ES:SENZ (*), The Peak of Fine Dining in Bavaria

Es:senz is a restaurant located in a lovely resort hotel near the Chiemgau Alps, about 100km southeast of Munich. They offer a unique culinary philosophy: choosing to serve 2 separate menus, one which is entirely comprised of local ingredients and another that utilizes ingredients found around the world. Unlike many other fine dining restaurants that offer 2 menus, the restaurant allows you to mix and match dishes between each menu, and even encourages it.

Photo 1: We started with a selection of small bites. “The Cloud” with bacon, vinegar and bread crumbs. “Rossini” with wagyu, duck liver, and perigord truffle. “Tartelette” with shrimps, lettuce, and orange. “Macaron” with trout, mustard pickle, and radish. And finally “Pointed peppers” with wild garlic bud, homemade cream cheese, and Chardonnay vinegar, which was served with the breads in the next photo.

Photo 2: Two types of Housemade bread: Brioche and a potato bread. Served with a few various spreads, alpine salted butter, and local cherries.

Photo 4: The next amuse bouche: Danube Salmon with elderflower, rhubarb, radish, and hemp seeds

Photo 5: Our final amuse bouche was N25 Caviar with peas panna cotta, chicken, green almonds, and Chardonnay beurre Blanc.

Photo 6: (International menu), Scallop with n25 caviar, leek oil, wild garlic capers, and finger lime

Photo 7: (Local menu), Chiemsee whitefish, anise, dill vinaigrette, cucumber, celery.

Photo 8: (International menu), Carabinero, artichoke, Don Boncarte anchovies, peas, bisque.

Photo 9: (Local Menu, signature dish), Sweetbread, peas, lettuce, sunflower seeds, bacon, pepper foam. Outstanding dish, normally I’m not very much into sweetbreads and we considered skipping this course but oh my god were we glad we tried it. Normally I feel like high end restaurants ruin sweetbreads by frying them and putting them in a sweet glaze but this place cooked them differently, and they were phenomenal.

Photo 10: (Local Menu), Char by Talhammer Mühle, caramelized yeast, elderberry, spinach

Photo 11: (Local Menu), Lamb by Grange Polting, Sweet potato, Pimentos de padron, roscoff onion, braised jus.

Photo 12: (International Menu) Miéral pigeon on the carcass, morels, brocolli, perigord truffle, sherry. This was an absolute favorite. They brought the entire pot of sauce filled with morels to enjoy and left it at the table. Not a drop went to waste. Probably the best pigeon dish I’ve ever had.

Photo 13: (International Menu) Époisses, pineapple, garlic bread, 20-year old balsamic vinegar. Easily the strangest combination of the night. Cheese, pineapple and balsamic vinegar, followed by garlic bread. It worked surprisingly well and was a testament to the chef’s skill.

Photo 14: (Local Menu) Pavlova, meringue, sea buckthorn, sorrel, yoghurt.

Photo 15: (International Menu, Signature Dish), Saffron ice cream, fermented rosehip, seed oil.

Photo 16: (Local Menu), Kampenwand, pear, white chocolate, tarragon, nut butter

Photo 17: (International Menu), Blood Orange, Amaretto, tonka bean, mascarpone

Photo 18: Mignardises: Homemade pralines, pear Helene, lemon tart, nut acorn, gin and tonic (rocks), toffifee

Photo 19: Wine pairings throughout the meal

Photo 20: some pictures I took of the resort

Final Thoughts: We thoroughly enjoyed our meal here (and stay). It was our favorite meal in Germany on this trip, and probably around top 10-15 of my life. If you are considering going, bring another person so you can share both menus, there are must-try dishes on both menus and I feel like you would be missing out by only trying 1 of them. Not pictured but with every dish, they left the pot of sauce to do with as we pleased. It was very intriguing to try each sauce and compare between the dishes. Es:senz is a phenomenal restaurant, and it’s easy to see why they recently earned the 3rd star.