Baden-Baden Restaurant

C says:

Thanks to the absolutely enticing photo of Baden’s pork knuckle on Travelling Hungryboy’s blog, our cravings for the pork knuckle at this German pub in Holland Village were reignited. We used to come here for the pork knuckle and sausages pretty often, but since we’ve discovered new places to eat, we’ve had to cut back on repeat visits to our old-favourites because there simply just isn’t enough time. So much to eat, so little time...

We tried coming here on Friday night but it was packed and we were turned away. So we made a reservation for Saturday night, and requested a table indoors.

On Saturday when we got there, we realised that they had set aside our table outdoors instead, because they were having a Halloween party indoors. Now, if we had been informed of the Halloween party on Friday and that we had to sit outside, I would’ve been okay with that. I was just a tad annoyed that when they took our reservation, they still happily asked us if we wanted our table inside or outside. If indoors wasn’t going to be available, then why offer in the first place?!

That dampened my mood slightly, but I felt a bit better when the food came. We ordered the mussels with cheese and garlic in white wine sauce, which was definitely heavy on the wine, but the mussels were slightly overcooked and rubbery. The huge pork knuckle arrived and as always, I carved off the crispy crackling before it had a chance to get soggy in the light yet flavourful gravy. The crackling is delicious, and it took quite a lot of will power for me not to finish all of it.

The pork was tender, but somehow I think the standard has dropped since the days that we used to have it regularly. Back then, the meat was meltingly tender and you didn’t even need a knife for it to just fall off the bone. On Saturday, while it definitely wasn’t dry or tough, it still required some considerable carving to get the meat out, and the meat wasn’t as juicy and flavourful as before.

Still, I don’t think I’ll go anywhere else in Singapore whenever I have pork knuckle cravings. We tried the one at Stammtisch near Sixth Avenue once, a long time ago, and weren’t at all impressed. The meat was hard and dry, and the crackling was no where near Baden’s.

Of course, no pork knuckle meal is complete without a beer of some sort, and A and I always have the same thing here – a Radler, which is an incredibly wussy drink; a high-end version of shandy. It’s their German beer with lemonade and it’s wonderfully thirst-quenching and a perfect accompaniment to all the meat.

Happy Oktoberfest, all!

A says:

Good pork knuckle. Mussels weren’t bad, but I think I’ll go for the deep fried cheese next time. This place is known for its sausages too so you might want to give those a try.

Other than that, the place is pretty cramped and the service is average. It’s still the best affordable place to get decent Deutsch-y food though.