschmarren / Emperor's cake

Chef Helmut explained that this is a staple kind of dessert for the Germans to have and it's actually shredded pancake with rum and raisins served with plum sauce. The pancakes were really fluffy to taste and the icing sugar had quite a good touch to it in order to balance out with the hint of sourness from the plum sauce. Very enjoyable and light for dessert.

Sweet & Savoury Duo

This is so new to everyone that we couldn't wrap our heads around it. It's actually crispy chocolate bacon on white chocolate mousse with lemon pepper marinated strawberries and apricot sauce. Yeah, you read that right. It's crispy chocolate BACON. It tasted really peculiar at first because of the bitterness from the chocolate coat then a little saltiness from the crispy bacon but it's really good once you've left it in your mouth long enough. The lemon pepper marinated strawberries were really special too because you got the hint of pepper-ness after a while. Chef Helmut says that Brotzeit is one of the rare places that creates white chocolate mousse instead of brown chocolate mousse as we commonly see outside and it was really good because it wasn't overly sweet to taste. This was really yummy!

Profiterole Duet

I really liked this because I love the combination of cinnamon and sugar apples! What you see here is actually a chocolate profiterole with vanilla ice cream and cinnamon sugar apple fritter on vanilla sauce. I loved how golden and crisp the cinnamon sugar apple fritter was and the ice cold vanilla ice cream with chocolate profiterole was also a great pair off. None of it was overly sweet so you wouldn't feel all bloated and disgusted after spoonfuls and I really wanted more but we had to share so I only had one bite of each.

Bavarian Orange Trifle

I am willing to pay to eat this again. I've left this the last to review because I'm always just saving the best for the last. With refreshing layers of triple sec of rum and orange infused sponge fingers and fresh cream, it was THE BOMB. The sponge fingers had such a delightfully refreshing orange scent to it and the juices were so tantalizing! It was Chef Helmut's idea to dig all the way into the cup with your spoon so you get everything in one go and it's just pure ecstasy! Someone bring me to Brotzeit again for this please! I cannot get over it!

Fail food modelling. I don't care I still like the Bavarian Orange Trifle.

Chef Helmut and I.

A chef with 38 years of experience, he has shifted around 25 times and has been in hotels for a good 20 odd years. Chef Helmut is really friendly and goes out serving dishes that are out of the ordinary but authentically German as close as possible. Thanks for all the good food for the day, Chef. It was amazing to have tasted them all.

Overall, the experience with Brotzeit German Bier Bar & Restaurant had been a really great one and the service staff were really efficient too. One complaint however is that ONE of their service staffs may need to brush up a little because he kept knocking over my fedora and never said sorry. *Glares* It was otherwise so nice to have gotten the chance to dine there midday and it was all thanks to Nuffnang for inviting us as well as Brotzeit for having us. I should go back another day with my family and we could all have our own Oktoberfest party as a family. It'll be fun since we can't afford to go to Germany for the real deal yet so it'll have to do. *Burp*