A trip to GOGÄRTCHEN is a must for my family every time we’re in Sylt. It’s quite a fine dining restaurant, from the ingredients and the way the food is prepared. However, they have recently adopted a more relaxed approach with the waiters wearing jeans and t-shirts. Similarly, we found other guests dressed quite casually. It is a restaurant on a holiday island, after all!
We started with a light amuse bouche – Goats cheese with tomato marmalade, capers and salad. Such a nice, refreshing way to cleanse our palate before our meal. I absolutely love fried capers, way more than normal capers!
We had a couple of entrées to share. DS and I had the Fried duck liver with goosberries, sorrel, spelt and honey (€19). I simply cannot describe how delicious this dish was! The liver was incredibly smooth, very nearly as good as foie gras. The pairing with sorrel was interesting, especially because the sorrel came in ice cream form! It was definitely a bit unusual to have something icy with your warm liver. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the other ingredients, but the quality of the liver made up for it all.
The Father had a chanterelle soup which was on special. Chanterelles are always in season when we’re in Germany over summer, and we try to have as many as possible. You’ll see from one of my previous posts that DS had a pasta with chanterelles. Back in Hamburg I also had a super delicious pasta with chanterelles, done in a slightly different style! Chanterelles make a great soup too, definitely something to try if you haven’t before!
Seafood is always a highlight when we’re in Sylt. The Mother had a beautifully light meal of Danish cod poached in olive oil with kohlrabi, watermelon and mint (€29). It’s a very subtle dish but the watermelon balls added a bit of excitement. I don’t think I’ve had anything poached in oil before, I wonder how they manage it without having the oil too hot and accidentally frying the fish?!
The Father and DS both had the Special – Turbot with krabben (tiny shrimps) with salted potatoes and cucumber salad. It’s one of those fish that you never see in Australia, so just like chanterelles, we try to eat a lot of it when we’re in Germany. I think Germans like to prepare fish in very simple ways as you can see from this dish. Just the whole fish, topped with some krabben (very tiny shrimp that I’ve only seen in Germany as well!), with a side of lemon. The dish always came with some very typically German sides – cucumber salad and salted potatoes!
I had another dish that was on the specials board. Unfortunately I didn’t write down exactly what it was! Something along the lines of pork belly with krabben and giant cous cous. I suppose it’s a bit of a play on surf and turf-style dining. I think they tried to bring in an Asian element in the sauce which didn’t quite work, although the pork by itself was nice and the krabben were good too. I’d probably give this one a miss next time.
We didn’t actually order a side of chips (€4) but my parents normally get some, so I guess the waiters recognised them and assumed! I love that they come in a ‘newspaper’-style paper bag, so cute! The chips are really delicious, so I do highly recommend them as a side.
Everyone was pretty full after their mains. In fact, I was the only one who was up for a dessert! The ‘Die Joghurette’ – whole milk, yoghurt, strawberries and lime (€13) was a nice, light dessert to finish our meal. Once you break open the chocolate bar there’s a couple of layers of ice cream and strawberry mousse and gel. What a wonderful way to end our meal! Until next time, GOGÄRTCHEN!
GOGÄRTCHEN
STRÖNWAI 12
KAMPEN, SYLT
GERMANY
http://gogaertchen.com/
