Restaurant Vendôme
Restaurant Vendôme Review at-a-glance
Awards: 3 Michelin star, 19.5 Gault Millau
+An impressive array of amuse bouches to start, the “Veeses” of chocolate cups filled with caramel, peanut, and foie gras was the highlight of the entire meal.
+Lots of technical skill on display from the kitchen and the entire service ran like clockwork, courses spaced out evenly, and the service silky smooth.
-Despite being known for modern cooking, the food on the lunch menu played it a bit safe.
Rating: 92/100
Verdict: Joachim Wissler is one of the leading “New German” chefs and known for his modern, creative food which combines technical skill with creativity. This was on full display in the amuses at the start of the meal - each bite was intriguing and really whet the appetite for the rest of the meal. Unfortunately, the rest of the meal was a parade of well-executed but less exciting dishes. We went with the shorter lunch menu so perhaps it was not representative of the full Wissler experience - the amuses certainly portended something greater. I will have to go back for dinner to find out what I missed by not opting for a longer menu.
Price I Paid: €165 for 4 course lunch menu with a glass of champagne, water and coffee
Value: 14/20
Restaurant Vendôme & Joachim Wissler Background
Restaurant Vendôme is located in the five-star Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, a stone’s throw outside of Cologne. Schloss Bensberg dates back to the early 1700s and has seen such varied uses ranging from quarters for royalty to barracks during WWI. The Schloss was remodeled into its current incarnation in 2000 and managed by the Althof Hotel group which runs a handful of German luxury hotels, many with Michelin star restaurants. I did not visit the hotel but if only judging it by its exterior it is an impressive hotel indeed.
Head chef at Vendôme is Joachim Wissler, who joined the restaurant at its opening in 2000 and rapidly worked his way up the Michelin ladder - the first star coming in 2001, the second in 2002, and the ultimate third star in 2004 which he has retained ever since. Wissler is known as one of the leaders of the “New German” movement which represents the current generation of three-star chefs who took over from the old guard like Winkler and Wohlfahrt. His cooking is modern and creative, often featuring multiple mini-dishes with common ingredients. In addition to earning 3 stars, Wissler and Restaurant Vendôme are one of the more internationally acclaimed German restaurants, consistently placing in the Worlds 50 best list before falling off in recent years through no fault of the restaurant.
Vendôme has an extensive array of menu options of varying length including 5, 8, and 10-course options priced at €240, €285, €320 which is a little bit on the high side for Germany but reasonable given how long these menus are and the level of work that goes into each course. In addition to the normal menus, Vendôme has a status quo menu on weeknights which includes 5-course, matching wine and coffee for €250 as well as a €165 gourmet lunch on the weekends which includes 4-courses, a glass of champagne, water and coffee. We were visiting for lunch and went with the shorter lunch menu which was a good deal although perhaps not fully representative of the full Wissler experience.
What we ate at Restaurant Vendôme
The highlight of the meal was actually the set of snacks at the start which were extensive and well made. This included the restaurant’s elevated take on reese’s peanut butter cups, “Veeses”, which had a dark chocolate shell filled with foie gras, peanut and salted caramel. What a balancing act from the kitchen - it is a bold choice to serve chocolate in an amuse-bouche and an even bolder choice to fill it with foie gras but the kitchen pulled off this daring act with aplomb. Further amuses included a Beetroot macaron with fleur de waygu, label rouge salmon with ginger ale vinaigrette, and a black olive oreo with fresh goat cheese. Not only were these all technically sound but they really showed the playfulness of the kitchen, having interesting combinations and presentations. Particularly memorable was the “oreo” which looked shockingly like an oreo cookie but made savory, the “cookie” being a black olive cracker and the creme being a nice goat cheese. In general, I have found amuse bouches in Germany to be rather boring so I was pleasantly surprised by this display from the kitchen.
The first main dish was an elaborate presentation of “quail salad” with foie gras panna cotta, lentils, cress and blueberry compote. Given it only featured a few pieces of token lettuce, calling this a salad was a stretch but I did not mind - the quail was accurately cooked and the lentils mixing well with the small quail egg yolk on top. A bit disappointing was the smattering of blueberries on the plate as they were of average quality and not treated by the kitchen. Much better was the foie gras panna cotta, served on the side with a green apple sorbet this had a tremendous depth of flavor from the foie that was balanced out nicely by the acidic sorbet. Overall, while this was a fine starter it was a bit of a letdown after the playful and exciting opening.
Next up was a seafood dish consisting of char, elderberry butter, camomile, white asparagus and morels. Char is similar to salmon both in looks and taste, although it is a tad milder than its more popular cousin. This was a very nice piece of fish but could have been a tad bigger. Morels and asparagus are two of the first ingredients you think of when you think of spring and they were put to quite good use here, having an excellent flavor and treated well by the kitchen. Similar to the first course, this was a fine dish but could have been more exciting.
Main course was shoulder and saddle of lamb with lentil crepe, sweetheart cabbage and vaduovan spices. The lamb saddle here was accurately cooked but could have used more rendering of the fat cap which was decidedly chunky on the side. The shoulder part was better, having the melt-in-your-mouth texture you want from a nice slow-braised piece of lamb shoulder. The accompanying artichoke and crepe were fine but not super memorable.
Dessert was an artfully presented half-baked “cheesecake” served with soured ice cream, raspberry, rose petals and whey sauce. There was nothing earth-shattering here but I quite liked this dessert, the ice cream having just the right amount of tang to balance out the sweetness of the dish. The raspberries were also good quality, leagues better than the blueberries used in the starter. The meal then concluded with a small box of sweet celebrations, the best of which is the restaurant’s (very) elevated take on the Magnum ice cream bar.
