"Ticky Tocky Ticky Tocky HOY HOY HOY!" Happy Thanksgiving 2024 Yelpers, and I hope you are all having a great time! Normally, I do not eat out for Thanksgiving, but I did have a brother visit from Florida for the day, so my mom made a reservation for us at this restaurant to have our Thanksgiving dinner. While I didn't quite remember the place at first, it turns out that I have actually been here once before. I know this because of the spanker they have here. Parking can be a pain, and the exterior don't look like much, but once you set foot it's another ball game. You will be asked if you prefer it to be quiet or loud; we ended up choosing loud. Right when you're seated in the loud section, you get a sense for how festive it is inside here. It's actually quite spectacular when you get to the chants. There is a lot of food and drink to get to for our Thanksgiving specials. We had the Hot Spiked Ciders that were special for the holiday. You can get a Das Boot for your beer which my mom got, and my brother and I each got a beer flight. The Wurst Platter was the Starter we went with, and we were also given saltines with sauerkraut and cottage cheese. For the main course, mom got the Thanksgiving turkey dinner with spaetzle and a German Wedding soup, my brother the Half Roast Long Island Duckling with the potato pancake, and then I had the Pork Tenderloin with potato pancake. For dessert, there was the pumpkin pie and the chocolate creme pie. To sum it all up, we all were impressed with what we ordered. Normally, I would not have gravy on food and that won't change in the future, but this time around the gravy was good. My brother is normally not one for mustard, but he thought it was good. All around everything was delicious. Their only blemish is the dunkel that was one of the drinks in my flight, but I will just chalk that up to the fact that dark, bitter beers are just not my thing. The lager and wheat ones were really good. Service was on-point too. We had our waitress check in on us as we were eating and was nice basically throughout. Wait time wasn't too bad given we were far from the only people who came here. Remember, when we got here, every parking space was taken and we had to wait for someone to pull out before we could park. And in here it did almost feel like a kind of party going on in the establishment. If you come here often enough, you can join their loyalty clubs. I didn't get a chance to see much of how they worked, but you can count hundreds of beer glasses hanging from the ceiling piece. There is also a mural you can look at from your table on the wall if you are more the kind of person to appreciate the artwork in this place. It's a great place for special occasions, and I hope those coming here find a lot to love about this spot like we did.

East Side Restaurant is a German restaurant and biergarten that opened in New Britain, Connecticut in 1934. It was founded by Steffi and Eddie Walters. The location was formerly a grocery store. It was transformed into a German restaurant at a time when trolley cars still ran down Dwight Street. The restaurant was later sold to Bill and Ruth Bloethe. Steffi and Eddie relocated to Old Saybrook where they successfully ran the Dock and Dine for several years afterwards. The Bloethes ran East Side for over 40 years while they raised their children. They expanded the dining room and commissioned a beautiful mural inside. Just prior to 2000, East Side was purchased by Nick, Barbara and Shari Augustino. They worked closely with the Bloethes to ensure that the important East Side traditions would continue for decades to come. The Augustinos have made two renovations and expansions to the restaurant in order to capture the look of the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, Germany. My wife and I have enjoyed visits to East Side a number of times over the years. It's always nice to get an authentic taste of Germany. We stopped in for dinner with our two sons this past weekend in honor of Oktoberfest. Of course, at East Side it is Oktoberfest everyday! I own my very own East Side beer boot which the staff are happy to fill every time I visit. On this occasion I filled my boot with Spaten's "Oktoberfest" while my wife had a "Mango Tango Martini" (Tito's Homemade Vodka, Absolut Mango, Fruja Mango). For appetizers, we all shared a plate of "German Potato Pancakes" (side of applesauce and sour cream) and a "Giant Bavarian Pretzel" (side of Bavarian Obatzda Cheese, zen mustard and liver pâté). For entrees, I had the "Wiener Schnitzel" (breaded cutlet topped with a sunny side egg and a wedge of lemon), my wife had the "East Side Reuben" (slices of corned beef layered with homemade sauerkraut, melted cheese, tangy Thousand Island dressing, grilled marble rye bread), our older son had the "Burgermeister Plate" (knockwurst served over sauerkraut and topped with demi-glaze) and our younger son had "Spätzle" (with marinara sauce). Everything was so delicious! We also love how festive the dining room always gets with chants of "Ticki Tocki Ticki Tocki! Hoy Hoy Hoy!" Good food, good beer, good people, good times! We'll continue to come to East Side for years to come!

Dinner for six tonight at East Side early in the evening. Found two parking spaces and got a great table in the rear of the room without waiting [had reservations]. The room quickly filled up with many hungry and happy patrons ready for the HOY, HOY, HOY chant. As usual, the service was super. We ordered three appetizers: Corn Fritters [the best], Potato Pancakes [the ones you never forget] and the Fried Mozzarella [the least likable but hey it's a German restaurant! I had a half liter [no Hoy Hoy for me tonight] of a Weiss beer [FRANZISKANER-HEFE WEISS] which was just perfect with my meal. Two appetizers for dinner were for me just right: Wurst Sampler of three sausages [German, Knockwurst and Bratwurst with Sauerkraut, demi-glace and Zen mustard] and my own order of German Potato Pancakes [2]. This was great and a lot went home for tomorrow. Tried a bit of two desserts but was too full to enjoy. The room was is high gear tonight with a huge birthday party and a table trying to drink the place out of beer. Wonderful night with friends and family; always a great meal!!!

It's really a 3/12 Great food and service. Not many places that serve German food. It's not fine dining but good enough to satisfy the craving.

Fun and unique experience. The food was good, but it was really for the space and staff. We went for my fiancés birthday and it was a great way to celebrate. The beer glasses were HUGE and so were the flight portions. There is a call and answer the staff does when they bring them out. I liked the beer they offered in the flight. My fiancé also got the paddle of shots which came with a t-shirt and a spanking. Yes...I said a spanking lol. It was pretty funny. One major downfall in my book is the fact that they would not/could not do separate checks. I asked at the beginning because we had such a large group. It was a hassle to break up the check and pay on all the cards and cash. It would be great if they were able to update that system. It looks like big groups are extremely common. Otherwise, we had a great experience!

Very unique 87 y/o, spot for German food where you will also see steins of beer and waitstaff in Lederhosen as well as hear drinking mantras and accordion music. The place is decked out to the nine's and it is a one of a kind experience I came with my GF and we started our dinner off right with one of their many different shots each. I had their apply pie shot and it was definitely a double or tripple shot, but it was so tasty it still went down like water. Apparently they have a shot flight that you get paddled after, so I need to come back to try that lol After our shots we also both got a drink. My GF got one of their margarita's & I got their Octoberfest beer in a 1liter stein. Believe it or not this was actually one of their smaller options, as they also had 2 & 5 liter steins as well. When they came and delivered my drink to me they led everyone in the place in a little chant/cheer, which was very fun. The beer was also delicious and I finished the whole stein...I am always up for a challenge Ok, onto the food...Rather than having your typical bread and butter they have cottage cheese and picked radishes, which were both very tasty! Also, the menu is fairly large! My GF and I split their sausage plate, pretzel, and a stuffed mushroom dish. The dishes were all very large so I got to bring 1/2 of the pretzel home! The food is all pretty average, nothing terrible and nothing phenomenal, but it isn't what anyone is coming here for... They also have a ton of desert and coffee options, but we were too stuffed to try any of them. 8