Winzerstube Ihringen

“On the edge of the vineyards”

We started with a lack of foresight – late September is grape harvest season and hotels are very busy. After stopping at a few hotels we were getting desperate, the TI was closed, and this hotel had a room available. The room was fine, nothing special, had lots of windows and a door to the deck w… more

We started with a lack of foresight – late September is grape harvest season and hotels are very busy. After stopping at a few hotels we were getting desperate, the TI was closed, and this hotel had a room available. The room was fine, nothing special, had lots of windows and a door to the deck where we enjoyed our wine and vegetables. A walk in the vineyards was a few steps away and the smell of ripe grapes hung in the air. The location was nice and the road at the front was not too busy. There was good space in the room and an effective desk and comfortable chairs. No mini fridge or kettle but they provided us a wine cooler when we asked. The bathroom fan was a bit noisy. Staff English was limited but we got along fine and they were all smiles and tried their best without resorting to rattling off more words than I could understand. Breakfast was a bit mixed – it was not very well maintained but was refilled with a reasonable selection. The food was good and we had some fruits that we had not seen previously in our trip (blueberries, grapes, red currants). They provide a free small bottle of wine on departure which was worth about what we paid, but a nice gesture for the train.

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“Pleasant enough, but 4 Stars?”

The hotel is very well situated in the town, but just far enough off the main road for the rooms to be quiet. Plenty of dedicated car parking outside.We were in the original building, so cannot comment on the new (much more expensive) block next door. Four flights of stairs (no lift) took us up to… more

The hotel is very well situated in the town, but just far enough off the main road for the rooms to be quiet. Plenty of dedicated car parking outside.We were in the original building, so cannot comment on the new (much more expensive) block next door. Four flights of stairs (no lift) took us up to our room on the top floor. Very clean, spacious, nice big bathroom but rather hot. No air con and opening the windows gave the unending roar from the kitchen ventilator system. (I imagine rooms at the front, although overlooking the road, might be better.) Disappointed to find that the very stylish coffee maker produced only a "shot" amount of undrinkably strong espresso, although I guess some coffee addicts might like it. Staff were all very friendly, but they all looked a bit unsure of what was going on. We were told that the new owners had only recently taken over, so that might explain it. Certainly the restaurant was having problems. The menu was very limited and was certainly not we expected for a 4 star. We then waited 1 hour 20 minutes for our meal to arrive, and it was a very poor affair; poorly cooked very cheap asparagus, lousy hollandaise sauce, a quite nice schnitzel served bare on a plate with a thin slice of lemon. We imagined that the chef must have resigned and one of the kitchen porters had been pressed into service. There were only about 15 other diners, so it was not down to pressure of numbers. Just one waitress was doing a lot of running around and apologising. In fairness, they did knock quite a good bit off our bill, but the whole thing was rather expensive for what we had.

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