Di Simo and Würzhaus in Nürnberg

I finally made it back to Nürnberg, one of my three hometowns, at the end of February. As usual, my mom's question when I arrived was where I wanted to go out for dinner. I convinced her to try Würzhaus, as we'd thought about going there many times before but somehow never made it. The name of the restaurant literally translated as "house of seasoning" is a play on words as it sounds similar to "Wirtshaus", which is another word for a traditional-style restaurant.  

I'm glad we tried the restaurant because (except for the dessert) it was really good. We started off with a small appetizer on the house which was cubed fish mousse topped with pumpernickel crumbs. Then we got our appetizers. I had warm goat's cheese with olives and toasts. My mom had the mushroom trio, which was a soup, salad and croquette. For the main dish I ordered fried turbot on a creamed onion sauce topped with poppyseed and a dash of pomegranate sauce and my mom had walnut ravioli with fried Belgian endive and Roquefort. All of those dishes were very good and were rather unusual combinations of flavors and textures, which went together beautifully. Unfortunately the dessert I chose was not to my liking. It was called "nougat meets peanut and banana". Nougat in Germany is like gianduia, a mix of chocolate and roasted hazelnuts. I thought the combination of nougat, peanuts and banana sounded great. It ended up being a mousse-like layered dessert made with the nougat and peanuts accompanied by banana sorbet. The sorbet was refreshing but the nougat and peanut dessert disappointing as it lacked the flavor and depth I associate with nougat and peanuts. Nevertheless we'll be back as not only was the food good but the atmosphere in the restaurant was also really nice with a comfortable room temperature and sleek interior design.

The following two days we went downtown to browse the shops and stopped both days to get coffee at the tiny café Di Simo (Trempelmarkt 5-7). Although it's self-service and you often have to wait in line, the coffee is well worth it. My favorite is the latte macchiato which has the best foam I've ever had. The ratio of airiness and stiffness is just perfect. I never need Starbucks when visiting Nürnberg! The only thing missing at Di Simo is a delicious cake or pastry to go along with the coffee. I tried the cheesecake but it didn't quite cut it.