Alois - Dallmayr Fine Dining - Munich
Semi-kitsch interior design
Rating: 17/20
Where: Munich, Germany
When: Dinner for 2 on 1 July 2023
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 285 Euro, Wine pairing 145-220 Euro
Accolades: 2 Michelin Stars
Why: Varied series of little bites showcasing great produce; amazing sauces
Note: Alois' head chef Max Natmessnig left a few months after our visit to take over the three-starred “Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare” in New York.
Dallmayr is an institution in Munich, a purveyor of fine foods that has been in business for several centuries. Caviar, oysters, wine, meat, fish, chocolates, ..., all are imported or house-made and can be purchased on the ground floor of Dallmayr's flagship store near Munich's central Marienplatz. With all this produce at their fingertips, it's no surprise that Dallmayr also owns several restaurants. One of them, two-starred Alois, is just upstairs from the store. (Dallmayr is a bit more upscale than Brooklyn Fare, so this restaurants/store combination is arguably an even better fit than New York's Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare.)
The decor of Alois’ two adjoining dining rooms manages to hit just the right level of kitsch, giving the whole experience a lightheartedness that a more traditional interior design would not have achieved. In fact, our room was never quiet, guests were constantly chatting animatedly. But thankfully, tables were spaced far enough apart so that one didn't have to be an unwilling witness to the conversation at a neighboring table. A much more relaxed atmosphere compared to our dinner at JAN on the previous night.
Alois serves a single tasting menu that can be adapted for food intolerances. A shorter menu is available during lunch time. Two wine pairings were on offer, the more expensive of which replaced about half the wines of the basic pairing with fancier selections. We tried both pairings. I'm sad to report that the pours of the wines were terribly small: at one point we received a wine that was supposed to last for two courses, but was barely enough to bridge even the wait time until the first of these dishes showed up. Granted, our glasses were eventually topped up when we literally found ourselves with empty wine glasses, and the sommelier was nice enough to serve both of us wines from the more expensive pairing, even though only one of us was paying for it. But having to consciously ration our wine intake made for an unnecessarily stressful experience. Maybe ordering by the glass (or by the bottle) would be a better way to go.
The tasting menu was a series of seventeen bites, and they barely increased in size as the meal progressed. The first course was a vegetable consomme made from fermented tomatoes. We were surprised by the consistency of the broth - it was more like a thick tomato juice than a regular consomme. An oily coating distinguished it from pure tomato soup, and it had a smoky aroma without a corresponding smoky taste. Overall, a pleasant dish 17.
Next, trout tartare was served on a horseradish meringue and finished with horseradish cream, wasabi and horseradish shavings. Given these ingredients, it was no surprise that the result was nicely spicy. The tartare was lovely, making this a light dish that seemed simple without being simple 18.
A cracker shell filled with beef tartare, whipped cream, truffles and caviar arrived soon thereafter. I couldn't taste the truffles, but otherwise this was a lovely bite. The beef tartare had a strong taste, the caviar added some saltiness, and the shell had a good crunch - a sign of a la minute preparation 18. The pescatarian alternative had tomato marmalade inside the cracker shell, topped with whipped cream and a slice of truffle. The smoky tomato was nice, but this wasn't as flavorful as the beef version 16. My wife really liked this dish, however, and thought it deserved a 19.
More crackers: a nori tartlet was filled with stracciatella cheese and topped with pea shoots. The ingredients came together seamlessly to create a wonderful whole - it was hard to taste them individually, but the sum was greater than the parts. Very smoky, creamy and with (again) a great crunch from the the tartlet 18. My wife thought this was another 19.
Fried tamago came with creme fraiche, salmon roe and shaved dried egg yolk. This was the most unusual tamago I've ever seen. Far from the eggy, slightly sweet conclusion to a sushi dinner, this seemed more like fried bread. There was still a hint of sweetness, but unfortunately the fried base made this dish quite fatty, needing the creme fraiche and roe to lighten it up a bit 17.
Next, we were given a brief presentation of the ingredients used in the upcoming courses. Not quite at the level of, say, Frantzen, it was nevertheless a useful reminder that our dinner was based on the produce sold on the floor below us.
Back at our table, we received a choux pasty filled with pickled corn, Australian winter truffles and topped with shaved frozen duck liver. The sourness of the corn nicely balanced the heaviness of the foie gras, making this a pretty light bite overall 17. The pescatarian alternative was filled with goat cheese, berries and mountain cheese. Fine, but a step down from the foie gras version 15.
Cured char was served with a vinaigrette made from char and buttermilk; on the side was a dollop of smoked kohlrabi foam. The sauce was heavenly: tart and sour, creamy, spicy, and full of vegetable flavors (a 20 if rated individually). The kohlrabi foam was not as impressive, and the char tasted a bit fishy. After mixing everything together, the sauce lost its specialness, and the dish felt a bit too busy 17.
Grilled abalone came with a sauce made from abalone liver, pickled kombu, caviar and rice. Unlike similar abalone liver sauces, this one was quite light and a bit acidic - lovely! The abalone was cooked to a very soft texture, without any bite. A nice dish, but unfortunately very small 17. My wife thought this was very good, and deserved an 18.
Squid was served with a romesco sauce and heart of palms. Another thoroughly amazing sauce that I would happily drink by the cup - flavorful, acidic, almost meaty, and delicious (19 by itself). The squid was cooked very tender, leaving it with a bit less bite than I would have liked. Oddly, that meant that most of the texture of this dish came from the chopped nuts in the sauce 17.
The next course repeated the familiar pattern: an amazing sauce with a less stellar rest of the dish. Here, we had grilled turbot that was topped with mussels, shrimp and lardo, all paired with a pil pil sauce. The sauce was just the right amount of salty and acidic, and the addition of fig leaves lent it a touch of bitterness (19 or 20). The fish, on the other hand, didn't taste of much, the shrimp was fine, leaving the creamy mussels probably the best part of the dish, especially when combined with the excellent sauce 17.
On to a Thai-inspired dish: grilled langoustine, served over grilled vegetables (edamame, mushrooms, green beans) and topped with a pandan espuma and kaffir lime dust. The langoustine was cooked perfectly, and went very well with the sauce. The vegetables were crunchy and tasted fresh, while the sauce was a bit spicy and a tad oily 18.
In the running for tonight's award of least photogenic dish was a mushroom custard served with grilled duck liver, a mushroom consomme and shaved black truffles. Thankfully, this was pretty tasty, provided that one liked mushrooms. The consomme was very flavorful and went lovely with the truffle shavings and other mushrooms (including morels) present in the custard 17. The pescatarian version simply omitted the duck liver.
A palate cleanser before the main course was an herb sorbet, served with Thai basil, cilantro, vanilla and a little bit of rum. Nice enough, the sorbet was pretty sweet, and the underlying sauce added some welcome acidity 17.
Grilled lamb, with a lamb shoulder ragout and an elderflower hollandaise was a flavorful main dish. The lamb was very good, not gamey at all, but with a bit too much fat on it for my taste. The shoulder confit was salty and intense, very yummy 18. Pescatarians received a braised beetroot, served with beet jus and the same elderflower hollandaise. We also suspected that the dish contained goat cheese, and the combination was delicious: sweet, pickled, sour - all flavors coming together wonderfully 18.
The cheese course was served in the kitchen, which at this point of the night was already scrubbed clean. A cracker was filled with an espuma of mimolette, Austrian mountain cheese, and one other cheese that I didn’t catch. Topped with more mountain cheese, grated black truffles and 25-year-old balsamic vinegar this was a nice cracker with good cheeses and a nice truffle flavor, but felt a bit simple compared to the other courses 16.
Back at our table, our main dessert were strawberries, served with a strawberry sorbet, a dill (!) parfait, sesame crackers and a strawberry/dill sauce. I liked the strawberry parts of this dish, even though the fruits themselves were not that sweet, but the dill flavor was somewhat odd. Brownie points for trying something unusual 16.
Finally, a pastry that was a cross between a croissant and a brioche. The chef called this a “Fujisan bread” after the mountain in Japan - I’m not sure why. It was similar to a monkey bread. Whatever you call it, this pull-apart pastry was sweet and delicious (17/18 by itself). It was accompanied by a roasted coconut ice cream, which was fine, but tasted surprisingly salty compared to the pastry (14/15). As a whole 16.
Overall: An impressive series of small bites that skewed towards French cuisine, but had the occasional Asian influence. The unifying theme of “cooking from Dallmayr's food provisions” made the sequence seem a bit less arbitrary than it would otherwise have been. The food was consistently very good, with some of the sauces truly world-class. Now if only the wine pairing pours were a bit more generous, there would be little to criticize 17.
