Beethoven's 9th: The Restaurant is a German restaurant just off the square in Paola, Kansas. Beethoven's 9th is only open Thursday through Saturday. The menu includes German food, steaks, seafood, hamburgers and other sandwiches. There are 20 side dishes, including hot German potato salad, spaetzle, red cabbage, sauerkraut, baked potato and Caesar salad. After several visits I am quite pleased with Beethoven's 9th restaurant. Their Jaeger Schnitzel (pork loin - breaded and pan fried with creamy mushroom sauce) is so good that I almost licked the plate. Other dishes that I like include the cold potato salad, sausages, and hamburgers. Beethoven's 9th offers three types of hamburgers: sirloin, buffalo and chicken. The prices are reasonable and the servings are large. A $7 sausage sampler appetizer is four large sliced sausages surrounding a large serving of hot sauerkraut, and could easily be a meal. The hamburgers start under $6 including the choice of one side dish. The burger was a full inch thick and stuck outside the bun around the sides. It was cooked perfectly to order. The servers are attentive and friendly, but could be a little more knowledgeable about the food. During each of my three visits to Beethoven's, there were simple questions about the food that they could not answer. When I asked my server during my first visit to Beethoven's Ninth, I was told that most of the desserts are not prepared on the premises. But since then, I was emailed by the owner, Hannes Poetter, who told me that most of the desserts, incliding the signature cookies are baked on premesis. Those cookies are a stand out. The chocolate chip cookies are thick like biscuits and have nearly as much chocolate as cookie batter. My favorite cookie is the peanut butter chocolate chip. The cookies are $2 each and my guess is that a single cookie weights about 1/3 pound. Beethoven's is a restaurant that I look forward to revisiting soon.
copyright 2008-2009 by Keith Stokes |