Migration
At least they got the fries right: A pointed look at Old Station Restaurant in Kaiserslautern
Stars and Stripes
February 27, 2020
Old Station Restaurant shares a building with Pizzeria Milano in the hip Kammgarn area of Kaiserslautern, Germany. (Jackie Broome)
Old Station Restaurant shares a building with Pizzeria Milano in the hip Kammgarn area of Kaiserslautern, Germany. (Jackie Broome)
Old Station Restaurant in Kaiserslautern, Germany, specializes in skewers of meat. While the dish looked rather appetizing, the taste was unpleasant. (Jackie Broome)
Old Station Restaurant in Kaiserslautern, Germany, has a nice Western-style ambience in its huge dining room, but the food is lacking. (Jackie Broome)
Old Station Restaurant in Kaiserslautern, Germany, offers a wide variety of sizes and toppings on its burgers, but the low-quality meat and overwhelming bun made for a disappointing meal. (Jackie Broome)
If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Thank you for reading my review of Old Station Restaurant in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
As much as I’d like to end things there, saying only nice things is basically the opposite of journalistic ethos, so I am compelled to say more. At the same time, this is a mere restaurant review, not hard-hitting investigative journalism involving an issue of urgent public interest. As such, I will alternate my critiques with faint praise in a classic point-counterpoint style.
Point: I did not like my meal at Old Station. My wife did not like her meal at Old Station. I did not like what I tried of my wife’s meal at Old Station, nor she mine.
Counterpoint: Old Station has an expansive menu beyond the burgers and grilled meat skewers we tried. Maybe some of that stuff is good.
Point: Old Station served me a very disappointing skewer of grilled chicken. I was only aware of two ways to screw up grilled chicken, namely undercooking and burning. And yet, Old Station challenged that assumption with fully cooked, unburnt chunks of grilled chicken that tasted, for lack of a more sophisticated term, weird.
Counterpoint: Old Station did not screw up french fries, another dish I believe is difficult to get totally wrong, thereby leaving my fragile belief system partially intact.
Point: I spent my meal lamenting that I wasn’t at Milano, the pizzeria with which Old Station shares a building, wrestling with an enormous calzone.
Counterpoint: Old Station has nice American Western decor, friendly service and really good iced tea. It’s actually quite pleasant before the food arrives.
Point: The food at Old Station is a bit overpriced and would be even if it included better versions of those dishes. Our bill for a party of two came to 46 euros with no alcohol.
Counterpoint: Having completed this review of Old Station, I can submit my receipt for reimbursement to Stars and Stripes in good faith and call it a free lunch. I guess I got what I paid for.
broome.gregory@stripes.com Twitter: @broomestripes
Location: Schoenstrasse 15 in Kaiserslautern, next to Gartenschau
Hours: Open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Prices: Burger prices start at 5.90 euros (around $6.50) and go as high as 12.90 euros (around $14) depending on size and toppings. Various upgrades are available for 1 euro or less. Steaks and meat skewers range from the high teens to low 20s. Schnitzel entrees are around 15 euros.
Information: Visit oldstation-kl.de or call 0631 414 59990.