Yesterday we marked the achievement of our graduating grade 12 students with a ceremony and reception filled with stories, laughter, and champagne. As the party began to break up (when the champagne ran out), five of my friends and colleagues and I decided to head out into the city for some food to fill our stomachs. Our destination? Goldfish.

Goldfish is listed in my Stuttgart Geht Aus book and was recommended yesterday by a dear friend of mine because they have good Thai food. The restaurant was also easily within walking distance of our location Downtwon. Goldfish is listed under the Thai section of my book, but they advertise as having "modern Asian cuisine". Upon walking into the restaurant, you can see why they've named themselves Goldfish: there's a giant goldfish pond just inside the entry.

We were the only ones in the restaurant when we walked in around 6:00 pm, and were quickly seated at a large table by the window. For the six of us, the space was perfect. The staff were fast and friendly, and even provided an English menu upon request.

Appetizer plate with spicy chicken wings, chicken nuggets, fried tofu, three different kinds of fried spring rolls, and Vietnamese spring rolls with three different dipping sauces (sweet and sour, sweet curry, and spicy pepper/garlic/cilantro)

We started off with a round of Prosecco Lychee cocktails, which consisted of real lychee juice and prosecco and had just the right amount sweet. After that we ordered a lovely bottle of Grauburgunder from Weingut Kiefer. The wine was dry and slightly fruity -- perfect for our asian meal.

For an appetizer, we began with two "fingerfood" plates. Each plate came with two each of spicy chicken wings, chicken nuggets, fried tofu, three different kinds of fried spring rolls (vegetarian, chicken, and shrimp), and a Vietnamese spring roll. I've noticed that at a lot of the cheaper Asian places in Germany tend to sell out and go for the frozen spring rolls that you can get at the grocery store, but these were all clearly homemade and came with three dipping sauces, including a sweet and sour sauce, a sweet curry sauce, and a green mixture that tasted like it had garlic, cilantro, and peppers in it. The presentation on a two-tiered tray was quite lovely, too.

I had a really hard time ordering my main meal, because everything looked so good. In the end I chose chicken and vegetables in a peanut sauce over rice. (I should note that you can order the dishes with noodles instead, and by the looks of them, they were authentic Asian noodles.) I was pleasantly surprised to see okra in the vege mix, and I think it's the first time I've eaten okra since leaving Virginia two years ago. The sauce, though definitely a creamy-ish peanut sauce, was a bit too drab for my tastes. But I was in luck, because my friend found her chicken in a red curry sauce with pineapple and peppers a little too spicy. The spice was perfect for me, and I think it was the best tasting dish of the evening based on my sampling of a few of the dishes on the table. Though it had caught my eye on the menu, I was worried that the pineapple would make the sauce too sweet. On the contrary, it was packed full of rich, spicy warmth, and the pineapple just helped to take the edge off so that the spice didn't stick in your mouth and overwhelm the flavor. When I go back, however, I would like to try the Asia-Maultaschen (a kind of German ravioli) or a vegetarian dish, both of which are recommended in my book.

We were pretty full (of both food and alcohol) by the time we finished around 8:30 or so, and so we skipped dessert. And despite the fact that the restaurant was by this time packed full, the staff didn't bother us as we sat for another half an hour or so chatting. This is just one aspect of German table service that I've come to appreciate. A note of warning: be prepared to pay your bill in cash. My book says that Goldfish takes EC cards (no credit cards!), but whether by a misunderstanding on my part or a change in the rules, the waitress would not take my card, and we ended up paying the full amount in cash.

Goldfish is located on Schlossstraße 57A in Stuttgart-West. It's easily accessible from the Berliner Platz U-bahn stop, or you can walk there (it's about 8 or 9 blocks) from the Stadtmitte stop Downtown. As a side note, City Bowling is just down the street (Schlossstraße 28), so you could easily go out for a night of bowling and follow-up with a nice Thai meal at Goldfish. If you go, be sure to let me know what was your favorite dish in the comments below!