A Taste of Germany: Hallie’s on the Square

Hallie’s on the Square is located about 30 miles north of Springfield in Lincoln, IL. Hallie’s is known for its disproportionately large schnitzel sandwiches, but they also serve the schnitzel as a horseshoe. This restaurant has built quite a reputation around Lincoln, and has been serving up schnitzel for four generations. We knew that this horseshoe was going to be a lot to handle since the schnitzel generally is about the size of a dinner plate. The restaurant was easy enough to find, and we had no trouble finding a parking spot in downtown Lincoln. We entered the restaurant and we were immediately able to grab a table. As we began to scan through the menu, we noticed an odd policy. Hallie’s allows patrons to bring their own beer, and they will provide the glasses or ice at no additional cost. We have never really come across a BYOB policy at any restaurant in Springfield, so we were definitely surprised by this. Regardless, we made the trip to review the horseshoe, so that is exactly what we will do.

Simply put, this horseshoe was not one of our favorites. The cheese sauce…well let’s come back to the cheese sauce in a moment. Lets start with the best aspect of the horseshoe and then work our way through the other components. The schnitzel was pretty decent and was hands down the best part of the horseshoe. As you can see from the picture below, the schnitzel nearly filled the entire plate. Hallie’s makes a homemade schnitzel hot sauce that complimented the meat pretty well. The sauce could be compared to spicy ketchup, only with some extra spices mixed in. The schnitzel would make a very filling meal by itself, but as a horseshoe, it can be quite a challenge to finish. In most horseshoes the fries and cheese sauce make or break the horseshoe. In this case, they ruined it. The cheese sauce can be compared to the nacho cheese that came out of a machine in our high school cafeteria. It had way too strong of a flavor, and was way to thick to be put on any horseshoe. The cheese was by far the worst part of this horseshoe and completely derailed the shoe. The fries were nothing to talk about either. They were soggy and really had no flavor at all. Because of the terrible cheese sauce, we almost couldn’t taste the fries at all. All the fries seemed to do was add bulk to the horseshoe. If you find yourself at Hallie’s, please don’t order a horseshoe and just order the schnitzel sandwich instead. The horseshoe is a Springfield tradition for a reason. Lincoln, Illinois may have a very good schnitzel, but we will take good horseshoes over excellent schnitzel any day.

Cheese: 59
Meat: 85
Fries: 68
Overall Score: 68