I fell in love with this place at first sight. A brass band, the best German beer list that I’ve seen in a restaurant (even surpassing anywhere I visited in Germany!), and good food. The one downside was that all tables were first come, first serve and most of the people were parked at their tables for the entire polka night. I would recommend getting there early if it’s polka night.

I had a great time here. A unique german restaurant with an awesome selection of german beers. We came on polka night, so the place was packed. You should try to get there early if it is a Saturday night, because it was really busy, and most people were staying all night.

This is a fine place to visit if you enjoy German Lagers vom fass. Beer served in half liters, maß, and boot. Fairly large place with good food as well. Great crowd when a live polka band is playing. Everyone sings along. The website usually lists what they are pouring. One block away from Court Avenue Brewing. Only bad thing is that they allow smoking. Bring your respirator with you.

Good food, and great beer. Loved that they had my favorite wheats on tap

This is a fun German bar. Some nice German import selections on tap and boots available to drink them out of! Open seating and a good size bar to sit at with happy bartenders. The interior is styled after what I would imagine a German beer hall to look like.

Good german selection but other than that nothing special. Have done the "boot" a few times. Fun atmosphere.

Good atmosphere, good food, and most importantly good German beer. Service was friendly and somewhat knowledgeable. Food was very good--try the kraut--and reasonably priced! My only gripe is their draught selection, which seemed to be mostly weizens.

The drunken d-bag factor is VERY high here, even for Des Moines. That said, this place has really bumped up the bottle selection in the last few months, Leipziger Gose, Uergie Alt, Celebrator, to name a few. plenty of other interesting stuff. The beer sells fast, particularly the lagers & pilsners, which is good news because this means you can auctually get a fresh german pilsner on tap. The staff is usually pretty awesome and most of them know the beers very well.

The few times I have been there, the crowd (as told to me by regulars) was way larger than usual. The place is total Bavarian biergarten kitsch, but fun if you’ve got a couple friends and just want to chill with the polka band. Again, though, this place seems to always be filled with barflies rather than beer folks, and it detracts from the atmosphere. You get the feeling that if happy hour were cheaper somewhere else, they and their night-on-the-town clothes would be gone. Selection is decent but tends towards the weizens, dorts, and pils. I’d really like to see them pouring Aventinus or Celebrator.

I have been there a couple of times. The food has been decent. The service was good as well as the condition of the beers I tried on tap. The selection is good for the German style beers and the waitstaff knows the beer. I like that you can get a good pils on tap. A fun place to visit.