We feared the wurst… | Herman ze German, 43 Charlotte Street, London W1T 1RS
A sexy basement full of sausage. Photograph: Herman Ze German
I don’t think I’ve ever visited Herman ze German sober. The Villiers Street branch is in staggering distance of Charing Cross station and certainly beats a McDonald’s on the way home. Now they have a new and much more grown up home on Charlotte Street, plus one on Old Compton Street. What I’d only known as a pit-stop place is actually nice to hang around in, especially the basement bar where some pretty decent music was playing. There were no drunks in sight (not even my friend Keith by the time he’d finished his maß of Paulaner Oktoberfest beer £10).
Herman have a good array of German beer stocked – draft and bottled plus a good variety of soft drinks. I opted for a Fritz-limo lemonade £2.25 before I moved onto the Paulaner Weissbier wheat beer £2.95 for half a pint. I do love a surprise toilet. I expected the loos here to just be regular toilets but instead I felt like I’d just stepped back into my secondary school, apart from the toilets back then certainly weren’t unisex, imagine the trouble that would have caused.
The Ann Summers Christmas window display wasn’t up to its usual standard. Photograph: Herman Ze German
Visually the menu’s a little scraggy and studenty (although I do always appreciate a menu with photos) but don’t let that put you off, the wurst here is actually very good, we tried them all just to be sure. From the traditional – a juicy veal and pork, to the ‘special sausage’ – a firm pork and beef with cumin, who doesn’t love a special sausage? Herman import their wurst from a butcher called Fritz in the Black Forest, Germany, they’re gluten-free and they even do a veggie one, not that you’d know it as it’s invisible on the menu.
Aren’t jokes about sausages just the wurst?
Ze Wilde Bock £5.75 – was a firm and juicy bockwurst drizzled in curry sauce with a scattering of crispy onions and mayo, all wrapped up in a warm toasted roll alongside a handful of fries. Really very good and great value for money, however the chips aren’t the greatest on earth, dry with just a thin strand of fluffy potato in the centre.
Currywurst, now that’s what we call a hot dog!
The Currywurst £5.95 came chopped with several options of sausage – brat (pork and veal), bock (smoked pork) or chilli (pork, beef and chilli), drenched in a tomatoey curry sauce with chips. The sauce varies in heat (just like Nando’s) from ‘mild’ for wimps to ‘ringer’ for hardcore chilli fans. Be warned though, we attempted the tiniest dab of this hot sauce and it blew our heads off. Anyone who enjoys this level of heat is a lunatic.
So naughty
There’s schnitzel and salad on the menu too, personally I find schnitzel a pretty dull thing to eat, but the punters must love it as HZG sell tonnes of the stuff, I’ll stick with a hot weiner in a bun thanks. There’s no desserts, not that we could have managed them, however we did spot a Yog frozen yoghurt shop next door on the way back to Goodge Street. Herman ze German really is great value and fun with friendly service. They made the sausage in their logo resemble a penis, so they get top marks from me.
hermanzegerman.com
43 Charlotte Street, London W1T 1RS
Telephone: 020 7323 9207
Opening hours: Mon-Thur 11.30am-11.30pm;
Fri-Sat 11am-midnight; Sun 11am-10.30pm
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Nearest station: Goodge Street (3 mins walk) or Tottenham Court Road (6 mins walk)
