Once again, I’d like to wish my readers a Happy New Year.  Bill and I have been chomping at the bit to get out and try a different restaurant.  We finally managed it today when we took advantage of the holiday and had lunch downtown.

Some time ago, I told Bill about Cube, a very nice restaurant at the top of the Stuttgart Art Museum.  For the past few weeks, he’s been trying to get a reservation.  He finally managed to get one for lunch today at noon.  We were the first patrons to arrive and the dining room was completely empty when we checked in.  Minutes after we sat down, people started filing in and I noticed that quite a few tables around us had “reserved” signs on them.  Cube is very popular at dinner time, but apparently it pays to make reservations for lunch, too.

A lovely Piedmont Barolo for lunch…  The bread was very fresh!

 

Our server spoke excellent English and offered us a menu in German or English.  I told her either was fine, so she gave us an English menu.  I noticed there were weekly specials available, a set menu, and a la carte items, as well as a very extensive wine list.  Bill and I both decided to order a la carte.

It had just started snowing when we sat down.  One of Cube’s biggest draws, besides the very creatively prepared food, is the tremendous view of the Schlossplatz in Stuttgart.

 

I was really enjoying the smooth jazz music piped into the airy dining room.  It might have been turned up a bit loud for some tastes, but they were playing some pretty good songs.  I even heard interesting jazz remakes of songs by New Order and Hall and Oates (which may date me a bit).

Bill checks out the wine list.  He selected a nice bottle from the Piedmont region of Italy.

And a good sniff…

 

I was intrigued by the spicy Thai soup which came with lemongrass, chicken, ginger, and snowpeas.  Unfortunately, the menu did not mention that it was garnished with mushrooms, which I cannot eat.  Bill had ordered the soup of the day, which was white bean.  We traded starters.  He ate the Thai soup, which he said was very good, but slightly hard to manage because of the large and very fresh snowpeas.  I enjoyed the creamy white bean soup, which was very velvety and smooth and appeared to be garnished with wilted violet petals.

This is the bean soup, priced at about 6 euros.  I thought I got a shot of the Thai soup, but I’m not finding it on my phone.  Pity, because it was almost ten euros.

Cube offers a lot of nice looking salads and we saw several pass us on the way to other diners.  Bill and I went for heartier fare.

My duck leg, served with red cabbage, potato pancakes, and bilberry sauce.  The bilberry sauce was interesting.  It was kind of like a cross between blueberries and cranberries.  I really liked the potato pancakes.  The duck was so tender it was falling off the bone, although it was a bit rich.

Bill had the beef stroganoff, which seemed to have a Swabian flair with spaetzle, pickles, and beet.  There was a dollop of cream on top.  The beef was very tender and expertly cooked.  I even tried some myself, since there were no mushrooms in it.  

The whole time we were dining, the server maintained control of our wine, keeping it at the bar behind us and attentively pouring it.  Toward the end of our lunch, she got busy and we had to remind her to let us finish!  I’ll say one thing for Cube.  It’s good to go there if you have plenty of time to enjoy your meal.  We spent well over 90 minutes having lunch, although we had three courses and wine.

I had wanted the chocolate creme brulee, but they were out of it.  So I settled for the “lukewarm chocolate cake with berries”.  Bill said, “I bet it’s a lava cake.”  He turned out to be pretty much correct.  It was a nice dessert, though.  Beautifully presented and tasty… even if I don’t love lava cakes.

Bill went with fig ice cream with plums.

 

Total damage for our lunch was 110 euros before the tip.  Cube offers free WiFi for smartphones and tablets, but they ask patrons not to use laptops in the restaurant.  All in all, we had a very nice lunch at Cube, although I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly intimate place to dine.  The dining room is very open.  I liked that the tables were not very close together, though.

I wouldn’t mind going back to Cube for dinner sometime.  The food is very good and the service is quite competent.  Now I want to try Cube’s sister restaurants, like Pier 51.  Word to the wise.  I have read that Cube is not air conditioned, so it may be best to plan you visit when the weather is cooler.

After lunch, we headed back to the parking garage by way of this awesome food store called Feinkost Böhm.  As God is my witness, I had never seen this place before, despite my many trips to downtown Stuttgart over the past year.

This place is a haven for upscale food shoppers and sushi lovers…

You could have a ball in here, as long as you bring plenty of cash.

They have mushroom butter and lemon butter…

And lots of milks…

Chocolate of all sorts…

And a very impressive (and expensive) wine selection, complete with someone there to help you pick something out. 

Got cheese?

And coffee, although they didn’t have my precious Peet’s…  😉

Lots of fish, though it appeared to be mostly stuff you can easily find in Germany.  There’s also a sushi bar.

And you can even get Pepperidge Farm cookies, although you will pay much more for them than you would at the commissary.

Nice looking meats…

Oils, vinegars, and olives…

And a generous produce section.

 

Although I was a little tempted to pick up a few things, we didn’t end up buying anything today.  However, I can see us bringing some bags and doing a shopping run at some point in the future when we feel especially indulgent.  I’d like to try the sushi bar at the very least.  It’s been ages since I’ve had any.

We had a very nice afternoon in Stuttgart and will need to have another lunch date again sometime when we have the chance.