lazy's Qype profile

Great decor, lighting, and style. it looks and is fairly expensive to drink and eat here, but the food and service rock. If you want to splash out, this should please you a lot. I had stopped in for a cocktail before, but this was the first time I ate here.

The waiter we had was a true professional, friendly, multi-lingual, experienced, very helpful and all this despite very busy. Definitely he deserved his tip.

Sweet fresh sashimi, lovely oysters, great wine (with a big and daunting wine list), a decent range on the whole menu.

Certainly the clientele is posh Hamburg and some tourists, but if you want to be looked after and are OK to pay 50-60€ a head including some less expensive wine, give it a go.

Recommended.

Let me set the scene.

Hamburg is a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The undead walk the streets. Seeking shelter, you find yourself in a what used to be a supposedly good French restaurant. But wait! You hear stumbles and groans from the kitchen. It’s another zombie - and he used to be a chef! And he’s trying to cook!

The meal I ate here in January was without question a most horrific experience. The set menu was a deadly starter of old canned italian artichokes and tomatos. The salad had no life at all. And the pasta main course was limp, overcooked and uninspired. Desert was an undescribably grim reincarnation of panna cotta. The eye-popping bill for these set menus was 33€ per head. The wine was vinegary old Rioja at over 40€ a bottle. At 116€ for 2 including coffee (watery and weak), go to virtually any other restaurant in Hamburg for better food at a lower price. I certainly include McDonalds when I say this.

The service was friendly enough, but whilst we ate, the staff set up a TV in the corner to watch football as they served.

Schatto? Sch*tto. I am very sorry to have to give one star here.

So the food is good, expensive for Hamburg, but well presented and a carefully selected menu. Great tiger prawns.
The bewildering thing is that whilst the waiters, maitre d’ and the menu all seem Italian, the food seems remarkably French - lots of jus and reduction, not so much of the fresh flavour. If someone knows the chef, say bonjour from me.
Very stylish, and seems to hit it off with the well-heeled of Eppendorf.
Really good wine list, including a great Sardinian white (can’t remember the name).
To go to the toilet you have to voyage far into the centre of the earth, and may well miss coffee navigating back.

I’d go back.

I went in on Saturday with a friend in from Oslo and a local mate.

I could not stand it - I am very confused at why my experience doesn’t match the others here.

The music was just awful - and when occasionally a good tune did come on it was immediately taken off within seconds with perverse DJ intent, straight back to the formulaic dreary re-runs of wedding disco classics. In fact, I love those DJs compared to Moondoo.

The atmosphere was basic suburban corporate club - without the kookiness, interesting people and involving music.

The drinks were average. The girl on the door was pretty.
My Hamburg friend seemed to like it, but he’s gay and was downstairs (marginally better music) cruising around.

Somebody tell me where in Hamburg they play dance music that makes people happy, please?

By reputation it’s the best Italian restaurant in Hamburg. I have to agree. Great food, good service, feels authentic and costs an arm and a leg. Looks a bit ropey, and is nestled between all the working girls of Davidstrasse. Apparently it’s been here for many decades, long may it continue.
Book early if you want to go on the weekend.

I am clueless about the hotel.

But the bar is solid.

You can order burritos to be brought from next door (Kombuse - the best mex in town), with a wait but no extra cost, the beer is crisp, the music tends to go all over the place in a good way, and if you are up to it, fight your way onto the kicker table out back.

Friendly, down to earth clients, outside seating in summer and the prices are OK.

Well it’s really pretty good, but something is missing…
The view - cracking as you can see the whole of the harbour and the building towers over St. Pauli. (especially good from the Gents toilet)
The drinks - good.
The clients - lots of tourists, some business folk.

But don’t expect the ambiance to fire you up too much. The decoration works OK, the list is decent enough, and thankfully last time the gin martini was constructed well enough, but the clientele had mostly arrived on big buses parked down in Landungsbrueken. Matching Goretex for couples.

The best drink I had here was one October afternoon, by myself, just as a big thunderstorm was breaking. Fabulous. So go when it is empty, not weekends.

Not a bad spot to take your mum, on balance.