Fritzl’s European Restaurant & Pub

Awesome German food and menu, reminds me a lot of the food I had in Germany. Excellent mixed drinks from the bar great German beer selection. Very good and friendly service. Very helpful with items on the menu. German cooking as fun as it gets in America! Highly recommend going there also recommend making sure you have a reservation. Genießen!

God I love this place! It’s the real deal! The stroganoff is so amazing that I make them put it on my schnitzel. Hungarian duck is out of this world. Good service, friendly bartender, excellent portions… Nothing left to say

Love it! Brings back childhood memories of the way my mom cooked. My husband says the red cabbage is the best he ever ate.
Went on a Saturday evening and ordered the ½ duck with spatzel. Out of this world! The skin is super crispy and the duck falls off the bone. Not greasy at all like some other restaurants serve.
With my full belly, I’m just going to go home and sit on the couch in a food coma.

I have lived by this restaurant for 20+ years and finally gave it a try… wish I had tried it sooner. Really good food and very attentive service. I am not very familiar with German food but I thought everything I ate was outstanding! The parking lot was full when we arrived as were the tables which leads me to believe they have a good thing going and have many loyal customers as a result.
We started with steak tartar and herring which were both delicious. For my meal I had the Schnitzel Trio which I was glad I tried, never having schnitzel before it was a good way to get to try a few different varieties. They were all delicious but my personal favorite was the Fritzel’s Schnitzel. I got creamed spinach and German Fried Potatoes for my sides and the potatoes were perfect, they were even good reheated as leftovers the next day! We didn’t order dessert but as we were celebrating a birthday they brought out a little ice cream sundae with a candle which I thought was a nice touch.
From the time we walked in were we greeted warmly. We had a reservation and our table was ready and waiting for us. Out server was very good and attentive without being overbearing; the staff did a good job of clearing dishes and refilling water as needed. On our way out every employee we passed thanked us for coming in or wished us good night.
Some other reviewers mentioned the décor/​ambiance being outdated but I personally felt like it was right in line with what they do… classic European food.

Excellent food and service. The meat is melt in your mouth tender. I recommend the Rouladen of Beef. Absolutely delicious. The apple strudel was amazing. I will definitely be back.

Good food, especially for those that have scarred their taste buds on too much mexican food. Nice beer selection. Parking can be tough with all the blue hairs and their crown vics double parked in a small lot, but worth a try. Give it a try, und gute fahrt!

This is a restaurant for German food, and one of the few in the area I might add. My parents have come a few times and raved about it. They’ve even suggested it to friends who are looking for German restaurants that are somewhat closer to home; they like it too. We had a wonderful server, and she was super friendly. She made the experience very enjoyable. As far as the décor goes, I like it and think it is appropriate for this kind of restaurant. Yes, it is dated, dark, wooded, etc. but it seemed more European that way and as if the restaurant is a family business that has been around for a while.
I had Fritzl’s schnitzel which was very good. The pork was nicely done and the sauce was nice and light. It is $ 19 which is highly priced, but you do get 2 sides that are very big. I had spatzle, and a potato pancake. I took most of my sides home with me, and the portion size of meat and sauce was decent. My brother doesn’t like German food, and he still enjoys ordering fish. His side of fries was HUGE. My dad enjoys the sampler platters so that he can try everything. Everyone was happy with their meal and the service!
You must like German and European food to enjoy eating here.

We popped into Fritzl’s on a whim when up north for a photo shoot. The restaurant was just opening with nary a customer in sight. The hostess looked around the restaurant, and asked us if we had a reservation. We did not, which she pointed out would have been really helpful. (Uh, what?) She sat us anyway, and our waitress came over. She didn’t know the specials, and seemed like it was her first day on the job. (It’s wasn’t.) The service here was just all around REALLY weird. It seemed they didn’t want our business and had a completely disjointed service staff. The food was actually decent. Don’t come here looking for light fare– this is hearty German food, folks. The prices are quite high, and it seems they largely cater to big groups. There’s an a la carte menu on the back that has more reasonable prices, and the portions are still generous. Unless you’re seriously craving German food, you can probably keep driving to another restaurant.

Good german food that’ll definitely fill you up. They have a nice indoor seating selection, as well as a small outdoor patio that’s nice to sit at. However, I feel like the inside could use a little bit more pizzazz, because the current setup is a little dull.

Very heavy food. Their food is just average and service is poor. I was embarrassed that I brought my husbands family to this establishment. Go elsewhere for a good meal.

The food is quite good but our first visit the waitress was so unbelievably unfriendly. I wrote it off to having our kids with us. But guess what, there is a kids menu on the back of their menu so what’s the deal? This time for Father’s Day we went (power of suggestion since their sign out front was suggesting to call for reservations for Father’s Day). Again, the waitress did so little to make us comfortable. Several mentions of our kids being with us (7 and 10, not toddlers) and pleasant enough but just so out of sync with us. The clincher for me was when we tried to to pay part of our bill with a $ 100 prepaid Visa debit card and she claimed it wouldn’t process through their system. Wouldn’t even try it. Claimed it said they couldn’t take them on their front door (we checked on the way out and it didn’t – we paid the bill on another Visa debit card, so no reason the other one shouldn’t work). She said «yeah, us and the Chinese restaurants don’t take them.» Then she stood there and watched me fill out the credit card slip, presumably so she wouldn’t have to be bothered with coming back to get the slip when I was done. What the heck? It was an amazingly high effort experience. We ordered a nice bottle of wine, 2 appetizers and four entrees and we sat on the patio so our kids weren’t bothering anyone – she should have been tripping all over herself to make it a nice experience. I don’t think we are coming back, which is really a shame because we really do like the food.

I had a very good wiener schnitzel (I’m sure I misspelled it), awesome potato pancakes and some really great dumplings. The atmosphere was so so. White table cloths but kinda dark in the place. I liked the food, even if I was the youngest person in there by 30 years

Enough comments about the German Food! This is a shout out for the fish fry. Hands down, at our table, the fish got raves all around — four out of five ordered the fish fry, and loved it. A nice, light corn meal based coating, just enough crisp on it; flaky fish and while it wasn’t all you can eat — it certainly was all you could eat. Most of us brought a piece home — can’t wait for lunch tomorrow! And always interesting sides — vegetables, potato pancakes, spaetzle, German potatoes, and the list goes on. The beer was also wonderful — all German beers on tap.
Nice meal and great atmosphere to meet friends and enjoy the evening.

The best German food in the area. I always enjoy coming here. Try the schnitzel trio or the Hungarian goulash. Sides are all top notch. Manager has been there to greet us each time and assist with anything we need. Prices perhaps a tad high but with the good quality I think it’s worth it. Good beer selection. I usually get the Hacker Pschorr. I’ve been coming here for years now and have never had a bad experience.

As a german i think i am able to really rate this place ;) Let’s start with the positiv, the food: It was very good. The Wiener Schnitzel and Sauerbraten were very tender, just the way it should be. Red cabbage and Spaetzle were very yummy too. So basically we didn’t have anything which we didn’t like (group of 5). Well, they are a bit pricey too, so it better be good ;)
The place itself needs an update STAT. Its very dark, tight and outdated. It doesn’t encourage you to sit longer and have more than one drink.
Our waitress was very nice (oder, blonde lady). There was another waitress (brown hair, tattoo) serving in the same room which was waaaay too loud and being snappy to the «water waiter» is not making customers feel comfy. So the management should definitely talk to her…
All in all: if i really need to have good german food again, i’ll come back. Otherwise there are nicer places to hang out in.

Was there for dinner with our sales team — very nice place, clean, great service, excellent appetizers, really good food — would go back in a heartbeat. Waaaay better then Brauer’s in downtown Palatine!

Our GERMAN club met here. Overall, it was a huge success and we had a great time. My only disappointment was the DUCK. waitress suggested that it was crispy outside/​tender & perfect on the inside «fall off the bone». Well, it certainly was not. I realized these orders were probably re-​warmed leftovers from Friday. Dry but passable, tough spots. My friend is an actual «CHEF». Not fond of duck, but he ordered it because I did. I felt this was not a good 1^st time experience for him.
I give the duck «hungarian style» a C+
I will roast him a duck in the next few weeks to show him what it can be.

Excellent German food, and believe I know what I talk about. I just moved one year ago to the us. I can strongly recommend the sausage sampler and the schnitzel

AMBIANCE
Its cute but not my speed. Dim, dark, heavy wooden furniture. Hans and Gretel would be very comfy here.
FOOD
I am not a fan of German food, and this experience confirms it. I got a sampler of various schnitzels and sausages and pancakes and kraut, and while some of it was okay, I let half go to the trash — no take home, thanks. Not a fan of greasy, fried, mystery meat and such… and it was not über cheap.
SERVICE
Good service, very friendly.

Standard German fare.
The food is pretty good here, just not very inventive. Everything is well prepared. If you like old fashioned German food then you will love this place. If you want something more contemporary then look elsewhere. Most of the people dining here are over 60.

We ate here a couple of times years ago and really liked it. Recently, we realized we’d never been back, so we decided to make a return visit.
We tried early Friday afternoon, but discovered they did not open ’till 4pm. However, we noticed they had a small beer garden.
Sunday night was a beautiful evening and we decided to go and sit in the beer garden, have a good German beer (or two!), and enjoy the evening.
Service was excellent and the beer was tasty. As it grew dark, the staff told us to stick around as Lake Zurich was about to start their 4^th of July fireworks show and you could see it from their parking lot.
What a nice treat. We moved our chairs from the beer garden into the parking lot and enjoyed the show while having another good German beer.
I think we just started a family 4^th of July tradition!