Restaurant Esszimmer

Rating: 16
Author: Gault&Millau

Hauptstraße 9, 88477 Schwendi, Germany

16/20
Remarkable Restaurant

BOOK

1 PHOTOS

Chef: Julius Reisch | Johann Seiringer
Cooking: French | Gastronomic | German | Home cooking | Local | Seafood | Vegetarian
Services: Access for people with disabilities | Accommodation | Electric charging station | Private Parking | Private Room | Terrace
Style: Casual | Romantic | With children | With family | With friends

Gault&Millau's review 2025

Julius Reisch (kitchen) and his wife Anna-Maria (service) met at the Söl'ring Hof in Sylt. Back at their parents' inn in Schwendi, the two celebrate contemporary cuisine in dignified surroundings that evolves from year to year. During our summer visit, the chef brought the creations on fine KPM porcelain to the table himself and his wife stayed at home heavily pregnant. But the brigade seemed to work perfectly even without the serving patron, because what came out of the kitchen in an extraordinarily aesthetic look did not need to hide aromatically and tastefully, on the contrary! On nice days, the aperitif is served in the garden, with us an earthy trio of vadouvan carrot as ice cream with chili spiciness and emmer crunch (an ancient grain grown in the Swabian Alb), potato rösti with beetroot jelly, ham and horseradish as well as a variation of mushrooms (raw, as mousse, as a mirror) with onion. Clear aromas, precisely prepared. Emmer and paprika or chili then also run as a red thread through the entire menu up to the dessert (a deceptively real fake pointed pepper made of white chocolate mousse with elderberry paprika sorbet and chili). And we notice that we are in the countryside by the generously sized menu portions that the predominantly senior audience can enjoy (the foodie rush, we are sure, will come). The restaurant's two stylishly white-covered halls show a little of the renovation preferences of the nineties (a showcase here, a bay window there), but Julius Reisch's cuisine is very much up to date. Like the ice cream of young garlic with vintage sardine on tomato-pepper mousse served at the start of the menu: respect, we wouldn't have expected that here. And we are thrilled by the completely independent world of taste and intensity that Julius Reisch teases out of vegetables. This is followed by a lovingly arranged cucumber garden in variations (fresh, pickled, as mousse, gel and stock), from which a tower of yoghurt meringue, mousse and cucumber sorbet, topped with emmer crunch, grows: a wonderfully refreshing summer dish, as does the European lobster, which is perfectly cooked in large pieces on poached potato mousselin and topped with gossamer fries, allumettes, orange and grapefruit accompanied by a paprika-hot melted sobrasada, served with glasswort sticks. A poem! If Julius Reisch cooks up the more classic, impeccably prepared meat courses (crispy piglet belly of Swabian-Hallish pork with chanterelles, apricot and coriander as well as Wagyu beef loin from the Big Green Egg with plucked oxtail and a wonderful variation of Roscoff onion) as courageously as he does with the vegetables, the fourth toque will not be taken away from him in the coming season. We will be back!