Festivus Gastronomicus
Review: Jacob Wirth
I scored free tickets to the pre-broadway production of High Fidelity - The Musical, and we had to hit the Theater District early to pick them up. With an hour to kill, we walked toward Chinatown to get some quick Chinese food, but stumbled upon Jacob Wirth’s German style Restaurant en route and figured it was as good a time as any to celebrate Oktoberfest.
37 Stuart St
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 338-8586
(map)
Jacob Wirth’s is loud and lively inside and there was a twenty minute wait for Jen and I to sit down. We sat at the bar and got a some fantastic beer while we waited.
The beer selection at Jacob Wirth is definitely one of the best in town. It may not have as many beers as some of the better known spots in Boston, like Bukowski’s, that have over a hundred beers, but they have a huge selection of super good beers and have some of my favorites on tap.
In the spirit of Oktoberfest I ordered a Hofbrau Oktoberfest which was fresh and frosty. Sehr lecker!
We finally got our table in the back and perused the menu. The menu is pretty decent in terms of German food and they offer a bunch of other standard pub fare and comfort food as well. I guess it’s not so much a German restaurant as a German-inspired restaurant.
I really wanted to order their Oktoberfest prix fixe menu that came with several different Oktoberfest beers, but we had limited time and that sort of thing is kind of a night to itself. I went with some wursts and Jen, predictably, ordered a Reuben.
Piping hot cornbread was brought out to the table instead of bread. Again, not as German as I would have hoped for, yet tasty just the same.
Jen had to give their Reuben a test-drive. Unfortunately, the Jacob Wirth Reuben is not the best Reuben around. It’s a little dry in fact. It certainly wasn’t as good as the Reuben from Michael’s Deli in Brookline.
My dinner had two wursts: knockwurst and bratwurst. The knockwurst was not up to snuff. It was a little too hot dog like and didn’t have the depth of flavor the bratwurst had. The sauerkraut was quite good though as was the German potato salad. Still I was disappointed because of a 50% wurst success rate.
To make matters worse, the service was absolute crap. I had to argue and fight with the waitress to order the same kind of beer I ordered from the bar at the front. She said they had been out of it all day- she was wrong. It took us forever to try to get her attention during the meal, she never asked how things were, then it was a mess getting the bill at the end.
In conclusion, the best reason to go to Jacob Wirth is the beer. The food is mediocre and the service is atrocious. Maybe if you drink enough, you won’t notice.
