On the heels of the return of Boma – Flavors of Africa, Biergarten has returned to its buffet style service. Guests are once again able to head to the buffet line to choose from numerous German dishes. The EPCOT restaurant had previously been serving dishes family style.
Restaurant Overview
Biergarten Restaurant is located at the rear of the Germany Pavilion.
Guests check in just through the archway.
Biergarten celebrates Oktoberfest every day. A sign lists some of the options available on the buffet.
And of course it wouldn’t be a trip to Biergarten without the awesome oompah band serenading you through your supper! They continue to perform multiple times throughout the day.
Buffet Overview $46.00 Adults / $25 Children
Adults can dine at Biergarten for $46. Children (ages 3-9) dine for $25. The buffet is all-you-can-eat.
Seasonal Salads
The buffet includes a standard mixed green salad with mustard dressing.
The macaroni salad was basic with peas for an added crunch. Nothing crazy but enjoyable.
The three bean salad was very salty and looked to include garbanzo, northern, and pinto beans along with peas and carrots.
The potato salad was cold, crunchy and covered in a rich creme. Standard but enjoyable.
The cucumber salad was thinly sliced and crunchy. The sauce had the perfect amount of garlic and dill.
The tomato salad was just basic with cucumbers and tomatoes in vinaigrette. Nothing special.
The wurst salad is just liverwurst with sweet pickles and onions in a mustard sauce.
The beet salad is, well, just that: beets.
The ring balogna were thick cut tender slices of bologna.
None of us are big liverwurst fans, so we may not be the best judges of this dish. If it’s something you want to try, I would, but personally, the cat-food-like consistency is not what I want from such an item.
The buffet also includes cheese squares and butter for your breads. The cheese had a mushy consistency and tasted like they may have been in a warmer temperature and recooked.
Soup Station
The cheese and beer soup was great! It had a rich cheese flavor and was pretty creamy to boot. They kept it nice and warm as well. A highlight of the dinner!
Meats and Vegetables
Biergarten has a nice selection of meats, vegetables and sides to choose from.
While the meatballs with red wine sauce were the star of the meal during the prior family style service, we felt they weren’t as good as they were before. With that being said, they were still quite savory and enjoyable.
The seasonal fish, which is currently salmon, was dry and inedible. It was overcooked with no discernable flavor. We would pass on this! However, the pork schnitzel, while salty, was well cooked and covered in dressing. A must try if you come!
The roasted chicken was tender and well-cooked.
The sausage, bratwurst and sauerkraut were what you expect as basic German staples.
The pretzel rolls tasted as they sounded, decent baked rolls and they were excellent for soup dipping.
Meats and Sides
A second station continues the selection of meats sides and toppings.
Applesauce and sour cream are included to complement your entrees.
The potato pancakes were dry and very chewy. They tasted very stale. We do not recommend them.
They peas and carrots were just an ordinary vegetable side.
Macaroni and cheese is included and mostly there to pacify young, picky eaters.
The frankfurters are just very basic sausages.
The red cabbage was slightly over cooked and mushy.
The warm german potato salad was interesting. The potatoes were cooked fine and the dressing was like a warm dijon vinaigrette. The flavor was a little off putting though.
The herb spaetzle is like a soft pasta and was cooked well. Another Biergarten staple.
Sauerbraten is a roast in a sauce. It was very tender and juicy. Cooked well and pulls apart easily with your fork. This was one of our favorite dishes of the buffet!
The pork roast can be cooked to your preference and is sliced right in front of you. It was seasoned fine but extremely dry.
A variety of condiments at the end of the station are made available as well.
DESSERTS
The dessert bar had a small mix of returning favorites.
Basic chocolate chip cookies are included along with the more authentic German treats.
The strudel tasted very good with the vanilla sauce. Nice amount of cinnamon. Apples were crisp and sweet. Certainly would have been better had it been warm, but with a buffet room temperature foods are unfortunately par for the course.
We found the black forest cake to be just alright. It was a simple rolled cake with icing. Cake was spongy but slightly dry.
The brownie had a great consistency. Inside were chunks of chocolate that gave it an extra chocolatey surprise. The pretzel it was topped with gives it a nice blend of salty and sweet.
The bavarian cheesecake was basically flavorless and like cardboard. Even the berry compote and vanilla sauce couldn’t help this dessert!
We expected the bottom layer of the crumble to be more solid but it turned out to be soft and not in a good way. Although this was recommended to us, it was rather boring. The addition of the berry compote did help it but that’s more a testament to the compote than the crumble.
Speaking of the berry compote, both it and the vanilla sauce are delicious ways to top off even the more lackluster desserts.
Overall Thoughts
While it is nice to have buffets back, there is a noticeable decline in quality between the family-style service and this. While the larger variety is back, the food quality is noticeably lesser than what it was before.
Will you be making your way to the Germany pavilion to try the return of buffet dining to Biergarten? Let us know in the comments below!
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I won’t go to Biergarten again until they get rid of the potato pancakes and bring back the potato dumplings. I used to go there on every trip just for the dumplings. Those dumplings were so good that I was able to stomach the sky high price. The dumplings were gone by September 2018. I left before my drink arrived. It was my favorite table service restaurant, and now I despise it.
I ate there with my family on August 29 also. We all agreed that the food quality was below what it was in the past. Very sad.
Did they change the seating also?
I always wanted to try the restaurant in Germany but after your review and the fact that we are gluten and dairy free, I don’t think there’s anything we could eat or would even want to eat. Food sounded quite disgusting overall. Thank you for the warning. Sure we can spend that money on some better food somewhere else.
I feel that the person writing this article has little to no knowledge of authentic German food. Biergarten is spot on, my husband is German so I think he should know. We visit Biergarten every trip and They do an excellent job keeping the food in the standards of their country. I think this person was expecting something very different
It was better as family style, the food quality is significantly down from the change.
Does anyone know if the schnitzel will be pork permanently again? It had always been pork, but then they changed it to chicken during the early half of 2021 and it was not great (essentially a pretty basic chicken cutlet). Glad to see it was pork for your visit for this review!
I’m unhappy because that looks like plain orange macaroni and cheese! The white cheese nudelgratin is one of my favorite dishes in all of WDW; how to make them understand it’s necessary to have at Biergarten? ;)