Review: Cooky’s European Deli & Market

I really love new food scenes, and there is a new one in town. Well, now it isn’t exactly a restaurant, or not just a restaurant. It is called Cooky’s European Deli and Market (what a ridiculous sounding name). The first day it opened I had to go. We were like three kids in a candy shop. My kids think of a European Deli as a candy shop, yep they are weirdos too. The first thing they said when they walked into the shop was “… hope they have maltz bier.”

Well, they had maltz bier, landjaeger, leberwurst, schinken, a selection of imported food stuffs from Europe. They also had cheeses, but they were not exciting. We bought some of the items that looked good. We brought them home to the big German to get his approval. We were very excited for him. Reading the menu board and they have hot food as well, now maybe he can come here for lunch sometime.

$30 later we left the store with our goods. I do like the meats wrapped in paper, the way they should be. The schinken we bought wasn’t the best, not cured or dried long enough for our taste. The landjaeger was the same, the leberkase (I think came from the Bavarian Meats in Seattle was good pan fried with eggs. The sweets and salt sticks were fun. Our first impression left us with thoughts of great promise.

The following Saturday we spent the morning working at school and were hungry when we finished. We decided to give this place a try for lunch. We had 3 schnitzels($7) with potato salad($3), 1 Farmer’s plate ($10) (cold meats and cheeses on a plate with some bread), and drinks. Our lunch came to over $50 for two adults and two children. That is an enormous amount of money for what we got in a help yourself deli, and the children were still hungry when we got home.

The first thing we noticed was that there is no flow. You walk in and there is not a place to order, the counter is too high to see the help behind. It feels very awkward. It is not so difficult when you are ordering cold cuts, etc out of the deli case, it is quick. You tell them what you want, they package it, you take it to the cashier. Now if you are wanting hot food, what do you do? Stand in line waiting for them to cook it for you? Go sit down? Pay first or later? And where is the beer? No liquor license, and German food don’t mix.

Now, lets get to the food. The schnitzel (pork, pounded flat, breaded and fried) was small for $7 and came ala carte. It had very little taste, but it was made with pork loin I think. To be honest that is too good of a cut for a schnitzel. Schnitzel is a process to make tougher meat more tender in a somewhat quick to prepare meal. Thanks, but the schnitzel cost them maybe $2 to prepare even with the more expensive cut. In Germany a schnitzel is the size of your plate.

As a side they offered potato salad. OMG, that potato salad was not German, American, or edible. It was so bland. The potatoes and carrots, yep carrots, were shredded. It looked and tasted like something from a commissary. The grocery store stuff would have tasted better. Potato salad is hard to make that terrible. Nonetheless, potato salad and schnitzel do not make good eats. My youngest had the farmer’s plate, a bauernteller, it was so skimpy. A few thin cuts of inexpensive meats, even cheeper cheeses, a couple slices of bread, butter in a paper cup like a sample at Costco, it was not worth $10. The plating of it was unattractive. There margin on these is ridiculous. What a great plate go to Nectar or Latah Bistro, for the same money you get artisan meats and cheeses, ambiance, beer & wine, and service!

That experience aside, I do not give up very easily. We went back. Not to order food to eat there, doubt I do that again. We noticed when we were there before that they had rollmops. It is a jarred herring, kind of like picked herring except it is fillets rolled up. Well, it looked as though they were out. He shop keeper said that they were on display in the cooler now. Great, let’s buy some. So we did. Later we ate them, at home, with our brot essen (bread meal) for lunch. They were old! Can you believe it? Upon further investigation of the label we found that they were suppose to be stored between 1-4 degrees C at all times. They were on the shelf for some time before they realized that they should be refrigerated. They still sold them knowing good and well that they had not been properly stored. I wonder what the health department would think about that?

Well we know what we think of our experiences. We are not eager to go back, but I did yet again. I went back on my youngest son’s birthday to get some maltz bier, but they were out. I would be surprised if they are still in business by Christmas. Maybe they have enough capital to make it a few months? The novelty might carry them for a month or two, it will be interesting to watch. My suggestion is if you want some imported European food stuffs, buy them now. To be honest they do not carry much that you can’t get elsewhere. Even the cheese is not imported you can get that at Winco. The owners are not people who appreciate good food. Plain and simple, too bad.