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The restaurant is now called "HEIMAT FOOD zur SCHWALBE". The article still refers to the previously located restaurant "Augustiner Schwalbe".
The Augustiner Schwalbe is located on Schwanthalerstrasse in Munich – not exactly centrally located and not very inviting from the outside. We found this place online because I was really craving a salad with goat cheese, and this restaurant offered exactly what I wanted. So we drove there and spent a while looking for a parking spot. After we entered – around 1:30 pm on Saturday – we discovered that we were the only guests in the small, quaint Bavarian restaurant with about 10-12 tables. A man reading a newspaper was sitting at the bar – the chef, who immediately asked us what we wanted to drink as soon as we chose an empty table. We sat down and were handed the menus by another friendly gentleman.
Before our arrival, we had made a reservation by phone, and the friendly gentleman on the other end of the line informed us that the restaurant "wasn't very full yet"—a slight exaggeration, as we discovered upon arrival. So, you definitely don't need to make a reservation.
The restaurant is very simple and understated: dark furniture, light wooden tables, a few Christmas decorations on the windowsills, a Bavarian hand-drawn sketch above the entrance, a short dark bar, beer steins on the tables, and subdued lighting. All in all, not uncomfortable, but also strange to be the only guest sitting in the dining area with my companion at lunchtime on a weekend.
The menu offers a good mix of dishes: appetizers, main courses, salads, soups, desserts, and of course, various drinks and beers. We opted for pumpkin soup with bread, but asked for it without whipped cream. Considering we were truly the only guests, the soup took longer than expected—about 15 minutes. But it was all the more delicious for it: very intense and robust in flavor, refined with pumpkin seed oil, and the portion was sufficient for two people as a starter. The accompanying bread was fresh, soft, and delicious.
For our main courses, we chose a salad with two pieces of sesame-crusted goat cheese and cordon bleu with fried potatoes. The food arrived about 15 minutes after our empty soup bowl was cleared from our table. The cordon bleu was very thin, and at first, we thought it was just a simple schnitzel. The fried potatoes were delicious, with small pieces of bacon and herbs. The meat, with its ham and cheese filling, was also tender, ample, and easy to digest. The salad was a very large portion. I couldn't even finish half of the goat cheese and ended up scraping off the far too salty and thick sesame crust, or rather, scraping the goat cheese out. Unfortunately, the cheese and the much too large pieces of lettuce with bean sprouts, bell pepper, tomato, and pearl barley were swimming in a very saucy, oily, and runny dressing. I couldn't finish the salad and left a lot. In the end, there was about 2 cm of saucy residue left on the plate – not very appetizing.
The staff was very friendly, but not very attentive, and overall it was a very quiet and uneventful restaurant visit. We paid €39 including tip at the Augustiner Schwalbe via card. The cordon bleu at €13.80 wasn't exactly cheap and was borderline overpriced. The salad at €10.80 was adequate given the portion size, but the presentation wasn't particularly appealing. The soup at €5.20 was reasonably priced, as it was truly delicious. We also paid €6.60 for two 0.5-liter drinks. All in all, there's not really anything to complain about at the Augustiner Schwalbe, but I probably wouldn't return for Bavarian cuisine. While the food was certainly tasty, the service friendly, and the price acceptable, it doesn't necessarily make me want to go back.
Place visited: Augustiner Schwalbe, or now HEIMAT FOOD
Address: Schwanthalerstraße 149, 80339 Munich
Website
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