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Alexander van Dülmen

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Elements & DELI, Restaurant, Dresden

Elements & DELI, Restaurant, Dresden, Germany

5 points

Again Michelin…..don’t worry, there will be reviews coming about restaurants that are not connected with Michelin. However, when visiting cities where you don’t have the benefit of the friendly advice of someone you know there, the Michelin list can be a helpful guide. Visiting beautiful Dresden recently, I found out that there are three Michelin restaurants in Dresden, each with a star. With only one night, I chose a restaurant with the name “Element”. I am always, and here once again, surprised by the criteria for the awards given to restaurants. Is it a direct comparison of the restaurants in Dresden that leads the testers to such results, or is it truly an international rating system? The reader already suspects…! I’m not exactly thrilled with what I was served at Elements in Dresden, and would even venture to say that it was not worth a Michelin star, especially comparing it to other places.

Each course was somehow too much for itself. You also could say: much less would have done more for the taste combinations and the concepts behind them. I actually mean that in a friendly way, because I really liked the restaurant as such. It’s not in the center, where all the tourists crowd Dresden, but east of Neustadt, on a former industrial site, in an old and very pleasantly renovated factory. Quiet, spacious, modern – great atmosphere. Very friendly staff welcome you immediately and put you at ease, nothing like overkill or stiffness, but rather the opposite: casual and dégagé. Aside from the ugly pair of jeans he wore – but this a matter of taste and I apologize for the personal touch right away – the sommelier presented me with two wines I didn’t know:

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In particular, this sparkling wine with a great name, Chimäre Brut, was really very nice and recommendable. It is made by Frédéric Fourré, a French winemaker who ended up in Saxony (there are always such great stories behind winemaking, I love it). Should this Sekt not appear in Games Of Thrones – what could Daenerys Targaryen better drink?

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Richard, Restaurant, Berlin

Richard, Restaurant, Berlin, Germany

Point 6,5

Having already heard several times about Richard, at some point it got through to me and I wondered why these mentions had actually intensified in the past few months. Perhaps it has to do with the innovations of the chef: Christian Schagerl has been cooking there since mid-2017 and changed (as it is described in some articles) the type of cuisine, and therefore the direction of the restaurant. Obviously very successfully, as he managed to avoid disappointing his audience while meanwhile the restaurant has steadily become more popular.

The best proof for this introduction is my friend Susanne Wuest (her main profession is acting). Popular restaurateur Sarah Wiener (from Austria, like Susanne) once told her that she was anorexic, which was really a remarkable insult, knowing Susanne’s sense of good food and the reliable joy she takes in sending me an sms once in a while with tips for good restaurants in London, Berlin or anywhere else she may be. Just two days before I finally went to Richard, she recommended it to me.

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Seehaus, Inn, Fichtelberg

Seehaus, Inn, Fichtelberg, Germany

5 points

I am thankful that Elisabeth Burghardt (former Bartel) once again accepted my invitation to post another review on my blog (here first one is here: Panama, Restaurant, Berlin )

The Fichtelgebirge (Fichtel Mountains) is a fairly well known region in northern Bavaria, close to the Czech border. It’s an idyllic and remote area with breathtakingly beautiful woods where you walk on soft terrain, surrounded by nothing but the twittering of birds, the gurgling of a small stream and crisp fresh air. It’s a region that was once known for its mining industry (basalt, marble but also gold, tin and iron). Its massive granite rocks once left a deep impression on no less than Johann-Wolfgang von Goethe and even inspired him to an essay about the prehistoric rock (see quote below).

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Jungbluth, Restaurant, Berlin

Jungbluth, Restaurant, Berlin, Germany

5,5 points

You won’t find all of Berlin’s best restaurants in the city’s center or only in trendy areas. The diversity and, in a certain sense, the attractiveness of particular parts of the city is reflected in their culinary possibilities, and this of course goes beyond Mitte and the West. I’ve already reviewed a few of these restaurants, for example „Bieberbau“ in Wilmersdorf (Bieberbau, Restaurant, Berlin).

Michelin bestows not only stars but also the Bib Gourmand Award disctinction. This happens to be a really good thing, and is given to restaurants whose culinary offering is solid and high quality, although not on the level of Michelin-starred places.

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And this is what brought the Michelin testers to try Jungblut, a restaurant located in Berlin-Steglitz. The fact that I was willing to go all the way to Steglitz for a restaurant should demonstrate the faith I have in their recommendations. I mean, no one really wants to go to Steglitz, though of course there are some lovely spots there, as in every other part of Berlin.  Excluding, of course, Spandau!

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Weinbar Rutz, Restaurant, Berlin (3rd review)

Weinbar Rutz, Restaurant, Berlin, Germany

8 points

There’s really not much more for me write about Marco Müller and his restaurant Weinbar Rutz in Berlin? Or is there?

Last November, Rutz joined the very exclusive circle of Michelin two-star restaurants in Berlin – and with that, Marco is to be counted among the best chefs in Germany. I recently tasted his current menu and am, once again, as enthusiastic about his culinary artistry as I am impressed by his enthralling creations. He certainly engages with the “regional” trend, while managing to avoid the excessive dogmatism of some others in Berlin, such as Einsunternull (Einsunternull, Restaurant, Berlin) – right around the corner.

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Panama, Restaurant, Berlin

Panama, Restaurant, Berlin, Germany

6,5 points

6 points by Alexander van Dülmen

IMG-20170509-WA0001I am pleased that my friend and acclaimed script-writer Elisabeth Bartel accepted my invitation not only for a dinner at Panama but also to write her first review on my blog. 

Working on a screenplay with the word “Panama” in the title, it was kind of obvious that “Panama”, a fairly new restaurant in Berlin’s center, would be the ideal fit for dinner. Already when you enter the enchanted back yard, off a busy stretch of Potsdamer Straße, you feel you have come to a special place. We were lead to the second floor, which houses the main part of the mid-size restaurant with the half-open kitchen behind large glass windows. The atmosphere is bright and easy going but also quite loud, catering to a younger, international crowd.

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Bandol sur Mer, Restaurant, Berlin

Bandol sur Mer, Restaurant, Berlin, Germany

7 points

In German, we have the word „Kulinarik“. The German language contains so many substantives that describe a very specific thing very precisely. Translating this word into English is a challenge, and I am curious to know how any reader of this blog who speaks German and English would translate it. According to leo.org, one of the best online dictionaries, I should use the term “culinary art”. Although I don’t really think that this is a correct description of my understanding of “Kulinarik”, I like very much that it connects it with art. This said, Berlin’s Kulinarik has such great variety, incomparable with many other places in the world. Perhaps only New York and Chicago. A Michelin star punk restaurant, probably possible only in Berlin!

bandol-innen

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Einsunternull, Restaurant, Berlin

Einsunternull, Restaurant, Berlin, Germany

5,5 points

It is astonishing to see how many restaurants have opened during the last few years in Berlin. Einsunternull is another modern and perhaps trendsetting restaurant in the same vein as Nobelhart & Schmutzig. Einsunternull means one below zero, a reference to the floor level of the restaurant rather the level of quality. In Germany, zero is the ground floor, so the restaurant is actually in the cellar.

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Peters, Riesling Auslese, 2007, Martha’s Weinberg

Peters, Riesling Auslese, 2007, Martha’s Weinberg, White wine from Germany

7,5 points

Some time ago I posted two reviews about Johannes Peter’s Scharzhofberger Riesling. You can find a lot of information about the winery at: https://avdwineandfood.net/2015/05/11/peters-schwarzhofberger-riesling-spatlese-2007/ and https://avdwineandfood.net/2015/08/01/peters-scharzhofberger-riesling-spatlese-2012/.

This particular wine, Martha’s Weinberg, actually does not appear on Peter’s website. Johannes Peters writes: Continue reading “Peters, Riesling Auslese, 2007, Martha’s Weinberg” →

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Gourmet Restaurant Novalis, Burghotel Hardenberg

Novalis, Restaurant at Burghotel Hardenberg, Nörten-Hardenberg, Germany

5,5 points

Located some distance from any international hot-spot – unless you would call Hannover a metropolis – Nörten-Hardenberg is a provincial town, too big to call a village and too small to call a town. It lies on the western side of the mid-range mountain area Harz, and the next larger city is Göttingen. This said, the A7 highway (Autobahn) passes by here – the A7 being one of the most important connections between northern and southern Germany. Once a year, Nörten-Hardenberg comes into global focus, during the international tournament of show jumping which is held there. It was reported that one most prominent guests during last year’s event was Bruce Springsteen; his daughter apparently participated in one of the competitions.

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1479 Nelles, Riesling, Alte Reben, 2007

Riesling Alte Reben, Nelles, 2007, White wine from Germany

5 points

Please find my previous reviews of wines from the Nelles winery here: https://avdwineandfood.net/2015/05/02/1-ahr-spatburgunder-nelles-2010/ and https://avdwineandfood.net/2015/06/07/b-52-spatburgunder-nelles-2006/. Since you will find a lot of  information about Nelles there, here I will concentrate only on the wine.

Although the lovely valley of the small river Ahr is further north than Mosel, this wine region stands for the best red wines. White ones are rather rare.  Soil almost in the entire valley is mostly schist.

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Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Restaurant, Berlin (2. report)

Nobelhart & Schmutzig, Restaurant, Berlin, Germany

7,5 points

It’s actually not so long since I wrote about Nobelhart & Schmutzig – please see my last review here: https://avdwineandfood.net/2015/09/18/nobelhart-schmutzig-restaurant-berlin/! The concept of this restaurant is the most radical conceptualization of real regional cuisine; Micha Schäfer and Billy Wagner call it “brutal regional”.

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