Althoff Seehotel Überfahrt

"We had our 25th anniversary this April and wanted to celebrate just the two of us by having a memorable evening in a 3* Michelin Restaurant. We have been living in several countries around the world and our initial plan was to return to L'Ambroisie in Paris or perhaps to Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester in London for our anniversary. However, having been there not that long ago we changed our mind and dared an experiment: Christian Jürgens' Überfahrt at Tegernsee in Germany. Reviews were very good and hence we were looking very much forward to get to know Mr. Jürgens cuisine. In my reservation - which was done via the Hotel Überfahrt that houses the restaurant - I mentioned the anniversary and so everything should have been set for a nice and memorable evening.Now let me start with the positives. We had the 7-course tasting menu and were rewarded with an outstanding sequence of courses, all cooked to perfection, very creatively presented and prepared and it is no exaggeration to say that they were superbly delicious. The only exception was the "Foie Gras Printemps". It was basically a combination of foie gras, white asparagus, morels and sherry in a green chocolate-like sphere and somehow the distinctive taste of the foie gras got lost in this combination. That was probably the point to replace the sometimes overpowering foie gras taste by a subtle combination of flavours, but it didn't really meet our personal taste. I'm back to my longterm opinion that there is no reason to experiment with foie gras. But well, tastes are different and I'm sure other people might like this dish. The absolute highlight of the menu sequence was a dish called "Bernsteine" (amber) which was a combination of beef marrow, pea mash and persian caviar: simply divine! It was then followed by a dish called "Brüsseler Spitze" (Brussels lace), which was half-grilled and hence half-transparent Wagyu ham on chicoree. This was actually my second favourite out of the menu - rivalled only by the warm raspberry cake with Guanaja chocolate and almonds that was served as dessert. As mentioned above everything was presented in a very creative way - for example the amuse bouche - little tapas-like bites - on the cut trunks of a small tree. We applaud Christian Jürgens for his outstanding creativity and are very grateful for having had the chance to benefit from his skills. Unfortunately, we weren't quite so convinced by the concept of his restaurant. The first noticeable issue is the layout of the tables in the room. The dining room we were in had two 2-guest tables in the corners of the shorter wall of the room. Guests sit on the adjacent sides of the table. This has the advantage that nobody looks against the wall, but the disadvantage that one person at each table sits basically just opposite the person at the table in the other corner. It feels a bit odd to look into a stranger's face and not into the face of your dining partner throughout the entire meal. Simple solution would be to position the tables in a way that one corner points against the wall. Both diners would then sit in a 45-degree angle with their back to the wall and would look into the room and not against the wall but also not into a stranger's face.Whilst the dining room is decorated in warm wood colours and with exclusive fabrics it comes a bit as a surprise that there are no table clothes on the dining tables. Really? Table and floor parquet are made from almost the same material, so perhaps the idea was to not break the colour concept with white linen. I don't know. Or perhaps this was supposed to be a reference to traditional Bavarian restaurants with their simple, solid, wooden tables. Whatever the idea, I'm afraid but it doesn't work. (Just for completeness: the unusual concept culminates in the very moment when after the main course the table is cleaned from bread crumbs. Yes, you picture the brush or other small device that is normally used for this purpose. Here this was done with a damp cleaning cloth that basically left the table surface half wet.) Another unnecessary gimmick was the little wet towel that was served before the dinner. It was one of these little white tablets that one typically finds in cheap restaurants in the Far East: you pour water over it and out of the tablet grows a little towel that - to make things worse - smells like a refreshment towel - an olfactoric distraction from the culinary delights to come. It should go without saying that in a 3* Michelin restaurant one finds an outstanding sommelier. Maybe I have too traditional a view here but I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone. Somehow it seems that in Mr. Jürgens' restaurant there is not one sommelier but some of the staff have a double function of serving food and taking over sommelier responsibilities. So at every table - or group of two smaller tables - one person is responsible for the wine. This doesn't only sound unusual it actually doesn't work: we weren't quite so happy with the sommelier responsible for our table. I have a pretty reasonable understanding of wines and how to match them with food and hence selected a Meursault Poruzots from Mikulski (for the foie gras and the fish course) and a Vosne Romanee for the meat courses and cheese. The sommelier recommended a 2005 over a 2007 for the Meursault but wasn't really able to describe what the difference was. He agreed with the red wine. However, for the foie gras he then - once we had already started drinking the Meursault - recommended a Riesling late vintage which I agreed with (wasn't actually necessary as the typical foie gras taste was missing as mentioned above, so the Meursault would have been fine). What then really irritated us was that he also recommended the Riesling for the fish course as he revealed there was ginger in the dish and it would spoil the Meursault. I'm sorry, but I would have expected a good sommelier telling us that before we started the Meursault. Finally, and I'm really sorry to say that, but the staff overall lacked any sense of warmth. One just didn't feel welcome. The fact that it was our 25th anniversary wasn't mentioned at any point, we weren't even asked whether we had a good day. Simple things that make the world of a difference.As a consequence of all the above we left the restaurant a bit disappointed - and even the outstanding food could not make up for it. Overall this was not an experience one wants to have at the occasion of a 25th anniversary - let alone after paying over EUR1,000. In a 3* Michelin restaurant there should not be room for imperfections. L'Ambroisie and Ducasse will see more of us again.My personal rating system:To what extent did the restaurant meet my expectations (0 to 5)? - 3How likely is it that I will eat here again (0 to 5)? - 1How likely is it that I recommend this restaurant to a friend (0 to 5)? - 3How likely is it that I would put this restaurant on a list of 1,000 places to eat at before you die (0 to 5)? - 3OVERALL RATING (total of the four ratings above, 0 to 20) - 10"