Tohru in der Schreiberei - Munich
The brown interior color was decreed by the city of Munich (no joke)
Rating: 17/20
Where: Munich, Germany
When: Dinner for 2 on 9 July 2024
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 315 Euro, Wine Pairing 224-669 Euro
Accolades: 2 Michelin Stars
Why: Unique (and successful) combination of Japanese, German and French cuisines
“Tohru in der Schreiberei” is a uncommonly descriptive name for a restaurant - it leaves no doubt about who is cooking (chef Tohru Nakamura), and where (in the “Schreiberei”, one of Munich's oldest buildings). The two-Michelin-starred restaurant is located one floor above street level, and is reachable either through its own, easy-to-miss door, or by entering the restaurant “Die Schreiberei” on the ground floor and looking lost (we naturally went for the latter option).
What makes the cuisine at Tohru unique is that it reflects the chef's Japanese and German heritages, with dishes citing both cuisines (and French for good measure). These days, Western cuisine with Japanese influences is rather commonplace among fine dining restaurants (not that I'm complaining, mind you). But Tohru manages to find its own path among the two cultures, making the result feel a bit more organic and more personal than one might expect.
Dining in a historic building in the middle of Munich has its upsides and downsides. The location, a mere two minute walk from the city's central Marienplatz, is superb. But the city’s restrictions on the use of a “protected building” are another story. They explain the slightly lackluster interior design. While the wooden tables and chairs are modern, the rest of the room feels more old-school, thanks to a prevalence of brown tones (or green for the private dining room), all dictated by the city. The dining room also lacks air conditioning for the same reason, but we didn't really notice on a pretty warm summer’s day.
Tohru served a single tasting menu that was adjusted based on dietary restrictions. Two wine pairings were offered, and interestingly, every wine in the pairings was listed with a by-the-glass price. So in practice, the two pairings were just suggestions and one could order whatever combination one desired - only part of a pairing, a mix of both, and so on. We tried part of the “cheaper” pairing and the entirety of the pricier one. (After spending a few days in Copenhagen, its high price didn't seem that shocking anymore.) Not surprisingly, the more expensive pairing featured almost uniformly excellent wines. Tohru’s sommelier was extraordinarily helpful, splitting our pairings after he noticed that we were trying both options, and even pouring me a taster of the “correct” pairing when I sampled my wife's pescatarian replacement dish. Wines were topped off as well - another splash of d'Yquem? Yes, please! So, overall, this pairing was a winner, but I couldn't help noticing that its price could be cut in half by skipping (or replacing) the dessert wines. That might be a more sensible way of getting a good pairing. Also, since the pairings didn't start until the fourth course of the tasting menu, ordering an aperitif might be a reasonable idea.
Our first course was an oyster that had been poached and then grilled. It sat atop a carrot tartare and was dressed with an XO sauce, an oyster dashi vinaigrette and a Japanese flower. This was a flavorful dish - the XO sauce in particular added a welcome complexity to the overall taste profile. The carrot provided a bit of crunch, but the oyster was mostly there for texture, unfortunately 18. (My wife would have rated this a 19 for exactly the opposite reason - she is not particularly fond of oysters, so the less oyster flavor, the better.)
A chawanmushi that came with Dutch lobster and little zucchini cubes was also excellent. The custard had a great texture, the lobster was lovely, there was some acidity, and also a hint of spice that tasted of horseradish but might have been wasabi. A fairly traditional seeming dish, but more flavorful than the typical Japanese version 19.
The chef sounded almost apologetic when introducing our next course, a rice dish. He admitted that its position in the menu was unusual: in Japan, rice dishes tend to signal the end of a meal, whereas here it merely closed out the amuse bouches. On the plate was a little tower of Japanese rice, whose brand translated to “love at first sight”. It was topped with Belgian caviar, freshly grated wasabi, red meat radish and crispy ginger. All of this was surrounded by a sauce that was a variant of a “beurre blanc”, but used sake and rice vinegar instead of the more traditional ingredients. A delicious dish: acidic, with great rice and caviar 19. (20 from my wife.)
The first course with a paired wine was a fish dish. A small filet of char was served with green apples, kohlrabi, trout roe, and a sauce made from dandelions. The char was nicely cooked, but maybe not quite as melt-in-your-mouth buttery as I've seen elsewhere. I liked the pickled kohlrabi on top, but was a bit confused by the large temperature variations in the dish: most of it was warm, but the trout roe felt like it came directly from the fridge 18.
Three slices of hamachi had been briefly grilled over Japanese coals to create a dish that was half cooked, and half sashimi. It was served with a hamachi tartare, two kinds of cucumbers (Japanese snake cucumber and German garden cucumber) and several kinds of seaweed (hijiki, nori, kombu). Finally, there was a vinaigrette made of herbs from Brittany that were reportedly mixed by a former three-star chef. Where to begin? The hamachi together with the vinaigrette were heavenly. This preparation combined the best taste and texture of grilled and raw fish, and the sauce not only added some acidity, but it also was very aromatic. If this was all there was on the plate, this would have been an easy 20. The rest was a bit less successful, though: the hamachi tartare paled in comparison to the grilled version, and the cucumbers were fine, but not revelatory. Curiously, the paired wine really brought out the cucumber flavor in the dish 19.
Apparently, no meal in Bavaria can be complete without a bread course, so we received a toasted slice of bread topped with an Osaki wagyu tartare, mini chanterelles and herbs. All of this was surrounded by a chanterelle beurre blanc and chanterelle oil. The bread was crunchy and the tartare nice enough, but overall the flavors seemed a bit muted. I wonder if more acidity could have helped 17. The pescatarian version used chopped chanterelles instead of beef, and was a bit drier in comparison 16. The elevated pairing served a cocktail at this point, which seemed too sweet for either version of the dish, the wine from the basic pairing was actually a better fit.
Skate had been charcoal grilled and glazed with miso. Next to it was what our server called a “pani puri”: a tartlet filled with artichokes, ceps and crab. The dish was finished with a mussel sauce. The glaze on the fish was very tasty, but the meat was rather plain - it didn't taste of much. The pani puri was quite unlike the popular Indian chaat: it was merely a cracker with a moussy filling. The best thing about this dish was the mussel sauce, which went excellently with the slice of foccacia served on the side (17 for that combination). Overall 16.
Moving on to meat dishes, a pigeon breast was served over a pigeon ragout and with a kimchi salad. On the side was a cup of pigeon dashi (not pictured). I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fan of pigeon, and felt that this one was fine, but not amazing. I liked the other parts of the dish better: the ragout, the sauce and the crunchy and lightly spicy salad. The dashi was intensely flavorful, which is a plus, but also tasted intensely of pigeon, which (at least to me) is not. A not very objective 17. The pescatarian replacement dish was entirely different. Red mullet came with eggplant, artichokes and a sauce made with ginger. In an accompanying cup we found a dashi made with kombu. Unfortunately, the fish felt a bit overcooked. But the eggplant dish was out of this world, acidic and very aromatic, a 20 by itself. Overall, also a 17.
It's not Tohru's fault that their second meat dish also used an ingredient that I'm not a big fan of - sweetbread. In this case, the sweetbreads had been double fried giving their outside a texture of chicken nuggets. Their inside, however, still had the spongy texture loved and/or hated the world over. On the side were peas, veal tongue, anchovies, chips of veal tongue, and a hollandaise made with 'nduja and soppressata. The savory sauce was quite good, the peas ok, but not great, and the sweetbread... well, objectively it was pretty good, but just not my cup of tea 16. To be fair, if I wasn't writing this review, I probably would have asked for a different main course. And in this case, the pescatarian alternative indeed turned out to be much better. Loup de mer had been grilled, seasoned with lemon zest, and came with brown butter, a fennel salad, tomatoes, quinoa, frisee and a warm tomato vinaigrette. The fish was lovely and the salad was bursting with flavors. A wonderful dish 18+.
A palate cleanser consisted of a granita of ginger root flower (myoga), a yuzu sorbet, fresh myoga as well as a raisin that had been dried and then rehydrated using champagne. This dish tasted mostly of yuzu - definitely not a bad thing -, and wasn't spicy at all, despite the use of myoga 17.
Next came an assortment of small bites, “hanami” in the words of the restaurant. Frozen pastry cream was enrobed in chocolate, topped with an elderflower meringue and surrounded by a passion fruit sauce. The combination of the chocolate praline and the acidity of the sauce was quite nice 17.
A cannoli was filled with Chantilly cream and salted sakura - nicely creamy and sweet 16. A tartlet was filled with cherries and black sesame. This mostly tasted of the cherry jelly, and was merely ok 15. A sandwich of Doraemon cookies was filled with matcha cream and orange blossoms. The cookies were spongy and the matcha flavor was pleasant, but light 16.
Our final dish, and closest to a “real” dessert, was a variation on melons. It featured several different kinds of melons, a melon sorbet and a watermelon vinaigrette. Also present: a cheesecake and a sabayon of ginger. Altogether a fresh, melon-y dessert, and a light, pleasant end to our meal 16.
Overall: A great dinner than combined influences of Japanese, German and French cuisines. The most successful dishes were the ones that leaned most heavily into Japanese inspirations - these were solidly in three-star territory. The more “Western” courses, such as the meat dishes, were still good, but maybe a bit less distinctive 17.
