Reviews by: Zagat Survey 1999
San Francisco Sidewalk
Los Angeles Times

From Gayot's SF Restaurants and Gourmet Shops for Northern California

This place inspires an interest and a taste for German food. Minimally decorated, the restaurant has pine picnic benches that you share with fellow diners, most of whom are young, funky and appreciate beer. The entrées are robust, of course, with smoked pork chops at the top of the list. But don't start there. The fresh salads, the dense breads, the hearty Sauerkraut and sausages, Spätzle with oxtail stew, chunky mashed potatoes and even the fish specials are delicious and satisfying. Entrées include venison medallions in a sweet-tart red wine-plum sauce. This cuisine is perfectly paired with their fine selection of German beers. It doubles as a boisterous bar, but the good service keeps everything running smoothly.

From Zagat Survey 1999

Take advantage of the "awesome beer selection" to wash down the "Hearty Bavarian fare with a fresh California influence" at this "easygoing" Civic Center German restaurant; its "sparse decor" and "awful acoustics" don't deter fans of the "sassy waitresses" and the "meat-and-potatoes" menu.

Review from San Francisco Sidewalk

Now here's a restaurant Madonna probably would love. It's got cutting-edge food, a young and hip crowd clad up to their eyeballs in black, and a dining room that looks as if it were airlifted straight out of some remote European monastery. The sautéed venison in red-wine sauce is tender and flavorful, the potato pancakes are crisp and light, and at least three fabulous vegetable soups (Suppenküche, after all, does mean "soup kitchen") are always on the menu.

Excerpt from Los Angeles Times, Sunday, May 10, 1998
"Heyday on Hayes Irresistible Shops and Food in a Reborn Neighborhood"
by Michael Parrish

The locals' hot spot right now is Suppenküche, a German restaurant and bar that specializes in ultra-fresh, light fare allegedly favored by German monks, washed down with a dazzling collection of true German wines and beers on tap. Illuminated almost entirely by candlelight, diners eat on wooden plank tables or at a snug bar and can contemplate a scattering of religious icons with their house-cured gravelox (delicious).