Schnitzelwirt Schmidt

Alter Schwede! This place was by far, the best value in terms of cost per gram of food served.

The place itself was kind of attractively gritty, in that upon entering, you knew immediately (apart from the name of the joint) that it was not in competition with Café Central. I went with the Garlic Schnitzel, Carolyn had the traditional Schnitzel Wiener Art, and Max went haute couture with his Pariser Schnitzel. Sarah’s was another order of magnitude cooler though, and she’ll tell you about it herself below. Alas, we have only our full-bellied memories of hers; we somehow neglected to photograph it for posterity.

Ok, Cliff covered everything above perfectly. Which allows me all kind of room to wax rhapsodic about my metric buttload of Schnitzel.

It was a Schnitzel Cordon Bleu – with ham and cheese. First off, the thing was hanging off both sides of the plate! and it was heavy, to boot. I know this because we ended up taking three quarters of it home and it turned into breakfast for me the following morning and lunch for both Cliff and I that afternoon!! A Schnitzel (for those who don’t know already) is a pounded cutlet of veal or pork (generally) that is then washed in egg and breaded and pan-fried. Because of this, it’s usually pretty thin – say half an inch cooked. This creature that I ordered was easily a little over an inch thick. Why? Because of the stack of ham – equal in thickness to the schnitzel itself – adorning it! The most important part, of course, is not its size or weight, but that it was delicious. So much so that I was able to keep eating it for the next two meals!

Here’s the most unbelievable part. Three of us had beers, we all ordered a full-size meal, we all took home leftovers and we spent less than 10€ per person!! In a city where everything seems a little expensive, if not blatantly overpriced, this place is a fantastic value.