Elkes restaurant is indeed five star. Myself and a group of friends go there for lunch every 7 weeks. As yet we have never had anything bad to say about the food or the service. Elkes is closed at lunch times but because my friends and I go what you would call regularly she opens up at lunch time just for us. What other restaurant would do this. My husband and I eat there often and in all the time it has been open we have never had a “bad” meal. Friends of mine come from Wellington and Lower Hutt to eat at Elkes and I am sure they wouldn’t if the food wasn’t good.

Went there for the first time in March. Would describe our experience as average. Took ages for our main, then dessert came out same time as they took our main plates away, no time in between.
You do get huge portions so can’t complain there. Just thought the food was bland, didn’t like the doughy egg noodles and overall found the food stodgy.
We won’t be back.

As a spur of the moment decision we decided to go out for a meal and felt like something a little different. I had heard about Elke’s Restaurant and having sampled the real thing in Germany thought we would go. We had no booking just walked in off the street and the minute we stepped in we felt we had made the right decision. I can honestly say we had the most amazing meal, the service was great, we felt very welcome and it was like we were back in time sitting in our most fav place in the world. There was nothing we could fault with Elke’s it was a genuine restaurant through and through, we will for sure be returning.

We love Elek’s so much we took the plunge tonight and took the in laws who love an amazing dining experience and they loved it. Mum in law had the chicken Snitzel, and adored it. Dad in law had Pork – both loved their meals and even shared a strudel for dessert. We, as usual loved the service, the food and the atmosphere – we will be going back again soon.

My first review, spurred on by the amazing service and food at this restaurant. Lovely host and tasty food in generous portions.

I took my family here who are visiting from Aus. The four of us all loved it.

The beer was beautiful! The mains tasty & filling & oh my goodness leave room for apple strudel desert!

Been to Elke’s about five times now since it opened. Every time I go the food is amazing. The chicken is mouth-watering, and the egg noodles that come with several of the meals are one of the most delicious foods I’ve ever eaten. The portions are quite large so I always get my leftovers to take home, they still taste good reheated the next day. And that way I can always make room for dessert too.

Great selection of drinks too, the atmosphere is warm and inviting, and the staff are always friendly. I’ll be coming back many more times in the future I suspect.

3rd time I have dined at Elke’s and I am still impressed!
Service is great but on top of that the food is sooooo good. A great dining experience. I had the cordon blu chicken tonight and I have NEVER tasted chicken so good It is also a bonus that they have BYO.

Had dinner with friends here last night. We received a very warm welcome and shown to our table. The service was quick and we did not have to wait long for our gorgeous meal.

The breads are delicious, we ordered herb bread with cheese and without and the garlic with cheese and without -they were all yummy.

I ordered the mixed grill and seasonal vegies and it tasted amazing.

I didnt have room for dessert, but Elke brought over a complimentary taster cake which the men ate quickly.

Would highly recommend this little hidden gem

Excellent authentic and tasty food. Friendly and prompt service. Good portion size and excellent value. Highly recommended.

There is also a wide range of Bavarian beers too.

We have spent time in Munich and the food here was of comparable quality. Do try it!

I first visited Elkes over a year ago now, and have never stopped going back.

I love the place. The food is amazing. There are plenty of options of German food to choose from all of which are filling and true to Bavaria way thanks to the authentic chief. There is a huge variety of German beer also.

Everything about Elkes is Germany the chief and the waitress is German down to the authentic clothing the waitresses wear.

There has been a couple of times where the service has slow, but I think that has been due to them being really busy. On both occasions they have apologized.

Other than that I and the group of friends that I got hooked onto Elkes have never experienced a problem.

I would highly recommend this place to anyone, groups large and small or just a quite night out.

Been to Elke’s before and first time food was good but service really slow.

Decided to go back and was really disappointed. The waitress took ages to tend to us and was lacking warmth and any customer service skills. She got our order wrong and came out with starters we didn’t order and tried to insist that we did.

The main chicken tasted bland and even slightly under cooked.

Def wont go back

Went there for the 1st time last night with a group of 5 & wont be back there again or recommend it either.
Waited 20 mins to be served. Then 40 min wait for our meals. We arrived at 7pm & were the last to leave at 10pm.
The poor waitress was dealing with a near full house alone. I hope thats not the case every night.
The food was good. Our table enjoyed their meals.
But the slow service was a real let down.
Maybe I got them on a bad night.

This was our first experience and we will definitely go back. The food was great so as the service. We pre ordered the most raved on pork shanks a week before and the best we have ever tasted. For the entree we had garlic and the herb bread and it was fantastic. The pork shanks were superb allowing no room for dessert. There is a good range of bottled German beers. My only criticism would be that the wines are priced a little high. I highly recommend this place to anyone looking for great food in the Hutt.

Great food, a nice change from more mainstream places around Upper Hutt. Thought the service was great – very friendly, not to mention the number of choices on the menu, accommodating to all taste buds. As for the site itself, very quiet, warm and peaceful, loved dining here and will definitely do it again in the near future

our first visit, group of 4. Service good waitress very pleasant, polite and helpful.Food was presented nicely ,generous servings and the garlic bread /cheese /herb was to die for, large serving.We have no complaints at all, we all enjoyed it and will be back

This was my second visit to Elk’s in Upper Hutt and I think the food is great. The garlic/cheese and the garlic/herb bread special we had last night was the best I have ever tasted. The German waitress that served us was lovely and friendly. Prices are reasonable. We had 5 in our group last night and I loved being seated at a round table. I have no hesitation in recommending and I will be returning again!

I’ve been to Elke’s twice, and both times I was impressed with the food. The waitresses were lovely and friendly, but also bit vague – almost like they didn’t quite know what was going on… but, honestly, I didn’t mind – it kind of went with the quirky decor and food. The first time my husband and I went with two other couples – we had a great night. We pre-ordered three slow roasted pork legs, and OMG! They were so good, and provided more than enough for all of us. The second time we went we were on the way home from a sports event with our teenaged son, and called in on the off chance they would have a table free. We were in luck, and enjoyed delicious meals and friendly service. We told the waitress that our son was STARVING and she arranged for all our mains to come out super-quick. We’ll be back, and we recommend it often.

My wife and I took a visiting Australian couple out to dinner at Elke’s recently on a Friday night as my wife and I had previously dined at the restaurant when it operated in Lower Hutt and had enjoyed dinning out there very much indeed. Sadly, we were very disappointed with our visit. The service we found to be very poor with a young and very inexperienced waitress under training and had to wait over an hour for our mains (the waitress had forgotten our order and we had to remind her)we had to ask to see the dessert menu also. The food was not up to it’s usual very high standard that we had enjoyed in the past. Sadly I don’t think we will be dinning out there in the near future which is a pity.

First time out in Upper Hutt. Not sure how to rate Elkes to be honest. I’m a real foodie and was excited about the prospect of real German food. The place was a tad tired but the waitresses were in traditional outfits and the selection of beer was great (They didn’t have everything on the menu). So we ordered our entrees and got an fantastic and generous portion, so far so good. This is where things go downhill fast. I couldn’t order their most raved on about main,the hocks. Apparently they need to be pre ordered!!? Who does that? It wasn’t mentioned when we booked so how do you sell your most famous main if you don’t bloody tell people about it or even have a few on the go? The rest of the menu was disappointing and most not traditional. My venison was a sample, my wife’s chicken dry and I don’t even want to start at the lost dessert. Anyway, don’t expect me back and perhaps if I had my main I was hanging out for. Good effort but I’m going to stick with Wellingtons fine dining and know what I’m getting. Shame.

As a German living in Australia I was sceptical when a friend told me how great this place was. He was right, this restaurant rocks. The food is authentic and the beer is good. Loved the atmosphere. I’ll be back for sure next time I’m there. Try the pork shanks. Legendary.

Upper Hutt is on the up! I was thrilled to see an authentic German/Bavarian restaurant starting up on Main Street. I rushed in and was greeted by a very competent waitress, wearing ‘trachten’ or traditional German costume. She is learning Bavarian dialect, but in all other respects runs the front of house like a ‘Wirtin’ or Bavarian waitress.
There is a good ambience, though the decor has a Kiwi quirkiness – deep plush purple shagpile is not typical of Southern Germany!! I have been twice in a week; both times there were others enjoying themselves.

The on-tap beer (Hofbrau from Muenchen) is excellent, and there is a good range of bottled German beers, too. The food is excellent, and authentic. I am working my way through the menu slowly, and was just a little disappointed that the Bratwurst were not the totally authentic German ones. I believe there is a Metzgerei in Lower Hutt, and hope that that might be a source of real ‘Wurst’ in the future.

Overall, I am already starting to believe that this will be my ‘Lokale’, and encourage you to try it. A real sterling effort by Elke, who I would like to see out in the restaurant rather than in the kitchen, but I know staffing levels can be tricky.

We were there with our friends on Thursday evening. It was really great this food and drinks as well. ‘Schweinshaxe’ was fabulous! And weissbier too. Definitely – we will be back soon!

This was our first experience with this new Restaurant in Upper Hutt, and we will definitely be returning. The food was very authentic Bavarian food – excellent flavours, presentation was fine – huge meals, and timely service (no problems with times that others appear to have experienced.) No children’s menu, but very accommodating regarding meals for children, basically anything on the menu can be done as a child size portion. Service was good, would have been really good or excellent but for a couple of things like we were a party of six that had booked, were sat at a table with seven chairs, told the extra chair would be removed, but it wasn’t, and one meal order was incorrect – quickly and pleasantly resolved. Mains sizes were so large we couldn’t tackle the dessert menu; we had a look and, desserts sound great so might have to go for an entree and dessert next time!

The service here was terrible. As we were a party of about 12, we were asked to preorder our mains about 2 days before we were dining. Despite this, it took an hour and a half from the time we sat down to the time the mains were served. Another table that had come in after us, were served long before we got our meals. Although I had also preordered my dessert, they had no record of it and to be honest, I just wanted to leave so didn’t order dessert. If we had not been in a party of 12, I wouldn’t even have waited an hour and a half in the first place. Wouldn’t recomment this place to anyone. The good food didn’t make up for the wait or the service. The waitress was far more interested in making sure the beer was flowing.