In my previous post, I mentioned that the Saturday of that week deserved its own post. Here it is!
For our wedding, among other gifts my Mum and my sister had given us a voucher for a famous and popular restaurant in Stuttgart. It was founded in 1991 by chef Vincent Klink and received a Michelin star for the first time in 1998. Mr Klink is well known in Germany, especially in our area, as he's been on cooking shows on TV for many years. My parents loved his show and often watched it together, but somehow a visit to the restaurant never came about.
Now that my husband and I had been presented with the voucher we only needed to find a date and time for our visit... of course that's easier said than done! It took several emails back and forth, because the relatively small restaurant is almost always fully booked (Wielandshöhe, the website is only available in German but has photos of the place).
Contrary to our usual meal times, we booked a table for lunch last Saturday (24 October), as evenings are even more popular. It turned out to be a good idea, because it meant we still had plenty of daylight left for a walk afterwards.
Having skipped breakfast, we took two local trains plus a funicular to Wielandshöhe in Stuttgart, a journey of about an hour. I'd last been in this area in April 2025, and after our meal we walked part of the tour my sister and I had done back then with some of her colleagues. Click here for the post from 2025 and scroll down until you reach Sunday, if you want to see the pictures from then.
We had been asked not to turn up before 12:00, and since we had a few minutes to spare, we walked up from the funicular stop to catch some views of Stuttgart. It began to drizzle just as we were on our way back to the restaurant.
View from Wielandshöhe towards Fernsehturm ("TV Tower"), a famous Stuttgart landmark
The meal was very good, the food and wines as excellent as the service. There was plenty of staff, and at one point Mr Klink walked in from the kitchen, stopped at every table and exchanged a few words with the guests. His daughter made the rounds at the tables several times, and although she was friendly with us, we overheard a conversation with guests at a nearby table where she reacted very brusquely when they politely asked where the mushrooms had been picked.
We enjoyed every one of the three courses (plus "Greeting from the Kitchen", plus an unexpected selection of mini desserts served with our espressos) and knew we weren't going to need a full meal that evening!
The sun had been out on and off and there had been the odd sprinkle of rain while we dined. When we eventually left the restaurant at about 3:00 pm, it was dry, windy and sunny, and we started on our walk, consulting the leaflet I had picked up on the way. The exact starting point was a bit hard to find, as the map wasn't very detailed and I couldn't remember at first where we'd started 1 1/2 years ago (I was part of a group then and not responsible for finding the way, and therefore didn't pay all that much attention).
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| The cable car travels on top of this bridge to cross a busy road. |
From there, we took a tram into the city centre and walked along the Königstraße ("King's Road"), Stuttgart's largest pedestrian area. It had seemed a good idea, but we were soon fed up with the throngs of people, similar to my recent experience in Munich. Anyway, we caught a local train back to Ludwigsburg, where I made use of the remaining daylight and dry weather to clean my neighbours' rabbit hutch and the outside enclosure.
A cosy evening followed with only a plate of light snacks for each of us later on while watching a film.
Not the sun, but the moon as seen from my kitchen window at 20 to 7 that evening.
Eating at the Wielandshöhe certainly was a unique and overall pleasant experience, and when we were at my Mum's for coffee & cake the next day, of course we told her and my sister all about it - after all, it had been one of their wedding presents for us. Thank you, Mum and Sis!
The views are amazing and I'm glad the weather cooperated for you. I love the photo of you in the pretty red coat. What a nice gift from your Mum and Sister.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes, it certainly was a nice gift.
DeleteWe have one more voucher to use, given to us from the village band, but that's of course a restaurant near his village and one we know, not an entirely new experience.
I am glad you enjoyed the meal. I imagine these Michelin star restaurants as serving quite unusual, quirky food. I would not have been able to take a walk after the meal. I am not used to eating in the middle of the day and find the older I get more of a problem it becomes as I am stuck in the habit of eating in the evening. When I lunch with my friends I usually take the 'lightest' of options from the menu. I love the last photo, the one of the moon. Rachel
ReplyDeleteTheir food isn't quirky or exotic; Mr Klink uses local and seasonal ingredients and draws on a combination of traditional Swabian dishes with a modern touch. Portions are generous!
DeleteApart from the weekends, I usually eat at least a sandwich around lunch time (when working from home) and have a more substantial meal at the canteen with my colleagues on my office days. On weekends, we usually have a sumptuous breakfast and then nothing (apart from sometimes coffee and cake) until the evening, when we either go out or cook something nice at home.
That moon was so bright and it had a golden hue that my phone's camera didn't quite pick up.
How fun, and what spectacular views! I wonder why the mushroom question raised the hackles of the chef's daughter? Seems like a pretty reasonable thing to ask.
ReplyDeleteThe menue announced them as "Steinpilz aus dem Nordschwarzwald", cep or boletus from the North Black Forest. The lady who asked the question was herself from that area, and to us it seemed a perfectly legitimate and innocent question - she probably merely wanted to know whether the mushrooms were from a part she knew, too. My husband had the same dish for starters (he loved it!), and the waiter who brought it said that this type of mushroom was as extremely rare this year because of the extremely dry and hot summer, and therefore very valuable. Maybe Eva Klink thought the woman wanted to exploit the exact place for herself. But she could have refused the information in a more charming or even witty way, there was no need to react the way she did.
DeleteWho's the beautiful gal in the cable car ?
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to ask the man who took the photo!
DeleteYou and O.K. are well, that's the important thing.
Delete* Leaked audio exposes deadly mistake behind Spanish train crash as dozens
of victims still missing. * YouTube. The Mirror.
Railways in Britain were privatised in 1994 in the last days of John Major's Tory
government. Since then there have been 9 fatal rail crashes with 67 deaths.
About 400 pedestrians & cyclists have died on level crossings. About 60 rail
staff workers have been killed. About 200 passengers have died after falling.
And 9000 committed suicide by jumping in the path of a train.
Nina Bawden, novelist, magistrate, and lifelong member of the Labour Party,
lost her husband in the Potters Bar rail crash in 2002. Nina was horribly injured. She resigned from the Labour Party because Tony Blair wouldn't re-nationalise
the railways. One of Blair's many failures.
My 8.38 a.m. train from Glasgow to Euston, London, was three hours late on
arrival due to signal failure at Penrith.
My sister, waiting for me in Euston, was told the train had been cancelled.
Instinct made her wait. I'll need to get a mobile phone !
My frequent train trips would be very difficult to manage without a mobile phone. My tickets are stored there, and because of the delays and cancellations or even just a last minute change of platforms, during a trip I need to check times and platforms almost constantly, and often have to look up an alternative connection. Also, when I travel to Offenburg, I need to let my husband know when my train is delayed, as he picks me up at the station. All this would be nearly impossible without my phone. Staff is often invisible during my journeys and can‘t offer any more information than what I can find myself.
DeleteThe restaurant certainly earns its good reputation. I had a pleasant wander round its website and was intrigued by the woodcuts. Creativity finds many outlets.
ReplyDeleteThe woodcuts? I must admit I didn‘t have a closer look at them. We were busy with our food, and I enjoyed the view from my seat, with the fast moving clouds and sun across the city in the valley.
DeleteWhat a lovely present and an interesting meal in a high-class restaurant. It is far better to have a present like that, as later in life we already have all the other things we need in a home.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Addy! Most of us have way too much stuff anyway. And a ticket for a concert or voucher for a restaurant makes a precious gift of memories.
DeleteGlad you had a good time and got some nice views with the restaurant experience as well.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good day all around.
DeleteI clicked on the link for the restaurant. It looks so elegant. It reminds me of restaurants that you would see in movies, as if Cary Grant would dine there. And I also like your red coat very much!
ReplyDeleteIt is a beautiful place, and I wish you could have seen how elegantly the waitresses were dressed. The coat originally was my sister's, and it's ideal for spring and autumn when it's neither really cold nor really warm :-)
Delete