Restaurants
Area10 When the plate becomes the canvas
Map
Opening Times
Tuesday to Saturday: noon - 11:00pm
Address
Area10
Hohe Bleichen 10
20354 Hamburg-Inner City
.How to get there
Contact
price level
The area around Hamburg's Hohe Bleichen is admittedly not a place for the evening. Where customers of the many shops and office workers bustle during the day, the tidy streets of Hamburg's city centre are relatively empty in the evening. So we are curious to see what awaits us when we stand in front of the high glass façade of Area10.
One thing should be said in advance: The new Area10 deserves to attract connoisseurs of upscale cuisine to Hohe Bleichen in the evenings. Admittedly, it is not entirely new. The chic restaurant opened in the autumn of 2020, but like so many others, the pandemic forced it to temporarily close shortly after its launch. Time enough, however, for owner Maris Antonevics to perfect the restaurant concept.
This succeeds, on the one hand, with the impressive interior. We enter a spacious, loft-like room with an eclectic design. Dark green wall colour meets grey concrete, light wood elements, and pleasant lighting provide warmth. Particularly appealing are the isolated honeycomb-like ceiling elements in which hanging plants are irregularly distributed. Like Maris, the concept comes from Latvia from the hand of architect Andis Silis.
1 | 7
But the heart of any restaurant is the chef. Andrey Dromov, also called "the Jamie Oliver of the East", is a Ukrainian TV chef who designs the menu, which changes every fortnight, with great finesse and attention to detail. At Area10, he has found a new fulfilment and dedicates himself to the menu with attention to detail and his dishes.
Although Area10's main courses are regular plate dishes, they are finely divided especially for us, much to our delight, because sharing is more fun, after all. We start with two excellent tartars. The delicately spicy beef tartare with truffle ice cream and chilli threads is wonderfully tender and, as I prefer, prepared without raw egg. This is contrasted by a scallop tartare that almost resembles a dessert thanks to its delicate texture and sweet additions such as strawberries, with caviar from flying fish serving as a particular highlight.
Classic melon with ham is refined in Area10 with truffle honey, gorgonzola dolce and black olive powder. Again, it knows how to inspire, as does the celery salad. While the latter seems almost inconspicuous on the plate (like scale armour, the most delicate slices of raw mushrooms are layered around the inside), it leisurely turns out to be a true poem: celeriac with mango and coconut cream sauce gives complex flavours, a porcini mushroom powder adds an extraordinary touch.
Andrey's cuisine is as much about a successful look as it is about subtle flavours and exquisite ingredients. As the list of ingredients already reveals, it is less about regionality than about his very own signature and the combination of classic dishes with international influences. Interested parties can also witness the cooking process; the open kitchen of Area10 invites you to take a look. The selected wine accompaniment, which runs through our dinner, is also a poem. Too much great wine to describe them all in detail, but rest assured: the combination is right.
A born entertainer, Andrey is always ready to explain his dishes. The octopus on purple mashed potatoes is cooked for 45 minutes in a broth with wine corks before roasting, which give it a particularly delicate aroma. The gilthead rests on a bed of potato risotto, prepared like risotto, only with potatoes instead of rice. A delicious way of preparing it, previously unknown to me.
The tender New Zealand lamb loins with pistachios and basil-mint sauce are almost classic. The chicken roulades, based on a recipe from Andrey's grandmother, are more down-to-earth. Of course, with tricks and ingredients from modern cuisine. The truffle polenta, in particular, is a delight.
After all these exciting delicacies, we eagerly await the desserts, which, we are assured, are Andrey's speciality. But not only from him. Andrey reveals to us that his patisserie chefs are two Ukrainian countrymen who had professions far removed from gastronomy before the war. They were actually just hobby bakers until Andrey trained them over several months, and they are now a permanent part of the team, which consists mainly of Ukrainians.
The desserts they conjure up for us are the proverbial cherry on top. We start with caramelised pineapple ravioli with passion fruit sorbet. Then, like a plate on a plate, lies a golden-yellow yuzu jelly covered with fruit. Visually, small, purple octopus arms made of lavender pannacotta inspire. The small Tarte Napoleon with a liquid chocolate centre is the sweet highlight. Its secret lies in the dough into which gorgonzola has been worked.
Area10 brings many things. A new beginning for many who had been forced to leave their homes, culinary enrichment for Hamburg's food scene and a worthwhile dinner destination not far from the Jungfernstieg in the evening.
