Like tinsel, guitar solos, and incriminating legal papers, sauerkraut is best finely shredded. Enjoy this slivered specialty of the Old World with today's Groupon: for $12, you get $25 worth of Bavarian fare at Ilsa's Kitchen in Spicewood.

The chefs at Ilsa's Kitchen construct a menu laden with authentic German dishes, which fill the restaurant with the warming aromas of Old World cuisine. On the sausage plate ($11.95), two links of bratwurst, knackwurst, pepperwurst, or weisswurst nestle in a soft mound of kraut like a sleepy alpenhorn player. Seven varieties of pork and chicken schnitzel ($11.95–$13.95) don warm-batter cloaks to dance merrily around a mound of lemon wedges. Generous scoops of goulash cover a layer of sautéed spätzle noodles ($9.95) with sides such as potato pancakes, german potato salad, or semmelknödel dumplings.

Live music on Saturday nights accompanies the rhythm of gleefully chomping teeth and fuels joviality. The restaurant's large beer garden welcomes canines of all breed, allowing pups to experience another culture without learning to use metric-system dog doors.