Weinstube Eissele, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany

Sometimes a little luck while travelling is needed. The table next to us at 5 in Stuttgart recommended us the Weinstube Eissele in Esslingen. The place doesn’t even have a homepage and is difficult to find. But there’s a good You Tube video showing why this seems to be a good place to go for classic German cuisine from the area of Stuttgart:

In a pretty lowkey house, after walking up the stairs a beautiful wooden restaurant invites you to sit down and have a meal. The welcome is friendly (keep in mind you need to make reservations) and talkative. The menu features local cusisine and funny enough Züricher Geschnetzeltes (Zürcher would be the correct name of the dish). We decided to stay local.

The Maultasche (geschmeltzt – with onions and butter) was beautiful. A silky ravioli filled with a bit of meat and spinach was a true testament to the Art of Maultasche. But it got even better – the potato salad rightly deserves the predicate famous. Beautiful thin and small slices of potato dressed with a bit of vinegar and a lovely broth, slightly slurpy but not enough for the potatoes to disintegrate, this is the way to sell something like this.

Main course was a Zwiebelrostbraten with salad and pan-seared potatoes. We learned that a Zwiebelrostbraten is essentially a nice piece of Entrecote (incl. fat), covered in a strong hearty brown sauce and topped with onions. What else do you want ? Cooked with care, skill and love this is just perfect if you’re looking for good, hearty and local cuisine. The only thing which wasn’t out-of-this world, was the regular salad, it drew water and the individual components didn’t quite show the same care as the rest of the dishes.

This was a great restaurant and we truly felt happy to find this, aided simply by chance and some nice people who tipped us off. If all of Germany would have this type of food, then it would be the food heaven of Europe. Weinstube Eissele would be a reason for moving to Esslingen, if you drive by – eat here.