At seven o’clock on Saturday night, Bill and I got dressed for our second gourmet dinner at Auberge au Boeuf. Having seen the menu on Friday night, I was a little nervous about what we would be having. Besides the tasting menu we had, there was also a truffle menu… and, well, I don’t do truffles. But I figured I’d find at least one item I hadn’t tried on Friday night that didn’t include the dreaded fungus.

Actually, I’m kind of glad we had two dinners at the restaurant. It gave us a chance to experience one of the other dining rooms. Saturday night was also a lot busier, with a very different crowd. There were a lot more French patrons on Saturday. Friday night, it seemed like there were more Germans.

We were waited on by the same trilingual waiter. He was a bit busier on Saturday night, so there were a couple of hiccups in the service. We ordered a beautiful bottle of Pommard to go with the a la carte items we chose. And, just as it’s been in all of the excellent restaurants we’ve visited, as well as a couple of crappy ones, our wine was “held hostage”. By this, I mean the wine was to be poured by our waiter or the sommelier. It was kept on a nearby mantle, within our line of sight.

I don’t mind having my wine poured by the wait staff, as long as they are attentive. Unfortunately, the waiter was so busy on Saturday night, we were left waiting to be recharged for several minutes. Finally, Bill discreetly made a move to get our wine, which was, again, next to our table and within sight. The waiter came over and stopped him, which I thought was kind of awkward. I mean, it was our wine… we paid over 90 euros for it. We don’t have broken hands. The waiter was clearly busy. He should have just let Bill pour the wine.

The second hiccup involved our water. We ordered a large bottle of sparkling water from Ribeauville. Somehow, a huge black fly found its way into the bottle, where we saw it doing the crawl. I stared at the bottle for several minutes before we were able to flag down the maitre d’ and ask her to take the bottle away. One would assume that in a situation like that, someone would bring us another bottle of water… or at least offer it. But no, I ended up having to ask our waiter, after we explained what had happened. I asked him for another, smaller bottle, for which we were probably charged.

As for the food, Bill and I both ordered one entree that we didn’t try on Friday. And we also had our favorite courses from Friday night, plus dessert. The meal came with the same hors d’oeuvres and amuse bouche we had on Friday night, as well as the fresh bread, sorbet, and candies at the end of the meal. Below are some photos from our second dinner. The food standard was, of course, outstanding.

When all was said and done, the total cost for Saturday night was about the same as it was on Friday night… roughly 300 euros. We don’t usually splurge that much on subsequent nights, but it had been so long since we’d last indulged in excellent food. If we visit Auberge au Boeuf again, we will make a point of trying Stammtisch.

Tomorrow, I will post about checking out and going home. See you then!