"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" - no 2 - OLD COMMERCIAL ROOM

Restaurant 2, 10/1-09, Old Commercial House - By Michaeli's Kirche

BACKGROUND: 5 days have passed since my last restaurant review. So what happened, have I not been to any restaurants since then? Well, I must admit I have been to a couple of places, but haven't bothered to write a review. So my new year's resolution is already starting to fall apart. But if I tell you that the places I've been to lately have been McDonalds and Starbucks then perhaps you agree that it would be a waste of time writing a review? Anyway, today I decided to go to a place I've been wanting to go to for a while, namely "Old Commercial House". First time I found out about the place was in September 2008 when I did a "Stadtrundfart", which is a guided bus tour around Hamburg. When the tour bus drove past the St. Michael's church I saw a sign across the street from the church saying something like "the best labskaus in Hamburg" or something. Ever since then I've been wanting to try out this lapskaus. Today I finally got the chance to do so!



FIRST IMPRESSIONS: One of the first things to struck me upon entering the restaurant was the social atmosphere. Customers were talking loudly with each other around the tables and laughter was hanging in the air. The waiters and waitresses were also spending time chatting and joking with the customers. One of the waitresses noted the new arrival and guided me to a nice table by the wall, close to a window with a view to the famous Michael's church. The walls were decorated with old black-and-white photos from Hamburg, many of them taken near the restaurant. Several photos were from the early 1900s. Some were photos of guests that had visited the restaurant before. The majority of the photos and interiour had a maritime theme. I liked the atmosphere of the place right away! 9/10 points for first impression.

WAITING TIME: I didn't have to wait long for anything. I was guided to a table just a few seconds after entering the restaurant. I spent a couple of minutes going through the menu, although I already knew what I wanted (labskaus). When the waitress came by I ordered the labskaus, and something to drink. Just a few minutes later everything was served and I was happily eating. Later, the dessert and coffee was also served promtly. 10/10 points, no issues with waiting time.

STAFF: The staff was very friendly. The waitress and waiters were taking time to talk to the customers, and repeatedly walked by to check if everything
was ok. The waitress who served me appologized for not speaking very good English, but this didn't cause any problems or misunderstandings with the orders. The first waiter who guided me to a table said "I have a beautiful table and a beautiful waitress for a handsome gentleman like yourself". I think the waitress was a bit embarassed by that. And I didn't quite know what to say. In my first restaurant review from Block House I mentioned that the staff there didn't really make me feel special, but here in Old Commercial Room I felt the waitress did a better job at it, and I did feel like I was being treated a bit special! I give 9/10 points to the staff here!

MAIN COURSE: The labskaus was served with two eggs, pickels and some red beets. The labskaus had a pinkish colour, and was very smooth. When I think of labskaus I usually think of my dad's labskaus, and that labskaus is usually quite rough, with whole pieces of meet and potatoes and other stuff in it. The labskaus at the Old Commercial Room was not like that, it was completely smooth, almost like mashed potatoes. But I actually think I would've prefered to have some bigger pieces of meat and stuff in it. The taste was good though! It tasted pretty much like I expect a labskaus to taste. But some spices or something would have been good I think. I had to put some salt and pepper on it simply to give it a bit more taste. All in all I was quite happy with it though. I mean, a labskaus is a labskaus, so it would take something really spectacular to blow me away, but I wasn't disappointed either. It was pretty much like I expected. I have to say, though, that just the fact that they are serving labskaus is great! You can't get that in many other restaurants these days! 8/10



Total verdict: Old Commercial Room was a very intimate and friendly restaurant in a great location, just next to St. Michael's church. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay this evening, and will definitely try to go back again later. Before I had even arrived at the restaurant I already knew that I wanted the labskaus, but when looking at the menu I realized that they also have many other interesting fish and meat dishes, so next time I'll try some other stuff. Old Commercial Room has been visited by several famous guests over the years, some examples are John Denver ("country road", "leaving on a jet plane"), Sean Connery, Jethro Tull, Dennis Hopper, The Beatles, Willy Brand, Jack White (White Stripes), etc. So the restaurant must be doing many things right when they are able to attract these kinds of guests!
9/10 points for a great meal at the restaurant!

"Hamburg Fine Dining Society" - no 1 - BLOCK HOUSE

Restaurant 1, 5/1-09, Block House - Kirchenallee

BACKGROUND: My new year's resolution is to write a restaurant review for every restaurant I visit. Today was the first, and the lucky restaurant to receive my visit was Block House on the Kirchenallee street, right next to Hauptbahnhof Sud in Hamburg. I had been down to the Hauptbahnhof to renew my U-bahn ticket, and afterwards I got hungry and wanted to find a restaurant nearby. When I saw Block House I decided to go there. This wasn't the first time I visited a Block House restarurant in Hamburg, but I hadn't been to this particular one. Still, from my previous visits I knew that Block House served quality food, so this wasn't much of a risk. Block House is a chain of restaurants in Germany. I think there are 34 restaurants in total, and many of them are located in Hamburg. But they also have restaurants in Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.



FIRST IMPRESSION: The entrance to the Block House restaurant is easy to find. Just go to Kirchenallee and look for the big Block House sign (doh!). Upon entering I noticed that the place was quite busy already, even though it was only 17:30 in the afternoon. Several waiters were running around taking orders and serving food. One waiter rushed by me and told me in Germany to just take any table I liked. At least I think that's what he said... So I moved further into the restaurant and found a table pretty much in the middle of everything. The restaurant itself is quite large. One of the first things I noticed when moving a bit into the restaurant was the theatre kitchen where I could watch the chefs prepare the steaks and everything. That's one of the things I really like about Block House! It's quite entertaining to watch the chefs do their work, especially if you're just by yourself like I sometimes am. The style of the interior is plain and simple. White brick walls, and dark wooden paneling some places. Several wine racks were spread around the building. Nothing too fancy about the interiour really. I got the impression that this is a place where the food is in focus, and they haven't put too much effort into making the interior look spectacular. Nothing wrong with putting the focus on the food though! I give 7/10 points for the first impression.

WAITING TIME: Top score on this! I entered the restaurant at 17:20 and sat down at the cozy little table in the middle of the restaurant, quite close to the coat stand actually. Around a minute later I got the menu. I decided on what to order quite fast, and another waitress came by and took my order at 17:30. At 17:33 I got my salad appetizer. I finished it by 17:40. The first waiter then came with the main course at 17:42. Yeah..., I actually had my watch out and took a note of all of these times. Later, after I was finished eating, I got a coffee just a minute after I ordered it, and I also received the check just a couple of minutes after I asked for it. 10/10 points here!

STAFF: I've got no real complaints about the staff. Everytime I needed something I got the staff's attention pretty quickly. It could be because my table was right in the middle of the restaurant, and the waiters/waitresses walked past me all the time, so I didn't have to do more than look at them to get their attention. While I was eating I was left alone, except one time when one of the waiters gave me the mandatory question if everything was alright. I said "sehr gut!",
smiled, and continued eating. I did get the feeling though, that the waiters/waitresses only did precisely what they were supposed to do, and nothing more. To deserve a higher score they would've had to make me feel more special. 7.5/10

APPETIZER: The typical appetizer at Block House is their crispy salad with your choice of dressing. So that's what I took. I've previously had the American dressing with it, but this time I decided to go for the French dressing. Other alternatives are Italian and Greek dressing, and maybe even other types. The salad itself is very basic. Lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, red onions etc. It's a salad that works fine as an appetizer, but doesn't blow you away. I felt like I could easily have made this myself at home in a few minutes. Except the dressing maybe, which is quite good! Anyway, the salad appetizer didn't impress me too much, so no top score for this one. I give it 5.5/10 points.

MAIN COURSE: The first thing that caught my eye when I opened the menu was the "New Year's Cut: Rib-Eye Steak 230g, mit Garlic Mashed Potatoes und
Knoblauchbrot". A red wine from 2006 (didn't get to read where it was from, the waiter took my menu before I got the chance) was also recommended, so I ordered
that as well. And let there be no doubt about Block House abilities to serve steaks, cause this was top notch! The medium cooked steak itself was just as it should be, tender, juicy and very tasty. And the mashed potatoes and garlic butter was a great supplement to the steak, and the tastes complemented each other in a great way. Not to mention the "Knoblauchbrot" which lifted the total experience even higher. The only thing was the "knoblauchbrot" could have been a bit crispier. The red wine was also good. I'm not a wine expert, but this was a very fruity wine with a gentle, but quite short aftertaste. All in all I have almost only positiv things to say about the main course! The only reason I won't give it 10 points is because of the "Knoblauchbrot" wasn't quite crisp enough for me. So 9/10 points on this one.

TOTAL VERDICT: I had a great meal at the Block House. My expectations were quite high, because I've been there before and have liked the food there, and I wasn't disappointed this time either. I would definitely recommend a meal at one of the Block House restaurants to anyone visiting Hamburg. The restaurant itself is quite large and on the night it was very crowded, so the waiters/waitresses were quite busy running around attending all the customers. I got their attention every time I needed it though. The only thing was I got the feeling they were in a rush all the time, and didn't feel like was being treated special in any way. Some places I've been to I do get this feeling, but that's mostly smaller places. Maybe it's the price you pay for being a big restaurant that you can't spend too much time with each customer? Anyway, it wasn't a big deal, and as I wrote in the beginning, I really did have a great meal. 8/10 points.

New year, new possibilities!

It's that time of the year again, when people say good bye to the old, and look forward to what the new year will bring. Some people say it's like closing a chapter in a book and starting on a new one, some say it's like putting the signature on a painting and start painting on a new white canvas.

Some people have new year's resolutions. Especially people who smoke. I think I've had some new year's resolutions myself up through the years, but I can't remember what they were. I've got one this year as well. It's simply to write a restaurant review every time I've been to a restaurant. Which is quite often considering how much I've been traveling lately! So since I'm working in Hamburg at the moment I'm going to start here. I'm pretty sure I'll get bored with it after a while, but I'll give it a go at least!

I'll probably put the reviews out on this blog as well.