Haerlin

What is now the Fairmont Hotel in Hamburg was opened in 1897 by Frederich Haerlin. The Haerlin restaurant was opened in 1919. The kitchen has been run since 2002 by Christoph Rüffer, who gained two Michelin stars for the restaurant in 2010 and a third star in 2025. The Fairmont hotel originally had just 11 rooms when it opened in 1897, but over the years, it has been expanded several times and now has 156 rooms. Haerlin is on the ground floor of the hotel, the dining room with well-spaced tables and a view out over the Alster lake. The tasting menu was priced at €305 (£265) per person. Haerlin had around 45,000 bottles of wine in its labyrinthine cellar, with several large cabinets on display in the dining room. The size of the collection varies seasonally and can be around 60,000 bottles or so. 

The wine list had 994 labels and ranged in price from €45 to €32,500, with a median price of €265 and an average markup to retail price of 2.3 times, which is very fair if you are used to cities like London. Sample references were Alvarinho Soalheiro 2022 at €60 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for €19, Riesling trocken 'Eitelsbacher' Karthäuserhof 2023 at €70 compared to its retail price of €61, and Crianza 'Tinto Pesquera' Fernandez 2020 at €95 for a wine that will set you back €32 in the high street. For those with the means, there was Bell Hill Pinot Noir 2020 at €340 compared to its retail price of €210, and Cabernet Sauvignon Clajeux Vineyards Arnot-Roberts, Chalk Hill 2019 at €400 for a wine whose current market value is €142.

We started the meal seated opposite the kitchen for some canapés before we moved to the dining room. Light cured sardine and cream of feta was served with crispy potato and snail. This tasted better than it sounds, with a delicate base and the sardines having good flavour. Shrimp tartlet came with trout caviar, pickled shallot, fennel greens and a little calamansi. This was excellent, the tartlet delicate and the shallot a good balance for the natural sweetness of the shrimp. The final canapé was beef tartare with miso, aubergine and trevisano, a type of radicchio, was served in a Parmesan croustade. This was the best of the three canapés, the tartare very nicely seasoned and its richness nicely balanced by the radicchio (17/20 average for the canapés).

Venison stock was served in a little glass and also had pieces of lovage, crepe roulade and tiny ravioli of quail. The stock had lovely deep flavour and the little ravioli was superb. This was so good that we asked for a second portion (19/20). Japanese milk bread and sourdough weee made from scratch in the kitchen and were both excellent. The sourdough in particular had a superb texture. This came with butter from the famous cheese maker Bernard Antony from Alsace. 

Salmon Scottish salmon from the Isle of Mull came with a Marie Rose sauce and aged sake. The sauce was very good but there is a limit to how exciting farmed salmon can ever be (16/20). Crab was combined with avocado, apple and a foam of kafir lime with a crab broth. This was a classic combination of flavours, with the natural sweetness of the crab balanced by the acidity of the lime and the richness of the avocado (19/20). 

Dover sole fillet came with a sauce of artichoke and citrus, a deep, richly flavoured sauce. The fish was accompanied by olive and parsley flavoured Parmesan tortelli. The fish was superbly cooked, the pasta was delicate, and the sauce a joy (19/20). A prettily presented dish of John Dory was wrapped in a courgette flower case and came with fennel, lemon and a roasted pepper foam. This was another lovely dish, the fish precisely cooked and the pepper sauce nicely complementing the fish (18/20). Sweetbread and lobster featured a local calf sweetbread from a source just north of Hamburg. This came with asparagus sauce and a shellfish bisque flavoured with ginger. The lobster was tender and the sweetbread had a pleasing, airy texture and delicate flavour (18/20).  

Bernard Antony cheeses were in excellent condition and were served with another very good bread, this one a soft brioche infused with citrus. Pineapple and saffron sorbet came with mezcal (distilled agave), distilled basil and green jalapeno. This was a dish that my dining companion liked but I have to say that I found it quite challenging. I had no problem with the hint of jalapeño, but the pineapple flavour was lost, the basil dominating along with the smoky, floral notes of the mezcal. I didn’t think that the combination worked very well (13/20 for me but obviously some people like it). The main dessert featured Atlander cherries from near Hamburg, with yoghurt, pistachio and ginger, along with elderflower sorbet and a decorative chocolate tuile. I am not sure what the elderflower sorbet flavour really added to the dish, but the cherries were very good (16/20). The coffee was from a local roaster called 55 degrees, and was a pleasant Mexican coffee. This came with a selection of petit fours including a strawberry macaron, and a white chocolate and blueberry concoction. 

Service was charming, with a particularly knowledgeable sommelier. The bill came to €386 (£336) per person with wine. If you shared a modest bottle of wine, then a typical cost per person might be around £290 or so. I think the weak link in the meal was the desserts, which is not an uncommon phenomenon in restaurants these days, but the standard of the savoury courses was very high, comfortably at an 18/20 level. The overall experience at Haerlin was excellent, with a comfortable dining room, nice menu and lovely service.