Restaurant Review: Leopold's

After a saturday afternoon of drinking and watching a friend lose two feet of her hair to locks of love we ventured into Cady's Alley in G'town for some austrian food at Leopold's. before we ate, we were lured to the 3rd edition for a courageous hair cut and the prospect of fried lumpia. Filipinos will travel through space and time for good lumpia and Lechon, lechon is like our holy grail, elusive with the prospect of paradise.

Leopold's is tucked away in a small alley off the main drag in G'town. Leopold's is modern Vienesse cafe deisgned to serves the shoppers of the high end shops. I was excited for something different and I think we caught the place on an off night. The reason I say this is because it has all the elements of being a hit. Undisclosed location, great ambiance with a unique menu, compared to the asian, steak and fench addiciton of DC residents.

Honestly, I havent had much german food. My roommate makes spatzel which is awesome. I have had schnitzel and all sorts of bratwursts, thanks to Johnson and Old Europe, pretzels, and some rolled meat dish with bulgar wheat so my experience is limited and no real point of comparison. But ask me about Peking Duck and I can give you a PhD thesis on this dish.

Super modern looking, the wait staff was very attractive and the menu varied with some main stays of austrian food. Schnitzel, spatzel, ox tail soup, soda with elderberry syrups etc. We tried to sit outside but the patio was packed with many germanic and euro people. We sat inside with a plasma screen runnning a loop of waves coming a shore. Saturday we had: schnitzel, spatzel, roast chicken and fries, ox-tail soup, the charcutteri plate, and some desserts. the service was ok, she put on the gratuity for a table of six and forgot a soup.

Artisnal bread should not be used at dinner tables. We had overly crusty sunflower seed rolls. They were clumsy rolls that should have been heated before coming to the table.

Ox-tail soup, a brothy dish with tender meat but as the Seed said, "I could do without the carrots." It was ordinary.

Schnitzel was average, not a large portion but tasty needed a side dumplings rice maybe.

Spatzel, like little dumplings it was covered in cheese. Yum but a little unassuming. A dish that should have taken control of the sides issue but didnt.

Chicken, very dry, but the skin was crispy...I would say it was more akin to fried vs roasted chicken. It was on a bed of wilted greens and had a mustard sauce which were pretty damn awesome. I liked the fries but a bit thin for me.

Desserts were ok, my struedel from toasting and vanilla ice cream was very good.

Coffee was bad.

This place has the elements for a good eating spot. It needs to work on preparation and having more care for the diners. I would give this place some time to mature.