The Austrian Club is all about eisschiessen (extreme curling played on bitumen rather than ice) and rindsgulasch – aka beef goulash, aka the ultimate comfort food.
The club was founded in Heidelberg West in 1944 and is dedicated to maintaining Austrian culture, traditions and cuisine. And while yes, fact fans, goulash is technically Hungarian, the dish is also popular throughout Austria – and Heidelberg. You get a piping bowl of the thick and flavourful beef, onion and hot paprika stew that comes served with knödel (bread dumplings) to help sop up the rib-stickin' gravy.
While the menu is hardly inventive – this is a mid-suburban cultural centre after all – for hearty and authentic Teutonic staples you can't beat it. Start with tagessuppe or soup of the day, then the bauernschmaus farmer's platter: smoked pork, sausage, roast pork, sauerkraut and dumpling ($20) or pork schnitzel ($17). Vegetarians stay in the car, or get your drinking boots on.
The whistle wetters of choice are Austrian (Zipfe) and German (Schöfferhofer, Erdinger) beer as well as a selection of wines including a Lenz Moser Grüner Veltiner by the litre ($26) which means no one can or will go thirsty while slurping their goulash. Gemütlichkeit!