Restaurant Bareiss
Restaurant Bareiss at-a-glance
Awards: 3 michelin star, 19.5 Gault Millau
+Classy French cooking with enough regional flair to remind you that you are eating in Germany and not France
+Some of the best sauce work around with the sauces that went with both of the seafood dishes being particularly stunning`
-While I am sure it is part of the charm for some, for me the style of the restaurant could use a bit updating
Rating: 93/100
Verdict: Bareiss is a restaurant that delivers exactly what it aims to, a step back in time in both the style of the dining room and food served. This style of food may not be the most dazzling but it is among the best tasting, the sauce work and pasty section of Bareiss standing out in particular. Of the four "classical” three stars in Germany I place Bareiss second to Waldhotel Sonnora but I am eager to revisit to see if trying the longer dinner menu would give it a chance at the top spot.
Cost: €130 for 3 course lunch menu
Value: 14/20
Restaurant Bareiss & Chef Claus-Peter Lumpp Background
Restaurant Bareiss sits in a five-star hotel of the same name, nestled in the black forest in Germany. A popular holiday destination for local Germans, the Black Forest offers up some beautiful vista in addition to world class dining with two three Michelin star restaurants (Bareiss and Schwarzwaldtube) just minutes from each other. We visited both Bareiss and Schwarzwaldtube on our trip and found that we liked Bareiss a tad more, although Schwarzwaldtube certainly had the more stunning dining room (before the tragic fire that burned most of the restaurant down in early 2020).
Bareiss kitchen is headed up by Chef Claus-Peter Lumpp who has been the head chef of the restaurant for almost 30 years, managing to retain the restaurant’s two stars when he took over in 1992 before earning the ultimate third star in 2007. Lumpp’s cooking is decidedly classical French but with a few regional touches such as venison hunted on the hotels own estate giving his food a sense of place. The most memorable part about the cooking at Bareiss was Lumpp’s sauce work, up there with The Ritz and Hotel De Ville with among the best I have had.
In addition to an extensive a la carte menu, Restaurant Bareiss offers a long 7-course tasting menu for €258 with the shorter one coming in at €210. At lunch, they offer a shorter 3-course menu for €130 which is what we went with. We did not look at the wine list in detail but went with the lunch pairings which came in at a reasonable €39 for three paired glasses.
What we ate at Restaurant Bareiss
The meal kicked off with a little tower of amuses. I missed the descriptions of each but the overall effect was rather meh. The most surprising part was the bite of sushi which was both completely out of place in a classic French restaurant and also a far cry from the top quality stuff you would find at a proper Sushiya in Japan. Some variation of the sushi bite seems to be a staple in the amuses at Bareiss but I can’t understand why. Before the proper courses, the meal kicked off with a few bigger amuses. First came a plate of mushrooms in different varieties and textures with a puree of parsnips on the bottom. This was not my favorite, the entire dish being served cold which was a bit offputting with the mushrooms and some of the texture being a bit hard in spots. A pretty presentation but failed to excite. The second substantial nibble was pike perch with artichokes was much better and more reflective of the excellence the rest of the meal would show. As with many of the courses that followed, this featured a particularly stunning sauce with the use of vinegar extremely well judged to balance it perfectly.
The first proper course was cod poached in cameline oil with beluga lentils, black carrot and nut butter. A beautiful start to the meal by Chef Claus-Peter Lumpp, the poaching of the cod keeping the fish nice and moist. Even better was the nut butter sauce which has a special place in my memories even many months after visting. A classic french kitchen is only as good as the sauces it puts out and by this test Restaurant Bareiss is an excellent kitchen indeed. The accompanying lentils and carrot were also well above average, the lentils, in particular, adding nice contrasting texture to the silky fish.
The main course was Black-feather Mieral chicken served two ways, breast and leg. Chicken may seem like a boring choice for a three star meal but this is no ordinary supermarket chicken. Mieral is a producer from Bresse, a small area of France known for producing some, if not the best, poultry in the world. The chicken served at Bareiss lived up to its lofty reputation, having tremendous flavor. The first part of the chicken was a fried breast with verbena, butternut squash and roasted pumpkin seeds. Serving chicken breast is a daring move by the kitchen, it lacks fat and can dry out easily if overcooked. However, if cooked properly, it can be moist and act as a blank canvas for the rest of the dish. Fortunately, the breast here was well-timed, retaining all of its juiciness and going well with the flavorful jus. I may have prefer duck, pigeon, lamb or any other meat as the main course but in the end this was chicken breast at the highest level. Even better than the breast was the ragout of braised leg with pumpkin risotto and garam masala. Chicken leg is the opposite of the breast, nice and fatty which lends itself to a deep braise as the kitchen did here. The meat was tender and deeply flavorful, pairing well with the creamy pumpkin risotto which had the perfect al dente texture. A rich treat.
The pastry kitchen kicked off the sweet part of the meal with a dessert fitting of fall consisting of praline and apple tartlets with pistachio and sallow thorn. This was a good example of similar flavor profiles being presented in different formats as it the components came in two formats - first a little “taco” with a generous quenlle of fried apple ice cream and then the esquistely made tarlet on the main plate. I was surprised to see sallowthorn, a main stay in new nordic desserts, used by a classic french pastry team but it went very nicely, adding a nice acidic punch without being overbearing. Overall a pleasing combination of flavors with perfect technique from the pastry team.
Thankfully, the main dessert was not the only offering from Stefan Leitner and the pastry team. The meal concluded with friandise and confiserie & pralines from the trolley which does not sound like much on paper but was actually one of the most extensive offerings of sweet treats to finish a meal I have ever had. This assortment was right up there with the dessert cart at Kong Hans Kælder (which was less extensive but had more substantial choices) and the famous Joel Roubuchon dessert trolley in Monte-Carlo. The friandise selection came before the cart and consisted of some black forest gateau cones, an apricot financier, a neopolitan cake and a few other bites. The cart was even more extensive with a wide assortment of macaroons, pralines, cakes and tarts. Undaunted by the size of the selection, we went with one of each and managed to polish off the entire lot. Despite the quantity, each pastry was made with care and precision and the very best version of itself. A classic dessert trolley of this level was the perfect conclusion to a classic French meal at Restaurant Bareiss.
