Restaurant Zeik Hamburg (1 Michelin Star) – By Maurizio Oster)

This was my first time having dined in a one Michelin star restaurant. I was having a great experience! The first bites ahead of the first courses presented cabbage turnip in various ways with great focus on bringing out strong and savoury umami-flavours of it. – My favourite of it had to either be strong flavoured, delicious soup of cabbage turnip alongside the crisp with a fine mousse and smoked elements of cabbage turnip. This was followed by a delicious dish of tarragon hollandaise, Safran foam, dill and marinated fennel, just to name the most prominent ingredients. The bread course was straight forward with a nice rustic loaf of bread and some savoury herbal butter. For the next dish we were presented with different varieties of beetroot and a really exciting, superb „Mizuna mousse“ – fantastic! Following up was the carrot course, incredibly savoury and an utter explosion of carrot – literally the platonic essence of a carrot. This dish paired really well with a nicely aged Riesling and its acidity. The next course consisted of white asparagus with a beautiful texture, some crunch, a cream of hemp and some lardo – super interesting and utterly delicious. Up next was a fish dish of pickled char with an intensely smoked sauce and a fantastic and uplifting, really clean char tatar with an onion ceviche and fried buckwheat – nice textures. As for the next course we enjoyed a menu extension „The lamb – celebrated“: skewers of lamb, a lamb taco, a fragrant broth of lamb with mint oil, lamb belly, glazed jus and brioche of lamb shoulder – absolutely stunning and savoury all the way, but never too heavy or overpowering. This was was served with a German Frühburgunder, a genetically related grape variety Pinot Noir – lovely. Next: Lamb – again. But we didn’t mind, it was just too good: A delicate lamb flavour, very nicely grilled, beautifully pink. It was accompanied by a lamb jus, parsley jus, lemon zests and a varnish of apple and celeriac plus an onion reduction. Again, intense and hearty but also uplifting. The pre-dessert was made up of a sorrel sorbet, a vanilla-vinegar gel, and espuma of elderflower, kumquats and a ragout of mirepoix (?) – very acidic, but also very refreshing after the savoury lamb dishes – nice! The dessert revolved around rhubarb – a sorbet, a sauce, a ragout, a gel etc. for me, it was just a little bit too acidic and I had wished for something a little sweeter. Luckily, it was accompanied by some sweeter ice cream, some nut brittle, and a vanilla cream. All in all, the dessert wasn’t a disappointment but the weakest course of the menu, for my taste. The Petit Fours, however, were very much to my likings: a parfait of coffee and cardamom, a praline of vanilla and cheesecake, and, last but not least, a wild berry sorbet with parsley oil and rosé champagne.

This was a great and absolutely delicious experience! I loved the creativity on the vegetarian dishes especially, good atmosphere in the restaurant, kind and warm service and a very good wine accompaniment. I recommend to give restaurant Zeik a visit.