Lakeside

Rating: 16
Author: Gault&Millau

Badestraße 10, 20148 Hamburg, Germany

16/20
Remarkable Restaurant

BOOK

1 PHOTOS

Chef: Julian Stowasser
Cooking: French | Gastronomic | Vegetarian
Services: Access for people with disabilities | Accommodation | Electric charging station | Private Parking | Terrace
Style: Bar | Elegant | Romantic

Gault&Millau's review 2025

It is Hanseatic-modern, the noble ambience of the hotel also unfolds stylishly on the seventh floor of this very good house. You almost have the feeling of having arrived in your own feel-good bubble, everything is somehow perfectly coordinated and shines with well-dosed self-confidence. With a mirror-image nonchalance, Maître Michel Buder and his team welcome us in a friendly, almost friendly manner by Hamburg standards. What follows is a symphony for the senses at a considerable level, although it would be more of a modernized classical era than a modern or even avant-garde. Chef Julian Stowasser continues to rely almost exclusively on the usual protagonists of top gastronomy, but knows how to stage them skilfully and always with small rough edges. So no Bach cantata with a clearly structured style, to stay with the metaphor. But this does not yet succeed seamlessly at four-toque level, so that we are still sticking to the previous very high rating for this year, very well on the lookout for the next steps. For example, the quite classic composition of oyster, crème fraîche and N25 caviar succeeds well at the start, but is haptically and tastefully unbalanced by the red onions used, the onion note remains on the palate in the reverberation - a little less or portioned into small pieces would be much better. In the lobster with wonderful pineapple, coriander and a fantastic lemongrass broth, the main actor remains the second winner again, lacking some of its own aromas due to a restrained and slightly too long en nature preparation. Again better, but still a little more classic then first asparagus with great lake trout (with Piedmontese hazelnut as an aromatic backbone) in combination with wood sorrel and a quaffable beurre blanc. The hazelnut just manages not to become too dominant here. It continues palatable and a few bars more forced and rustic in the form of a formidable venison neck with braised cabbage, mélange blanc and shaved foie gras - that's bold and brilliant at the same time. We also see one more toque for the perfectly roasted, fully aromatic, juicy lamb in the main course, which scores highly with caponata, sweetbread sandwich and Amalfi lemon, although the lemon also wants to play its way into the foreground a bit, but thank God it doesn't succeed. Patissier Marco D'Andrea seamlessly follows the high level of Julian Stowasser with Coulommiers by Maître Anthony with aubergine, prune and shallots as well as a wonderfully light, exotic fruit dessert with tamarind and Thai basil, who slowly works out some edges in his dishes – it remains exciting to see where his performances will take us.