Bavarian Bier Café

24 York Street Sydney, 2000

The Bavarian Bier Café is one of those places that have it all – great atmosphere, fantastic staff, unique beers and schnapps and wonderful food. Walking over to the bar around 6ish on a Friday evening, I thought that the place would have been overrun by suits and ties, but luckily it wasn’t too crowded and my friend was able to get in with his flip flops, making the night out a very casual experience with a delicious menu.

Peach Flavoured Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Hell

My first order of the night was the Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Hell – a flavoured beer that I chose to have in peach. Now yes I will say it, it is a lady drink: it comes in a somewhat of a deep martini/ goblet like glass and has a sprig of mint in it for decoration. The beverage itself is a smooth, bubble-less, orange drink with froth and a hint of beer that is greatly overpowered by the sweet peach. If you are planning on doing some crazy German shots like I was, then this is definitely a drink that I would recommend as it is a fantastic chaser and probably has a low enough alcohol percentage to not make you feel like you’re mixing drinks. I must however mention that I guess this drink is considered more like a ‘beer cocktail’ for the uninitiated, so the drink is considerably smaller, yet more expensive than the beers in steins… but hey, us ladies love it!

As my friend and I were drinking our beers, we heard the inevitable cow bell that signifies someone getting a row of shots, which to us meant that we must get what we came here for – schnapps! Being a chilli lover, I decided to go with the ‘Devil’s Tongue’ – a Chilli flavoured schnapps which has a total of 18% alcohol. The funny story with this one is that my male friend ordered a sweet flavoured schnapps, so when the bartender was pouring us the shots, he remarked that the sweet one was for the sweet girl (me for those of you who are a tad slow), making my friend want to reconsider his choice. The shot itself was great – alright at first and then pepper as it went down. Lucky I had my peach lady drink! Watch my reaction as I have the shot by clicking here.

Spaten München

The next shot for me was the ‘Friesengeist’, or Friesen Ghost, a 56% beauty that I wanted to have for the hell of it. Now this one isn’t actually as bad as vodka and although it is not the best shot in the world, if you’re broke have a few of these and you should be just fine! Check out me trying this shot by clicking here.

After the shots, it was back to the beer and this time I got a 500ml Spaten München – apparently girls generally go for the 300ml but I figure if I’m at a German bar, drinking 56% shots, then I deserve a proper sized beer. I chose this beer because Dave, the guy sitting next to us who was so much of a regular that the bar had gifted him his own personal ‘Big Dave’ stein, recommended it to me. It was a fairly simple beer and one that you can’t really go wrong with – light and bright and not too bitter.

Giant Bavarian Hot Dog

Wanting to finish off the night in style, I decided to order the Giant Bavarian Hot Dog: grilled homemade sausage, sauerkraut, spiced mayonnaise and crispy onion rings with a side of chips and pickled (?) cucumbers. This was definitely a great choice as the hidden sauerkraut made every huge bite into the fresh sausage just that little bit tingly and the onion rings added a crunch that you don’t often hear with a soft bun. The cucumbers weren’t my favourites but the chips were genuinely delicious.

For a good night out, I’d recommend going with a large group of people so that you can have lot’s of schnapps and try out each other’s beers. The Café is also a great place to have dinner but beware that it does get very noisy in there, particularly on busy nights.

Beer

Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Hell (peach): $9.5

Spaten München (500ml): $11

Schnapps

Devil’s Tongue: $7.5

Friesengeist: $9

Food

Giant Bavarian Hot Dog: $18

Total: $55