As I had a few hours to kill before my train I did some research into excellent restaurants. The only Michelin starred restaurant, Essigbrätlein, doesn’t have a website(!) and despite reading more favourable than negative reviews, I wasn’t going to chance a visit (and quite a lot of money) without getting an overview first. The other restaurant on my list was Aumers La Vie, which does have a website and their food sounded like my kind of thing but they don’t serve lunch on weekdays so the next one that caught my eye was Minneci, an Italian restaurant near Färbertor. Their menu not only looked excellent and they also offer a tasting menu which sounded perfect to spend a couple of hours on.
I guess their main business is dinner as when I arrived, I was the only guest and even later there were only a further three tables. Everything on the menu sounded very good indeed but I wanted to sample as much variety as possible so chose the tasting menu.
The amuse was a fresh and well-flavoured vegetable soup served in a large shotglass alongside a savoury pannacotta and a basket of fresh bread and butter whipped with garlic, herbs and tomato.A brilliant start and a good indication what was to come.
The starter was a salmon terrine. Perfectly cooked fish surrounded by a jelly in which a brunoise of vegetables was suspended, served on sliced and dressed cucumber, two tiny quenelles of a light horseradish cream as well as some basil oil and a really good balsamico, a perfect summer dish.
Followed by one of the best wild mushroom soups I’ve had anywhere, light, strong in flavour, with chunks of fresh ceps and girolles in the bottom. Brilliant. I don’t think I stopped smiling after that.
The pasta dish was the flavour highlight of the menu for me. Very fine pasta parcels that melted on the tongue with a green vegetable puree, with shavings of fresh white truffle on top. Except for the foam which I found a bit pointless, this was a truly superb dish. By this time, despite arriving hungry I was almost full already due to the rather generous portion sizes. The main was yet to come:
Two perfectly cooked chunks of veal fillet (as you can see from the second photo) with mediterranean vegetables, a fine polenta cake and brought together by a well reduced sauce. Another great dish indeed
The dessert was an assortment of various things, a light pannacotta, almond ice cream, a nicely presented strawberry and a little salad of mango with a raspberry on top.
This was a fantastic meal and reasonably priced (compared to the UK, at least), too. The tasting menu is €59 and my bill with a glass of excellent Pinot Grigio, a mug of latte macchiato and a bottle of water came to €73. At 5.50, the .7l bottle was rather outrageously priced, however. Still, I really enjoyed the meal and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for some excellent Italian cooking.
Light/Bites 