Review of [m]eatery Stuttgart

I was in Stuttgart for the Canstatter Volksfest, the local version of Munich’s Oktoberfest. I was recovering after inebriating myself on fine German culture the night before. If there was one thing that would make me feel better, it would be a fine steak. I decided to check out [m]eatery.

Despite my attempts to book in advance I ended  up with one of the few remaining spots at [m]eatery – at 9.30pm on a Sunday night. When we arrived the restaurant was surprisingly quiet. We were lead upstairs and seated in a large booth. We were passed impractically large menus and talked through the menu. The menu contained European steak (from Germany) as well as USDA beef.

A single steak gets you a choice of side, steak sauce and steak butter, which is generous compared to most steakhouses which would charge for each of those items. I understood the idea of the steak sauce (which I usually use for the sides, as I prefer the taste of pure unadulterated beefiness) but I wasn’t sure what to make of the steak butter.

We ordered four German grass fed 600gm bone in rib eye steaks. One blue, one rare, one medium rare and one medium.  The steaks are dry aged for at least 6 weeks and cooked at high temperatures in order to caramelise the steak juices. We also ordered sides including fries, corn on the cob. For the sauces we went for peppercorn, béarnaise and for the steak butter Café de Paris and Chili.

We inebriated ourselves on more German culture (this time the excellent Stuttgart Hofbrau beer) as we waited for the steaks. Within 20 minutes the steaks came. The steaks were cooked as ordered. They were large steaks but initially, as I cut into the steak and tasted it I was not struck with a strong taste of beef (bear in mind I had recently completed by Steak Tour of San Sebastian which has very strong tasting steak). However as I got further into the steak it improved dramatically.

Having eaten my steak and carved as much flesh off the bone as I thought possible, I stared into the meat. I wanted more. To hell with it I thought, I picked up the bone and gnawed at it. Having accomplished as much as I could with my teeth, I started breaking off ligaments until I had extracted every fibre of flesh from the bone. I grinned, with fibres of meat stuck between my teeth. I felt dirty, primal and like some sort of Neanderthal king. This is how meat should be eaten. I could picture my primitive ancestors beaming with pride at my abandonment of basic social grace and oppressing instruments (knife and fork) of the bourgeois.

The sides themselves (corn and fries) were great, but I have little to say for the (steak) butter and sauce. The butter and sauces only seem necessary if the steak itself has little taste. In all, [m]eatery was an excellent addition to our cultural tour of southern Germany.