Gasthaus Revisted with great friends

Over the weekend I had the great honour of hosting a couple of my close Edmonton friends. The young couple were doing a tour of Canadian cities in anticipation of matching to a residency program in the country for their medical specialty of choice. Going through Winnipeg gave me a chance to show them the city, catch up with old friends and dine on some delicious food.

I had previously blogged about Gasthaus Gutenberger. There I raved about the wonderful lunch buffet. On a fine Sunday evening, we trekked over to Gasthaus to dine on their sit-down menu. I started out with a Krombacher Peach. I learned that the Krombacher brewery in Germany is one of the largest private breweries in the world. Having authentic German beer on tap made getting one an easy choice. A light beer with a hint of peach flavour, this was a refreshing way to start a meal.

My friend's girlfriend ordered the Krombacher Cherry. We were a bit polarized about this variant at the table. My friend thought it tasted like cough medicine, his girlfriend thought it a bit too sweet, and I thought it was perfect. Needtoless to say, despite the differing viewpoints, we all agreed that it was better than most Canadian brewery offerings we have here in Canada. And now off to the food.

Our orders started off with a soup of the day. Today's soup was a Cabbage Soup with German Meatballs. A tomato based broth served with boiled vegetables and huge heaping meatballs. All the flavours worked well with each other, with the fatty meatballs overcoming the tartness of the tomato broth.

Its not often I write about the bread that comes with your meal. Here at Gasthaus, they bake their own bread with ... bacon. At first we thought those red morsels injected into the bread were fruit, but we quickly picked up on the smokey fatty bacon flavour. Needtoless to say, this was lapped up very quickly.

A bit overwhelmed by the wealth of Schnitzel offerings, we decided to order the Schnizel Platter. Not realizing what we got ourselves into, our collective jaws dropped when we saw this massive heaping plate of food. Reserved only for a minimum order for three people, Gasthaus fills your tummies with (from the left, going clockwise):

Pork Schnitzel; Cauliflower and Asparagus; Veal Schnitzel; Candied Pears; German Potato Balls; Rice and Spatzle (in the middle)

We were impressed by the well breaded thin Schnitzel. Normally this is the dish that defines a German restaurant and Gasthaus nailed it out of the park. All the accompaniments were excellent with tender Spatzle and delightful potato balls being highlights.

Three sauces accompanied our meal: Hunter Style Mushroom Sauce; Gypsy Sauce with tomatoes and vegetables; Creamy Swiss Sauce. All three were excellent with the Schnitzel and starchy mains.

More vegetables on the side included: Sauerkraut with bacon; Red Cabbage; Mashed Potatoes. Altogether good but an afterthought compared to the main starches.

Overall, Gasthaus ranks highly on my list of Winnipeg restaurants. An incredible array of Schnitzels shows the skill and authenticity of this Bavarian establishment. Winnipeg should consider itself lucky to have access to such good European cuisine.