Gasthaus zur Linde

What do the Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, Bill Clinton, Wim Wenders and we have in common?

Gasthaus zur Linde

We all visited this restaurant and loved the food there. So much so that Koizumi-san is still receiving regular care-packs of “Maultaschen” (Swabian ravioli) from the Chef, Jörg Mink. But let us talk about our dinner.

Actually we already had two dinners here. The first time, in our first week in Stuttgart, we unfortunately did not have our camera with us, so yesterday we had to go again (poor us) to take some pictures.

Rindfleischsalat – Beef salad

This lukewarm beef salad starter was made from “Tafelspitz”, soured boiled rump. Tafelspitz is both a special cut of beef (called a beef round roast, cap of round, or tri tip, this is from the hind part of beef, just before the tail) and an originally Austrian dish. It is pretty common in Bavaria and Swabia as well, although of course the Austrians claim this to be a weak copy of their original.

This salad was dressed with raspberry vinegar, various garden herbs and celery, the result being a very good balance of sour and slightly sweet, a very fresh but not light flavor; rather dominant in a very pleasant way.

Kuttelsüpple – tripe soup

I know what you are thinking. But you are wrong! We chose this soup as our second (shared) starter because we definitely wanted to try tripe: T. has never had it before and I know it only from Turkey. Being so impressed with the restaurant on our first visit, we decided that if we are ever to eat tripe, then it must be here. We were not wrong, this was delicious, slightly sour (there was Lemberger, the local light red wine, in it) and with only a hint of smell of innards. Which I liked, because I like to taste what I am eating, and I would be disappointed if tripe tasted like, say, beef. I think this dish opened a whole new array of food as a possibility to us. We have already decided to try the tripe main dish on our next visit.

Maultäschle – Swabian ravioli

One of our two maincourses were these “Maultäschle” with in butter fat browned onions. These onions, which are omnipresent in the Swabian cuisine are correctly called “geschmälzt”. This is because they have been browned in butter fat “Schmalz” (like lard which is from pig fat or the Indian ghee, butter fat is 100% fat as opposed to the usual 82% in regular butter), hence the notation geschmälzt. “Geschmelzt”, which is also often found throughout menus is supposed to be wrong since this would mean melted. I somehow like the idea of melting onions, though.

The famous “Maultäschle” themselves were filled with a ground beef and vegetable mixture which was seasoned very good. Both the dough and the filling tasted very fresh. The dough is hand-kneaded and rolled, and the confection of the little dough packages with the filling is also completely by hand – for around 1000 “maultäschle” a day!

Zwiebelrostbraten – onion roast joint

This was heavenly. The meat was tender (although not bloody enough for my taste), the sauerkraut were made from the famous and endangered Filder-cabbage which provided for very tender and aromatic sauerkraut, almost nothing to do with the regular sauerkraut made from round cabbages. The restaurant is right in the middle of the Filder region which has been almost totally urbanized and therefore lacking most of its traditional fields. This special cabbage is now under the protection of Slow Food’s Ark of Taste. The accompanying “Spätzle” that you see in the background were delicious but too much! “Spätzle” are a sort of pasta and if you would like to see some great pictures as well as a recipe, Nicky and Oliver over at delicious:days had a great post a couple of months ago.

Along with all this great food we drank a white wine from the region that the very knowledgeable waiter recommended: 2005 Weissburgunder trocken QbA from Jürgen Ellwanger in Winterbach in Remstal. This was obviously a young and fresh white wine (pinot blanc) with great fruity aromas and very well balanced on the palate. A very nice companion to the tasty food we had, never pushing itself to the foreground.

Overall a very successful evening. I shouldn’t forget to mention the very forthcoming and friendly waitstaff. We have already decided to visit Linde at least fortnightly and eat our way through the menu. 9 months should be enough time.

If you stick to one maincourse from the old-swabian dishes section of the menu and one glass of wine or beer, you can leave for under 15 Euros. If you choose to eat more and “finer”, depending also on the bottle of wine you choose, the check can go up to around 50 Euros per person.

Gasthaus zur Linde

Sigmaringer Strasse 49

70567 Stuttgart – Möhringen

0711 – 719 95 90

reservation recommended