My friend and I had dinner at Hallo Berlin Express yesterday. It was a horrible experience. I ordered the Jaegerschnitzel and my friend the platter with 2 sausages. Those dinner dishes come with the soup of the day. The waiter never asked what soup we wanted, and we had to call him back to our table. We chose the split pea soup. It was made with yellow peas and didn't have a single piece of meat in it. This was not an authentic German split pea soup. The waiter also didn't bring us any spoons and we had to get them ourselves. We weren't even finished with our soups when the main dishes arrived. My Jaegerschnitzel was probably a 3 oz piece of pork pounded to 1/10 of an inch thickness and then breaded. It was very tough. I still don't know what kind of gravy they poured on top. I am German and this was anything but a Jaegersauce. It appeared to be a cheese sauce with little mushroom and a sprinkle of curried ketchup on top. Also, the spaetzle must have been cooked earlier and then fried in a pan. Again, not authentic German.
One of the sausages my friend had was supposed to be a Berliner Currywurst, yet it was a simple Bratwurst, no curry powder and no ketchup on top. The sausages tasted not bad, but frying a sausage is not rocket science. The waiter never asked us if we needed anything or if the food was ok. Needless to say, we didn't leave a tip. In my over 14 years in NYC this was the first time that I didn't leave a tip. One more thing, the tap beer was very good, but a little pricey, $8 for a 16oz mug. The beer was the only authentic German thing in this place. I will definitely not go back and can't recommend this place to anyone.

 Send to Friend