Klosterschmiede - Maulbronn

A lovely restaurant with the old world charm still intact. Reached there on a cold winter afternoon looking for warmth and food - quite like the travelling monks centuries before! And then I was very pleasantly surprised to find Quinoa-Potato cakes (fried pate') on the...More

This is a great place for lunch or a snack after seeing the monastery. Wish we'd waited to have lunch here, but we'd already eaten, so we had a snack instead. But the food menu looked great.Apple Strudel was super tasty, ice cream was wonderful, hot chocolate very good. Nice bathrooms (the only non-smelly bathrooms we found at the monastery) and cozy seating areas. It was over 30 euro for 4 drinks and 2 snacks, so be prepared for that, but it was very good.

Having completed an interesteing tour of the Kloster we adjourned to this adjacent restaurant for lunch. It was warm enough to eat ouitside at the front, a large pedestrianised area offering good views of the maulbronn complex. On the recommendation of the German friends we were with we chose to eat the local speciality - Maultasche, best described as a giant ravioli, reputedly invented by the monks of the Cistercian abbey. The restaurant was busy at lunchtime but the bustling waitresses displayed customary German efficiency whist retaining a good humour. eating at tourist sites is rarely memorable in any way - I would make this a notable exception.

Though I was a bit suspicious of a restaurant located in a popular tourist destination (Maulbronn Abbey, the medieval birthplace of Maultaschen), I was very pleasantly surprised. Not only is the former smithy of the abbey in a beautiful, historic building (built in 1201), but the food lives up to its setting. The abbey is where Maultaschen originated many hundreds of years ago. After a decade living in southwestern Germany, I've eaten many Maultaschen, but these were by far the best I've ever had. At €15, they aren't cheap, but that includes a nice mixed salad, which isn't typical in Germany. It's more common that you have to order your salad and vegetables separately, so considering that aspect, the price wasn't really much higher than you would pay anywhere else. The mushroom cream sauce I had on my Maultaschen was absolutey phenomenal, and I've never had a better sauce even in France. My wife had Maultaschen topped with a mix of zucchini, eggplant and red and yellow bellpeppers, which was also very good. The wine list is also good with some excellent German wines, though most are only available by the bottle. But I had a glass of a really nice riesling from a local winery that was a great example of the classic dry German riesling with distinct mineral notes. If you're ever in the greater Stuttgart area, it's worth a detour to Maulbronn for an afternoon tour of the beautiful abbey with dinner at this restaurant. We'll definitely be back.Tip: Reservations are recommended, since they will often close the kitchen early if there are few guests and no more reservations for the evening.