Ösch Noir

Rating: 18
Author: Gault&Millau

Golfplatz 1, 78166 Donaueschingen, Germany

18/20
Prestige Restaurant

1 PHOTOS

Chef: Manuel Ulrich
Cooking: European | French | Gastronomic | International | Vegetarian
Services: Access for people with disabilities | Accommodation | Electric charging station | Private Parking
Style: Bar | Elegant | Romantic | With friends

Gault&Millau's review 2025

Welcome to Germany's most exclusive Aldi store! Directly adjacent to the regional headquarters of the discounter is the spacious Öschberghof. And with the same precision with which Aldi Süd Managing Director Alexander Herbst, who has also been the boss of the group's own stylish golf resort since the end of 2023, optimizes the range of his stores to mass taste, Manuel Ulrich, who was born in Donaueschingen, fine-tunes creations for a complementary audience in his fully glazed kitchen. Here, it's not "good for everyone", but "best for the few". The very best. Great cuisine, great wines, big prices. Anyone who dines here is great. With an uncompromising focus on quality in product provenance as well as artisanal preparation and an attentive and competent service, the team around Ulrich and Maître Michael Häni is continuously on the way to market leadership - just like the parent company, only completely different. In the last four years, we have rated Manuel Ulrich better from meal to meal. And this time, too, we can't help but turn four black toques into four red ones. Because what is served between the 2,391 glass balls in the spacious, dark (noir!) restaurant achieves a degree of craftsmanship perfection from amuse to patisserie that only a few offer. Ulrich builds his menus (classic and vegetarian) from rather acidic ingredients (pickles!) and well-groomed, tart bitter notes, which are accentuated with sweetness and fine roasted aromas. The result is wonderful complex miniatures such as the red cabbage meringue for an aperitif with foie gras and pistachio crackers. The lobster comes floral and bright with sesame crunch, pineapple sweetness and pickled carrot on the table. The surf-and-turf version of a perfect scallop with roasted duck liver and sour pumpkin in intense poultry jus is great. In general: the sweetbreads are caressed by a truffle foam with Black Forest miso, in the vegetarian menu the onion variations are convincing in their essence and nut butter foam. What is still missing for the fifth toque is not more precision, but more courage, more unusualness, more individual signature. This is indicated, but there is still room for improvement: Ulrich only once left classic flavours during our visit and combined flamed cod with an intense Icelandic sea urchin tongue, plus sweet and sour cucumber cannelloni, yuzu notes and sea urchin foam. Certainly not everybody's darling – but that's exactly why we want more of it.