I am close to 100% German so when I
recently heard about J. Betski’s a
few weeks ago, I knew I had to try it for my blog. I get these ridiculous hankerings every few weeks for the
genuine German lunch meat that I get at my Omi’s house in Frankfurt every few
years when I get to go visit. (Omi
means Granny in German.) I love bratwurst, fleischwurst, bloodwurst, mettwurst,
leberwurst… Oh my God the list goes on and on.
J. Betski’s is located at 10 West Franklin Street in
Raleigh. It’s directly across from
Peace in Seaboard Station, ladies!
The lunch menu is super affordable… my meal was roughly $8.00.
Every now and then my parents try
and recreate the meals we get at my Omi’s house by going to some place like A
Southern Season in Chapel Hill and buying meat, cheese, bread, and pickles. After trying J. Betski’s I wonder if they’ll even
bother with the trouble of that when the restaurant is so much closer to where
they live and it’s relatively cheap!
The restaurant was very simple and
cozy with wooden tables like the ones that they have at the casual schnitzel
places in Germany. Our server was
very friendly, helpful, efficient and quick.
To start, I got a pint of beer on tap called
Schneider & Sohn’s “Schneider Weisse.” Seeing as I’m used to the cheapest, most watered down beers of all time like Natural Light and PBR…
this was a delicious surprise. It
was a nice amber color, not too dark so I didn’t want to pass out whilst
walking out of the restaurant to the car. It
was very smooth going down and tasted only as what I can describe as a
campfire. If you could take a
beautiful campfire with family and friends while roasting food on sticks on a
perfectly cool and crisp night in the middle of October and put it in a glass… this is what it would taste
like. Please go try it.
Our server suggested that I order
the pierogie and sausage platter because it would give me a little taste of a
few different things. The platter
comes with two pierogies made one way, and two pieces of kielbasa (delicious,
juicy, German sausage) any two ways you like them. The plate also comes with a small serving of sauerkraut, and
two types of mustards for your dipping pleasure.
I got the cheese and potato
pierogies and the beef and pork kielbasa, and the smoked kielbasa. The pierogies were amazing and hand
made and delicately pressed together and stuffed with potato and cheese. They were
sprinkled with crispy little breadcrumbs which added a nice texture to it.
I bit into the made in house
sausage and immediately could hear the Vienna Waltz playing in my ears. It brought me straight back to my Omi’s
little apartment. The
smoked sausage was my favorite.
Anything with that smokey flavor is my favorite. Nothing compares. It tasted like fall and the fair and
it’s just ever so seasoned, salty, and smoky. Omnomnomnomnom.
Both kinds of mustard that they put on the plate were amazing, too. I am not a fan of the neon yellow American mustard but
I love the European stuff. One was
smooth and the other one was grainy.
The smooth one was super spicy and tasted perfectly with the plain beef
and pork kielbasa. The sweeter,
grainy one went so well with the smoked kielbasa.
The
saurkraut was good. It wasn’t as
good as what my mom makes, though.
It was very sweet and my mom makes hers a little more on the sour side so
it always contrasts perfectly with whatever salty food we’re having.
Dessert
was DEE-VIINEE. The
chocolate hazelnut torte with sea salt, caramel, and crispy bacon (yeah, I said
it) is the perfect dessert to split on a date. It fulfills both the girly chocolate, and the manly bacon
cravings. Personally, I love
anything with chocolate or with hazelnut and the two of them together is just
spot on. The bacon and sea salt
are so subtle that they just leave a slightly salty and crunchy texture that
was so delicately smoothed over by the thick and creamy caramel drizzled on
top. The only thing that I thought could be missing was a little bit of rum or bourbon in the cake. That could just be me, though. Either way, it was phenomenal. The dessert was dusted with
powdered sugar and homemade whipped cream. You can really tell the difference between the homemade whipped cream and the whipped cream in the can.
“The whipped cream can really make or break any dessert,”
said Ingrid London, forty-one of Cary. “If it’s too sweet the whole thing is ruined. That’s why the homemade stuff is the
best.”
I
certainly recommend J. Betski’s to anybody who loves German, Polish, Hungarian,
or anything of that nature kind of food.
It was such a pleasurable experience. The food was great, the service
was great, the weather was great and now I’m hungry.
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