I’ve been a bit cooped up for the past few weeks, stewing over my dog, Zane.  The truth is, Zane is not really very sick, but I happen to be coping with traumatic memories of a few years ago when his former beagle brother, MacGregor, was dealing with an inoperable spinal tumor.  We lost him the week before Christmas 2012.  For that reason, Zane’s bout with a mast cell tumor and what I think may be a resurgence of a tickborne illness has me a bit wrecked and I’ve been staying in more than usual.

Bill insisted that we go out today, though, because I have been spending way too much time hidden away in my little German house.  So we decided to go to Tuebingen…

Little did we know that Tuebingen would be a freakin’ madhouse today.  There was no parking to be found!  Moreover, there were annoying construction projects that conspired to  block us from parking at our usual go to parking area.  After hearing Bill swear more than once over the situation, I suggested that we go to Im Gärtle, a lovely little restaurant/art museum in Ammerbuch-Entringen.  We last visited there on Valentine’s Day evening this year.

I mainly decided to go to this restaurant because they are on OpenTable.de and it’s super easy to make a reservation online.  I also remembered how much we enjoyed our dinner there last February, even if it did lead to my being blocked by someone on Stuttgart Friends 2.0.

We arrived at the restaurant about ten minutes ahead of our reservation.  Our table was ready for us, complete with a sign and two fuzzy blankets to protect against the non-existent draft.

For those interested in the art museum…

And the outdoor menu…

The table was all ready for us.

 

We walked in, wished the waitress a good day and told her of our reservation.  She showed us to the table.  She was very patient with our German skills as we decided what we’d be having for lunch.  The restaurant offers a weekly special menu, a regular menu, and what appeared to be some kind of brunch.  They also had lots of salads.  Im Gärtle also runs without a pause, so you can go there and enjoy a late afternoon repast without fear of evil stares from the wait staff.  There’s plenty of free parking and, at least today, no obnoxious crowds!

Dorky obligatory pictures of my husband, Bill.

 

Bill went with the set menu for the week, which offered three courses with two choices for each course except dessert.  I went with the main menu.  We each had three courses.

I started with a delicious pumpkin soup garnished with toasted pumpkin seeds and cream.

Bill had a delicious roasted red pepper soup.  If I’m honest, I liked his soup better than mine…  but both were velvety smooth and delicious.  I love a good soup this time of year.

We moved on to second courses.  I had salmon with an herb and Parmesan crust.  It was served with a potato salad with cucumbers that were just slightly pickled.  

Bill had the sea bass, served with gray risotto and vegetables.  Both dishes were delicious and came with sauces on the side.

This was our second round of wine.  Instead of ordering a bottle, this time Bill got glasses of white from local sources.  Both were very satisfactory dry whites, although I liked my Gruener Veltliner more than I liked Bill’s white.

But obviously Bill was enjoying it…

 

I was bound and determined to save room for dessert.  I’m so glad I did…

Bill’s fixed menu choice came with apple strudel with vanilla ice cream.  I love this particular interpretation, which is basically just lightly fried apples with sugar and cinnamon…  It was soooo good!

I had a very lovely panna cotta with orange marmalade and honey, along with delightful crispy balls on top.  😀  I liked Bill’s dessert better for this time of year, but the panna cotta was very good!  The honey was a very nice touch.

 

For our two hour lunch, we spent 71 euros before tip.  The service was friendly and gracious, even though I could see the lady taking care of us was taking care of everybody.  It was very relaxing and pleasant and I was happy to get out of the house for a nice meal out.  Someday, we need to actually look at the art museum, too.

We came home to find the house and dogs intact, as well as a funny note from the DHL person, who obviously knows we aren’t German…

I liked the crude map!  Now our dogs have plenty of food for the next couple of months.

 

If you happen to be down in the Ammerbuch-Entrigen area, I would highly recommend a visit to Im Gärtle.  It made for a nice stop today after disappointment in crowded Tuebingen.  I still can’t believe that we used to live just a few miles from this restaurant the first time we lived in Germany and we never found it.  It’s a real gem!  And for you antique hunters out there, I can tell you that there’s a great antique shop very close to this restaurant, which makes the excursion even more worthwhile.

By the way… this was our second visit and the second time we saw the proprietor of the place… an elderly gentleman who wished us a Gruess Gott (I know it’s misspelled… I need a German keyboard).