Teufelhof, Leonhardsgraben, Basel

Das Taboulé mit Riesenkrevetten und Thunfisch-Tandoori

Die Schwarzwurzeln im Brickteig mit Lauch und Périgord Trüffel

Das Gratin von Jakobsmuscheln und Chicoreé mit Passionsfrucht und Ingwer

Saffranspaghettini

My instincs told me to go to Bon Vivant, my journalistic soul told me to go Teufelhof in Basel, since I’ve never been there. I enter the restaurant on the first floor named Bel Etage and have a seat at a table near the entrance. I was instantly reminded of a sentence which was coined by a colleague of mine I had lunch with. He doesn’t like the Gault Millau, because if he follows it, he always ends up in places with a lot of grey heads. Menu looked reasonably small and I had some difficulty in making a call on what I was going to have for dinner. I started with a Taboule and shrimp accompanied by some tuna. Tuna was a bit on the dryer side but the Taboule was expertly made, not sure however what the shrimp added to the dish. Next up was an oversizedspring roll, which was actually some black salsify (Schwarzwurzel) in a filo dough on top of leeks and a sauce of truffles. A clumsy and weird dish, the dough and the creamy filling took away from the black salsify, the sauce was boring and the nice leeks didn’t save the dish either. I was hoping to see some more culinary expertise on the table, this was more like an attempt at fine dining I’d come up with myself. Little did I know that there was a disaster still waiting to happen. My main dish sounded very interesting, scallops with endives and a passionfruit/ginger sauce. Salty, sweetness, bitterness, maybe some roast aromas, this sounds like a perfect slam dunk for a very balanced dish. Unfortunatley it was completely out of tune, not only where there much too many scallops on the plate, the sweetness wasn’t a nice touch, it simply overpowered the dish completely. Something happened, which always never does – I didn’t finish the plate and I skipped dessert. Obviously I was very disappointed not only with the restaurant, but also with the Gault Millau giving this joint 16 points. The restaurant is stuffy, doesn’t live up to the culinary standard it’s trying to set and too expensive:

Rechnung