For many years, the Haerlin under Christoph Rüffer was considered a hot contender for a third star in the Michelin Guide. Now, in 2025, the time has finally come. High time to take a look at the current menu.
This time it’s a double premiere: on the one hand, it’s my first menu with Christoph Rüffer since the new Michelin consecrations. Secondly, it is the first major event for our new platform The Menu, which we launched with Kaiserhappen and in close cooperation with Hamburg Tourismus. Over a long weekend, we will guide an exclusive and international press group through the culinary side of the Hanseatic city. Of course, the
For our international press group, the Vier Jahreszeiten showed itself from its best side – and provided insights into otherwise rather closed areas, including the new, extensive wine cellars. Particularly exciting: the realization that the hotel generates a larger turnover in the F&B area than with overnight stays. Unsurprisingly, given that it has been regarded as Hamburg’s second living room for decades.
The menu at the Haerlin (€350) began directly in the kitchen – with a direct view of the workplace of Executive Chef Christoph Rüffer and Chef de Cuisine Tobias Günther and their team.
Christoph Rüffer earned the first Michelin star for the Haerlin back in 2002. Since 2012, he and his long-time companion Tobias Günther have consistently held two stars. The two have been working together at the stove for over 21 years.
In June 2025, the ascent to the culinary Olympus: three stars. An accolade that only twelve restaurants in the whole of Germany are currently allowed to carry.
New seating areas have recently been installed there, where guests can enjoy their amuse-gueule and let their gaze wander over the huge kitchen.
The parmesan croustade with beef tartare, miso eggplant and trevisano sets clear, elegant accents right from the start. A Büsum crab tart with trout caviar and fennel greens celebrates maritime freshness.
The crispy potato snail with pickled sardine and feta cream brings Mediterranean flavors into play, before a small venison essence with quail ravioli and lovage crêperoulade adds depth and grounding.
The great depth of vintage in the champagne range, which I have already discovered with enthusiasm in the wine cellar, can now be experienced – Dom Pérignon 2014 is generously poured to set the mood in the kitchen.
Then the move to the luxurious dining room, where the menu finds its first official stage with the iconic butter service, sourdough bread and a sensational Japanese milk bread.
The Scottish label rouge salmon from the Isle of Mull, in a crispy roasted bread coating, accompanied by shimeji mushrooms, keta caviar, Marie Rose sauce and lime kefir, is finely seasoned with matured sake.
This course is a perfect example of where the cuisine at Haerlin is heading: what appears simple at first glance reveals a sophisticated, profound complexity when tasted.
It lies in the perfectly cooked fish – and in the elegant, completely reinterpreted version of the classic “cocktail sauce”.
This is followed by a pickled sea bass under a small dollop of Imperial Caviar, with stick mussel vinaigrette & cucumber. The depth here lies in the flavors, but also in the play of textures. The pickled sea bass nestles softly against the knife, almost transparent in its structure. The Imperial Caviar is pleasantly cool and elegantly salty. The scallop vinaigrette brings depth and gentle acidity, which combines elegantly with the fish, but gives the caviar enough room to develop, while the cucumber adds a precise, fresh accent. A course that tells a story through its texture – quiet, controlled, insistent.
Rüffer’s interpretation of the classic sole fillet meunière is particularly impressive: in an artichoke and citrus broth, accompanied by parsley and parmesan tortelli, it combines French tradition and Hamburg elegance.
The great festival around the sea culminates with the beautiful rock red mullet. An excellent product, here of course perfectly cooked and filleted. The
paprika sabayon and pastis sauce brings a distinct but well-dosed Mediterranean aroma into play – aniseed-accented, warm, with depth. Next to it is a small, precisely made cylinder of crocus polenta – bright yellow, soft and with a fine bite.
Here, as in the following course, you can see impressively what the Michelin Guide testers found during their visits to the third star and noted in the reasons for their decision:
The products are of outstanding quality, the technique is top, the sauces and stocks have tremendous depth and power. …He (Rüffer) now leaves things out. This creates consistently well-balanced dishes that show expressiveness and clear flavors. The result is that you sit in the Haerlin and wish the meal would never end.
Thankfully, we haven’t finished yet! The Limousin lamb from the Boucherie de la Sablière is served in veal head and lemon jus, accompanied by fermented wild garlic capers and olive gnocchi! An orchestrated symphony in which every voice is heard, but never dominates on its own.
The desserts by chef patissière Margeaux Meis are a perfect match for the level of the menu, and the new reduction has its details here too: multi-layered, sophisticated, complex.
The opening with pineapple and saffron sorbet, with mezcal, basil distillate and green jalapeño, creates excitement – cool, pointedly fiery, exotic and fruity.
For the finale, the Altänder Reneclaude from the Eckhoff fruit farm, served with almond slices, iced Champagne and warm “Mimosa” sabayon. A tongue-in-cheek, sophisticated reminder of a baked apple with vanilla sauce.
Sommelier Christian Scholz expertly guides you through one of Hamburg’s most impressive wine lists – with elegant Burgundies, great Bordeaux icons and rare rarities, which are also served by the glass thanks to Coravin. The interior with silk wallpaper, gold embossing and a view over the Inner Alster provides an almost museum-like setting without ever being stiff.
The menu at the new three-star Haerlin is a total work of art. Each course tells a little story, carried by precision, passion and an unwavering love of the highest product quality. Christoph Rüffer has found a language that respects classic haute cuisine, but at the same time translates it into a formally lean, yet always sensual present.
