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This last week has seen me do a little tour to Germany, where I managed to try out a couple of nice new places in random little towns for my Tasteem reviews! Ahhhh.. the benefits of a travelling musician do include trying out places to eat all over the world, however it can be a bit of a lottery as to whether or not the food will end up being good, as we are generally relying on Google or other internet resources to find reviews rather than having some good local advice.

Recently, the great advantage of local advice over online reviews was made more than abundantly clear to me on a trip to Ireland. We ate at some really amazingly good places, however, I didn’t end up taking any photos (thus, no Tasteem reviews) as I was too embarrassed to be doing that in the presence of new colleagues and new company!

Anyway, back on point, this is a review of a small little restaurant (Cumsalis) that was a little off the main tourist drag of a small town (Kevelaer) in Germany, very close to the Dutch-German border.

The Space

The entrance way is a small little alleyway that is easy to miss on the main shopping street of Kevelaer. The only hint that there is restaurant down the alley is the little display of wine bottles and a menu board at the beginning of the alley. I'm not sure what is going on, but the street address is not quite the place where the actual tables and courtyard is (the street address is on the main street, whilst the tables are in a little alleyway, anyway, I have dropped a pin in the correct place on the SteemitWorldMap).

When you walk down the alley, you can see that it opens out into a nice little courtyard which is completely dominated by the restaurant seating. This photo was taken in the day time, as we had just dropped in to book a table for the evening, after the concert was finished. The owner was incredibly kind and offered to keep the kitchen open a little longer so that we would be able to eat. Not sure how the cook staff felt about that though…

Returning back to the alleyway after the concert, we were greeted with a very different atmosphere. It was completely full (except for our reserved table), and so it appears that we did make a good choice.

The inside was quite nice and cosy, however the evening was still warm and the weather was lovely (even at 9pm in the middle of October….) and so pretty much all the patrons were outside enjoying the fresh air. The sheltered nature of the courtyard also meant that it was well shielded from wind as well, so more than enough reasons to stay outside, at least on this warm autumn evening!

The Menu

A soup and salad menu for people who are into that sort of thing. A nice selection, but no one ordered this, so I can’t say much for how it was!

Fammkuchen is the German equivalent of pizza. Normally I really enjoy this as a meal or a snack, but I was here for a real German meal, a warm hearty dinner rather than a thin crusted pizza. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great meal, but just not what I wanted that evening!

The specials of the week, these all did sound quite intriguing. Often I will try and order from the specials board, unless there is something in the menu that really catches my eye.

The main menu, featuring the usual pork centred German meals but also a lot of calf meat. Not sure why, perhaps we were in a region that had more cows rather than pigs?

The Food

Firstly, apologies for the dark photos. I forgot to set my flash on, and so I only have these low light photos of the food.

This was the dish from my colleague, who had ordered the Calf’s cheek dish. I found that it was quite a nice meal (I was a allowed a taste), but it wasn’t too hot for some reason. Perhaps it had been standing a bit too long whilst all the meals were being prepared, or perhaps the cook staff were pissed off at having to stay longer…

Okay, here was a lesson to be learnt for me…. I can read German well enough, but out of laziness I took the order from the English menu. I was expecting (from the translated menu) some sort of pork meat, but instead got calf liver. When I went back to look at the English menu and compared against the German menu, it was clear that the translation was at best terrible. In fact, after the dinner, one of our colleagues stayed behind to help them correct the English menu.

Anyway, the liver was fine and quite nice… just that a whole plate of it can get to be a bit too much!

The Experience

All in all, the wait staff and the owner were really lovely and kind, and the beer was great! The setting of the outdoor seating was also perfect, especially on a warm autumn evening, with the enclosed area providing great shelter from the wind.

However, the food was a little on the average side (and a touch small), and most importantly, the English menus were terrible translations. If you are going to eat here, read from the German menu!