Franken Stube

There are some places that are just weird! Here’s a small authentic German restaurant in the middle of nowhere with contemporary German electro music on the speakers, German products on the shelves, and a Bavarian menu. They specialize in real home made spaetzle and wurst meals. They feature Bavarian beer, wine, and sweet tea!
German’s don’t do «light» cooking in the Black Forest. However the salads were quite delicate. The spaetzle was home made and quite good as a bed for the wurst.
Just 3 other couples were there on a Thursday eve. Without « Unilocal» and interstate 95 tourists this place wouldn’t hold up. Locals don’t know what to make of the place– their idea of a fancy restaurant is the local Cracker Barrel.
We enjoyed the food and drink and sympathized with the owners who had a dream…

Best German food anywhere around. All the people were pleasent and friendly.
Great atmosphere. They make you feel like your in a German home back in Germany. I stopped by on a trip from Ft. Bragg to Washington. Well worth the stop. I will stop by the Franken Stube on every trip I make. Best German food and atmosphere I have had in years. I can remember their names, but Thanks to the owner, cook and the husband of the owner for the food and time. Excellent food and conversation. ’nuff said.

Pros: Quiet, family oriented. Clean. Service was prompt. Don’t expect this to be a «fast food» chain. Plan to enjoy your beverages and conversation with your dining companions, as the food is obviously made fresh to order. Well worth the wait. Every entrée serving was more than enough to fill you up. Recommend ordering different sides and sharing family style. We tried the Ceurry Wurst and Pork snitzel with sides of home fries, potatoe salad, sauerkraut and spätzle. The Ceurry sauce was our least favorite.
Cons: The hours are restricted to dinner only. Not in the best of neighborhoods. The beer, fresh, is good but at a premium price. My only suggestion is that the bread bowl and maybe a cucumber salad would have been a nice pre dinner part of the meal.
We enjoyed it and will be back again to try some of the other menu items and dessert.

Clearly housed in a defunct fast food joint, but the food (and authentic beverages) were delicious! Gracious waitress was very helpful.
Saving this place for future visits in my travels, despite the cheap décor.

We got there about a hour before closing. They were very busy and the waitress warned us there may be a wait for our food. We had just driven up from Florida and our only other near by choice was fast greasy food so we sat down. Best decision we made. We ordered the bratwurst with potato salad and warm red cabbage. I added a dunkle (dark) beer and a bread basket. Excellent! Food came quicker than I expected. Not since the year we lived in Munich have I hayd food and drink this good. If I have to leave an hour or two earlier on our next trip south it will be well worth it to get there in time for a larger and more leisurely meal.

We went on Easter Saturday and they were quite understaffed and apparently under stocked. It took 45 mins to get the food, but it was pretty good stuff. Jagerschnitzel with Spaezel was very good as was the rot kohl and the gerkinsalat. Don’t be in hurry here. Worth the wait though.

Exceptional! What a wonderful find on our journey from Southwest Florida to DC! Since moving from Chicago to DC we have yet to find great German restaurant. We found one in this town. Highly recommend you stop in and enjoy the fresh homemade food.

Really great and authentic German food. Kids loved the snitzel. What a great done. Beer was served in the coldest glasses. We also had the dessert and loved all!

Awesomeness! I happen to like mustard in my potato salad! The bratwurst was absolutely delicious, and brought me back to when I was stationed in Germany. I also had some homemade apple strudel with powdered sugar. Light on the extra sugar, which is a welcome staple in German desserts. I’ll be back!

Excellent food and service. After a long travel day, it was a welcome delight. I highly recommend it.

My husband and I stopped on this restaurant as we travel down south from Washington DC. Yes it’s took a little while for the food to get here but it was lovely. I would come back here again anytime. I had the Jäger schnitzel and Dunkel Weiss beer my husband had beef rolls and the Black forest cake for dessert. the sauces were delicious, my schnitzel was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside the mushrooms were fresh and delicious. We also selected the German coleslaw which was vinegary goodness and the red cabbage that was warm and feeling.

This is a five-​star family restaurant because the food is authentic, made from scratch, and fairly priced. It’s a treat to have an international experience in the middle of an East Coast roadtrip.
Outstanding favorites: Gurkensalat (cucumber dill salad); Sauerkraut (red cabbage); and the Spaetzle. The kids loved the Kaese Spaetzle (cheese spaetzle with bacon and onion), and we enjoyed all the main entrees, but I would probably choose the Beef Gulasch again.
Hard to believe the desserts are made in house because they look like they come from a professional baker. We equally enjoyed the moist German chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries, and the apple struedel.
Our thanks to this lovely family for providing traveling families with a hearty, homemade hot meal. Great roadtrip oasis!

Delicious! So nice to have a non-​chain place to eat. Sausage was wonderful. The cheese spaetzle was very rich & delicious. If I didn’t eat a massive pile of potatoes & kraut, I probably would have tried the dessert too. Service was great too.

It’s always nice to go back to food that you once used to have on a daily basis! I will have to agree with the other reviewers who stated that it was pretty authentic!
Food:
The table ordered two types of schnitzel, curry wurst, and another wurst dish. The jaegerschnitzel reminds me of a restaurant that was right off an u-​ban station in Frankfurt. The flavor of the brown gravy and mushrooms was on point. Next, the pork rahmsnitzel, which is a cream sauce with mushroom and bacon, is definitely worth ordering. I ended up smothering the spaetzel with it. The curry wurst is something I truly miss, or even wurst with curry ketchup, however, this was so nice to have again. One recommendation, just top it off with some curry powder, that’s one thing that it was missing compared to what I’m used to. As sides, we ordered the cucumber salad, kartoffel salat, and spaetzel. I have to say that the potato salad was missing something, and the spaetzel needed a bit more flavor, but delicious nonetheless. The cucumber salad is completely worth it.
Drinks:
Bitburger on tap. Yup, brings me back!
Service and ambience:
Hard to judge well the service. We were well served, but we were the only table for three quarters of the time we were there. Again, we were well served. You can still see Wendy’s from the outside to the inside. It was a little odd, and it was a very interesting set up. Has plenty to scream that it is a German restaurant, but aesthetically needs more.
I will be if I have time again to make a stop in Emporia. Definitely worth it!

Food was authentic German food and very good. The service was very good and the owner was very nice and accommodating to us. We went on Sunday about 2 PM.

Food is good, but service is SUPER Slow!
I visited this place after hearing all the great reviews about the food on Unilocal so I stopped in to see for myself. Upon walking in I was a little thrown off as it felt like walking into a Wendy’s and didn’t know weather to seat myself or be waited on. I was told to grab any seat to which I did. After looking over the menu I figured the beer for $ 8 was a but high especially when I could get it cheaper at «The Bank By Kahills» down the street, so I sided with a soda instead and put in my order at the same time. I also ended up ordering the soup too which was VERY good. Believe it or not I was pretty blown away and impressed by how authentic the food really was. Then the entrée came (beef and pork) it was just as good as the soup if not better. It wasn’t till after I finished eating my meal that I started to question the nonexistent service at this place.
Straight-​up in all honesty, the service here REALLY SUCKS! I totally will agree with Tristan W’s review, in that they need at least two servers and not the current one and only server. I did find it hard to review the place because of this as I spent atleast 50 minutes after my meal was completed watching the single and only waiter running amuck all over, with the restaurant filling up and seating becoming more scarce due to customers still waiting extended periods of time for their checks/​bill.
**Overall, I would love to come back, but I don’t have time for a 3 hour meal. Hire another waiter and this review would be an EASY 5 Stars.
Cheers!

Understaffed. Sad interior. Well meaning but poor execution. I came here on the suggestion of the reviews on Unilocal.I’m pretty disappointed. I ordered the currywurst. Ten dollars for a cut up hot dog swimming in ketchup. It was tasty but tiny. High prices for small portions. It also took about 45 minutes to get my food. Beer is expensive at $ 8 for a pint. I’m still here an hour later trying to get my bill. I can’t recommend this place. They do have free wifi though so there’s that. One tired waitress for nine tables is just not realistic. $ 20 for seven bites of sausage and a tiny beer. Ugh.

Wow! What a great (& authentic) German restaurant, hidden in Emporia!
My husband & I stayed the night in Emporia and turned to Unilocal to find something beside chain or fast food. Franken Stube popped up, and had great (& well deserved) reviews, so iff we went to try it out. We are so glad we did! The food was delicious with good portions. We had pork cutlets with a cream, mushroom & bacon sauce that was perfectly cooked, tender and delicious! We also split a good sized slice of hot, fresh from the oven, apple strudel that was also amazing.
The service was terrific, friendly and fun.
I hope more people discover this great little restaurant! I know that we will make it a point to return when we are next in Emporia.

Delicious authentic meal at an eclectically decorated German restaurant that happily reminded me of our best meal on our honeymoon stop in Cologne. Small menu selection with all the items they clearly excel at. Hunter’s Jaegerschnitzel and Rahmachitzel were perfect portions with tasty sauces. And the sides (which I could make a meal out of just sides) were perfect compliments. Red cabbage had a perfect balance of sweet vs briny and be sure to get the potato salad warm! The staff was warm and attentive, especially the owner? Who insisted we take some cake to go (on the house). Who can refuse cake?!
Very happy we stopped on our way back north to dc. A perfect meal to end our anniversary weekend.

Made a special return trip from Richmond recently with Boyfriend in tow. He had a wurst platter with red cabbage and spaetzle, and I tried the hunter’s schnitzel (YUM) with spaetzle and sauerkraut. Everything was phenomenal. We tried splitting a slice of the homemade German milk chocolate cake for dessert but were too stuffed to finish it, despite its deliciousness.