I had read on one of the food lovers pages on Facebook that there was an amazing Italian restaurant in downtown Kaiserslautern, owned by a German family that were extremely friendly. I had always wanted to go there, but it always seemed so inconvenient venturing into Kaiserslautern. We have just become lazy, preferring to visit the places that we already know and love. One Friday night we decided to bite the bullet and visit Cardinale bei Skendo.

What a gem of a restaurant! The menu was small and they only had one written in English. Thankfully I can read almost all German food words now – that is kind of a reflection on me that is all of the language that I have picked up on – haha. Anyone who lives in this area knows that is quite rare for a restaurant, which I believe reflects the fact that this is still a little bit of a secret. The menu was small and the restaurant had a chalkboard with the daily specials that were fresh and handmade in the restaurant.

We opted to order off the daily specials menu. Nick ordered the truffle pasta and I ordered a spinach ravioli. We also opted for bruschetta, something that has to be good at any Italian restaurant for it to be truly taken seriously. Everything was absolutely delicious. There was bread served that was freshly baked and still warm out of the oven. Our waitress was extremely helpful, polite and friendly – and kept apologizing for her English that was of course perfect.

I cannot explain how delicious the truffle pasta was. I just have to hope that they choose to make it a more permanent option on the menu. It was the perfect amount of truffle flavour without being completely overpowering. The bruschetta was perfect – we could have definitely gone for a second round of that!

Our dessert was a panna cotta to share. It was pretty good but paled in comparison to the earlier dishes. I would probably skip dessert next time unless something truly outstanding was on the menu.

The atmosphere was amazing. The restaurant is underground in the cellar of a hotel and bar. There’s a huge fireplace in the centre of the cellar that was on when we visited in early April. While we were there, the tables quickly filled up so I would recommend reservations. The clientele were all Germans and the chef came out to talk to them all. It is truly a romantic location and you couldn’t find better in the Kaiserslautern area for a date night out. There is parking across the road in the opera house building.

I rarely post my restaurant reviews on the blog, but this place absolutely deserves to be shared.