The further you get away from cable cars, the cheaper Brettljausen become. This may sound like a contradiction, for having to carry the ingredients further should normally increase the price. Not in Kitzbühel, however. Here, cable cars are everywhere, it’s just that some of them do not operate in summer. In those cases, restaurants are anyway easily reachable with a car thanks to a network of mountain roads. Therefore, if you feel pity for the huts’ owners having to bring food with helicopters or by carrying it on their backs, don’t worry: Kitzbühel has sorted that problem out.
Reaching Pengelstein requires a good two-hour hike from the Hahnenkamm cable car station, during which you are going to pass by a lot of other restaurants tempting you with food and drinks. The only reasons I did not stop in them were my self-imposed rule of not drinking alcohol before midday (which I follow with very rare exceptions) and the reluctance to waste time and money on anything non-alcoholic.
Surrounded by cable cars to the point that it’s impossible to make a photo without one of the cables spoiling the shot, Bergrestaurant Pengelstein, frankly, does not invite great expectations. Its menu is devoid of surprises, except the above-mentioned comparatively reasonable prices. As I was looking around, most visitors seemed to settle for a Tyrolean Knödel or a Käsespätzle, which substantiated my suspicions that the Brettljause could not be good. I ordered it anyway, of course.
My suspicions could not have been more wrong. The Brettljause did not look very Tyrolean. The Speck was there, of course, but the huge thick slices of Schweinsbraten and cheese would not have looked out of place in a South Styrian Buschenschank. Fresh butter was provided, as well as an egg and enough vegetables to make the mixed salad that I had ordered in addition look redundant. The only ingredient that spoiled the overall positive impression was a half of a Landjäger sausage that was obviously industrial, though I did not mind the taste.
Sometimes, after yet another disappointing Brettljause, I blame myself for not being choosy with restaurants, but the places like Pengelstein prove that even the dullest-looking restaurant can occasionally offer surprisingly good food.
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