Bak Kwa in Rolled Up Goodness: Bratwursthäusle bei St. Sebald

Part of our Germany tour included a full day at Nuremberg. The itinerary was simple: Check in to hotel, tour the city castle, get our lunch and dinner fixed, visit the Christmas market after dark, shop at Steiff shop. (p/s: This was done in about 9 hours)

Having made the trip up from Munich early in the morning, the first thing we wanted to do was to relieve our lunch hunger pangs, at one of the Tripadvisor-advised eating place near the castle: Hausbrauerei Altstadthof.

Been There, Done That For Hausbrauerei Altstadthof

Since it was located in the old town, Hausbrauerei Altstadthof was a walking distance from the nearest subway station (Friedrich-Ebert-Platz), but since it was on the way to the castle, why not?

|| Read Tripadvisor review of Hausbrauerei Altstadthof HERE. ||

It was a small, typical German establishment, only manned by a server at the bar during lunch time. This meant 2 things: hard to get seats and hard to get food. While I respected her multi-tasking capabilities, the whole set up did not gel in to our schedule.

I mean, first, we had to wait for her to come to us to take our order for beer, which she would then proceed to serve, after fulfilling a whole list of other orders, but mainly because she had to manage the bubbling of the beer (and I found her method of dispensing the beer doing great injustice to the beer).

We could not place our food order despite being served our beer. I noticed that an old couple placed their food order after we settled down, and they had not received their food even after our long wait for our beer.

Our intention was to be in and out of the place in half an hour, and that pace of serving was not in sync with our schedule.

So we cut short our stay and my word is: Visit only if you had plenty of time to spare.

Touring Nuremberg Castle on Empty Stomach…

We toured the castle with beer in our empty stomachs, which also naturally made us very salty visitors. That became the castle we completed visiting in the shortest time. Read more about my Nuremberg Castle tour in my other post.

A street from the entrance / exit of the castle grounds led us directly to the Nuremberg Christmas Market. However, Bratwursthäusle bei St. Sebald (BBSS) was coincidentally (I didn’t check the map well enough because we only intended to have dinner at the Christmas market) along the way!

We were famished from the disappointment of Hausbrauerei, and we wondered aloud whether we could survive the trip downhill (did I mention the castle was on the hill??) to the Christmas market. And since this was also a Tripadvisor recommended restaurant, we thought we should at least go and take a look.

Well well…

There’s No Other Sausage I Will Love More at Bratwursthäusle

The moment we stepped into Bratwursthäusle bei St. Sebald, the aroma of something familiar hit us: BAK KWA!

Perhaps we were too hungry, or perhaps it really smelled of home. We were so eager, we were worried we could not be admitted. Yes, despite the quiet outlook, the restaurant was bustling behind closed doors! We had to be led to share a table with another family, where we tried to decipher the German menu (just kidding! As usual, we asked for English menus the first thing we sat down).

|| Read Tripadvisor review of Bratwursthäusle bei St. Sebald HERE. ||

The place specialises in their Nuremberg sausages, which were German sausages albeit smaller. The source of the aroma was from the grilling process. Yep, the bratwurst I ate in Munich were just… pan fried (I guess). Nuremberg sausages were grilled with chao tar goodness all over the shaft!

Fun Fact: Do you know that Nuremberg sausages weigh exactly 23g? Trust to Germans to be so precise!

The sausages were sold in sets of 6, 8, 10 or 12, along with a side dish (option of saurkraut, potato salad or horseradish). We weren’t feeling adventurous, and we wanted to save our stomachs for the food hunt in the Christmas market later, so we ordered a set of 12 sausages to share, coupled with saurkraut.

Yumz!

Though it smelled like bak kwa, it tasted nowhere like bak kwa. It also didn’t have that heavy taste of preservatives that most bratwurst I ate had. There wasn’t also that weird, hard, plastic covering that most bratwurst had also, which made me enjoy the sausages thoroughly.

I would say, among the food I had in my Bavaria trip, Nuremberg sausage is my Number One fave! And I shall call it Bakwurst in Singlish!

Homely Setting in Bratwursthäusle

The place seemed cramped, but I would call it cosy (what with that crazy coldness out there!). The earthy design had no shortage of sunshine, thanks to the large windows. The focus of the restaurant was the kitchen in the middle of the hall, where the handsome Germans worked their magic on their sausages, a shout out to Din Tai Fung chefs kneading their balls of Xiao Long Bao.

Almost everyone ordered the sausages; and the servers would place a basket of bread at the table. It went by an honour system, where you declare how many pieces of bread you ate at the point of paying.

Like I mentioned, we wanted to save our stomach for the yummies later (and thank goodness we did!), so we gave the low-worthy carbs a miss.

Around Nuremberg’s Old City

Athough our trip centred around the world renowned Nuremberg Christmas Market and the stoic Imperial Nuremberg Castle, the city, both the old and modern parts, offered superb views for the avaerage traveller.

Compared to Munich and Salzburg, though, Nuremberg is more hilly. Getting in between streets involved strolling up and down slopes, which could quickly wear one down. Therefore, it is best to travel light when touring the city and wear comfortable walking shoes. Plan for plenty of stops too, as it gets easy to over walk when one is bombarded by the beautiful sights!

Of course, there was more to share about our trip to Nuremberg, but to keep this post focused, I have left the remainder of the Nuremberg trip to the next post. Alternatively, you can find inspiration on your next trip to Germany / Munich / Nuremberg / Bavaria in my other posts too.

Till then, stay wanderlust and hungry!

How To Get to Bratwursthäusle

Bratwursthäusle Werner Behringer GmbH

Rathausplatz 1, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany
+49 911 227695
bratwursthaeusle.de

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Hausbrauerei Altstadthof

Bergstraße 19, 90403 Nürnberg, Germany
hausbrauerei-altstadthof.de
+49 911 23602731

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Like My Review

If you find the tips helpful in deciding whether to visit this restaurant, or what to do when you come here, do go to Tripadvisor, search for “Zenov” and like my review.

Or, if you are planning for a trip to Bavaria this coming winter, follow my blog, as I will post more about my adventures in Bavaria, and tips on getting the best out of your vacation!

Till then, stay wanderlust!