Innsbruck's Maria-Theresien-Straße is busy with shoppers all day, but the Michelin-recommended Das Schindler hides in plain sight above the retail units — on the first floor of a mixed-use building, sharing space with two law firms. Finding it is part of the fun, and the reward is one of the city's most interesting dining rooms.
The kitchen, run by Chef de Cuisine Thomas Knittl since 2017, plays with a deliberate tension: classic Tyrolean cooking given an international spin. Starters set the tone. There's a steak tartare of organic Angus beef crowned with a quail egg and herb salad, a lobster thermidor with a light Mumbai-style curry and gruyère crust, and a standout watermelon tataki — flame-seared, paired with creamy sheep's milk cheese, marinated honeydew and a whisper of Sichuan pepper. A Parmigiano Reggiano and basil soup with a seared scallop rounds out the opening act.
Mains lean into the region without being confined by it. A salmon trout from Schwaz, about 30 kilometres east of the city, arrives en papillote with a vibrant mojo sauce. The swordfish comes Cape Malay-style on a poppadom with North Tyrolean vegetables and a local peach. Game specials — venison, in particular — appear on the board, while the homemade East Tyrolean schlipfkrapfen with chanterelles is the earthy, traditional counterpoint. Desserts run to a chocolate San Sebastian cheesecake with raspberry sorbet and pistachios, plus a crème brûlée with salted caramel ice cream.
Knittl's sourcing philosophy is central to the whole operation. Originally from South Tyrol, he cooks with organic and local ingredients, avoids artificial additives, flavour enhancers and mass-produced meat, and has earned both the Bewusst Tirol and AMA Gastrosiegel quality seals. His long tenure at one restaurant is rare in the industry, and the consistency shows.
Prices sit at the upper-middle end: starters mostly €10-25, mains €25-50, desserts €10-15. The room itself balances the two sides of its personality well — a handsome bar on one side, relaxed dining elsewhere, quiet at the start of service and buzzing by mid-evening. Service gets high marks for warmth.
For travellers, this is the kind of place that turns an Alpine stopover into a food destination. Innsbruck draws skiers in winter and hikers in summer, and most visitors default to the old town's traditional haunts. Das Schindler offers something sharper: modern Austrian cooking that doesn't take itself too seriously, at prices below what a comparable Michelin-recommended room would charge in Vienna or Munich. Book ahead for a weekend evening, and come hungry — the temptation to order across the whole menu is real.
