Concordia Club

Schenke is the old German word for a tavern — a place to settle in over a drink and a plate — and it is the right name for the restaurant tucked inside Kitchener's Concordia Club. The arrangement is stranger than it sounds: the Concordia is a private German cultural society, but its kitchen on Ottawa Street South is open to anyone, no membership required to sit down to schnitzel. That double identity sets the table. The Schenke cooks German comfort food the way a club kitchen does — in portions built for a gathered table, with platters meant to be shared and a menu that assumes you came to stay for the evening. Schnitzel is the obvious order, but the kitchen reaches well past it.

Wiener Schnitzel is the anchor — a golden-fried pork cutlet with home fries and seasonal vegetables — and the kitchen runs the full range around it: Jäger Schnitzel under creamy mushroom sauce, a Cordon Bleu stuffed with Black Forest ham and Swiss, a peppercorn version, even a Parmesan one laid over penne. But the menu is broader than the breading suggests. Beef Roulade arrives rolled around bacon, onions, mustard and pickles, simmered in gravy and set against spätzle and braised red cabbage. Sauerbraten, a marinated beef roast, gets the same slow old-world treatment. Bavarian Smoked Pork Hock is the heavyweight centrepiece, crisp-skinned over sauerkraut and Yukon gold mash. Around the edges sit cheese spätzle and currywurst, Leberkäse under a sunny-side egg, brown-sugar-braised pig tails, potato pancakes with caramelized apples and a touch of maple, and sauerkraut fritters with grainy mustard.