Anna Sgroi ‘s new restaurant opened its doors a few days ago. After about 10 years (eight of them awarded with a Michelin star) in the Lange Reihe, the new domicile will be located in Hamburg’s traditional Milchstraße. From now on, a different, a Mediterranean wind blows in the former rooms of the Alte Pöseldorfer Bierstube.
The months-long remodel has been successful, and the rooms feel spacious and modern, while retaining many old elements, such as the great plank flooring or the heavy stucco. You sit well, not crowded, in short: the ambitions are clearly visible. In the Hamburger Abendblatt, Anna Sgroi is quoted as saying about the move to the new premises: “I don’t have the audience at Lange Reihe that goes to a starred restaurant.” That may be quite different in the new location. We keep our fingers crossed!
We start with a little greeting from the kitchen to the menu we have prepared ourselves. Alternatively, you can opt for a menu with either four or five courses (from EUR 69).
A thoroughly sophisticated dish with lots of interesting flavors, a nice texture, and lots of neat “tinkering,” which is, after all, what gives bricolage its name.
An absolutely flawless risotto that also showed really good craftsmanship, with surprisingly crisp, and delicious ham.
A great, big fish, exactly how you want a secondi from Italy and I also like the preparation all’Acqua Pazza, that is, with “crazy water” (originally, according to legend, seawater was used for this form of cooking in the past, primarily to avoid a then newly levied tax on salt). Only the (mini) crostini served with it should be overlooked (and eaten), they turned out to be not very tasty and actually too capricious for this clear and no-frills dish.
Our two small desserts were good, if not mind-blowingly spectacular.
We liked the first visit to Anna Sgroi’s new place of work very much, much better than last time in the Lange Reihe. Here, location, cuisine, style, claim and location fit together very well. From my point of view, the dishes are priced rather towards the upper end of the scale, but this is also okay in view of the obviously good source products and the preparation on a high level. Only the prices of the drinks seem to go slightly beyond this framework, so I felt 12, – EUR per glass of (open) red wine not quite justified. Another minor criticism is the small selection of vegetarian dishes (there was only one appetizer on the menu, no main course) and no flexibility to spontaneously talk to the kitchen about other options (“you could maybe leave out the ham on the risotto”). This is a pity and should actually be standard today, especially the Italian cuisine has a lot to offer…
Anna Sgroi
Milky Way 7
20148 Hamburg
+49 (0)40-28003930
anna@annasgroi.de
