where jess ate

Our very first dinner on our recent France trip was at a restaurant in Strasbourg called S’kaechele, a traditional winstub serving up delicious Alsatian cuisine. As a city that borders Germany, you can definitely see the German influence on the city’s beautiful architecture and food.

After an afternoon of exploring the city, we had dinner at S’kaechele which is tucked away on a small and narrow street just off of a major street (Grand Rue). It’s a very small restaurant which seats maybe 25-30 people max and has a very rustic and cozy atmosphere. I recommend making a reservation since it can get pretty busy. They take reservations via email which makes it easy for tourists like us.

Upon entering the restaurant, we immediately felt welcomed. The restaurant is run by a husband and wife team – the husband as the cook and the wife as hostess/server. The wife was adorable and while she didn’t speak a ton of English, it was definitely enough to get by. If you don’t know any French at all, they’d be more than happy to provide you with an English menu.

On their menu, you’ll find many Alsatian specialties including bibeleskas (white cheese served on potatoes), baeckoffe (a lamb, beef and pork stew), pork knuckle and choucroute. The portions here are quite generous so keep this in mind when ordering. We each ordered an appetizer and entrée and had difficulty finishing our enormous entrees.

I started off with the Escargots S’kaechele au Roquefort (7€). I ordered the half portion which comes with 6 escargot but you can get 12 for 14€. I was a little worried about the roquefort since I’m not a huge fan of blue cheese but the flavour was quite mild and it turned out to be one of the best escargots I’ve eaten.

The escargots were tender and the cheesy butter was incredible. We were given some bread with our meal and I made sure every bit of butter was gone before my plate was taken away.

Mike ordered the Soup à l’oignon – with a Munster crouton(5.50€). Unlike the onion soup that we’re used to, this one was lacking the melty cheese on top. Instead the cheese came on a crouton which was served on the side.

I’ve never had Munster cheese before and was happy that it came with the soup since it’s an Alsatian specialty. It had a strong smell but was absolutely delicious. It’s a softer cheese and dipping it in the soup with the crouton would melt it to give you that creamy brie-like texture.

The broth itself was equally delicious. It had a deep onion flavour and wasn’t the overly salty broth you get all too often in North America.

For my main, I ordered the Pork Hock – braised in pinot noir with fried potatoes and a green salad (14.60€). I felt that the meat could’ve been a little more tender and flavour-wise, the sauce was fine but nothing particularly memorable. It wasn’t a bad pork hock but having visited Germany a few years ago, I’ve definitely had much better.

On the plus side, it was served with a side of damn good fried potatoes. I couldn’t stop eating them even though I was stuffed to the brim!

Mike ordered the Choucroute – sauerkraut with two kinds of sausage, smoked and salted bacon and boiled potatoes (15.60€). It’s a very plain looking dish that doesn’t exactly scream “flavour” but after a taste of the dish, we found that it was quite the opposite. We enjoyed each component! The bacon (which was really pork belly) was cooked wonderfully and the tartness of the sauerkraut helped to cut the richness of it all.

Like I said, the portions here are very generous. All the meat was sitting on top of a heaping pile of sauerkraut. After our appetizers, we only managed to eat about half of each entrée. Needless to say, we couldn’t go through with dessert!

While we weren’t in love with the pork hock, everything else was a bit hit for us including the warm and welcoming service. It was a great way to kick off our two week vacation in France!

At a glance:
• Located in Strasbourg’s historic city center
• Rustic and cozy winstub serving Alsatian cuisine
• Small space (seats no more than 25-30 people)
• Reservations recommended (taken by phone and email)
• Warm and welcoming atmosphere as the restaurant is run by a husband/wife team
• Favourite dishes: escargot and choucroute

Ratings (out of 5):
• Food: 4 stars
• Service: 5 stars
• Atmosphere: 4 stars