Cafe Katja

Great food, ambience, and music. The espresso martini is a must have. The owner is kind and welcoming. Highly recommend!

Authentic food and very good portion size. My husband I shared an apple strudel for dessert. Definitely worth having dessert after your meal .

Austrian and simple. Very chill and authentic. LES hidden gem. Great brunch place.

Loved cafe Katja! Been here a few times and the food was always good. This time we had the schnitzel and the jägerschnitzel and they were both delicious. Extra point for our server who was willing to accommodate the last minute change to our order. We were lucky to be seated next to their semi opened kitchen, and it was fun to see their very efficient kitchen operation (also super clean kitchen!). Around spring time they also have specials with white asparagus, we will have to return and try.

Best apple strudel I have had, a thin layer of crispy pastry surrounding the tart sweet apple

We just stopped in for a drink and the service was wonderful!!! Thank you Angel!!!

Wonderful Austrian food in a sweet restaurant. Great beer.

I’m going to keep this simple: I had a very poor experience at this restaurant, mostly related to sub-par service and very mediocre food. Cafe Katja brands itself as a Bavarian style bier Halle on the lower east side. I was craving schnitzel and did a quick Goggle search, resulting in a handful of options for this southern German staple. I didn’t want to go to Brooklyn or midtown, so I opted for this place. Long story short, the schnitzel did not deliver and certainly not for the $38 price tag — a dish with total food cost of no more than ten dollars most likely! The schnitzel was as flat as a pancake (literally); tough; unevenly cooked; and totally dry. It was the furthest thing from a good schnitzel I’ve ever had (globally) and I would certainly never go back to this place or recommend it to anyone else. In fact, based on what I had, I’d go as far as saying this place makes an abomination of the dish. To be fair, the three accoutrements that came with the cutlet were fine: lightly dressed raw salad of kale with pickled red onion, plain roasted and dressed baby Yukon potatoes, and lingonberry sauce. The cutlet, by contrast, was so poorly prepared, that it was borderline inedible. In fact, if the place hadn’t been a zoo, I would have sent it back. Lastly, to add insult to injury, the bartender was not appropriately focused on the right details in the right order — after taking my check and card, he ran my cc on another couple’s bill he’d just dropped but had not yet collected for processing. He honestly explained that he’d done this and had voided the charge, but it was yet another example of how this place is not getting the RIGHT things right. I was disappointed that my very low expectations going in were not only met, but GREATLY exceeded! Complete waste of money and time!

Great goulash and service