Michelin 3-Star restaurant “Aqua” in The Ritz-Carlton / Wolfsburg / Germany

“Aqua” by Jens Hoffmann.

The fresh, clear compositions by Sven Elverfeld offer a stimulating take on a traditional base that has been interpreted in a new way. Thats not the only reason why the Chef de cuisine of Aqua at The Ritz-Carlton Wolfsburg in Germany, has held on to his three Michelin stars for years.

It is a special location for a three Michelin star restaurant.

Wolfsburg, an industrial town between Berlin and Hanover known mainly for its Volkswagen car headquarter.

The factory building and themeparc with lots of industrial flair vaguely remind foreign tourists of Battersea Power Station in London but on a far bigger scale, dominates the town, and alongside the original brick towers is a Ritz-Carlton hotel where I checked in.

By the way, a lovely place to stay.
My report will follow.

The carefully landscaped sequence of artificial lakes and gardens. There are twin 50 meters high glass towers packed with cars on conveyor belts, which apparently are just about the last stage in the manufacturing process; people love to come to pick up their new VW from this area, while check in at Ritz Carlton.

The ground floor Aqua restaurant fortunately looks out over lawn and one of the artificial lakes; when you we look out of the window you can see rabbits and even families of geese wandering by just in front of the dining room, which added a surreal dimension to this otherwise industrial landscape. Tables are well spaced and the dining room is modern.

I got a special nine course which came up to an 15 course menu with all this amouse bouches, specials, champagne sorbet, breads together with a perfect wine arrangement by sommelier Marcel Runge.
The Chef de Cuisine Sven Elverfeld trained at several high class cooks like Dieter Müller after starting as a pastry chef; his cooking style is modern.
He tries to go out every night to meet his guests, talk about about certain combinations and share experiences, wherever he travels he has a book with him to write down the ideas that come to him.
He is interested in innovation, new flavours and different cooking methods.
His wine list ranged widely, with the grad cru from Bordeaux like Petrus & Chateaux Margeaux, Spanish, French and a couple of fantastic German wines. Bread was a choice of superb sourdough, milk bread or rye bread as the more usual high end salted, French butter.

To begin with was a set of snacks: Kalamata Olive, Tatar tacos, mini chicken burger “Tandoori”, Guacamole, corn mousse and black Quino a nice start.

These amuse bouches had all a lovely depth of taste and flavour. Next was beef and sardines marinated in coriander, miso and yuzu.
The next one was a german trout from the region “Lüneburger Heide” was spiced with Granny Smith, horse-radish and toast. Fantastic.

The fin ray was so special it came with a poached Gillardeau oyster. The taste of the oyster was a welcome contrast to the richness of the smooth and rich ray.
A litte bit more of the fantastic diverse bread was remarkable.
Next was cod-fish with Périgord truffles and Beurre blanc and a hazelnut sauce. The fish was magnificent. Again, technique was hard to fault. Next was grilled belly of porc, it had a superb taste, perfect balance of high quality together served with intense essence of tomatoes, seafruit mayonnaise and Balsamico sauce and pepper. The pork had lovely flavour with just a hint of the char-grill.

As well as the fish the porc-belly was of high quality, each dot of the seafruit sauce was hugely concentrated in flavour, providing a real lift to the meat.

We had a lovely champagne sorbet break, the sorbet was filled in cut “Edition Ruinart Rose” bottle. Just unique and great, I had it together with a glass of rose champagne.
I really enjoyed this palate-cleansing champagne sorbet simple but with smooth texture and really tasting of champagne.
Let’s say 10 of 10.

All my “courses” beef, fish, tartare, vegetables like beetroot everything was fine, lots of modern takes on a classic dishes.
For sweet was Araguani chocolate with beet root, banana with sanddorn & safran, macarone “Jaffa” with orange and manjari chocolade and a few great pralines with espresso.
Coffee was also dark and rich, served with a perfect tuile.
Service was, to all intents and purposes, perfect. The dishes came at a steady pace, topping up was flawless, the waiting staff always on hand yet not visibly so. Overall, this is a restaurant that thoroughly deserves its three stars. Pressure keeps Mr. Elverfeld motivated.

“If you feel nothing, it’s not good. Sometimes you need the pressure or else you get lazy,” said Sven Elverfeld. The technique on display is considerable, and the sourcing of ingredients shows considerable care and attention. There are a few touches that were very trendy, flavour combinations mostly made sense and presentation was also pretty throughout.

a href=”http://www.houseandhotel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IMG_3290.jpg”>
The sommelier was very skillfully. I particularly enjoyed the 2011 Caillou Blanc Chateau Talbot from Bordeaux. A fantastic white Bordeaux wine.
Aqua is worth the trip. The bill is more than allright including a long flight of beautiful wines from Germany, “Green Veltliner” Uhler, Austria, 2008 Recioto della Valpolicella / Ca La Bionda/ Venice / Italy. Paired to the dishes, you can see where the money for this lovely fun has gone.

From Berlin it is easy to get there from central station by an ICE express train to Wolfsburg.

It takes just over an hour.

Thx for the joy you gave to me.