I visited a restaurant in Austria that has welcomed generations of British royals, but the best part was the indoor slide

I visited The Hospiz Alm recently at the end of a family ski trip to St. Anton, a ski town in the Arlberg region of Austria. But the restaurant, which is in the neighboring village of St. Christoph, isn't exactly within walking distance so to get to it from where I was you can either ski, snowboard, or taxi.

Since my lunch was booked for 12 p.m., I wanted to work up a little bit of an appetite so I decided to ski there. From the top of the gondola, it was less than 15 minutes on an intermediate run.

Around halfway there, I started to see the restaurant nestled into the bottom of beautiful snow-capped mountains.

The restaurant is really picturesque and the way its wooden exterior is decorated makes it look as if it was plucked straight out of a fairy-tale book.

Leaving my skis outside, I entered through the front door, which was laden with greenery dusted in snow, with a wreath pinned with a red bow stuck on the center.

I was a bit early for the massive rush of lunchtime, which usually starts around 12:30 p.m. when the first skiers stop to take a break from the slopes, but waiters at the Hospiz Alm were already running back and forth from tables taking orders and bringing out plates of food.

I could tell upholding cultural heritage and values was a big deal here because servers were all wearing either lederhosen or dirndl, traditional Austrian folk clothing.

The interior of the Hospiz Alm is pretty dimly lit but you can't miss the massive multi-floor chandelier, laden with what looked to be wreaths of greenery.

Even though it was sunny outside, it was still pretty cold, so the warmth of the roaring open fire was very welcoming.

As more and more people started to pile into the restaurant, it seemed like many groups were taking advantage of the rare sunny day by enjoying their meals and drinks outside on the ground-floor terrace, which was packed with rows of thin wooden tables covered with gingham, red, and orange tablecloths.

Having skied in the area before, I knew the Hospiz Alm had a great terrace that was usually booked up on days when it was really sunny so I booked my spot well in advance.

I had no regrets because the views of the piste and neighboring mountains were truly spectacular.

There are plenty of classic Austrian foods I'd recommend trying if you're there for the ski season, but one I hadn't yet had during my family trip was a good old Wiener schnitzel.

At the Hospiz Alm, my meal came along with a massive plate of fries, a lemon wedge, and cranberry sauce. At first, I thought it looked like the portions were going to be too big, and honestly, I couldn't make it through all the fries, but the schnitzel was so perfectly soft inside and crispy on the outside that I finished it with ease.

One of the best things about skiing in Austria is how there's always an excuse to have mulled wine.

Known as gluhwein, the drink came hot and steaming to my table and it was the perfect thing to help me warm up after a short morning on the slopes.

Snowboarders really luck out when it comes to their boots because walking up and down any kind of stairs in heavy, clunky ski boots is a nightmare.

But at least half of that problem doesn't exist at the Hospiz Alm because when you go to the bathroom, you can literally slide your way there in seconds. Going down an indoor slide makes any adult feel like a kid, but is also really practical for those who ski.

That said, trudging back upstairs afterward is still a pain though.

"There was Katie and William here, I think around a month ago," Kark Heinz told me. "At the moment, the people from Holland are here, they stay in Lech but they come here."

I was floored at how nonchalant Heinz was about the whole thing, but he said whenever royals visit, they're treated like anyone else. "When they dress in ski clothes for the lunch, nobody knows it," he said. Other royals from Denmark, Norway, and Luxembourg have also visited, he said, but most down-to-earth ones are those from Lichtenstein, who all have apartments there and are "such nice people."

"In 1986 there was Chernobyl," Heinz said. "In Austria, there was a rule when you made a new restaurant that you had to make an atom bunker." So storing wine wasn't the original use of the cellar, he added.

But since then, it's become the perfect place for a massive collection of wines from various regions in Europe, including gargantuan 27-liter bottles, which Heinz said are equivalent to a whopping 36 regular-sized wines. An empty bottle of that size costs 1,200 euros, or around $1,310, he said.

On the first floor, close to the front door, is a massive wall of photos taken of famous people who have either stayed at the sister hotel down the street, dined at the restaurant, or have done both.

Some names I recognized were Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Pope Benedict XVI, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Juan Carlos, the former King of Spain. I also spotted Michael Schumacher, King Felipe of Spain, and Richard Nixon.

Looking at the black and white photo of Charles and Diana up on the wall, dressed in their ski gear outside the Hospiz Alm greeting people, it's almost impossible to tell what kind of mood the young couple were in. But according to Heinz, who said he was around when they visited, it wasn't a pleasant one.

"Diana was always pushing Charles, like 'Alright Charles, what are we going to do now, now, now," Heinz said. "And he, Charles, was so angry all the time."

Two days before I visited, Heinz said he'd decided to take the photo of Russia's President Vladimir Putin off the wall of fame.

I thought the meal was delicious but slightly overpriced. My schnitzel cost 39 euros, around $42.54, and the gluhwein was 7.40 euros, around $8. For full disclosure, Insider paid the total of 46.40 euros, or $50.60, according to our reporting standards.

If I come back, I'll probably stick with something equally delicious like a goulash soup, another local staple which is essentially a meat stew with different kinds of vegetables, that costs a mere 9.80 euros, or around $10.70, in comparison.

But overall I was pretty happy – and with a bellyful of schnitzel, it was time to head back to the mountain for a few more runs.