Bauernstube is the casual restaurant in the Traube Tonbach hotel (it has 3 restaurants) located in Germany’s Black Forest. Its name means “living room” and since is was the only one to be open at lunch we ate there twice while staying at the hotel. It is in the original building that was the bakery. In the various remodels of the place they have tried to maintain as much of the original building as possible. The low ceiling and large wood beams are indicative of this as are the various decorations and old fireplace/oven. A couple windows let in a little natural light but otherwise it is on the darker side with a collection of tables and booths. The dark wood booths have a lined light wood table and pillows. It is a cozy room. They offered a set 3 course meal as well as an a la carte menu. Service was friendly but not particularly attentive.
Everyone starts with a little “pizza” that is popular in the area according to our server. It is a crisp small round topped with sour cream and onion. It was tasty.
They also brought sliced rye bread with a softened spread. The bread was soft with a crunchy crust.
The cream soup of pumpkin was garnished with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seed oil. It was thick, rich and creamy with good flavor. It had a lovely texture with a little crunch coming from the large seeds. It also had tones of lemongrass in the base.
The Beef Broth, Maultaschen, semolina dumplings, pancake slices and vegetables was the second soup on the menu. It was a strongly flavored beef broth and definitely lighter than the pumpkin. The mixture of ingredients made it fun to eat.
The Blaquette, sweetbread, mushroom and puff pastry was perfectly breaded veal sweetbread chunks on a meat and mushroom combination. A square of puff pastry was served on the side. The sweetbreads were nicely crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside. The meat underneath was a bit dry for me but there was enough sauce to mix with the light, crisp pastry, thinly sliced mushrooms and lovely sweetbreads to make a good plate of food.
Black Forest trout “meuniere” was served with spinach and potatoes. According to the server the trout was swimming in a tank in the kitchen and killed and readied when it is ordered – ultimately fresh. It was a thicker meuniere sauce, more like a gravy but the fish, served whole, was excellent and moist. The spinach was in a separate bowl and it was enough to share. It was lovely fresh spinach that still had a bit of bite to the leaves, covered with butter and delicious. The potatoes were also in a separate bowl, peeled and lightly buttered. While most of the stuff was under-salted it was easily remedied with the salt grinder on the table. It was a lovely offering.
We weren’t up for dessert but some little treats were brought out with the check, a raspberry tart, a chocolate cup with cream, a berry marshmallow and a chocolate truffle. None were outstanding.
The second visit they brought the same little “pizzas” but a different denser bread.
The Swabian meatloaf with carrots was served with homemade noodles and a sauce of mushrooms. It was a finely ground meat with fresh yellow and orange carrots underneath. The noodles were a linguine shape and quite nice. The tender meat was well seasoned and herbed with a tasty gravy. It was also good with the onion gravy that came with the beef.
Entrecôte Swabian style was served with fried onions, broad beans and Spätzle. Herbs and onions were in the sauce that was on top and also served in a boat left at the table. One end of the beef was drier than the other but it was cooked a proper rare, as ordered. On top also was a scoop of braised onions. It was good.
Once again we passed on dessert but extra treats were a blackberry marshmallow, brownie with coconut, a pistachio tart with cherry and a chocolate cup with cream. They were okay.
