Food & Drinks

Good food and drinks keep body and soul together. Especially on your vacation, because eventful days and fresh air make you hungry. Steinhude's fine smoked eel is the most famous delicacy, but the local chefs provide a wide range of delicious fish dishes. Our guests can decide between local, Mediterranean or Asian cuisine and various bistros offer snacks for between-meal treats. Sweet treats can be found in many cafés with their homemade cakes. The eating culture varies from ambitious restaurants with multi-course menus to country-style food stalls on the roadside, where cyclists and hikers can take a break. Food always tastes better in the right atmosphere, therefore, our restaurants around the lake and on Wilhelmstein Island offer tables in shady gardens or sun terraces, many times even with lakeview. Imagine sitting in a cozy beer garden with a delicious meal enjoying the sunset over the lake. Discover the culinary highlights at Lake Steinhuder Meer, enjoy!

Especially the smoked eel is the culinary landmark of Lake Steinhuder Meer. For years, fishermen have caught eel at Lake Steinhuder Meer. The unique smoking process over beechwood makes it a local specialty. As a culinary souvenir, the eel finds its way to gourmets all over Europe and it is even sent by post. The life of the eel begins in the Sargasso Sea on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle in the Atlantic Ocean – more than 6000 km off the German coast. After birth they look like larvae and have the shape of a willow leaf. Drifting through the Gulf Stream, they land on the European coast after 2 - 3 years. There, the tiny larvae develop into elvers. They swim in shoals from the coasts through rivers into inland waters. Via the rivers Weser and Meerbach, they finally arrive at Lake Steinhuder Meer. The silver eel (adult eel) then swims back to the Sargasso Sea.

In Landestrost Castle in Neustadt, Germany's most northern champagne producers are located. Since 1888, the company Duprès-Kollmeyer has produced, among other things, champagne with the bottle fermentation method in the cool wine cellars. The wine cellar is open to visitors: Open wine cellar in Landestrost Castle, every third Saturday of each month between 12.00 noon and 5.00 pm.

"Steinhude's chocolate from Germany's oldest chocolate factory, founded in 1765, available here." This advertising sign could be read until 1951 on the side of the house "Am Anger 6". Meyers Dictionary from 1920 quotes: "…the first chocolate factory was built by Count Wilhelm von der Lippe in 1956." Supposedly, the Count founded the Princely Chocolate Factory of Schaumburg Lippe ("Fürstlich schaumburg-lippische Hof-Schokoladenfabrik") after his military campaign in Portugal. The most popular product was Steinhude's roll. 10 thalers with each 25 grams were rolled up and wrapped with a paper collar with golden imprints. Unfortunately, nothing is left of the chocolate factory today. However, the Hotel and Restaurant Landsitz Kapellenhöhe in Wiedenbrügge offers exclusive chocolate tastings with a lot of information on chocolate and its history and production.