Marliese Hall, co-owner of the Alt Heidelberg Restaurant in Fern Hill, serves Creig Sundstrom of Auburn a lunch of a reuben sandwich, half red cabbage and half sauerkraut, with a side of potato salad. Peter Haley/The News Tribune

EDITOR’S NOTE: Drop-In Dining is a restaurant dining report where reporters drop in unannounced and sample the food, on TNT’s dime, then report what the scene and the food was like. Have a suggestion for a Drop-In Dining feature? E-mail us at tntdiner@thenewstribune.com.

Alt Heidelberg German Restaurant
Where: 8233 S. Park Ave., Tacoma, 253-472-1219
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Closed Mondays.
Price range: $ (Entrees up to $14)

By Sue Kidd
sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com

The scene: Alt Heidelberg German Restaurant is like eating in someone’s home. The restaurant is as big as a living room and looks like one too, with homey knickknacks and photographic nods to Germany. A stray printer sat on a dining room table on one visit (just like home!). A compact kitchen with open pantry shelving, laden with containers of bread crumbs and jars of apple sauce, looks like a kitchen that grandma would putter around in. Alt Heidelberg has four tables and room for about 20 diners. You best call ahead to see if there’s a table. It fills with just a few parties.

The food: German on steroids. Big portions, big menu, big German oomph. Alt Heidelberg serves food that’s classically comforting in a brats-and-beer-and-shnitzel kind of way. Judging from the visible action in the open kitchen, much of it is created from scratch.

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