Piment

Rating: 16
Author: Gault&Millau

Lehmweg 29, 20251 Hamburg, Germany

16/20
Remarkable Restaurant

1 PHOTOS

Chef: Wahabi Nouri
Cooking: French | Gastronomic | Lebanese | Local
Services: Garden | Terrace
Style: Casual | With children | With friends

Gault&Millau's review 2025

A great chef can be recognized not least by the fact that he remains recognizable in his creations without repeating himself. Wahabi Nouri has been doing this for twenty years. His small restaurant in the north of Hamburg is committed to nouvelle cuisine, but enriches it not with North German, but with Moroccan flavors like others in Hamburg (where, by the way, he did not grow up, he came to Germany at the age of three). Typical of his cuisine is, on the one hand, the almost obsessive use of certain favorite products: Sot-l'y-laisse, for example, is practically always on the menu; and on almost every plate you can taste a hint of cumin or ginger. On the other hand, Nouri is bubbling over with ideas. It's not enough that he accompanies the hamachi (probably his favorite fish at the moment) with a kind of Waldorf salad made from green apple and kohlrabi, to which a fennel jam gives unusual depth. He also combines tonka bean, whose sweet earthiness further contours the fresh notes. How do you come up with something like that? The sous-chef told us later: The beans were simply at hand, actually intended for dessert; so they gave it a try. This dancing lightness runs through the entire menu. A seasonal must-have product such as white asparagus becomes interesting again here – sometimes as a salad with a cheeky mixture of ossietra and olive caviar next to a veal tartare that looked like an ice cream scoop under a tomato-vanilla farce. Then again marinated under a precisely cooked langoustine with fermented chives and congenial liquorice foam. The restaurant lives up to its name: Here, the seasoning is bold and right up to dessert – this time a feather-light coffee parfait with oriental pineapple and gel from the cocoa fruit. Conversely, you shouldn't be surprised if the main course is dusted with a pinch of powdered sugar, as is done in Morocco. The allspice, it must be added, is not a place to make an impression. Business eaters are rarely seen here; influencers ignore it completely. This may be due to the cozy but simple furnishings. Maybe also because of the shy owner, who hardly ever leaves his kitchen. You come here if you like it familiar and modest. Hicham Khabbaz, the long-time host, is always there when you need him, without ever interrupting a table conversation.