December 2023
Dining Review: Restaurant Gurtlerhoft – Strasbourg, France
French dining is some of our favorite meal experiences. In the Alsace region, this French cuisine looks familiar but is certainly in a category of its own. Due to its history of being under France, then Germany, then France, then Germany again, and now France – Alsatian food is Germany with a French twist but is squarely Alsatian most importantly. Dishes are hearty, large, and rich featuring meat but finished in a French flare with a sauce or foie gras.
Dinner tonight was reserved at Restaurant Gurtlerhoft for a traditional Alsatian meal. We wanted to make sure we properly experienced the cuisine in this region and this restaurant is described as just that.
The interior is super cool as it appears to be carved into a cave. There are multiple levels to facilitate utilizing all the space as this spot is popular and during the Christmas Market season, reservations are required. For our visit, it was pretty crowded so this was a bopping.
While it took a while for someone to take our order, once our orders were in the food arrived extremely fast.
- Escargot – Delightfully garlicky and buttery. They provided ample bread to dip and soak up all that liquid gold.
- Salad of raw veggies – We knew eating on this trip was going to generally be quite heavy so we wanted to fit in veggies when possible. Fresh, simple, and had a light dressing on it.
- Quenelles – We wanted a traditional dish and this was calling our name. These are liver meatballs – delicious and lighter than traditional meatballs. The quenelles were swimming in a savory sauce of reduced onions and mushrooms that was oh so good. That leftover escargot bread was used to get every last bit of sauce off the plate. This dish also came with a side of potatoes that were perfectly seasoned and had a nice crunch on the outside and soft on the inside.
- Chocolate mousse – Sometimes we are hit or miss on wanting dessert but since we ordered a reasonable amount of food, dessert was on the menu. We each ordered our own chocolate mousse and with the first bite, we were so happy we did – it was one of the best we have ever had. Somehow it accomplished having a super rich flavor but light and fluffy texture.
Overall, we were very happy with our meal at Restaurant Gurtlerhoft and while it could suffer from attracting tourist, I do not think it is a tourist trap based on the quality of food and our experience. If you are interested in trying Alsatian food, I would recommend Restaurant Gurtlerhoft.