The Gourmet restaurant Ophelia is in the Hotel Riva on Lake Constance.  In 2010 Dirk Hoberg became head chef of the newly opened restaurant with a philosophy of “better always trumps good”, and with that he combines treasures from the local region with the finest international ingredients.  They have a two Michelin star rating.  The space is a 1909 villa next to the very modern hotel with music in the background, well-spaced cloth-covered tables, lowered lighting, bench seating on one wall, a beautiful old wood floor, art on the wall, windows to the gardens and a long service table running down the middle of the room.  You enter into a lounge area where some folks choose to have a drink  and their first snacks.  We proceeded directly to the table  in the rectangular room with the open kitchen on one end.  Four seats were at a counter over-looking the kitchen although I did not see a lot of interaction it did have a better view of the action. They offer one tasting menu with two optional additional courses and one upgrade on an existing course.  The pacing was a bit slow but service was friendly and helpful.   The food was very good even though it seemed to have a standard of added foams at the table.  We chose the upgrades and additions but ordered our own wine rather than the pairings.  I would put this one on your list to visit.

Set-Up

 

Food

At first they bring you a moist towel to clean your hands for the snacks.  It would have been good to leave it as some were messy.  We enjoyed a Negroni as the snacks arrrived.  First was Dünnele (local fish) with creme fraiche, Höri Bülle (local red onion) and trout.  The thin sliced fish was in a crisp crust topped with cream and something like fish eggs.  It was yummy.

 

Smoked Lake Constance eel and radishes were on a meringue like base.  The sweetness of the base made a good contrast to the smoky eel.

 

Reichenau island pearl (local small tomato), leaf lettuce and eggplant were combined into a small tart shell.   It was very good but the first two were better.

 

Veal head and beetroot were in a taller crust cup.  It was a one-bite option and very good with lots of flavor and textures.

 

Hand-dipped scallop was topped with Lamb’s lettuce, imperial caviar, and hazelnut alongside more scallop with pearl barley and scallop foam.  The last part was a bread chip with butter and cream – and who could fail with that combo?  The scallop tartare covered with caviar was cool and supposed to be alternated with the warm foamy liquid and crisp bread.  It all had excellent flavor and was delicious.

 

Gâteau (cake) of duck liver was a supplemental course.  It came with pear, macadamia, wine jelly, ice cream and cranberries.  Some duck liver and cranberries were combined to flavor the ice cream and on the side was a buttery brioche bread.  The gâteau was smooth and tasty and  lovely combined with the other ingredients or eaten on the brioche.  An excellent course.

 

Bread slices were in a wooden bowl and served with lightly salted butter.  The bread was a sourdough with caraway seed and the other a German style.  Both were made locally and served warm.  They had a similar flavor and both had dense interiors and crispy crusts.

 

Fried red mullet sandwich also contained Sylt mussel (blue mussel), fermented fennel, saffron and bouillabaisse foam.  A circle of crunchy seabeans was around it and a foam of saffron bouillabaisse and fermented fennel was added at the table and left it you wanted more.   The bread was starchy and best eaten with the mild fish and foam.   It was another excellent plate.

 

Pikeperch was topped with kohlrabi and sitting on peas, kohlrabi and zampone (Italian sausage).   It came with a kohlrabi foam that was also left at the table.  This fish worked perfectly with the other flavors for another good offering.

 

Lemon and champagne was a refresher course served in a very frozen lemon rind.  Lemon sorbet was on top of lemon granite, both nicely tart and a good combination.

 

Breast of quail was with buckwheat, fermented black salsify, radicchio and truffles. Sliced truffles topped the dish and they also flavored the highly reduced brown sauce.  A creamy foam was added to the rich brown sauce to make a perfect compliment to the quail and cooked vegetables.  Extra was left at the table.

 

Sirloin of Lake Constance wagyu was plated with celery, morel, tomato, walnut and cherry.  It was an upgrage charge from the Constance Cow.    Celery cream was seasoned with morel and had small morels in it and one of the sauces had tomato in it.  Both were rich and helped the flavor of the tender nicely cooked beef.  The big morel on the plate had a good bit of flavor and creamy potatoes were on the side.  This one was good but not overwhelming.

 

Lindau goat’s cheese was with fermented plum, honey and dill and a chunk of it was in a spoon on the side.  Some ice cream was under the lacey cookie and a sauce of preserved plums.  It was a mild flavor but had nice textural and temperature contrasts for a good end result.

 

Chocolate topped a Clementine orange sorbet that was topped with a large caramel chip.  It had lots of flavors and textures.

 

The next chocolate was with Baileys and chestnuts on crumbles.  This was a sweet fix and fun.

 

Finally a souffle  was halved at the table for the 2 of us.  It was not dry and chocolatey enough.

 

Last treats were a salted caramel praline (red), a Lake Constance apple tartlette which had an apple slice on a buttery crust, Princess cookie with a chocolate filling, and a spruce-lemon mousse kiss(green) which was creamy.  All were good.