Ox & Klee

Rating: 18
Author: Gault&Millau

Im Zollhafen 18, 50678 Cologne, Germany

18/20
Prestige Restaurant

BOOK

1 PHOTOS

Chef: Daniel Gottschlich
Cooking: Gastronomic | International | Vegetarian
Services: Private Parking | Private Room
Style: Casual | With friends

Gault&Millau's review 2025

Daniel Gottschlich, without a doubt a talented chef, compares a visit to his restaurant with a play. One can agree with that. Gottschlich's culinary appearance is coherently staged, contains some show effects that would also cause a sensation at a children's birthday party, and delights with his creations above all guests who want to satisfy their thirst for knowledge rather than their hunger. A culinary lesson of the finest is offered in minimalist acts with the certainty of being part of aromatic puzzles that are solved on punch cards at the end. If, on the other hand, you want to enjoy an uncomplicated dinner without wordy explanations or expect correspondingly tangible portions for your money, you do not necessarily belong to the target group of the "Experience Taste Restaurant". The edible guessing game begins with six different aperitifs in the taste sensations sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami and fatty. What gives the appearance of a greeting from the kitchen is advertised as the first course by the friendly service, dressed in dreary black. The second is a slice of sourdough bread, decorated with a pretty picture of an ox in clover. To do this, six different types of butter, flavoured with calamansi and turmeric, marshmallow and pimenton de la vera, or leeks and truffles, olive and dandelion, nori and spirulina and brown butter and crème fraîche, are placed on a painter's palette. Imagination is required for the "Alpine Walk in Austria", which has as its main theme a char pickled in lavender salt and slightly flamed, which lies in a fermented gooseberry broth, decorated with mini apple pieces and iced horseradish, for which the cold unfortunately takes away too much of its fine spiciness. Thanks to dry ice, the "Köllsche" infusion of "4711 Lavendelduft" produces the white smoke that already caused astonished eyes in the provincial discos of the 1970s and is said to remind Gottschlich's fish course of the morning fog in the Alps. In order to distinguish the following truffle pasta from the "boring pasta dishes of other restaurants", as the service advertised, Périgord truffles are generously sliced over the spaghettini, which are served with a hint of Parmesan and a wonderfully aromatic-spicy onion and truffle jus. It gets small-scale with lobster and smoked eel, mini pastries in the too salty broth, plus à part smoked eel foam on an equally salty lobster consommé with yuzu. Course six is a gag and a homage to Cologne. The "Halve Hahn" presents itself as a consommé of "Kölner Röggelchen", served with onion, cucumber and Gouda foam, which is hidden in a cockscomb, and a small Kölsch. For the main course, a tender slice of saddle of venison, served with smoked tartlet with venison rillettes, venison consommé flavored with spruce needles, quince, black walnut and chestnut and a praline with lightly pickled venison tartare and mushroom cream. Finally, the pâtissière appears at the table and serves a deeply aromatic ensemble of plantains, tarragon and lime broth with drizzled coffee oil, pashmak, a pulled Persian cotton candy, and fermented soybeans. On top of that, a mixture of coffee ice cream and plantain sorbet on a stick. The impractical wine list seems a little uninspired and superficially put together.