Mathilda, a Wiesbaden, Germany, restaurant, has been serving food and drinks on Luisenplatz since 2003. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
A dinner last summer at a neighboring restaurant on Luisenplatz in downtown Wiesbaden led to the discovery of a place called Mathilda.
With tall glass windows and the glow of candlelight emanating from them, and the dark furniture inside, it looked quite cozy. After browsing through the menu, we put it on our list of restaurants to try.
Mathilda boasts on its website that it serves creative classics, fresh and newly interpreted. A restaurant review site calls it German-Italian cuisine, which we found to be rather accurate.
We ordered drinks — Mathilda offers a wide range of organic wines — and studied the menu. It is very manageable, with just over 20 items divided into starters, salads, entrees and desserts.
One of the starters at Mathilda in Wiesbaden, Germany, is the house bread served with butter and Frankfurter gruene sosse, or Frankfurt green sauce. It is made with borage, chervil, cress, parsley, salad burnet, sorrel, chives, hard-boiled eggs and sour cream. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
For starters, my wife chose the house bread served with butter and homemade Frankfurter gruene sosse, or Frankfurt green sauce, while I went with the bruschetta with marinated cherry tomatoes and goat cheese.
The bread was dark and crusty, speckled with various seeds. The green sauce, a specialty not only of Frankfurt but also much of Hesse, was smooth and tasty.
To earn its name, it must be made with at least seven herbs — usually borage, chervil, cress, parsley, salad burnet, sorrel and chives — which must be grown in or around Frankfurt.
My wife enjoyed the dish, especially the bread, but said she likes the chunkier version of the sauce from northern Hesse better.
Bruschetta with marinated cherry tomatoes and goat cheese as served at Mathilda in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Bruschetta with marinated cherry tomatoes and goat cheese, foreground, and the house bread served with butter and Frankfurter gruene sosse, are two of the starters at Mathilda in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
The bruschetta was, for my taste, perfect: three slices of fresh bread, covered with arugula and tomatoes, topped with firm but creamy goat cheese then drizzled with balsamic vinegar.
It was so good that I could have ordered another plate and skipped my main course.
The entree choices are a veritable mix of German classics, pasta and vegetarian dishes.
The green sauce made two more appearances on the menu, once with fried eggs and potatoes, and again topping a schnitzel.
The cordon bleu at Mathilda was stuffed with Italian taleggio cheese. There was also a dish that sounded interesting to me that contained Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, potatoes and Parmesan with bearnaise sauce.
Creamy pasta with smoked trout, peas and horseradish is one of the main courses at Mathilda in Wiesbaden. The menu has roughly 20 items. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
But I ended up choosing the pasta with smoked trout, peas and horseradish. My wife went with their version of Caesar salad, served with turkey breast, Parmesan cheese, croutons and a slice of crisp bacon.
I was glad I passed on a second plate of bruschetta. The linguine was delicious but perhaps a little dry. The al dente noodles seemed to have sucked up a lot of the cream, but the fish was not overcooked, and the bite of the horseradish was what really made the difference.
The Caesar salad at Mathilda in Wiesbaden, Germany, is served with turkey breast and a slice of crisp bacon. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
The Caesar salad was also scrumptious. The dressing was creamy, the turkey breast juicy, the bacon indeed crispy. The croutons were crunchy and tasted homemade. My wife said it was one of the best Caesars she’d ever had, at least in Germany.
There were only three dessert choices and one of them, apple strudel, was out, so my dinner companion took the ice cream and espresso and I tried the warm little chocolate cake.
A hot little chocolate cake with a liquid chocolate center served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream was a delightful capstone to dinner at Mathilda in Wiesbaden, Germany. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
A scoop of vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso is served in a champagne coupe at Mathilda in Wiesbaden, Germany. The espresso was poured over the ice cream by the server at the table. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Our server poured the espresso over the scoop of vanilla, which came in a champagne coupe. The hot, unsweetened espresso was smoothed out by the cold ice cream, making it a delicious comfort on a winter’s night.
The chocolate cake was little, as advertised, and came with a scoop of ice cream. Both it and its molten chocolate center were quite rich and enjoyable.
Our initial trip to Mathilda resulted in a satisfying dinner. That calls for an encore so we can sample other dishes and soak up the restaurant’s cozy atmosphere again.
The interior of Mathilda, a restaurant and wine bar in downtown Wiesbaden, Germany. Tall windows, soft lighting and the glow of candles give the place a relaxing atmosphere. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Mathilda
Address: Luisenplatz 2, Wiesbaden, Germany
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, noon-10 p.m.; the kitchen is open noon-2 p.m. and 6-9 p.m
Prices: Starters run from 7.50 euros to 21 euros; Main courses, including salads, are 15 euros to 34.50 euros. Wine and soft drinks start at 4 euros.
Information: Online: mathildas.de; the Luisenplatz parking garage is right underneath the square and the entrance is from the left lane.
