Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth

This is the best place in the world if I live in Michigan I would be going to this place every day. The service is great and the side are great too. The best restaurant I’ve ever been

Kind of a tourist trap, but the atmosphere and experience is definitely cool and unique, and their simple menu (and the chicken… ohhhh the chicken) is some good homestyle cookin’. Be prepared for long waits during holidays and weekends. Definitely a must try if you live in MI or are just visiting the metro Detroit area.

I have been coming to Zenders since I was a teenager. The food always taste the same. The all you can eat, chicken dinner is great. I can’t say anything bad about this place. Everything they serve is first quality.
We ate in the bar area and truly enjoyed it. It’s not as crowded as the back to back tables in their dining rooms. It was quiet and our server was just the best.
We ate there in the middle of the afternoon on Friday, which is less busy and there was no wait. My husband ordered the prime rib and said it was one of the best prime ribs he had ever had.
Downstairs they have pastries, breads, wine, and candy as well as all kinds of things for the kitchen. There is also a restaurant (buffet style). There is also a gift shop which has various neat and unusual items for sale.
We went downstairs about 3:30 and there was a long line of people waiting to get seated in the restaurant downstairs. They have an all you can eat fish fry on Fridays.
We love going to Zenders, it’s simply unique. The whole experience is just delightful.

What can I say that hasn’t been said in the many reviews before this? Is it a tourist trap? Maybe. Do they make their servers wear old fashioned period costumes? yes. Can you eat way too much? of course! I look at it this way, you know pretty much what you’re getting into when you get out of your car and walk in.
I’m not a tourist and came in here looking for a good meal. I got what I was looking for. It felt like an elegant step back in time when places like this existed all over the country. The waitress outfits only added to the time travel and I think the servers did not mind wearing them one bit. Our waitress was very happy to serve us and she kept the water and all the all you can eat items full.
That brings me to the food. The fried chicken was excellent. It was moist and flavorful. However, it was overshadowed by the sides. It started with soup and ended with ice cream. In between was some of the best comfort food I’ve had this side of my mom’s kitchen! The coleslaw was definitely the shining star, but everything from the mashed potatoes to the stuffing to the cranberry sauce was stupendous.
In conclusion, don’t listen to the haters. Granted, you’re not going to get some trendy mexi-​asian-​turkish fushion meal here. The servers will not be scantily dressed. If you want to relive a by-​gone era where things weren’t so complicated and going out for a nice meal was an event, then definitely come to Zehnder’s.

A literal abomination of a restaurant experience. Place is designed like a funeral home. They make the servers wear this atrocious Quaker garb that just makes you feel bad for them.
All of the staff we encountered were very nice, but come on… this isn’t DisneyWorld. Stop degrading the staff by making them wear period costumes like it’s a freaking Star Wars convention. If they wear normal human clothes, is anyone’s experience diminished? Get real.
The food is an atrocity. Nothing seemed fresh — just mass produced slop. I didn’t expect much in mid-​Michigan, but can’t you just bake some chicken and serve it with stuffing, potatoes, and some fresh vegetables? We don’t need six appetizers, eight side dishes, bread, ice cream. This place is shockingly bad. In one month, they probably throw out enough food to feed a third world country for an entire year.
Bad bad bad bad bad.

We ordered the family dinner buffet. Their chicken is a must try in the whole town. Everything included in the menu is awesome except we cannot eat that much LOL. You can order as much as possible because it is all you can eat. The noodle soup is also delicious. You gotta wait for a seat because we went there on saturday and frankenmuth is bombed with people.

Some of these horrors have to be seen to be believed. My god, that man just ate a whole goddamn family-​style serving tray of mashed potatoes and is calling for that quaker-​looking waitress to pour a gravy boat directly into his mouth.
Please, for all that is holy, do not bring that table of Warren, Mich., residents another helping of your oversalted, fried chicken, their arteries can’t handle it. Just stop, right now! Hey look, that man is double-​fisting (not in a sexual sense) chicken breasts.
(Kyle starts hyperventilating, hops on one of the restaurant’s complimentary motorized scooters and goes outside to catch some fresh air).
This place is ridiculous It’s like being trapped in a giant mess hall featuring hundreds of clones of your overly Christian grade school teacher, the one who wore all those pastel-​colored jogging pants and cat sweaters. My parents dragged me here as a kid, and it left a lasting impression; cutting deep within my black, putrid soul. When I got dragged here as an adult, not much has changed, except for my burgeoning pant size.
Basically, you come here when you want to inflict tremendous pain upon your internal organs. Hello pancreas, are you prepared to handle all these preservatives? Too bad. Deal with it.
Blue hairs. Big portions. Low cost. The stuff nightmares are made of.

I’m a frequent visitor at the Bavarian Inn restaurant. I was excited to make a reservation for 11 this past weekend to try out Zehnders and their family style dinner.
Overall the crispy chicken tastes exactly like the chicken from the Bavarian Inn. The only difference from the meals were the sides. Aside from the mashed potatoes and gravy, buttered noodles, soup, buttered squash, coleslaw, cranberry slaw and stuffing the only difference was the chicken liver pâté and cheese plate and cottage cheese serving.
Unfortunately I was looking forward to some macaroni salad that I had at the Bavarian Inn… my favorite, however Zehnder’s didn’t offer it.
Overall, the experience was nearly the same. With the two side additions (cottage cheese and liver pates) I could have done without. I truly missed my macaroni salad, so next time I’ll go back to what I’m familiar with.
Now the bakery is another story. My family loves Zehnders bakery. Their long johns (custard and lemon filled) are our favorite. We pre-​order some to go and take back home. Another fav is their strawberry strudel. There is nothing like Zehnders bakery. We love everything they make.

Yeah, it’s obviously an overpriced tourist trap. But it’s decent food and the service is good and now you can say you’ve been there. I ended up eating way too much at the Saturday buffet ($ 21.95) because I wanted to try everything. Buffets are tricky like that. At least I had the sense to skip the salad bar and was too full for dessert afterward. here is what my game plan is for next time:
GET:
Chicken: it is fried well but the white meat is dry. I picked up two pieces thinking that they were thighs but they were not. I drowned them in gravy. The one drumstick I had was perfectly moist inside and crispy outside; only get dark meat!
Gravy: it tastes just ok, but it is a necessary lubricant for mash or if your food is dry!
Mashed potatoes: pretty good.
Butter noodles: I’ve never had anything like this before, it was pretty good!
Corn: I know it’s from a can but I love sweet corn and I will never have enough.
Beets: the pickled beetroot adds a nice sour element to cut through all the fat you just ate.
White bread: they bring you some of this to start with and it was very nice sandwich bread. If I could I would just take this home to toast later.
AVOID:
Stuffing: I don’t want to know how long it has been sitting in that tray, it is just steamed bread at this point with no crunch and not much flavour.
Sweet potatoes: not terrible but I’d rather save more room for the mashed potatoes.
Soup: They bring this in the beginning and though the noodles are good, the soup is extremely salty. It’s like Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup concentrate before adding water.
Crostini: this wasn’t that good. Neither was the cheese. It was like solidified Cheez Whiz.
As for the fried shrimp, I’m on the fence. Although it was a tasty snack, it was mostly breading and therefore takes up quite a bit of stomach space. For drinks I went with Not Your Father’s Root Beer ($ 6 on tap) and I fell in love at first sip. Our server kept coming by to check on us and she was quick to clear our plates and refill our drinks. Now that I have a plan, I may come here the next time I’m in Frankenmuth.

Food and restaurant is a tourist attraction. It was only ok. But service was great. Our waitress was very accommodating to make our experience great.
Call early and make a reservation. Heard host say wait can be 3 – 4 hours.

Not a fan. Our reservation wasn’t honored then they couldn’t figure what dining room to put us in. Server was friendly but slow. Comparing the two chicken houses I did like the appetizers here better but the dinner as a whole is better across the street. I found the offerings very bland and didn’t appreciate the steady stream of dark meat to the table.
The Bavarian Inn is what we are accustomed too and we will not return here

I don’t understand why people like this place?
My fiancé and I can only compare what we just ate as tasting like «hospital food».

Thanksgiving Dinner for the 7^th year in a row. Amazing and delicious like always! My family always choose the sit down style dinner. Buffet is available as well. We always have enough food for my family of five, and we always have leftovers to bring home. The pumpkin pie is to die for. We will definitely keep our tradition going.
P. s. I call in September to my reservations.

I don’t understand the hype for this place? Four of us visited on a Sunday for brunch and all had the buffet. It was nothing special. The chicken wasn’t fantastic — people freak out over the butter noodles with crumbs on top, and the soup. The soup was super salty. The noodles were just noodles. The shrimp, green beans, and dessert table were the best of the lot and not worth the cost. Thankfully we were able to make a reservation and skip the horrid line of tourists there for the same breakfast.
Zehnder’s is a oiled machine of food service — just wish the food was better. We won’t go back to eat, though the bakery is worth the trip.

Zehnder’s is one of my favorite restaurants on this planet. I have been coming here since I was a little kid, since my dad used to be a regular ice carver at Snowfest up in Frankenmuth. As a kid, I didn’t care about the Snowfest as much as I cared about going to Zehnder’s, and as I got older, that excitement never really deteriorated.
My favorite part of the Zehnder’s experience is the Chicken Liver Pâté. It’s made in house, and it is the best I have ever had. I don’t get to go up to Michigan much any more, but I still get insane cravings for this pâté, you have no idea. It’s what dreams are made of. It has great seasoning and it just melts in your mouth. I could eat a bucket of it for dinner and be happy.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever tried anything here other than the fried chicken. Why risk getting something sub-​par when you know something will be amazing? Zehnder’s chicken is wonderful. It has a subtle but really nice flavor to it, with really good seasoning. It’s never anything but moist and juicy. They offer an all you can eat family style, and I can’t recommend it enough, because you are going to want to keep shoving it in your face.
The service is well timed. Not super fast, but just slow enough where you can enjoy your company and your dining experience. The owner is super nice too, and comes out and says hello every so often, and last time gave me a free ice cream, which I mean, who doesn’t love free ice cream? It’s a super homey, down to earth place. Compared to Bavarian Inn, the nemesis across the street? No contest. #TeamZehnder for life.

I went here for the family chicken dinner with my extended family on the 4^th of July. It was pretty easy to make a reservation for 8 of us, and there are lots of large tables in the dining area so clearly they are used to accommodating big groups of people. We arrived slightly early for our reservation and they were able to seat us before our actual reservation time.
I am happy to have experienced the infamous chicken dinner, but I thought it was just ok – nothing to write home about.
We opted for the family-​style meal so dishes were brought to our table. I was even brave enough to try the liver pâté. I also think I was the only person who touched the cottage cheese. The fried chicken itself was alright. The nice thing is the dishes are bottomless so if you run out of an item, you can request more. We finished off the meal with dessert consisting of our choice of soft-​serve ice cream flavor. Yum!

When I think about all you can eat chicken that is good, I get a bit excited.
However,
After tearing into all the appetizers and sides, I ended up eating very little chicken. It is very good but I guess I was not prepared for a wave of food to come at me like the carb loaded tone of bricks it is and as good as it was I’m not sure this is the place for me.
The staff, dressed in somewhat uncomfortable uniforms, are very friendly and fast. Seems like a rough job that I couldn’t do.
The big negative for me is seeing all the food that is going to waste from each table. We tried but the two of us wasted quite a bit and I imagine we aren’t alone. The is packed with a wait list. It is just hard to think about this point.
We didn’t know that downstairs is an ala carte restaurant with much of the same food.