"Edelweiss, edelweiss" ... the restaurant, the song. Every time I walk through the front door of the restaurant I find myself humming a few bars of that song from "The Sound of Music"). However, faster than I can sit down, I am awash in one of the tunes from the band (possibly "The Pickle Picker Polka").

Yes, I like this place. I like the atmosphere, and I like the food. I spent a couple of years in Germany (courtesy of the military), at which time I developed a close relationship with the food. A number of years later, business trips took me to Munich and Salzburg, and that allowed me to get even deeper into the gusto that German food provides.

I am the wurst nut you will find when it comes to German sausages. Consider the wonders of the wurstplatte at Edelweiss. What could be finer that a platter of sausages? Pick from homemade sausages -- bratwurst, thuringer, knockwurst or Bavarian bockwurst. I want all four but decided on the knockwurst (a chubby and juicy salmon-colored sausage made with pork and veal) and the thicker and longer, equally enjoyable bockwurst. Sauerkraut and German fries are the two sides that I chose (always, it seems) for my wurstplatte, which is one of the best around.

Starters that got me going at Edelweiss were the potato pancakes and the hackepeter. Even though the potato pancakes came off a bit greasy, they were seasoned quite nicely. And the accompanying lingonberries (a touch of Sweden in Germany) and applesauce added a nice touch.

You have to really trust a restaurant to order hackepeter, a potentially double-whammy dish that includes uncooked beef and uncooked egg. Edelweiss did it right, the mound of "freshly ground top sirloin" cradling an egg yolk and an arrangement of capers and anchovies (a nice touch). I mixed it all up, creating what might be a meatball mixture before the cooking, and slathered it on the accompanying rye bread. Hackepeter is an acquired taste, but once you get the taste you get the taste.

If that idea doesn't fly, try the liver dumpling soup, with its slick broth and chunky liver dumpling. Or the very hearty, bone-warming goulash soup, which was chockablock with beef, potatoes and a colorful array of root vegetables.

Meat is the heart and soul of a German restaurant, and Edelweiss really gets passionate about the very idea of it (there are a couple of seafood dishes, but I have never tried them). Under the heading "Deutsche Hauptspeisen," which translates as "German Entrees," you will find more meat dishes than you can shake a pork chop on a stick at (including smoked center-cut pork chops). You will also find a slew of schnitzels, some of which I carefully avoid, like the overwrought "zigeunerschnitzel," buried under an avalanche of tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms. Good veal should not suffer this kind of travesty.

There are a couple of schnitzels (a diminutive of "schnitz" or slice) that I cannot go without. I favor the traditional wienerschnitzel (lightly breaded and deliciously seasoned veal cutlets) and the schnitzel a la Holstein. In the schnitzel a la Holstein, wienerschnitzel was all gussied up with capers and a fried egg, atop which were laid anchovies. I could eat this creation for breakfast and it would make my day.

One dish I would not want for breakfast (or even lunch, unless I was planning a nap afterward) is the "Bayerische Schweinshaxe." A three-pound pork shank, baked to a crisp was served atop the restaurant's Bock beer sauce and a choice of three sides. This was quite a dish. I suggest you choose those sides carefully -- not that anything would lighten the load at this point -- but my recommendation would be the spaetzle and the sauerkraut (two sides will do).

The lunch menu at Edelweiss brings back a number of the dinner entrees (schnitzels, wurstplatte, smoked pork chop), but it also features a number of sandwiches. More than a few of them very American (Reuben, turkey, cheeseburger, French dip, roast pork), though you can still kick off a lunch with the hearty goulash or the liver dumpling soup.

A nice surprise was the "Alpine burger," which it seemed to me was made with the same fine ground sirloin as the hackepeter. The beauty of this burger was not just the proper grilling (medium-rare) and deep flavor, but the additional allure of a topping of sauerkraut and Swiss cheese, all of which was tucked between slices of good rye bread. And it came with those excellent German fries, all for just $8.25.

The one dessert I want when I go to Edelweiss is apple strudel a la mode. I can forgo the chocolate cake and all the rest, just bring me the crispy, chock-full-of-tender-apples, strudel. I would like my strudel with a cup of rich coffee. Unfortunately the coffee at Edelweiss is really bad.

Pat Bruno is a free-lance writer, critic and author. E-mail brunoeats@aol.com.