Münih#10: Les Deux Restaurant

They asked the eye: “What does it please you most to see?”

“Contradiction” it said.

“Show me contradiction.”

“The forbidden love between Aphrodite, goddess of creation and Ares, god of destruction…”

 

The juxtaposition of the contradictions, most of the time, creates a mystic harmony in the eye of the beholders. Likewise, “Laurel and Hardy” of 1920s took advantage of such a black & white contradiction narrating the humorous story of Laurel, a naïve and thin Englishman and Hardy, a foxy and heavyset American.

 

Opened in October of 2012, “Les Deux” wisely makes use of such contradictions with its one Michelin star that it’s been recently awarded with.

 

There are two chef seats in the Captain room. One for the young and successful chef, Johannes Rappenglück and the other one is for Fabrice Kieffer also known as “James Bond of the maîtres”.

 

Les Deux is an interesting restaurant which started its journey with these two men and two different concepts.

 

While on the ground floor, you can see the cute tables spilling into the courtyard creating a cozy atmosphere where you can have a quick bite on your mini hamburgers, the first floor is just the opposite with its elite restaurant profile offering a modern French cuisine and more than 400 wines, all served with Michelin quality.

 

Nevertheless when we’re talking about Les Deux, I cannot bring myself to define it as an “elite restaurant” while most websites exactly called it so. Because, after my visit to the restaurant in February, I could say that they don’t deserve their Michelin star at all.

 

Following hours of shopping spree, Les Deux shows up as an oasis in the dessert. Because it is located in Schäfflerhof, just across Fünf Höfe. The reason that brought me to this restaurant is the fact it is in walking distance of Mandarin Oriental Munich Hotel, my favorite hotel that feels like home. When I read there was a hotel which recently got its very first Michelin star, I decided to seize this opportunity and have a dinner at Les Deux. Yet, my first attempt was a disappointment.

 

While it looks like a bistro on the ground floor, you go upstairs to see the restaurant transforms into a completely different alluring ambience. Of course, it has its own stylish tables covered with starched tablecloths and chic waiters, but when I compare it with the other restaurants that I’ve been to, I can say that it lags behind in design.

 

Following the first impression, another thing that I want to talk about is its service. In every restaurant, you can soon feel if the waiters are sincere in their attitude or not. For example, while most of the American waiters serve you with a plastic smile put on their faces, some are genuinely sincere in their attitude and you can feel it with the way they service you. The service was sloppy at Les Deux and the waiters was obviously faking sincerity.

 

Another downside of the service was that the waiters who tended the table were different every time. This turned the service into an auction in a manner that kept us wondering who’d get the right dish every time.

 

When we started on our dinner, the restaurant-made breads left a good impression, the mini pizzettes didn’t exactly leave the same impression on us. Because they tasted like fındık lahmacun with all the bacon, tomatoes and chives. On top of that, some of the mini pizzettes were crunchy while some of them were underbaked.

 

Mini pizzettes were followed by celery cream soup. Served with a fillet of trout and intense tzatziki sauce, the soup was unfortunately creamier than expected.

 

Our next dish was scallops with marrow, enriched with Jerusalem artichoke sauce and black truffles. After the scallops, veal was served with potato gratin. With its insipid aftertaste, I can’t tell that it tasted like genuine veal.

 

Another dish was “chorizo” which is kind of Spanish sucuk. It was made from lamb meat and served with goat cheese and Swiss chard. Probably the lamb meat was exported from the Far East or New Zealand. However, it would give a better result if they would have chosen the meat from a local farm.

 

After all the dishes that couldn’t tickle our palates, the savior of the night showed up: lamb neck! As I always say, “A restaurant with no offal dishes on its menu cannot be defined as a refined restaurant at all!” Smoked in a stone oven with oak branches and bay leaves, the only downside of the dish was its uninviting appearance. But if you pair it with a drink, it may help you to focus on its taste.

 

As a dessert, we ordered Les Deux yoghurt with strawberries. But given that I don’t have a sweet tooth, I can only comment on its aftertaste, but unfortunately it didn’t leave a discernible impression on my palate.

 

As a final dish, the cheese platter comprised of ordinary cheese types like Roquefort, camembert and goat cheese. As it did not surprise us at all, it didn’t leave a remarkable impression on our palates either.

 

Usually in every restaurant I dine at, following the meal, I visit their kitchens and talk to their chefs. But this time the meals as well as the service was below average in Les Deux so much so that I didn’t even felt the need and naturally the excitement to talk to the chef. But again, the Chef Johann Rappenglück wasn’t there that night, who was trained by my friend, Hans Haas who has been at the helm of Tantris for 20 years. The maître and sommelier, Fabrice Kieffer wasn’t there either, who was almost the face of the restaurant. So this forced me to think maybe I was there at the wrong time.

 

Les Deux completely frustrated me with the lack of genuine tastes in their dishes, sloppy service and a cliché ambiance. It could be rated below average. In its current form, it’s a miracle that they still have their Michelin star.

 

Of course, I shouldn’t make my final decision on a restaurant at the first try. Because every restaurant needs a second chance. I hope in my next visit, I will have a chance to have a chat with Rappenglück, Kiefer and the Sous Chef Aşçı Edip about more sensational dishes.

 

Bon Appétit and enjoy the taste of life…

 

Maffeistraße 3A, 80333 Münih, Almanya

+49 89 710407373