Dietrich's Modern German Cuisine and Biergarten

Why do we want restaurants to make it when we know the deck is stacked against them?
Menu is very strange to me. Many classic German dishes and sides are just not there.
The bar has a very limited scotch selection. Clan McGregor???? Really?
We tried the potato pancake. It seemed like a hash brown that wasn't cooked all the way through. A scoop of sour cream on the top and apple sauce that taste like it came from a can.
Call Robert Irvine right now, it's brand new but they are going to need him!

In Lee's Summit, we played Yelp Roulette, and won!

Interesting dishes (sauerkraut balls were the suggested appetizer from our attentive and helpful server, Skyler) and unique food. I ordered the Oktoberfest pizza- with sauerkraut, and it was awesome!

My wife had the Rouladen, and it was a deliciously chewy piece of beef. The cheese spaetzle was probably more Americanized than authentic; but who cares? It was great!

Very good stuff- worth the drive; and in an area populated with chain food (the joint is sandwiched between Panera and Goodcents) it is a standout!

It was good, not great.
I just can't quite put my finger on why. It had all the parts, German potato salad, spaetzle, schnitzel, red cabbage, but they didn't hit any of that out of the ball park. We sampled a large variety of the limited menu. The best dish? The complimentary pretzel bread with melted butter. It was amazing. I enjoyed the appetizer sampler in particular the sauerkraut balls. Service was very good.
Portions were rather small. I think larger portions of this comfort food would have made the entire experience better.

OK, we gave Dietich's a second shot (in all fairness, I do try and give a restaurant a couple of chances).

Trying to figure out what might be happening there, the best I can come up with is somebody is hoping to sell "different and trendy" for modern. And trying to mix that with German food (that seriously misses the mark) doesn't make it.

For the second time both of our meals (pork schnitzel, which is the equivalent of a burger in Germany, so everyone there makes a good one; and pot roast, should not be a difficult one either) were greasy (don't know how they made pot roast greasy) and tough. In fact my wife "gave up" and we went somewhere else so that she could have something to eat.

Sadly, Kansas City needs and deserves a good German restaurant. My God but I miss the Berliner Bear!

I love German food and was excited when I heard about this place. But then I read bad review after bad review. Well what ever problems Dietrich's had have been fixed.

The service was good and prompt. Nice atmosphere, this place has been a Popeyes, Indian restaurant, and an Italian restaurant. They have done the best to make it not look like the Popeyes it was.

The food was great as well. I had the schnitzel, it was perfectly fried. I will definitely be back.

Well first I felt sorry for our waiter. He was trying to take care of 7 tables so the service was not the greatest.
Food was OK, just OK.
If you ask if I'll be going back? Probably not.
Went on 1-20-17 @13:15 hrs.

It makes me so sad to have post an unfavorable review on a family owned restaurant. I realize having a family restaurant is a life-long dream for dream for some people and it may represent most or all of their savings. How I wish these people would research and work in the industry for a long time before taking the plunge into buying a restaurant to showcase their amazing family recipes. Having good recipes and being talented in the kitchen is just the tip of the iceberg in running a restaurant.

That being said, I tried Dietrich's Modern German Cuisine in Lee's Summit. I don't pretend to be a German food affectionado, do I but do like a few of the German items I've had. So, I got a Groupon and decided to give it a whirl. Who knows? Maybe I might discover a newfound appreciation for this cuisine, right?

It was a week night. There were a two or three tables of two, a table of four and a party of ten. A nice lady came over & I explained the items of German food I liked, told her which ones I hadn't cared for and told her I had a $30.00 Groupon so I would also get an entrée to go. She kindly made a couple of suggestions which I appreciated.
Appetizer chosen: homemade pretzel with cheese. Came quickly enough but the cheese sauce was so hard/solid, the pretzel would crumble when I tried to dip it. I asked the lady if warming it might help. She warmed it & brought it back. It remained rock solid. When she checked back, she told it me was the end of the batch & she would get more made. Another bowl arrived a while later & wasn't much better (if it were made to be cut with a knife, it would have been appropriate) about 20 seconds before my entrée arrived. I decided upon the German Pot roast that promised to be flavorful and tender. Flavorful? Yes. Tender? Far from it. When I caught the lady's attention, she asked how I liked it. I told her it had a good flavor but showed her how it couldn't be cut with a fork under any circumstances. I think her comment was 'oh.' I'll spare you the pain of reading all the other events over the next hour plus but in a nutshell, I went from optimistically thinking probably most of the staff knew what they were doing except a few newbies to realizing NO ONE seemed to have a clue of what to do. Service was very, very slow. When the lady in the booth behind me told the server it had been 40 minutes since their pretzel/ cheese appetizer had arrived & they still didn't have their dinner. The lady (manager? Owner?) actually CORRECTED her by saying she'd checked their ticket and it had only been 30 something minutes.

Oh my... they were offered a discount...

I overheard one of the younger servers ask her party if they 'needed' change when they paid their ticket. Tacky, tacky, tacky.

Even though I'd told the owner/manager what my to go order would be (goulash- ready made, just sitting on the stove, right?) at the beginning of my meal, it took so long to get, I was almost ready to go ahead and leave forfeiting the rest of my groupon's value. An excuse both the table behind me and I heard was how difficult it had been for them because of their large party (of ten) all ordering different entrée's. The goulash was good and I enjoyed it for dinner the next night. Many other missteps, but even with a Groupon, it wasn't worth it. I lost an entire night to frustration and mediocrity. Visit at your own risk but do it soon as I cannot image them being open much longer.

A little worried after reading the wide range of reviews for this place but ate there today and it was good. Pretzel appetizer was average - pretzel was basically rolled bread in a shape of a pretzel and the cheese sauce was like a thick Velveeta. Cheese sauce needs to be served much hotter so that when it quickly cools, it doesn't solidify so fast. But it was ok. I had the Schnitzel sandwich and lunch mate had the Reuben. We split each, and both were good. In fact, I thought the Reuben was excellent. Would get that again, if I return (I'm from out of town).

Mixed reviews from others regarding the service but I believe it was the owner that waited on us and she was very nice. No room for improvement in my experience. Then again, there were only 2 other people in the place with us at 12:30. Owner said they are much fuller at night.

Overall, I would recommend you ignore the bad reviews and try it for yourself - form your own opinion and support independent restaurant owners.

We ate here last night. Being of German heritage we often eat the cuisine. Last night's German food was by far the best ever. We had the incredible roll to start. Then the extremely tasty appetizer sampler. When our main courses came we were very pleased.
The waitress w very pleasant and answered questions and talked. She even got the answers she did not know. We will be back. No doubt!

This was our first visit to this restaurant, but it won't be our last. It wasn't too busy for a Saturday evening. The staff was friendly, and our food came out fairly quickly. For the price, you get decent portions and the food is delicious. And definitely save room for dessert. The German chocolate cake is big and soft, with lots of icing. The Black Forest cake is a bit small for being the same price as the other, but still delicious.

All in all, I do recommend this family-owned German restaurant for anyone looking for a different taste but who don't want to lose their shirt.