Enjoyable dining, Europe

My wife and I would like to share some wonderful restaurants we experienced while traveling in Europe in May and June ’03.

• In Hall, AUSTRIA, a pretty medieval town about 15 minutes from Innsbruck, we ate at the Goldener Hirsch restaurant (A-6060 Hall-Unterer-Stadtplatz, Austria; phone 05223/53124).

For $18 for two, we had soup, entrées, vegetables, beer and wine. The Turkish owner and his waitress daughter were a delight, as was the rest of the staff.

The restaurant is in a great location for people watching.

• In the town of Montefalco in Umbria, ITALY, we ate lunch at Albergo Ristorante Ringhiera Umbra. For $24 we had a great lamb, tagliatelle with truffles, bread and half a liter of wine.

The staff consisted of a charming and witty husband-and-wife team, Deborah and Pietro. They gave us two grappas and lemon — a nice gesture.

• The highlight of our last night in Europe was our meal in Erding, GERMANY, a few miles from the Munich airport. We ate at Stadtcafe (Kleiner Platz 10, 85435 Erding; phone 08122-957223).

The waitress, Teresa, was fun, as were the customers, many of whom were regulars who came back every night.

We had salad with meat, tomatoes, fried onions, a sugar crepe, soup, beer and wine for $13.

My wife left her sunglasses and the staff tried to return them even though they didn’t know where we were staying — someone was waiting for us at the restaurant early the next morning when we stopped by to see if we could pick them up.

KEVIN O’BRIEN
Tybee Island, GA