Classic Restaurant @ The Mercedes Benz Museum Stuttgart, Germany

When we planned our visit to the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart (Please see also review.) we thought we would be hungry and made a reservation at Classic. The restaurant is housed in the same building as the musuem on the lowest level and is connected via walkway to the Mercedes Benz showroom.

Originally we thought we could leave the exhibition and have lunch, but realized this wasn't possible, so we decided to have our lunch when we had finished with the museum.

We apologized for our late arrival, but it wasn't a problem. It seems we weren't the first to underestimate the size of the exhibition.

The menu was available online, so we had checked it already and knew what was on offer and had budgeted our lunch already.

The design was like the building, it is contemporary with a lot of glass and steel. Classic is located partly in an atrium and has also an outdoor seating area.

We were brought to our table. It was not directly under the glass cupola and floor to ceiling window. We were glad, because we thought thanks to the hot weather and intense sunshine it would be too hot there, but it was very memorable and relaxing instead.

The restaurant had a few guests sitting by the window, a family with adult sons, and couples.

Classic serves international and regional cuisine.

Our waitress was very friendly and efficient.

We ordered a large bottle of still water, one glass of Laurent-Perrier Champagne and a Hugo, Wiener Schnitzel, Maultaschen (Swabian Ravioli) and Ofenschlupfer, a Swabian dessert with raisins.

The atmosphere was very good, the food and drink delicious and high quality.

We paid 59 Euro (ca. 65.25 USD).

Of course we would return. It's in fact so good, it's worth going there even without visiting the Mercedes Benz Museum.

©2015    

Mercedes Benz Museum Stuttgart, Germany

Over the years since opening of this museum we heard a lot about it and read reports from others who visited it already, so as my fiancee has an interest in cars and car design - especially luxury ones, it was a highlight to go to the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart for real during our April 2015 travels.

We took the tram S1 from the Stuttgart Main Train station towards Kirchheim an der Teck, getting off at Neckar Park station, where we followed the signs to the museum.

The walk took around ten minutes.

The building looks stunning and can be easily perceived as small. It's just opposite Daimler's headquarters. It was designed by UN Studio and shaped like a cloverleaf. The center has been removed to have a triangle shaped atrium, which reminds of the infamous Wankel engine.

The exhibition space's architect was HG Mars.

We had bought our tickets online, so we could simply proceed to the entrance of the exhibition.

A ticket allows for one entry a day.

An elevator whisks you up to the highest floor to the beginning of the exhibition.

The first thing we saw was a horse sculpture, the most common type of transport at the early stages of the car, beside the train.

It started with the background of Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. Interesting enough they never met in person during their lifetime. The companies were merged in the 1920ies to insure survival.

A highlight was seeing some of the first cars ever built.

The exhibition led down and when we reached the end we arrived at the ground floor.

Sometimes there are also special exhibitions.

The sections were chronologically sorted and car models represented each decade. The museum didn't focus alone on their own history and cars. It showed also what was going on in the world at the time, including the moon landing.

There was a future section, describing what cars could look like, a VIP section (Cars driven by famous people, including the Pope mobile, Lady Diana's Mercedes, the actor Hardy Kruger's SUV and so on.), a racing section and one that showed utility cars. I loved especially the Argentinian public transport bus. It was colorful.

Some vehicles were also a surprise like a snow plough and ambulance.

We must be getting older, because we could remember a few models driving on the road twenty to thirty years ago, that were now displayed at the museum.

There were over 160 models and after over five hours I couldn't see Mercedes anymore. He couldn't have enough on the other side.

In the basement we found the gift shop and Classic, the restaurant. A review of Classic is going to follow. Originally we had a reservation for 13.00 hours, but realized the exhibition was too large to make it on time, but this wasn't a problem at all as we found out.

There was a car dealership directly connected to the museum.

We enjoyed our visit and would return again, plus we look forward to visit the Porsche Museum too in our future.

©2015