The Restaurant Bareiss is in the hotel of the same name, Hotel Bareiss – a resort in Baiersbronn-Mitteltal (Schwarzwald).  They received their  3rd Michelin star in 2007 and the hotel offers car service back to the other resort  (Traube Tonbach) a couple miles away with the other 3 star restaurant, which offers the same service.  This place is only 50 years old, so a tad newer but just as elegant.  The restaurant didn’t open till 7:00 and as we were a few minutes early we hung out in the large busy bar area.  They had live music and a huge list of cocktails.  The dining room had 8 large tables draped with a white embossed cloth as well as a longer gray/taupe cloth underneath.   Matching napkins featured the gold piping that accented the top cloth.  A large floral arrangement in white and green shades was in the center of the room right under the huge crystal light fixture, that featured tons of hanging crystal tendrils.  Each dining table was set with well padded chairs and had its own service table next to it.  

I detected no music but two walls had large windows that overlooked the gorgeous scenery of the area.   The room was carpeted and featured lots of dark wood accents and nice lighting.  I think there were more service people than guests, with the females dressed in clothing typical of the region whereas the males wore standard formal attire.  They provided excellent service.  The menu offered a la carte as well as 2 tasting menu options.  We chose the longer of the tasting menus.

 

In addition to the stated menu we started with a tiered tray of snacks.  An onion tart had a short buttery crust that was totally crisp,  a creamy sweet onion filling and was topped with a bit of apple.  It was the best of the offerings – delicious.  A sushi rice and pumpkin seed was topped with a square of pumpkin which was the dominant taste here.  It was good.  A piece of char was on a cracker and accented with dill.  It was okay.  A pastrami wheel was on a crisp and accented with horseradish.  Another okay.

 

Bread service was baguette like with salted and unsalted butters.  It was a nice crisp and the butter tasty.

 

Our cold amuse was variations of sour cream and cucumber.  A cucumber soup with gin and lime granita tasted strongly of cucumber with little pops coming from something in it.  On the plate were some bits of salty cucumber alongside sour cream which did moderate the saltiness.  Pickled onions were on another bit of sour cream.  It was a mixed plate with some parts quite good.

 

Our warm amuse bouche was a fried monkfish with watermelon, seasoned with cumin.  The watermelon had a nice texture and was in little bits, probably to help get all the seeds out, as well as a larger circle.  The fish was more sautéed to my thinking than fried but regardless it was cooked perfectly and tasty.  An interesting mixture that worked.

 

The menu started with Assorted goose foie gras with vineyard peach and pistachio.  The plate included foie gras ice cream, brulee style, terrine and peach foam.  In the bowl was foie gras foam and the glass had an iced tea of peach.  In addition there was a buttery piece of brioche.  The terrine had 3 different textures and was very good.  The foam was mild and at the bottom had pieces of fruit.  The ice cream was really tasty as was the peach drink.  The brioche was almost too strong to work with the mild foie foam but worked well with the terrine that had a more intense foie gras flavor.  This was a foie gras lovers plate to die for.  Excellent.

 

Sautéed scallops with fennel, baked cheese olives rouille sauce and bouillabaisse stock worked nicely.   The saffron olives were crisped on the outside with a bit of chew still on the inside.  They had an intense black olive flavor.  The scallops were cooked perfectly with the fennel well flavored too.  Some dabs of cheese on and around the fennel blended nicely with it.

 

Breton turbot was fried in brown butter and served on a parsley sauce and braised parsley roots.  The fish was quite tasty but the parsley root was a bit tough.  It was a well seasoned dish that included some fish eggs and sour cream.  A nice combination and the parsley sauce was tasty but the fish was best eaten by itself.

 

Fried milk-fed calf’s sweetbreads were served with porcini risoni and chives and young leeks.  An orzo risotto was the porcini risoni and was very flavorful.  It was a bit thicker than I would have preferred but overall this was an excellent dish with very tasty and perfectly cooked sweetbreads.

 

Roe deer from the Bareiss hunting grounds was served in 2 ways.  A saddle of roe deer was fried in wild aromatics with rose hip and wild broccoli and a ragout of shoulder of roe deer was served with sour cream and lemon thyme.  An employee of the place actually hunted the deer.  The broccoli was fried or baked to a crisp which really brought out the flavor.  The saddle was nicely tender, tasty and rare.  Some apple was with the shoulder ragout which all was intensely flavored.

 

Chef Claus-Peter Lumpp made the rounds of the room, as did the hotel’s owner Hermann Bareiss, whose mother founded the hotel in 1951, as a much smaller operation.  Chef has been head chef for 26 years and at the restaurant for 35 years.

 

Assorted cheese from the trolley was the next course and they featured cow and sheep cheese from Germany, France, Italy and Spain.  They offered a selection of breads as well as a wonderful spicy fig mustard, quince sauce and honey.  I had a selection of their various blue cheeses and mixed with the sauces and bread it was totally yummy.  The breads were fruit, baguette and nut and they also served some grapes.  Great combinations of tastes here – an excellent cheese course.

 

The first dessert was a dark chocolate with blackberries and curry ice cream.  The chocolate was in the form of mousse and crumbles.  The curry ice cream was topped with meringue and accompanied by marinated blackberries and a blackberry granite with lime.  A ton of textures, temperatures and tastes made an array of tart and sweet.  It was very nice.

 

Friandises were a chocolate cake, blueberry tart with praline and a pistachio and raspberry cake.  Also a black forest coronet was filled with cream and marshmallows of red currant were brought.  All were tasty.

 

Confiserie and pralines from the trolley was the final sweet and it was a delightful selection.  I tried caramels, chocolate mousse cake, coated almonds and a  liquid caramel – all very tasty.  A huge box of chocolates was offered to pick from and all were made in house.  It was a sweet lovers divine ending.