Hamburg Help

[Ducky]

We have good friends who are relocating to Hamburg. They cannot live without fresh Sushi a good Vietnamese Pho Tai and access to a Japanese grocery store. I really fear the worst if they do not find these things within days of their arrival. Can you help with tips, hints etc.

Our friends will be living on the west side - near Blankenese - so the closer west your suggestions are - the better.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

[Behemoth]

We have good friends who are relocating to Hamburg. They cannot live without fresh Sushi a good Vietnamese Pho Tai and access to a Japanese grocery store. I really fear the worst if they do not find these things within days of their arrival. Can you help with tips, hints etc.

Our friends will be living on the west side - near Blankenese - so the closer west your suggestions are - the better.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

←

Lucky friends.

Hamburg has lots of Asian places, and sushi is especially hip with the kids right now. Vietnamese was hard to get a few years ago, but I've seen more an moreplaces on recent visits. Their best bet in terms of quality might be the Schanzenviertel & Eppendorf neighborhoods. in any case, they should pick up a current copy of the OxMox restaurant guide or Essen+Trinken as lots of new places keep opening up.

Or, they can start here:

Search by cuisine/location/etc.

There are asian groceries all over the place. An especially big one is near the main train station, as you're heading towards Chile-Haus.

[Ducky]

That's a start Behemoth.

I still hope that someone will come out of the woodwork with specific recommendations. We spend a lot of time in Hamburg ourselves but are still always stumped with these items. The sushi we have tried at 3 or 4 different places has been inedible. Or perhaps we are just spoilt for quality in Vancouver. I have also not found a decent Pho stand in Hamburg - though there are many in Berlin - presumeably because of the large Vietnamese population.

Anyone?

[Behemoth]

Well, as far as specific recommendations, I don't know if it approaches Vancouver quality since I've never been to Vancouver but we like the Bok branch on Schanzenstrasse. They are pan-Asian with an emphasis on Thai so we usually order Thai, but we've gotten their kimchi mandu and those were great too. They have sushi which our friends always order, but I haven't tried it there. There is also a good sushi place I think on Susannenstrasse, though I don't remember the name. Stay away from the cheaper imbiss places and "Sushi Factory" or whatever it's called, but that should be pretty obvious.

Maybe Cinghiale has more recommendations.

To be honest, every city has its strengths. I used to miss dim sum in Hamburg but now I miss eel sandwiches when I'm away. What ya gonna do.

[cinghiale]

I'm in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory right now. I'll weigh in in 10 days or so. Have some thoughts. Internet access too expensive at the moment.

[Ducky]

Yukon Territory? And you have a view on Asian things in Hamburg? Give me your best shot!

[Hector]

So an abundance of wurst, rye bread and the finest north sea fish isn't good enough, ay?

Edited July 23, 2005 by Hector (log)

[anzu]

I don't know that much about Hamburg, but this might help.

Even Berlin has only one Japanese grocery store, and it is VERY small indeed. For Japanese groceries, the place to go is VINH LOI. It has three branches in Berlin, and one in Hamburg. The variety and produce of Vinh Loi is outstanding compared to other Asian groceries.

The Hamburg address is:

Klosterwall 2A

20095 Hamburg

Tel. 040/ 3258890

In spite of the Vietnamese name, they stock groceries from Japan, as well as Vietnam, Thailand, China, etc. They have a limited range of Japanese goods, such as Japanese rice, soba, udon, vinegar, soy, pickles, konnyaku, etc. They also have a number of frozen Japanese products such as sato imo, edamame and so forth, and also have fresh shiso (labelled in Vietnamese as tia to).

Their range is not ideal, but it's the best I've seen in Germany.

Of course, their Hamburg and Berlin branches might differ, but if they are the same, then the time to stock up there is Monday afternoons. Virtually every Asian grocery I've come across in Germany so far gets a once-weekly shipment of fresh vegetables which arrive Monday mornings. Go there too early on Monday, and they haven't yet got it onto the shelves, go later in the week, and the best stuff is already gone.

Vinh Loi does have an outstanding range of Thai and Vietnamese vegetables. (They have Chinese vegetables too, but these are more run of the mill rather than outstanding) These vegetables change with the seasons, but they ave a wonderful habit of bringing in new and obscure vegetables just to see if the demand is there. Often these are labelled only in Thai or Vietnamese, or are not labelled at all...

They also have a large range of freshly made Thai sweets (in Berlin at least), and things such as Vietnamese raw and sour pork sausages (nem chua - also NOT labelled ). Products like the sausages are brought from Paris, which has a substantial Vietnamese community and products to match.

Re sushi:

Personally, I am very very wary about all sushi in Germany. Most of it is made by Vietnamese or Chinese people who have started making it because not because of skill or knowledge, but because it is trendy and can command higher prices than Chinese or Vietnamese food.

Of course, this is not to say that a Chinese or Vietnamese person cannot make decent sushi (which would of course be a ridiculous thing to claim), but I truly believe that most people making sushi in Germany have little idea of what they should be doing, and may very likely not be following hygienic enough practices.

I've seen these unhygienic practices being followed a few times in various places, and simply walked out. Now I've taken to avoiding ALL sushi in Germany.

I presume that your friends are aquainted with the correct names of Japanese dishes? One tip to help avoiding the worst places is to check out their menu. Major mistakes in the names of the dishes - and there are an awful lot of places where this is the case - are usually a pretty indication that they don't have a clue.

Vinh Loi (again) does have frozen sushi-grade seafood, so making one's own sushi could be an option.

I hope for your friends' sake that the Hamburg branch is as good as the Berlin ones.

By the way, if your friends are unacquainted with Germany, here is some good news for at least one ingredient of Japanese-type food items. Daikon is a very common vegetable in Germany, and is sold all over the place even at cheap discount grocery stores such as Penny Markt or Lidl.

This wasn't asked, but as a gratuitous piece of information concerning Asian food here in restaurants: most Chinese restaurant food in Germany is AWFUL. It's all sweet and sour, or 'chop suey'. Avoid.

[Ducky]

Thank you Anzu. I appreciate the Vinh Loi tip.

Our experience with Sushi has also been dreadful throughout Germany and your explanation for this makes sense.

It seems there is a market niche here for some enterprising Sushi chef to fill.

[cinghiale]

Hey Ducky:

Back from my travels through your neck of the woods (had dinner at Lumiere -- pretty damn close to fantastic, that]. So, HH:

I've had two restaurants on my list, and have yet to get to them. So, while I can't speak from direct experience, I can refer to their Gault-Millau reviews, which I have found to be pretty spot-on for the ten or so other restaurants I've visited after reading about them in G-M:

Hennsler & Hennsler (rated 15), located in Altona (Große Elbstraße 160), a near-west neighborhood, not that far from Blankenese, near the beach clubs I trashed in an earlier post. It's a (German) father-son outfit, but junior (Steffen) apprenticed under Matsuhisa at Nobu. And he brought back with him some proper Japanese chefs to work at his place. G-M calls the cuisine "nippo-californian". [stupid "new" Flash-required resto website here.)

Matsumi (G-M review here) (rated 13), located in the city center (Colonnaden 96). Chef is Hideaki Morita, a licensed fugu chef (though no fugu to be had in Germany), as well as sushi master.

I'm with anzu on reluctance to eat sushi in Germany -- it's everywhere (malls, airports), and I have concerns about quality, even safety. That being said, I did find this list of sushi joints in HH, some of which may be quite good (e.g., Wa-Yo in the Hotel Nippon): sushi list.

[Ducky]

Many thanks cinghiale for the tips and the link. These look very useful.