As winter approaches I am really starting to indulge in my love of hearty comfort food.

While I love all food, in all honestly I don’t get that excited by salads or a sorbet – but I love a good pork belly roast and melting chocolate pudding.

Mutti’s is a German endearment for ‘Mother’ and my German friend Lisa from Social Media Podcast found that many of the dishes on the menu were classics from her childhood, even though Mutti’s proclaims itself more of an Eastern European restaurant than a German one.

Six of us (Kimberley from The Value-Add, Penny from Addictive & Consuming, ThatGirl_Chloe, Cheryl from Business Chic, with Lisa leading our education in German cuisine) managed to work our way through most of the mains on the menu. Unfortunately Mutti’s famous housemade white sausages were not available for dinner (Thursday and Friday lunchtimes only) but there were still lots of interesting choices on the menu that didn’t involve the stereotypical sausages and sauerkraut.

I am a complete sucker for duck. With Triple Duck on offer, how could I resist ($32)? What came out was a huuuuge plate of poached duck breast with no discernible aroma of the advertised glühwein , a juicy leg of duck, and a cricket-ball sized potato dumpling filled with duck crackling, served with speck and braised cabbage and lingon berry jus. It was delicious and filling, with the only negative being a slightly dry dumpling.

Being a friendly bunch everyone had a taste of everyone else’s dish – we had Mutti’s free range pork schnitzel, with parsley potatoes, wild cranberry relish, lemon and salad greens ($24.50), risotto with large rounds of Italian sasuage ($24), a fist-sized slab of pork loin which was the day’s special and ‘Zwiebelroastbraten’ – pan seared beef steak with bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes) and garlic beans ($28). Out of all of those dishes, including my own, I think the taste-test winner was the roast pork.  And as you can see, every single one of these dishes was enormous.

I had heard good things about the Apple Strudel so still managed to make room for a serving ($12). I was expecting a flaky pastry encasing apples and sultanas, but Lisa confirmed that in fact the almost pita-bread like pastry was more authentic. I didn’t like the strudel that much – I prefer my strudel filled with much more spice and there was a knob of hard, almost uncooked pastry right in the middle of it which wasn’t very appetising.

Kimberley on the other hand did enjoy her Bienenstich – honey and whey custard the consistency of a pannacotta, sandwiched between sweet puff pastry and fresh honeycomb ($13).

The sweet cinnamon bretzel with cream and lingon berry jam ($6) was also declared delicious by Cheryl (though I’m not sure how she managed to fit in after our huge mains).

I can’t say Eastern European cuisine is high on my list of culinary favourites, but for a huge dose of hearty, wintery fare which will have you waddling out the door, Mutti’s the place to go.

• Mutti’s, 118 Elgin St, Carlton +61 3 9349 5008

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