Romantik Greifen-Post

We booked the hotel and restaurant together, so I'm reviewing both. The hotel deserves about four stars, while the restaurant gets two, which is why I landed on three overall. The small sauna and pool were nice. I used them, though they're not really my thing, so I won't go into detail. If you don't expect a large facility, you should be fine. The lift seems to be a concern, but we used it twice without trouble. The building has plenty of charm and character. It's old but lovingly updated and maintained. Age shows in all the squeaking, from the stairs to the beds. We could hear anyone on the landing outside our room, so I assume they could hear us too. The restaurant was the biggest letdown. We booked two nights, with a three course meal on the second evening. After seeing it listed in Michelin Bib Gourmand, we expected the best food of our trip. That turned out to be at Gasthaus Kulmbacher Eck in Schnelldorf, where we'd stopped for a quick meal the night before. One place had beautiful décor, the other amazing food. For a starter, we ordered Délice vom Matjes and were given a strip of filo pastry topped with red paste. Since the other option was Filoteig-Tartelette with beetroot, we asked the waitress if we'd received the wrong dish. She patronisingly insisted it was correct and said that at such a high class restaurant we shouldn't expect to recognise a dish from its description. It had a clear fishy taste, but we'll never know how it differed from the other starter. My Schäufele and Sauerkraut were both very dry. The sauce served with my meal clearly seemed to be the red pepper sauce meant for the Lammrucken, rather than the port based sauce described. It did help with the dry meat, though. The Lammrucken either came without sauce or was meant to share a tiny portion between us. The waitress had clearly given me the sauce with the Schäufele. The desserts were very poor. Granola with fruit and yogurt might have been fine for breakfast, though I'd have preferred fresh milk, but it was a strange, rather lazy dessert. My wife loves desserts and usually finishes even a halfway decent sweet, but she left her Knödel unfinished and didn't want my Müsli either. The same tasteless decorations were used on both the main and sweet dishes. If we hadn't read such high expectations beforehand, we might not have been as disappointed. It felt like a high class chef had left and someone else was doing their best to make the food look like it used to.

The sauna and pool were so relaxing and pristine, among the best small sauna areas I've visited in seven years of living in Europe. The owners had taken care of the little details. I'd recommend arriving early enough to enjoy them. We loved our Renaissance style room, with its beautiful four-poster bed, gorgeous decorations, attention to detail, and lovely flair. I preferred it to rooms at other four star hotels I've stayed in. It could feel too dark for some, though. If you'd rather have a brighter room, they also offer Romantic, Country house, or petty bourgeoisie styles. Breakfast was super delicious, with a huge selection of fresh and local items. There were three types of local honey, six homemade jams, homemade pickles, and German specialties like Weisswurst and Pretzels. Tea drinkers should enjoy the loose leaf selection, including three types of Darjeeling, and the water was kept boiling. There were plenty of timers to help make the best pot of tea. Dinner is worth having at the restaurant. As part of their Easter deal, we had a well chosen 4-course meal made with ingredients from local and organic farmers. The server knew the herbs and ingredients and made the meal very enjoyable. We had a wonderful one night's stay and wished we'd stayed longer.

Omg, the restaurant used to serve the best food! It was so amazing, I'd tell people to stay at the hotel just to eat there. Update: it's under new ownership now, and the food isn't the same. I applaud anyone who tries to run a business, but it's not like it was before. It used to be “knock your socks off” amazing, and now it's just “edible”.

The innkeepers were attentive and arranged for everything we needed. In this unique and historic hotel, every nook and cranny has something to experience, from the spa sanctuary to delicious food enjoyed among decorative pillows and antiques. We hope to return and be greeted by the great furry guardians.