Biergarten

Restaurants and bars with a German-style beer garden theme are becoming increasingly popular in Latin America. We recently reviewed the allegedly German-themed AvantGarten in Buenos Aires.

Mexico City has a couple of these bier-centric eating and drinking establishments as well, one being the Grüner Hof Biergarten, perched atop the Mercado Roma in Mexico City’s Roma Norte neighborhood. Mercado Roma hosts a variety of gourmet food shops and restaurants offering counter-service meals at lunch and breakfast.

The open-air restaurant is lined with picnic tables and one long bar along the left side of the large terrace that occupies most the rooftop over the bustling multi-use space below. The ground-floor market is closed at night so access to the restaurant on the rooftop is via elevator or stairway. But the excursion from ground to rooftop is worth it. The rooftop terrace has a fairy-tale like appeal that is quite unlike anything else in Mexico City (except perhaps for the garden fairyland at nearby Huset).

There are a few foosball tables on the terrace and GHB occasionally has tournaments which serve as a good excuse to drink beer. They also host events like Oktoberfest which, of course, is an even better excuse to drink beer and to watch pretty, blond frauleins dressed in traditional barmaid attire carrying steins of Hofbräu around the terrace (which, of course, is again, another fantastically good excuse to drink beer).

They serve a bunch of artisanal beers we haven’t seen on any other menu in Mexico City (or the rest of the world for that matter). And three or four brands of classic German brews including the iconic Hofbräu.

The menu is unusually varied, with unique items, some German, some not so much, such as big, fat pretzels, Canadian poutine (proviso: nowhere close to the real deal), smoked sausages, pork and beef, a variety of sandwiches and burgers (see RANT below).

In the image-slider we show our personal favorite, the Caneydian, which is strips of beef, oozing in a maple syrup and mustard sauce, topped with crisp shoestring potatoes and a fried egg. Sort of a Breakfast Mac on steroids. Although we still have slightly higher admiration for the San Francisco sandwich at porchetta Pork House in Polanco, this one remains the best sandwich choice in Roma Norte.

Of course, under accepted International law, any restaurant or bar with a German theme is strictly prohibited from serving vegetarian menu items. The only thing we saw on the menu remotely close to vegetarian was a veggie wrap and mushroom sandwich, both of which included cheese, so if you’re a strict vegetarian you’ll be restricted to consuming pretzels and beer (which, of course, is not all that bad).

None of that is unique enough for you? How about a corny dog and fish & chips? If their objective was to create so many out of character menu items that we had to return to try just one, they succeeded. We’ll be back for a corny dog on our next visit.