Jägerhaus German Restaurant

Starting in 1980, Jägerhaus offered Orange County access to a cuisine that was certainly rare locally by the time it closed in 2021: German food. The restaurant, located in a decaying building, maintained the look of a clean but decidedly earlier-generation German family dining room on the inside, and served a wide range of dishes.

Our impression of the food was that it would have passed muster in Germany as authentic, but not necessarily great by local standards. The closest things we had to exact matches for our German experiences were two mildly flavored dishes: braised rabbit and paprika schnitzel with spätzle, each with properly cooked proteins and egg noodles, the rabbit creamy and lightly peppery, and the schnitzel sufficiently infused with smoky red pepper flavor. On the other hand, Jägerhaus’s sausages weren’t great; they had the right basic flavors but were served dry, while the Currywürst tasted like chopped up hot dogs in ketchup – more sweet than smoky or spicy. Other items we sampled, including German and potato pancakes and bread, were all on the dry side.

Following the pandemic, which saw the restaurant openly bring politics into its entryway – guests would see gubernatorial recall petitions in the entryway – Jägerhaus closed, and the entire plaza around it was torn down. No equivalent or superior overall replacement has yet been identified in Orange County, though Die Bierstube in Brea is a potential contender for entrees, and The Original Pancake House (multiple locations) serves decidedly better German and potato pancakes.