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The Essential Guide to Bath
07 January 2009
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Strudel Bar

Venue Image
Venue Image
Hansel und Gretel Shop,
9 Margarets Buildings ,
Brock Street,
Bath,
BA1 2LP

(01225) 464677 

The ViewBath Review

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Review byTacita Vero'30/07/2008
Strudel Bar serves bucket loads of sweetness, from their traditional Tyrolean cakes to their cute cuckoo clocks. After overloading on this much sugar you will, like Julie Andrews, start to believe the hills are alive.

The Venue
The Strudel Bar is housed below Bath's Hansel and Gretel shop. It's cosy without feeling claustrophobic. Walls are either exposed York Stone or plain cream. Wooden tables are covered with typically alpine fabrics and the benches are dotted with patterned pillows. Cuckoo clocks hang on the walls and every hour they put on a show. Painted beer mugs and other kitsch fill up the shelves. There's a lot going on here and the possibility for this idea to turn into sick-inducing schmaltz must have been high, but whoever created this managed to make it more Brothers Grimm than Walt Disney.

The People
The Alpine theme is strictly observed and a small TV shows images of the Black Forest, the mountainous part of Austria and Switzerland and plenty of yodeling. Traditional mountain songs make up most of the soundtrack and after a time it can get slightly boring. Its novelty value lasts about as long as it takes to have a slice of strudel and a hot chocolate so it shouldn't be too annoying.

Dozens of games cover the tables but they're less straightforward than they first appear so expect to rack your brains trying to find a place for that wooden block to complete the cube. Fun for children and adults alike, playing with these may force you to stay at Strudel Bar a lot longer than expected. Yodelahehoo.

The Food
Housefraus all over Austria would be proud of the dishes on offer at the Strudel Bar. Traditional homemade strudel is, obviously, their main dish. If you haven't tried this typical Tyrolean cake, it's a fruit medley wrapped in sugary filo pastry that's somehow gooey and flaky and very bad for your figure. Strudel Bar serves up Alpen Strudel, filled with apples and cinnamon, and sweet Kirsch Strudel, filled with cherries and apple, and all their strudels cost £3.85. Alternatively, go for one of their delicious Kuchen (cakes) such as the Viennese Sachertorte or the Mohn-Streusel Bteck-Kucken, a poppyseed streusel sheet cake.

The Drink
In summer, they serve up the sinful Mont Blanc, a cold chocolate ice drink with a hint of cherries, topped with ice cream and sprinkled with chocolate, or there are iced coffees such as Mountain Yodel which is topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sprinkles. Prices go from £2.40 to £2.85. To warm up in the winter, order one of their hot chocolates. A regular costs £1.95, or for £2.20 to £2.40 you can order something special like the Hansey, an orange hot chocolate with cream, or the Johann which is cherry chocolate with cream and chocolate shavings. There is also the Gerda which is white hot chocolate with cream and white chocolate shavings, and the Wolfgang hot chocolate with a shot of espresso.

The coffees are almost as appealing and they serve all the usual suspects from £1.70 to £1.90 and many twisted versions from £1.95 to £2.40. For something different, try the Ludwig, a cinnamon cappuccino topped with cinnamon dust, or the Fritz, a vanilla cappuccino with vanilla sugar dusting, or the rich Moritz which is cappuccino with a shot of hot chocolate, chocolate shavings, and chocolate fudge flavour.

The Last Word
Like Hansel and Gretel, you'll feel you've stumble across a haven of yumminess once you've found the Strudel Bar.
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