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| Das Kaffeehaus |
Das Kaffeehaus
9 Walker Street
Castlemaine, VIC 3450
Ph: (03) 5470-6270
When we visited Castlemaine earlier this year, the highlight for me was Das Kaffeehaus, a Viennese coffee house and coffee roastery in The Mill.
Sandra and I get really excited whenever a German, Austrian or Swiss food place opens up here, but often we're disappointed. I've found that here they tend to be inauthentic like the Kaffeehaus Vienna pop-up at the NGV, or have a really touristy focus on big Bavarian dishes, like huge pork knuckles with litre steins of beer, wait staff dressed in kitschy Lederhosen and Dirndls, and loud oompah music. (I love all that stuff too, but it's just such a small part of a great food culture across Germany and the various German-speaking countries!) And on a side note - I totally miss Muttis!
However, we were certainly not disappointed with Das Kaffeehaus - it was awesome! We came here for lunch on our first day, and loved it so much that we came back again the next day. The below photos are from both our visits.
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| Der Struwwelpeter |
Sandra hasn't actually been to Austria yet (I'm hoping we'll rectify that the next time we visit her family in Germany), but I visited once, whilst travelling through Europe with my friend Clarice eleven (!) years ago. We spent two wonderful days in Vienna - essentially a 2-day orgy of teahouses, schnitzels and sausages. Since then I've always had a soft spot for Viennese cakes and coffee.
The Austrian owners of Das Kaffeehaus have decked out the space like a Viennese teahouse, with marble tables, gold banquettes, a fabulous chandelier, and lots of Austrian (and German) decorations.
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| Das Kaffeehaus |
There's also gift shop on site, selling coffee accessories and cute little Viennese souvenirs.
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| Viennese souvenirs |
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| Viennese and Castlemaine treats |
I nearly squealed when I saw these Kaffeehaus rings. Wie süß!
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| Cute Viennese food rings |
Here's the specials menu:
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| Das Kaffeehaus Specials Menu |
You may remember I tried Rüdesheimer Kaffee when I visited Rüdesheim am Rhein a few years ago, and I was super excited to see it on the specials menu here. (That's flambéed Asbach rum with sugar, coffee and whipped cream). If I hadn't been driving I would have ordered one for sure. They even had the proper Rüdesheim coffee cups.
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| The fridge |
I was most excited about the lovely cake display. They have lots of great things - the times that we visited there was: orange and poppyseed cake, coffee and almond syrup cake, Linzertorte, apple and custard tart, marble Gugelhupf, quark pastries, apple strudel, and most thrillingly - Topfenstrudel! (Topfen is similar to cream cheese, and I fell in love with topfen-based cakes in Vienna. It's so rare to find them here!)
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| Cake display |
Hehe, even the leather-bound menus reminded me of Germany!
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| Das Kaffeehaus Menu |
Austrian Almdudler for Sandra! This is the second most popular soft drink in Austria, only behind Coca Cola, with a herbal flavour. (It's also popular in Germany, which is why Sandra loves it!)
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| Almdudler |
As I mentioned above, Das Kaffeehaus is also a coffee roastery (AKA Coffee Basics), and I'm told they do the best coffee in Castlemaine. So I suppose a latte or a flat white would have been the obvious choice. However, on both our visits, I couldn't go past their Viennese-style coffees, piled high with whipped cream. They've got a big range of Viennese coffees, both with and without alcohol.
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| Coffee! |
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| Wiener Melange - coffee! |
Ok, so food! They do a great range of simple (and not so simple) lunches. We shared a serve of Wienerle (Frankfurter sausages) with bread, sauerkraut, red cabbage and mustards; a bowl of goulash with a bread dumpling; and soup with semolina dumplings.
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| Lunch |
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| Frankfurters with Sauerkraut, red cabbage, mustard, horseradish and bread |
Yay, sausages! They have a few different sausages on offer, but I went for the simple and delicious frankfurters. They also do some cold-cut platters which I think would be well worth trying, but on this occasion I felt like something warm. (Next time, next time).
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| Gulaschsuppe mit Semmelknödel (Gulash soup with bread dumpling) |
I love Gulaschsuppe (and see this post from our 2011 trip to Germany when we made a giant cauldron of it in the backyard). Das Kaffeehaus' version was great, all rich and flavoursome, with super tender meat. The bread dumpling was also impressive - it looked to be hand made, and had a nice soft texture.
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| Grießklößchensuppe - Soup with semolina dumplings & a Kaiser roll |
This type of simple soup is so rare to find here, but it's so good! This was a clear beef broth with semolina dumplings floating in it. (Check out my previous post with a recipe for semolina dumplings, AKA Grießklößchen). Sandra loved the soup it so much that she ordered the exact same thing when we came back the next day.
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| Topfenstrudel - cream cheese strudel |
Of course, I had to have a slice of Topfenstrudel. I've heard good things about their Apfelstrudel too, but I couldn't eat more than one Stück, so Topfenstrudel it had to be. This was just perfect! Crisp pastry, rich cream cheese filling, just the right amount of sweetness. Highly recommend.
Clearly, I loved Das Kaffeehaus, and it was definitely the culinary highlight of our trip to Castlemaine. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, which I thought was fun and authentic without being OTT kitschy, and the waitstaff were all really lovely, patiently answering my questions about the menu and putting up with my general crazy-eyed excitement at all the Austrian and German goodies.
Even though we visited as part of a weekend away, given that it's only a ninety minute drive to Castlemaine from Melbourne, I reckon it's totally doable as a daytrip. Who's in?
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1 comments
This is perfect fare for the current weather Sarah! Hehe it's been years since I drank Almdudler!
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