Schmitz Fine Food

Came here last night with my husband and we were pleased. The restaurant is located next to the Alte Opera and is in a beautiful area.
The restaurant itself is decorated beautifully. It has the whole American diner feeling but classed up a bit. It does not offer that much seating and being wedged between two large groups was not so fun. We heard everything they talked about and it felt quite awkward.
The restaurant is self serve, so you must go to the counter to order.
The food is already made and is sitting on a heat table. We were served within 5 minutes. The plates were pretty big and the presentation was nice.
I had the rib plate with mac & cheese, a baked potato and tomato chutney.
The ribs were already removed from the bone, which was nice, just wish there weren’t huge chunks of cartilage mixed in. I kept accidentally eating the pieces and it was quite gross.
The Macaroni was not good. It literally had zero flavor. I could not taste cheese, they should probably use cheddar or a cheese that has more flavor. There was no spice whatsoever. Just super bland.
The baked potato also had no salt or pepper. It was drenched in sour cream and was also flavorless. The meat was definitely my favorite part, cooked perfectly and I loved the BBQ sauce and the tomato chutney.
My husband had pulled pork, a salad and fries. The meat was delicious, no complaints there. The fries were horrible. They were not fresh from the fryers. They were dry and old tasting. No flavor at all. The salad was nice but again was super plain.
Clearly there is a theme going on here, where is the flavor? Some salt and pepper can go a long way. The meat is really good, so we decided we will only go back for their sandwiches since the side dishes were so disappointing.
Overall, love the concept, love the meat and BBQ sauce. Do not care for the flavorless side dishes. For the prices they charge, the side dishes should not taste like they came from a cafeteria.
I’ll go back when Im craving BBQ. I would give this place 3.5 stars if I could.
Oh they also had great service as well.

Okay bbq for this area. Only ate here once and wasn’t too impressed with the pulled pork– maybe because I am not really into bbq food. Figured out try it out though. Good place to get food on the go or eat quickly. Service was great.

Surprisingly good barbecue for Germany. First tried their pulled pork sandwich during Opernplatzfest and was so pleasantly surprised that I had it three times that week. The actual restaurant opened right afterwards and we went right away and have been back a few times since then. They have a good selection of beer and wine and have a few tall tables outside.
The pulled pork and the brisket sandwiches are both great here. My one comment would be that there is no reason to put any kind of lettuce on either of these sandwiches — it just wilts and tastes gross and their cole slaw is really good so why are you bothering with lettuce? Anyway, sides are pretty good, you can also get the meats on a salad or as a platter. A little disappointed in the peanut butter cheesecake, the cheesecake was ok, but could barely taste the peanut butter.