L. A. Jordan

Rating: 18
Author: Gault&Millau

Heumarktstraße 14, 67146 Deidesheim, Germany

18/20
Prestige Restaurant

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1 PHOTOS

Chef: Daniel Schimkowitsch
Cooking: French | Gastronomic | International | Japanese | Seafood
Services: Access for people with disabilities | Accommodation | Electric charging station | Private Parking | Private Room | Terrace
Style: Elegant | Exceptional setting | Romantic | With friends

Gault&Millau's review 2025

Let's start with criticism: On a balmy summer evening like our visit, the food is served on the terrace, which is kept surprisingly insect-free by a smoke fire. The wonderful Ketschauer Hof with its large trees offers the perfect ambience for a high-class menu - until it gets dark. Because whoever designed the terrace of the L.A. Jordan didn't think about the light. Hastily brought in, dim LED lights in the middle of the table ensure that the small works of art that Daniel Schimkowitz has applied are completely in the shadow of the guest at night. So if you want to know what you're eating, pull out your smartphone flashlight and so the later evening looks a bit like a pop concert with small points of light everywhere in the audience. As beautiful as summer in the Palatinate is, the menu of the L.A. Jordan does not deserve this almost-not-illumination. It begins – still in the twilight – with a coarsely chopped scallop tartare in a crunchy crustade with pointed cabbage, nashi pear and boudin noir, the whole thing fresh and pure and generously covered with aromatic truffle slices. The following matte, glossy, marinated Portuguese sardine floats with its roe and chawanmushi cubes, plucked broccoli nodules and truffle pieces in a broth of Colatura di Alici – a wonderfully sour-fresh combination, in which you can taste the excellent product quality that characterises the evening throughout with every bite. The same applies to the crunchy, refreshing plucked king crab with a decoction of white kimchi, sesame seeds and trout caviar. The menu remains Asian-inspired: two slices of tuna mackerel are served with oroshi (Japanese radish) and beetroot in a sweetly contrasting strawberry and tomato vinaigrette. Emblematic of Schimkowitsch's ability to surprisingly combine seemingly contradictory aromas, one of them usually with an acid kick, into a new flavor. The best course of the evening is undoubtedly the perfectly juicy loup de mer with ultra-crispy thin skin, topped by a strong N25 caviar dumple with onion-koji confit in intense lovingstock broth with clamstock – a lasting taste experience that perfectly combines liquid and solid, melty and crunchy, juicy and sweet. If the finely sliced Poltinger lamb with oysters under a foam of wild garlic had also succeeded in such a differentiated way (here the aromas collapsed and tasted a little like – sorry! – stew) – we would immediately pull out the fifth toque. The pigeon from Racan would also have deserved it, which, spicy and glazed on finely sliced radicchio, pecorino, chive oil and Australian winter truffle, offered a true taste explosion. The sweet part of the menu was also sometimes more convincing, sometimes (at a very high level) a little less: the "Frozen Tempura" was terrific: a crackingly firm, greenish meringue topping, smoke-chill-frozen, underneath shiso, mirabelle, creamy caramelized pecan and Charentais melon – a textural and tasty poem. The "Special K 2.0" had only the crunch in common with the Kellogg's version, but the chocolate was spice up with caviar instead of salted caramel, but in our opinion it was well thought-out, but not yet quite to the point in terms of taste. Even our little nagging does not change the fact that the highly creative Daniel Schimkowitsch, who is constantly fine-tuning his menu, and his team are very close to the fifth toque, which we will hopefully finally be able to put on him next year. Oh yes: Here, on the grounds of the Bassermann-Jordan winery, we almost forgot about the brilliant wine list with an enormous depth of vintage. Would you like your birth year wine for the round 40th or 100th? No problem - everything can be organized up to 1811 and is one more good reason to spend the night in the beautifully restored mansion of the estate.