Sattelei

Sattelei opened in 2005 and is the casual sister restaurant of Bareiss, the three star Michelin establishment nearby on floor of the Black Forest valley. Sattelei is up on one of the slopes of the valley, nestled amongst the pines trees of the forest, in a gorgeous natural setting. We had a lunch here and sat outside, where you can smell the scent of pine in the remarkably fresh air that this lovely part of the world is blessed with.  

The menu arrives on a block of wood, and features hearty local specialties like Swabian beef stew with spaetzle. We tried an Alsatian tarte flambee with bacon and onions. This is a dish that, contrary to what its name suggests, is not flambeed. Instead it is a sort of local take on pizza (or at least flatbread), with dough rolled out very thinly, covered in fromage blanc and toppings and then cooked in a woodfired oven. The version here was superb, as delicate as you could wish, the toppings excellent. Even my companion, who is writing a book on pizza, was dazzled (15/20). Also excellent was Swabian pork with sauerkraut and mustard. The port had deep flavour but the star was the sauerkraut, which was fantastic, not too sour and with lovely texture: it was light years away from the sauerkraut of school canteens that put a generation of children off the dish (15/20). Even the sourdough bread on the side was excellent.

Dessert sadly did not quite live up to the savoury dishes. Black Forest gateau was very pleasant, the classic combination of chocolate, cherries and cream, but this dessert lives or dies on the quality of the cherries and chocolate. In truth, they were pleasant but no more than that (13/20). Apple strudel was also enjoyable, but had slightly soggy pastry and could have had a bit more sharpness from the apples, though the vanilla ice cream with it was excellent (13/20).

Service was our waitress Lisa was very good, and the bill came to €17 (£15) with just water to drink plus a slightly rough coffee.  If you ordered three courses and drank some wine (there were a few by the glass) then a typical cost per head might creep up to £30 or so, but this is still not much when you consider the quality of the savoury dishes that we tried. I will definitely return here when I am next in the area. If you are lucky with the weather and can sit outside on a summer day amongst the trees then you are in for a treat here.