Widmer Gasthaus

Shaw

Florida

4.13/5  rDev -1.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $

My fiancee and I went to the Gasthaus on a Saturday evening in October after visiting Mount St. Helens.

The place has a great look: Lots of red brick and cherry tables with brass fittings. There are many metal signs of German beers hanging on the walls. The place was crowded when we were there. Luckily, we got seats fairly quickly, which was nice since we were pretty tired. A strange facet of this place is they have just a few toilets for such a large venue.

I had the pork chop with spaetzel, which is a German pasta-like dumpling. It was quite good. To drink, I had asked our waiter, Mike, for the hoppiest thing they had. He brought their Double IPA, Hopnosis. After dinner I had their Cherry Bomb strong ale.

My fiancee had their BBQ pulled pork sandwich. The BBQ sauce was OK. It needs more smoky flavor. The pork was fine, though. She really liked the German potato salad.

Mike was a great server. He brought us samples of Widmer's Alt. I drank both because my fiancee doesn't like beer. She enjoyed their homemade root beer, though! And Mike brought her a small root beer to drink while I had my after dinner beer.

This place is -- of course -- the best place to get Widmer's brews. There are several offerings here that you can't get anywhere else. And their prices are inexpensive. My beers were less than $4 each and the Cherry Bomb is an 11.5 percent monster! Another famous Oregon brewery *COUGH* Rogue! *COUGH* should take notes from Widmer on beer prices.

Overall this was a great place to have dinner and it was a nice end to our trip to the Pacific Northwest.

10-13-2005 06:13:04 | More by Shaw

Hopmodium

Washington

4.2/5  rDev 0%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$$

If you can find this place, stop by and grab something to eat and a Drifter on tap.

Get the Beer Cheese Soup as a starter, even if you do not normally like cheese or soup, you like beer, right? Try this and thank me later.

This is as close to a German Gasthaus as one can find anywhere outside of Germany, this is truly a great place to eat despite what your feelings are towards the Craft Brew Alliance or whatever they call themselves these days.

Drifter is what got me drinking craft beer and it is what made me want to come here 2 years ago to see what the Widmer boys could cook up for us.

My wife and I both got the pork schnitzel which was a healthy portion even if you ignored the local mushrooms and other sides that came with it. We actually brought our leftovers home and had them for breakfast the next day, notice the recyclable container they give your for your take home, gotta love Portland.

If I didn't have to drive home I would have had 2 more pitchers of Drifter, it was that damn good.

06-10-2012 00:16:57 | More by Hopmodium

gkunkle

Oregon

4.28/5  rDev +1.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

Visited here with a friend a few weeks ago to catch up. It was during the dinner rush and I think it was right before a blazer game, so it was a little busy. I think we waited about 25 minutes for a table. Server was nice, genaerally helpful, disn't ask her many beer questions, though I think she did make a suggestion to my friend. I had a sampler of 5 or 6 beers. There were at least 15 beera to choose from. As with a sampler, most of the beers were good, one of two were lacking. There are not a lot of really big beers available, but when it comes to pairing beer with food there are lots of options. I had a burger that was decent, didn't blow my socks off, but i've had a lot of burgers in my life. Price was Just above average, but you are gatting a pretty decent meal.

01-21-2012 19:14:08 | More by gkunkle

PaulStoneAnchor

California

4.55/5  rDev +8.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

Definitely a great place to come sit down and enjoy a beer and burger. The food is really great and reasonably priced, and also they have a great selection as well. The service is amazing, I dont know if it was our particular waitress, but our waitress was amazing; she even brought a sample of root beer for my fiancee who was the DD without us even having to ask. The beer was absolutely amazing. I know a lot are just to having the Widmer Hefeweizen, but their other beers are really amazing, especially their Collaborator India Pale Lager. This is definitely a great place to come and watch Timbers and other sports games. Definitely a great place to come and enjoy a beer and burger.

09-04-2011 07:41:37 | More by PaulStoneAnchor

welldigger888

South Carolina

4.5/5  rDev +7.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

Took the train from airport and showed up with all of our luggage, the staff was very helpful. They have a beautiful bar with a nice selection of their beers including a collaboration tap from home brewers, cool. The food was REAL good and reasonable. These cats do it right for sure & the brewery is very high tech.

The atmosphere was nice and warm with lots of people coming and going.The highest quality was maintained up and down the board. The staff was very knowledgeable about the brews and the food. Widmer has something for everyone on tap. Care was taken in preparation and presentation of the food for sure. The prices are on par with GOOD food and GOOD beer.

05-03-2011 15:09:26 | More by welldigger888

csiewert

Oregon

4.5/5  rDev +7.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

This place rocks! The location is right next to the brewery and out of the way of the craziness of downtown. Right next to a max stop, which makes having to have a sober driver is not needed, which is a plus because you'll have a hard time getting out of there sober if you're a big craft beer fan. The selection is great... Widmer beers only served so you don't have to bother with all the light beer wussies. The selection rotates regularly so there is always something new to try, and all the beers are of great quality. The food fits in perfectly, with a sort of German theme, with some American classics like an amazing hamburger. The prices are great for the quality and the service is pretty good most of the time. The place is a little smallish, so get there early to get a seat.

01-14-2011 16:42:05 | More by csiewert

yemenmocha

Arizona

4.33/5  rDev +3.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

Non-American Bavarian Weissbier - now that's a REAL hefe-weizen and I guess you can only get it here at the Gasthaus. I admit, I despise Wider's so-called Hefe-Weizen (which is NOT a real hefe-weizen) but they had other options which were quite good.

Servers were a bit sketchy with the tattoos and piercings but I guess this is Portland so it's more normal. Food was alright and priced within reasonable limits. Beer samplers weren't too pricey.

Place has an obvious warehouse feel which is quite nice, and reminded me of some of the old buildings at A-B in St. Louis.

Easy to find off the public transportation stop.

08-06-2010 03:43:15 | More by yemenmocha

jdense

Oregon

4/5  rDev -4.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$

Visited 6.11.2010.

Very hard to find a place to park in this bustling neighborhood, but located next to Trimet MAX Yellow line so I'd certainly advise taking the mass transit route. Beautiful 8 seat hardwood bar, several dining areas. Young touristy crowd, not likely to see too many of these patrons at the Horse Brass. Taplist features 6 regular beers, two seasonals and five one-offs. Food looked really good, burgers salads, soups. A few TVs to watch sports. Very busy on a sunny Friday afternoon. Good Beer, Good Food. One of the best places to drink and eat in PDX, featuring beers you won't find anyplace else. Worth a stop for the traveling bar tourist.

06-17-2010 00:06:18 | More by jdense

djbreezy

Washington

4.05/5  rDev -3.6%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

The food menu is pretty awesome. I usually go here to eat and can't leave without grabbing a Hefeweizen on tap. Good stuff. The seasonal selection is usually pretty good, but I was disappointed to not see a stout on draft last time I went. Oh well, you can't win every time.

The tour I took once upon a time was very informative and the guy who gave it was super nice. We even got a free pint glass. That was sweet.

Unfortunately, the tour felt incomplete...maybe they showed us all they could but we really didn't go very deep into the rooms. I thought it was a lot less thorough than other tours I've been on.

Anyhow, a great restaurant and good place to visit.

03-12-2010 06:00:24 | More by djbreezy

Redrover

Illinois

4.25/5  rDev +1.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

I'm glad I had a GPS to find this place! I would describe the neighborhood as industrial. Located on the corner, this is a great use of an older space. There is good light from the large windows and that combined with the high ceilings give this place a very airy feeling.

As you enter, you will see the bar straight ahead. It is in a part of the space that is slightly elevated. The bar seats about a dozen and there are some tiny booths and larger tables in the bar area. Check out the kegs on display behind the glass wall.

The rest of the main room is dinning area and is a combo of large booths and tables. The semi-open kitchen is also in this area. There are more rooms behind the bar.

There is a large expanse of exposed brick walls, there are well worn hardwood floors and older German and Widmer beer decorations.
I arrived at 11:45 am on a Wednesday and the place was at least 3/4s full. It was an even mix of women and men and all ages were represented. The place had a friendly buzz going. It is great to see people really enjoying themselves.

There are a couple of TVs tuned to sports and they had classic rock on at low volume levels.

My food was very good and fresh. Try the chili! Note there are plenty of fresh and green options, but only a handful of German offerings.

The bar has three tap towers each offering 5 different beers (by my public school math that is 15 choices). The selection is a mix of regulars and specials. I had a nice Drifter APA and a unique black IPA.

The service was friendly & quick. They also gave unasked for samples, you got to like that. The bartender was talking beer with several folks and he did a great job of steering them to some new choices.

I was impressed by just about everything here and it is well worth a stop.

03-20-2009 19:01:32 | More by Redrover