If you have a hankering for excellent German food, and no immediate plans to fly to Deutschland, you might want to drive north on Vero’s barrier island in search of one of this area’s hidden gems, Café Coconut Cove.

This curiously named restaurant, offering no hint that the cuisine inside is prepared by a restaurant family that came here two decades ago from Aachen in the Rhineland, serves excellent German food in an attractive hide-away setting on the Indian River lagoon.

The biggest challenge you will have, if you decide to go, is finding it. The advice we would offer is to look carefully at your odometer when you reach the top of the A1A bridge over the Sebastian inlet, and when you have proceeded exactly 11 miles, begin looking for the small Café Coconut Cove sign on the left.

If you go another half mile without spotting it, turn around. You have missed the easy-to-miss driveway that takes you down a lane to Café Coconut Cove.

Once inside, the décor and ambience is unmistakably Rhineland, and the menu will leave you with no doubt that you are in the right place.

My strong recommendation for an appetizer would be the German potato pancakes ($7.50), three small potato pancakes, pan fried perfectly. Golden brown and crispy, they were served with sour cream (my favorite) and apple compote.

Other appetizer choices to consider include homemade liver paté ($7.50) and Sautéed Mushrooms served with horseradish sauce and toast ($7.50).

Following a small German mixed salad which is included with your meal, the entrées are where the tough choices begin.

My husband’s favorite (and from observing neighboring tables, the favorite of many diners) is the pork shank ($21.50). Slow roasted with tomato, onion garlic and seasonings, the luscious pork simply falls off the bone.

But for those unfamiliar with German food, an excellent first-time entrée is either the combination plate ($20.50) or the rouladen plate ($17.50). With either dish, you get a bratwurst (yum), sauerbraten and red cabbage. With the combination plate, you also get a jäger schnitzel (pork schnitzel), while with the rouladen plate, you get a thin slice of beef, rolled and stuffed with seasoned meat and onion, braised in its own gravy.

Other hard to resist entrées include the Wiener schnitzel ($21.50) and its cousin, the peppercorn schnitzel ($23). The Wiener schnitzel is a lightly breaded veal cutlet, sautéed to perfection, accompanied by sautéed mushrooms. The peppercorn schnitzel is also a veal cutlet, but served with a creamy peppercorn sauce. Both come with a potato puff and a vegetable. Of the two, I would recommend going with the plain Wiener schnitzel.

For deserts (which are all $4.50), the classic German choices are a homemade Black Forest cake, a homemade rum bundt cake (rum soaked vanilla cake), and homemade apple strudel topped with vanilla ice cream. While it is hard to go too far wrong with the classic German cherry and chocolate Black Forest cake, our pick would be the apple strudel.

To accompany your meal, Café Coconut Cove offers a very reasonably priced wine list (including several Rieslings and one German pinot noir) as well as Warsteiner Pils, a German premium beer.

Dinner for two at Café Coconut Cove, together with a nice bottle of wine, comes in for well under $100 including tip.

Since the restaurant does not accept reservations, you might have a bit of a wait on a Friday or Saturday night. But Café Coconut Cove has a handful of outdoor tables, right on the Indian River, which provide a perfect setting for a predinner sunset drink.

In fact, the combination of the riverside setting, the old-world European charm you find inside the restaurant and t he good German food are hard to beat.

If you live toward the northern end of the barrier island, in Orchid or Windsor, the drive up A1A to Café Coconut Grove likely will not take any longer than the drive to a restaurant in Vero. And when you find Café Coconut Cove, I think you will agree it was well worth the drive (and the search).

I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com .

The reviewer dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 5 pm to 9 pm

Adult Beverages: Beer and wine 

Address: 4210 South A1A, Melbourne Beach

Phone: (321) 727-3133

Review first published: Nov. 13, 2008