Paprikash under new ownership

My contribution to the "downhill alert".

My mom has been wanting to go to Paprikash for a while; I waved her off of it last year because of the change in ownership and rumblings of decline. Figured this year we'd go and settle the issue.

OK, issue's settled for me. Place has gone downhill badly. Menu seems smaller than I remember it [as was commented on above]; I can't site specific things dropped, but I remember more stews and more clearly "Hungarian" items on the menu. Now, it's more the usual suspects: chicken or veal paprikash, a wienerschnitzel, the stew wrapped in the potato pancake, liver and onions.

I thought the prices were quite high for what they gave you. I ordered a wienerschnitzel with some kind of 'german' potato preparation. What I got was a sub-par piece of veal that had been breaded an inch beyond the margins of the veal to make it look bigger than it was. The potato dish was a smashed up boiled potato with 5 or 6 shreds of sauteed onion and some parsely on the top. My mom and niece got the potato pancake/beef stew item, and one of them commented that the pancake tasted 'floury' [maybe the potatoes were grated too finely?].

Also, they charged extra for soup or salad after charging me $18 for the schnitzel ["and the portions are so small!"]. The lovely garlic fried dough they dished out back in the day was much too greasy and much too not-garlic-y. We dined early, but still waited a long time for the food and about 20 minutes for our change. A table that emptied next to us wasn't bussed for 30-40 minutes. Seriously, we could have had better food and service at several of the Polish restaurants I drove past to get to Paprikash for half the price.

Paprikash enjoyed a stint in my dining rotation as a go-to place. I'm sad to say that, in my judgement, the place has jumped the shark.

Giovanna