We had some amazing meals during our five days in Heidelberg.  We used Trip Advisor when seeking places to eat and most did not disappoint.  Here’s a snapshot of the places we visited for a meal.

As you saw in the last post, after lugging out suitcases to our new apartment for 6 days, walking to two other highly rated restaurants- with no luck – we settled on Heidelberger Schlossquell and were happy with our choice.  It was a good introduction to Heidelberg.

Our breakfast was generally coffee or cappuccino and pastries.  After the first day, Eric usually went out and brought them back.  Thanks hon.  🙂

Vetters was the original brewery in Heidelberg, started by Klaus Peter Better in 1987. It was born out of his private passion and has turned into a family affair.  The motto is ‘Every guest is welcome’ and they feature handcrafted beers served with traditional German cuisine. We were able to find a table in the corner.

First thing to order……………….beer of course!

We were enjoying the jovial atmosphere and admiring their copper tanks and the hops hanging from  chandeliers.

Karen was good and ordered the salad.  Rich and I both ordered the Nuremberg sausages with sauerkraut while Eric ordered blood & liver sausage with potatoes.

Oh yes, we had to ‘fill in the cracks’ with some gelato.

While Rich and Eric found another brewery down by the river to visit. That’s my drink on the right – coke with no ice.  For those that haven’t visited Europe, most soft drinks do not come with any ice cubes, even those areas that have a high tourist visitation.

One evening we ate at Bier Brezel. We’re pretty much staying close to the 1.6 km pedestrian zone which is part of the ‘old’ part of the city and are trying not to repeat any place.

Yes, I got another dark beer.  I’m still surprised at myself that I like dark beer better than most anything else.

We took a break from sausages and ordered a flammekuchen, tomato soup w/cheesy bread and this salad.  In case you haven’t noticed, many times we split our entres between each other and tasted everyone’s choice.  Okay, I guess I really meant to say that many times Karen and I split our meal.  🙂

 

We kept walking past this next place and the inside decor looked intriguing (not to mention the smell of meat cooking).  Early in the week we said ‘Didn’t come to Germany for a hamburger’.  Later in the week, it was ‘Hhhmmmm, what would a hamburger taste like?’

Birch trees were used as a major part of their decor to delineate spaces between booths and each table had this wooden try with a rosemary plant and four sauces to accompany any meal.

Yep, we got burgers and shared a pound of fries between the four of us.  Yes, I said a pound of fries.  Each of us easily had enough fries to split between us.  This meal was a nice departure from our European norm.

Schnitzel Bank was one of those places we tried to get into our first night in town.  Eric had no luck getting us in, so he had the concierge service from our credit card make a reservation for later in the week.   Success!

This place is one of the top rated restaurants in Heidelberg.  Some research revealed this was originally a barrel-making shop and local wines were being stored in their barrels.  They discovered that selling wine in barrels was more profitable than selling the barrels.  Incorporated into their tables was wood from the original workbenches and only adds to the small intimate feel – yes, it’s very small, hence the situation with getting a reservation.

We all enjoyed their salad and Eric ordered their bread soup.  He asked ‘What is in bread soup?”  Our waiter said………….bread, of course. Ha!  Our table and the water got a good laugh.  He shared it was a very old recipe, that nobody remembers its origin and they continue to have it on their menu.

You guessed it……………….we all ordered schnitzel.

Nobody wanted dessert but me.  I had seen the apple strudel on their menu and after my first venture with this earlier in the week, I wanted another version.  I told the waiter – 4 spoons.  It was excellent!  I believe all of us wanted to lick the plate after it was gone.

So looking at the reviews, most were extremely positive, but there were a few unhappy customers.  Many restaurants in Germany are communal dining – which we love, but others do not!  We enjoy talking with anyone that joins our table, which we did that night.  A couple from Northern Germany was here on holiday, put at our communal table and since the wife spoke really good English, we had a lively conversation throughout the remainder of our meal.

 

Another one of our good meals was in a nearby village, sitting outside in their biergarten.  We had visited some castle ruins and needed the refreshment after our (exhausting) hike.

This was the first time our lack of German caused a slight situation.  Karen and I were going to split the flammekuchen, but instead we each got one.  Oh well, we ate the best parts and left some.  The boys ordered brats and Nuremburger sausage.

Before eating, we had visited a castle ruin.  Rich and I wanted a photo with our beer with the ruin in the background.  It’s there between us – way, way far away.

The last dinner in Heidelberg was the place we tried to find our very first night – Schlossberg Keller.

At the time of our visit, it was the second highest rated restaurant in town.  Eric started with a cream of spinach soup, accompanied by pieces of smoked trout in the soup.  We all had these great salads before our meals.  I would like to say they were ‘light’, but pork schnitzel w/ fries and schnitzel, fries with mushroom sauce don’t exactly qualify.  Eric ordered the pasta with smoked salmon.

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Believe it or not, we were too full for dessert.

I know there are many more places in Heidelberg that should have been visited, but these were (mostly) within walking distance and my idea of German food.

There’s a few more posts coming to wrap our latest European travel adventure.  Still waiting for my guest blogger to regale some Munich beer stories……………just saying.

Auf Wiedersehen

 

Ginny