Day 4 - Rest & Recover
As anticipated, this was a well-needed day for recovery. The hotel was perfect for the occasion, starting with a huge breakfast buffet, good coffee, and what really turned into a leisurely brunch. Afterwards sauna, sleep, reading, writing, a bit of a walk through the very pretty old town of Ettlingen, and then dinner in the 1 Star Erbprinz Gourmet restaurant.
The Dinner
I chose the five course meal with matching wines and it was a solid 1 star performance. There was some “fingerfood” followed by an amuse bouche of salmon in joghurt sauce. Let’s call it interesting. Especially the asparagus water with raspberry vinegar was strange.
The first course was a “Maibock” saddle with foie gras ice cream. Interesting but too ambitious for the flavour profiles involved. The ice cream was interesting but nothing in this dish that I would go back for. Matched with a GT from neighbouring Alsace - a good match.
The second course was red mullet, with some form of grass (called Junge Ähren in German, no idea what that is in English - I did not even know this in German…), basil couscous, sumac yoghurt and lime confit. The mullet was perfect but the sides did not convince me. The lime confit was overpowering in its acidity and intensity, the basil in the couscous I could not taste and the sumac lost against the lime. It was matched with a Chablis 1er Cru, not a perfect match I thought as the lemoncurd notes were too similar to the lime confit and did not balance the dish.
Then we got a green gazpacho as a palate cleanser I assume. But it was treated as a whole course and had its own full glass of wine with it. Green gazpacho from grapes, almonds, green capsicum, and avocado. Not sure it cleansed my palate but it felt overall like a well-balanced dish. The wine was a Grüner Silvaner with strong green notes and it worked quite well with the dish.
The main was a full monk fish that we shared. That was spectacular and easily the highlight of the evening. It was accompanied by a chorizo sauce - I must copy this the next time I make monkfish at home. Stunning. The wine matching was a bold 2016 Le Clos Centeilles from Minervois, quite tannic but it was my favourite match of the evening. This dish made up for everything else in my mind.
Before the last course, there was a pre-dessert of chocolate mousse. Given that I ate most of the (excellent) sourdough bread and butter, I was quite full at that time and chocolate mousse, even if the quenelle was on the smaller side, was not somthing I needed. But it was delicious.
Then dessert was an elderflower & strawberry affair. I get it, both are in season. But the strawberries were so intense that the elderflower mousse and tempura were basically only there for texture. The wine match was an outstanding 2021 Saint Patrick Beerenauslese by KH Johner from the Kaiserstuhl. But I am a big fan of sweet wines, so I might not have been overly objective on this one.
Summary
In summary, yes, good food. But frankly I had better plates and spoons in unstarred restaurants, so I found the price/performance ratio to be rather lacking. The notable exception is, as I said above, the monkfish. Wine matches were so-so, but the true letdown was the service. Last night, the restaurant was not full… there were only 8 guests in total. However, service felt like an afterthought, while the waiters and the somm spent significant time with one of the tables (probably repeat customers, fine) and did not pay enough attention to the rest.
So do I regret it? No. I regret eating the bread but I usually do (and still do it over and over again…) - but the “normal” restaurant on site, Sibyllas Weinstube, is a much better value proposition and service was top notch. I would come back for that - but not for the gourmet restaurant.