Fourth Floor, Lingerie. Fifth Floor, Lunch
PROOF User: 155273 Time: 15:37 - 04-07-2011 Region: SundayAdvance Edition: 1
6
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2011
TR
BITES
Fourth Floor, Lingerie. Fifth Floor, Lunch. It’s an age-old truth — albeit one scientifically untested — that shopping builds hunger. Here are four restaurants in department stores (and one shopping complex) around Europe that are worth a visit for their culinary fare. BERLIN LeBuffet at KaDeWe Most shoppers in need of sustenance at the Kaufhaus des Westens department store in Berlin — better known as KaDeWe — head straight to its huge gourmet hall: a cornucopia of food, glorious food on Floor 6. But what they may not know is that one story up, spanning the store’s top floor — the Wintergarten — is a self-serve restaurant aptly named LeBuffet. And what a buffet it is. In separate stations, chefs prepare fresh cuts of veal, pork and beef. Fish, vegetable sides (including, during my recent visit, seasonal white asparagus) and crêpes are all made to order. Colorful juice blends beckon near a dessert area stocked with classics like Old German Cheesecake. There’s a requisite salad bar, but also an array of wines and even a living garden where guests can hand-pick sprigs of parsley, basil and other herbs with which to season their meals. Granted, everything here is cafeteriastyle, but what’s lacking in ambience is made up for in flavor: both the cheese cannelloni and penne with a mushroom cream sauce from the hot pasta bar were satisfyingly savory and fresh; a generous pork cutlet was tender and succulent. Another surprise: the place proves to be great for people-watching. At lunchtime, the restaurant buzzes with a combination of local businesspeople in suits, silver-haired retirees, nattily dressed shoppers, and young parents. Most customers vie for the tables that, through the space’s main curved windows, overlook the city’s western center; some inevitably have to settle for booths, interior tables or seats at sweeping highbacked purple banquettes. LeBuffet in KaDeWe’s Wintergarten, Tauentzienstrasse 21-24, seventh floor; (49-30) 2121-2623 ; lebuffet.de. An average meal for two, without drinks or tip, is 45 euros, or about $63 at $1.39 to the euro. KIMBERLY BRADLEY
ISTANBUL Borsa in Istinye Park Istinye Park, a shopping complex in northern Istanbul, features about 300 shops, featuring mainly international brands, populating a three-story enclosed section. An adjacent open-air
AAA
JODI HILTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE Borsa, Is-
tanbul; Barouge, Paris; LeBuffet, Berlin; Fifth Floor, London.
shopping district, complete with valet parking, hosts high-end designers, and a central court with fountains is surrounded on four sides by Bottega Veneta, Fendi, Dior and the like. Overlooking it all, on the second floor of a corner building, is the restaurant Borsa, serving regional Turkish dishes in a setting elegant enough to match its surroundings. The first decision you’ll have to make at Borsa is where to sit. Floor-to-ceiling windows peer across the plaza at Jimmy Choo and Louis Vuitton outlets. Inside, generously spaced tables are draped in crisp white lines and a team of well-dressed servers provide seamless service. Outside, tables on the patio await the arrival of warm weather. In the manner of a traditional Turkish grill house, the menu is divided into sections: soguklar (cold mezes), sicaklar (hot mezes), ana yemekler (entrees) and tatlilar (desserts). Mezes, Borsa’s strong suit, vary in origin and inspiration, from spruced-up peasant cuisine to recipes dating to the
RACHEL B. DOYLE
PARIS Le Barouge at Galeries Lafayette
GORDON WELTERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ottoman court. Tulum, a pungent and pleasantly gamey sheep cheese aged inside a goatskin comes from Erzincan in eastern Turkey. Zeytinaglılar, seasonal vegetables cooked in olive oil, are tender and sweet; during a visit in early March, leeks and carrots were rendered delicate by slow cooking. The mains are geared toward the carnivorous, with around 20 grilled and roasted meat dishes to choose from. The Iskender kebap was well executed and satisfying — though its layers of charcoal grilled lamb slices, tomato sauce, melted butter, yogurt, and cubes of spongy pita might not be conducive to post-meal shopping. Borsa, Istinye Park, Istinye Bayiri Caddesi 73; (90-212) 345-5333; borsarestaurant.com. An average meal for two, without drinks or tip, costs around 200 Turkish lira, or $134 at 1.5 lira to the dollar. KATIE PARLA
LONDON Fifth Floor Restaurant at Harvey Nichols
ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
side “chocolate gnocchi.” The meat, drizzled with juniper berry jus, was close to perfect, but the “gnocchi” tasted like something that would have been more at home next to a latte. A dish of pan-fried stone bass served with blue swimmer crab was beautifully cooked and nicely crispy, but paired better with an additional side of truffle mash than its own herb potatoes with tomato and leek. For dessert, a chocolate fondant with thyme ice cream was satisfyingly gooey. For those on a shopping jag, Fifth Floor is a go-to spot for fortification. The diners at the next table from ours had bags from Harrods (the granddame department store just down the street) resting at their feet, as they devoured a whole duck flavored with fig and red pepper. Fifth Floor Restaurant, Harvey Nichols, 109-125 Knightsbridge, SW1X; (44207) 235-5250; harveynichols.com/fifthfloor-london. Dinner for two, without drinks or tip, is about £85, or about $134 at $1.58 to the pound.
You probably wouldn’t be expecting influences from a Scandinavian grandmother at a designer department store in London. But that’s what you’ll find at Fifth Floor, the restaurant at Harvey Nichols, where Jonas Karlsson is chef. It was Grandma Ingrid who inspired
the succulent venison, accented with pear and juniper, that Mr. Karlsson, a native of Sweden, put on his menu. More generally, his pairings of marinated meat and smoked fish with berries and herbs from the forest are straight from his grandmother’s old-school playbook — which is not to say he hasn’t had to adapt. “I do like to refer to the Nordic cuisine, but I also have to listen to my customers and what they want to have,” said Mr. Karlsson, who has spent the last four years as the head chef, devising a style that blends Scandinavian and French cooking, while using British ingredients. Most diners at the Fifth Floor, perhaps primed by the store’s seemingly endless racks and display cases, expect lots of options. They also may be watching their waistlines. “They expect light food,” Mr. Karlsson said — and somehow he finds a way to oblige. During a recent visit, a starter of veal sweetbreads with red onion compote was as fluffy and tender as a marshmallow. The dish is complex — comprising 10 ingredients — and is accompanied by “Ingrid’s secret black mustard,” which Mr. Karlsson smears across the plate like war paint. Then there was that medium-rare venison loin, which came atop a mound of bacon and cabbage and served along-
“Food should be part of the department store experience and not just convenience food,” said Philippe Thomas, food and restaurant director of Galeries Lafayette. “Le Barouge is very simple: the best French products cooked à la minute in the best tradition.” During a recent visit, these bistro classics included a judiciously seasoned steak tartare that arrived with a delicately dressed mesclun salad and a pile of frites hot from the fryer, with the crisp golden crunch and velvety interior indicative of fresh potatoes. A dish of shrimp and vegetables in peanut butter bouillon, flecked with cilantro, didn’t deliver on its promised nuttiness, but it was light and satisfyingly savory. First courses seemed to be a bit of an afterthought; a stodgy lentil salad couldn’t be rescued by shavings of foie gras, no matter how meltingly tender they were. But long slate boards of carefully selected cheeses and charcuterie can be called into duty as a meal-opener (or a light snack). Desserts, like a pudding-centered chocolate cake, recalled childhood pleasures — simple, sweet and warm. Of the 10,000 bottles of wine stacked around the space — the restaurant is tucked into a corner of the store’s wine shop — over 30 are available by the glass, including some affordable choices. Three pour sizes offer diners the choice between a few sensible sips, or — for the truly exhausted shopper — a large gulp designed perhaps to cushion sticker-shock. Le Barouge, 48, boulevard Haussmann, Lafayette Gourmet, second floor of the Lafayette Homme building; (33-1) 40-23-52-31; galerieslafayette.com. Lunch for two, without drinks or tips, is about 60 euros. ANN MAH
Æ
6
THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2011
TR
BITES
Fourth Floor, Lingerie. Fifth Floor, Lunch. It’s an age-old truth — albeit one scientifically untested — that shopping builds hunger. Here are four restaurants in department stores (and one shopping complex) around Europe that are worth a visit for their culinary fare. BERLIN LeBuffet at KaDeWe Most shoppers in need of sustenance at the Kaufhaus des Westens department store in Berlin — better known as KaDeWe — head straight to its huge gourmet hall: a cornucopia of food, glorious food on Floor 6. But what they may not know is that one story up, spanning the store’s top floor — the Wintergarten — is a self-serve restaurant aptly named LeBuffet. And what a buffet it is. In separate stations, chefs prepare fresh cuts of veal, pork and beef. Fish, vegetable sides (including, during my recent visit, seasonal white asparagus) and crêpes are all made to order. Colorful juice blends beckon near a dessert area stocked with classics like Old German Cheesecake. There’s a requisite salad bar, but also an array of wines and even a living garden where guests can hand-pick sprigs of parsley, basil and other herbs with which to season their meals. Granted, everything here is cafeteriastyle, but what’s lacking in ambience is made up for in flavor: both the cheese cannelloni and penne with a mushroom cream sauce from the hot pasta bar were satisfyingly savory and fresh; a generous pork cutlet was tender and succulent. Another surprise: the place proves to be great for people-watching. At lunchtime, the restaurant buzzes with a combination of local businesspeople in suits, silver-haired retirees, nattily dressed shoppers, and young parents. Most customers vie for the tables that, through the space’s main curved windows, overlook the city’s western center; some inevitably have to settle for booths, interior tables or seats at sweeping highbacked purple banquettes. LeBuffet in KaDeWe’s Wintergarten, Tauentzienstrasse 21-24, seventh floor; (49-30) 2121-2623 ; lebuffet.de. An average meal for two, without drinks or tip, is 45 euros, or about $63 at $1.39 to the euro. KIMBERLY BRADLEY
ISTANBUL Borsa in Istinye Park Istinye Park, a shopping complex in northern Istanbul, features about 300 shops, featuring mainly international brands, populating a three-story enclosed section. An adjacent open-air
AAA
JODI HILTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE Borsa, Is-
tanbul; Barouge, Paris; LeBuffet, Berlin; Fifth Floor, London.
shopping district, complete with valet parking, hosts high-end designers, and a central court with fountains is surrounded on four sides by Bottega Veneta, Fendi, Dior and the like. Overlooking it all, on the second floor of a corner building, is the restaurant Borsa, serving regional Turkish dishes in a setting elegant enough to match its surroundings. The first decision you’ll have to make at Borsa is where to sit. Floor-to-ceiling windows peer across the plaza at Jimmy Choo and Louis Vuitton outlets. Inside, generously spaced tables are draped in crisp white lines and a team of well-dressed servers provide seamless service. Outside, tables on the patio await the arrival of warm weather. In the manner of a traditional Turkish grill house, the menu is divided into sections: soguklar (cold mezes), sicaklar (hot mezes), ana yemekler (entrees) and tatlilar (desserts). Mezes, Borsa’s strong suit, vary in origin and inspiration, from spruced-up peasant cuisine to recipes dating to the
RACHEL B. DOYLE
PARIS Le Barouge at Galeries Lafayette
GORDON WELTERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ottoman court. Tulum, a pungent and pleasantly gamey sheep cheese aged inside a goatskin comes from Erzincan in eastern Turkey. Zeytinaglılar, seasonal vegetables cooked in olive oil, are tender and sweet; during a visit in early March, leeks and carrots were rendered delicate by slow cooking. The mains are geared toward the carnivorous, with around 20 grilled and roasted meat dishes to choose from. The Iskender kebap was well executed and satisfying — though its layers of charcoal grilled lamb slices, tomato sauce, melted butter, yogurt, and cubes of spongy pita might not be conducive to post-meal shopping. Borsa, Istinye Park, Istinye Bayiri Caddesi 73; (90-212) 345-5333; borsarestaurant.com. An average meal for two, without drinks or tip, costs around 200 Turkish lira, or $134 at 1.5 lira to the dollar. KATIE PARLA
LONDON Fifth Floor Restaurant at Harvey Nichols
ANDREW TESTA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
side “chocolate gnocchi.” The meat, drizzled with juniper berry jus, was close to perfect, but the “gnocchi” tasted like something that would have been more at home next to a latte. A dish of pan-fried stone bass served with blue swimmer crab was beautifully cooked and nicely crispy, but paired better with an additional side of truffle mash than its own herb potatoes with tomato and leek. For dessert, a chocolate fondant with thyme ice cream was satisfyingly gooey. For those on a shopping jag, Fifth Floor is a go-to spot for fortification. The diners at the next table from ours had bags from Harrods (the granddame department store just down the street) resting at their feet, as they devoured a whole duck flavored with fig and red pepper. Fifth Floor Restaurant, Harvey Nichols, 109-125 Knightsbridge, SW1X; (44207) 235-5250; harveynichols.com/fifthfloor-london. Dinner for two, without drinks or tip, is about £85, or about $134 at $1.58 to the pound.
You probably wouldn’t be expecting influences from a Scandinavian grandmother at a designer department store in London. But that’s what you’ll find at Fifth Floor, the restaurant at Harvey Nichols, where Jonas Karlsson is chef. It was Grandma Ingrid who inspired
the succulent venison, accented with pear and juniper, that Mr. Karlsson, a native of Sweden, put on his menu. More generally, his pairings of marinated meat and smoked fish with berries and herbs from the forest are straight from his grandmother’s old-school playbook — which is not to say he hasn’t had to adapt. “I do like to refer to the Nordic cuisine, but I also have to listen to my customers and what they want to have,” said Mr. Karlsson, who has spent the last four years as the head chef, devising a style that blends Scandinavian and French cooking, while using British ingredients. Most diners at the Fifth Floor, perhaps primed by the store’s seemingly endless racks and display cases, expect lots of options. They also may be watching their waistlines. “They expect light food,” Mr. Karlsson said — and somehow he finds a way to oblige. During a recent visit, a starter of veal sweetbreads with red onion compote was as fluffy and tender as a marshmallow. The dish is complex — comprising 10 ingredients — and is accompanied by “Ingrid’s secret black mustard,” which Mr. Karlsson smears across the plate like war paint. Then there was that medium-rare venison loin, which came atop a mound of bacon and cabbage and served along-
“Food should be part of the department store experience and not just convenience food,” said Philippe Thomas, food and restaurant director of Galeries Lafayette. “Le Barouge is very simple: the best French products cooked à la minute in the best tradition.” During a recent visit, these bistro classics included a judiciously seasoned steak tartare that arrived with a delicately dressed mesclun salad and a pile of frites hot from the fryer, with the crisp golden crunch and velvety interior indicative of fresh potatoes. A dish of shrimp and vegetables in peanut butter bouillon, flecked with cilantro, didn’t deliver on its promised nuttiness, but it was light and satisfyingly savory. First courses seemed to be a bit of an afterthought; a stodgy lentil salad couldn’t be rescued by shavings of foie gras, no matter how meltingly tender they were. But long slate boards of carefully selected cheeses and charcuterie can be called into duty as a meal-opener (or a light snack). Desserts, like a pudding-centered chocolate cake, recalled childhood pleasures — simple, sweet and warm. Of the 10,000 bottles of wine stacked around the space — the restaurant is tucked into a corner of the store’s wine shop — over 30 are available by the glass, including some affordable choices. Three pour sizes offer diners the choice between a few sensible sips, or — for the truly exhausted shopper — a large gulp designed perhaps to cushion sticker-shock. Le Barouge, 48, boulevard Haussmann, Lafayette Gourmet, second floor of the Lafayette Homme building; (33-1) 40-23-52-31; galerieslafayette.com. Lunch for two, without drinks or tips, is about 60 euros. ANN MAH
Æ
