German Cuisine in Maryville Tennessee

As I’ve mentioned many times before, ethnic food of any variety other than Mexican, Thai and Chinese is hard to come by here in East Tennessee.  There are a couple of Cuban places and even a Jamaican offering…  There is also a German restaurant in Farragut Tennessee but our visits and visits by friends, have left us unimpressed...plus its pricy too.  The challenge is not only finding ethnic restaurants…it is finding reasonably good ethnic restaurants!

So, after hearing a number of positive reports about Roland’s Bistro and its German food on the east side of Maryville Tennessee, we finally decided to give it a try.  The yellow building doesn't look German but it can’t be called unassuming, that’s for sure!  As my mom used to tell me, you just can’t judge a book (or restaurant) by its cover.  

The dining room décor at Roland’s Bistro certainly doesn’t lend itself to the feeling of German food… No Bavaria here, that’s for sure.  The restaurant is very casual with the older of the employee’s daughters watching her younger charge, playing in a corner, seating customers or asking how everything is… That big cupboard and a table right behind it displays various local crafts for sale.

To start…Roland’s Bistro does have a nice but modest selection of German beers.  We started out with a Paulaner and an Erdinger Weissbier. ($5.50 and $7.00 respectively)

Now for a cautionary note… Do not dine at Roland’s Bistro if 1) you’re in a hurry, or 2) you aren’t ready to relax and take your time with dinner…European style!

We ordered an appetizer but after a bit of time, our waitress brought us a salad plate with a couple of slices of marbled rye bread and some type of spread… I thought that it might be liver based but my wife thought that it was beef based.   In any case, we liked the little salad mix as well as the spread on the bread. (I did not take a photo or either.)

For the starter we'd ordered, “Brotzeit”, our waitress brought us this plate of cheese, salami, ham and ‘wurst’ salad with some very nice warm lightly grilled or toasted buttered rye bread. ($10.00) We very much enjoyed this starter plate!  It was excellent!

Later in our evening, Roland stopped by our table.  He told us that he tried to obtain the best products available to create his offerings.  The ‘wurst salad’ was made from pickled bologna.  He has to have the bread flown in because there isn’t any good German rye produced in the area.

For my entrée, I went with Pork Schnitzel Vienna Style with a side of Kasespatzle…fresh homemade noodles with cheese, southern German style.  Given my love of breakfast and eggs, I asked for 2 over-easy eggs on top of the chicken schnitzel. ($14.80 with the eggs) I did enjoy my meal…with the yolks blending in with the schnitzel and the kasespatzle! (Of course, Laurie had my bottle of Tabasco in her purse for me…)

Other dinner offerings include: Kasespatzle; Fried Flounder Finkenwerder Style; Turkey Medallions with Sherry Sauce; Currywurst; Pork Roast with Roasted Kostritzer Beer Sauce, Veal Schnitzel, Konigsberger Klopse; Roulade, and: Angus Steak.  Sandwiches, soups and salads are also on the menu.  All salad dressings are homemade.

I didn’t make it easy for the reader… If you aren’t into German food, you may have to look a few items up in Wikipedia!

Laurie decided to go with the Beef Stroganoff or “Rindergeschnetzeltes” for her dinner. ($14.00) For her sides she had some very nice mashed potatoes and an order of Blue Cheese Spinach.  She liked the beef stroganoff and potatoes but she wasn’t crazy about the spinach-blue cheese combination but she did eat a portion of it. I tasted it and I thought that it was pretty good…so it’s a matter of preferences.

Roland has been in business in Maryville for over 2 years now and he is from Germany.  It was a weekday and the restaurant was fairly busy.  He told us that some people don’t like how long it takes to dine at the restaurant but he prepares the food when it’s ordered so it’s as fresh and as authentic as he can make it.  He told us that he has many regulars who do appreciate the ‘slow food’ approach of European dining.  Note: Dinner took us 2 hours from start to finish.

We liked Roland’s Bistro and Roland Riese the owner and operator is friendly and likeable too… We will return in the not too distant future.  Roland’s Bistro is located at 1805 East Lamar Alexander Parkway (US Hwy 321) in Maryville Tennessee.  Phone: 865-724-2537.  Roland’s is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rolandsbistroinmaryville.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what we had for dinner!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave