Italian food is popular in Germany, and in Heidelberg center alone there are numerous ice cream parlours serving gelato, and pizzerias serving, erm, Pizza, but what makes the Europa different is that it has both – a decent selection of main dishes, with a fantastic ice cream menu too.

If you’re after a full lunchtime of evening meal, this place has a nice selection. There are large pizzas and huge portions of pasta, with numerous selections of each. There are also fish and meat dishes on offer, though not as many as you might find in an Italian restaurant in the UK. I’ve been a number of times, and myself and the rest of the parties have tried pizzas (burning hot, fresh from the oven, crisp and delicious), pasta (cooked with or without extras if you ask, always perfect, never too soft or too chewy) and calzone (folded pizzas, some of which are topped with a “meat sauce” – very similar to a chunky bolognaise).

Although you can walk in and buy a cone or tub to take away, this isn’t the best way to enjoy the gelato here. Instead, take a seat and ask for the special menu (“Eis Karte”). Here you’ll find creations that make you drool in anticipation. There are fruit sundaes and sorbet sundaes and plain ice cream and sauce sundaes. You can have Pizza Eis (a concoction that looks like a normal pizza, but with a base made of ice cream and a topping of fruit, cream, sauce and so on) or Spaghetti Eis (vanilla ice cream piped like spaghetti on a bed of fresh cream, strawberry sauce (or chocolate if you ask nicely) and a sprinkling of “parmesan” coconut on top). There are drink and ice cream combinations (like iced coffee) and other things I can’t begin to describe. You find lots of places selling these things in this area of Germany, but very few also serve main meals. The only problem is that after eating one, you very rarely have room for such a large pudding.

The service when we’ve been has always been prompt and friendly. The menu is in English and German, and most of the servers speak both languages. Breadbaskets are brought to the tables and for once these are not charged for. They accept all major credit cards, and random German debit ones, but not things like Switch. Not that you’ll need to put things on a card - the Europa is a pretty cheap place to eat. Most of the main courses are under 10 Euros (6.50 GBP) and several are around the 6 or 7 Euro mark. Large ice creams start at 5 Euros (3 GBP) and drinks, of which there is a good choice of soft drinks, beer and wine, are large and relatively inexpensive – 2 Euros for a 40ml glass of Coke. You can generally get a meal for two which leaves you very, very full, with drinks for around the 15 GBP mark (total price). Bargain. There is no service charge included, and all meals are also available to take away.

Minimalist Mediterranean, perhaps? It’s not a place to wile away a romantic evening as the atmosphere’s loud and brisk, but in a good way. The place has a main front bit (reserved for real live Germans as far I can tell) and a back room where the English speakers are usually seated. The walls are bright yellows and paler greens, and there are fresh flowers, paintings of the sea, things like that. There is usually upbeat music playing in the background, but not so loudly that it’s annoying. The average age of the staff is around 35, so it’s not a place that you’ll have your meal plopped in front of you by a sulky teenager. It’s a family run place, and it gives you the feeling that all the staff get on and maybe even, y’know, love each other, which is nice.

Yes. Well. I’ve been a few times and on each occasion the number of Americans in the place have vastly outnumbered the other nationalities (i.e. the native Germans and me). We have a huge army base round the corner which is, I think, where they must come from – last time we even got the school’s football coach pop in for a chat with the family at the table next to ours while they ate. Visitors with me have generally gone through the subtle pointing and whispering “those people in the corner are speaking English” thing, before they realize that almost everyone in the place is doing the same. From my point of view though, it’s a nice place to eat simply because the waitresses will answer me in German. I always order in that, but in lots of places in the town people will answer me in English. My German is *not* that bad, but I’m blatantly not native, so they think they’re being nice by doing so. They’re not. If I’d wanted to speak English all year I would have stayed at home.

The Europa is in Kirchheim, a southern suburb of Heidelberg. It is seconds from various bus stops (namely Rathaus Nord, Rathaus Ost and Rathaus West, served by the bus lines 41, 42 and 11 among others) and within walking distance of the Heidelberg-Kirchheim railway station. The full address is: