Past Meets Present: Maldaner's Restaurant

Maldaner’s restaurant is located in the heart of downtown Springfield and has been in existence for over 100 years. When the topic of horseshoes comes up in Springfield, nobody will ever mention Maldaner’s as the hot spot for a horseshoe. However, Maldaner's is known for its excellent food; so when we found out that they served horseshoes at lunch it immediately became a must for us to visit. The horseshoe itself was very traditional and did not offer anything out of the ordinary. We went with the Springfield original and ordered hamburger for the meat. The horseshoe was very conventional and never differentiated itself from the other horseshoes in the Quest. No one part really stood out as great, yet no part was poor, it was all-in-all average. If you went to Maldaner’s for your first horseshoe experience, you would find it enjoyable; then again a few weeks later you would not be talking about this outstanding Springfield tradition.

The cheese sauce was decent and was by far the best yellow cheese sauce we have had on our Quest, but the competition in that category has been pretty weak. The sauce wasn’t something that we would ever rave about. It was much like the rest of the shoe, tasty at the time but nothing out of the ordinary. The meat was the best part of this horseshoe, and it was a very good hamburger. It was clearly high quality meat and was grilled fresh and not frozen. The fries were acceptable, but again nothing that will make you want to come back for more.

The quality of this horseshoe was definitely high, but the overall shoe will not take the top spot in any category. It is definitely worth trying, but if you are new to horseshoes, it would be best to make the journey somewhere else. If you do have a Maldaner’s horseshoe you will not be disappointed at the time, but as time goes on it won’t be able to hold its own weight.

Cheese: 83
Meat: 87
Fries: 83
Overall Score: 83