Munich, Germany, dedicates an entire month to the celebration of German beer and food. Beer enthusiasts from around the world fill tented beer halls. At Bierhaus in downtown Mountain View, guests enjoy can enjoy steins of German and European beers, poured year-round and served alongside a menu of hearty sausage plates, burgers and sandwiches.

Last fall Bierhaus transformed the restaurant formerly known as Steak Out into a counter-service gastropub complete with a beer garden and board games for socializing over steins of beer.

Though at Oktoberfest you will only find varieties that conform to the strict German purity law, Bierhaus pours all flavors beer from dark, malty Dunkel, crisp Pilsners, cloudy, fruity hefeweizens as well as Belgian varieties and a few domestic craft beers. The Bierhaus staff can be very helpful in finding a beer you’ll enjoy or just getting your pronunciation right on the sometimes tongue-twisting beer varieties. Many of the beers can be enjoyed in various sizes, but my vote is for a liter of cloudy, banana- and clove-scented hefeweizen any day.

The main attractions here are the sausage specialties and German comfort foods such as the spätzle sautéed with ham, swiss, braised greens and mushrooms. Sausage selections include the marjoram-spiced nuremberger, the standard Bavarian bratwurst with its familiar bite of nutmeg and the Käsekrainer, an Austrian sausage speckled with bits of cheese that ooze out when it’s cut into.

Each sausage comes plated a little differently with either braised red cabbage, sauerkraut, crispy spätzle or braised greens and bacon. My favorite was the Käsekrainer, which came with sweet and tangy braised red cabbage, a dollop of whole grain mustard and a serving of spätzle that had been given a lightly browned and crisp texture. I really enjoyed the portions at Bierhaus. The sausage plates had all the components you would want with a German meal without being overkill.

Other items on the food menu include snacks suitable for munching over beers such as the standard pretzel with mustard as well as the creative currywurst and fries with Berlin curried ketchup. Bierhaus also has a menu of hearty burgers made with grass fed beef. Also available is the option to build your own burger.

While the restaurant may not be as overtly German as say, Teske’s in San Jose, with its hunting lodge decor, Bierhaus is an enjoyable destination for beer lovers and when the hankering calls for a plate of sausages and spätzle.