When it comes to our wedding anniversary, we always try to make a big day of it. While year 8 isn’t a huge milestone, we already had plans to be in another country for it so why not do something extra special (especially after a day of car museums)? I didn’t know a whole lot about Stuttgart before planning this trip, so I was a little worried there wouldn’t be many great dining options to choose from. Boy was I wrong! I was pleasantly surprised to find that Stuttgart had a Michelin Star restaurant – Délice Restaurant. This was our first Michelin Star dining experience, so we were pretty excited.
Check out the rest of our Germany trip here!
Things To Know Before You Go
- We went into this dinner knowing it was going to cost A LOT, but weren’t sure exactly how much it would be. A meal with wine pairing for two, plus tip, ran us €481 (about $533 USD).
- This place is SMALL – only 7 tables and a staff of three small. Because they are only open Tuesday through Friday and have just one seating per night, you definitely need a reservation – which must be made over the phone.
- While the restaurant is open until midnight, they only seat people for the first hour they’re open (7pm – 8pm). I’m assuming that is because the kitchen, which is only a head chef and sous chef, has a set schedule and doesn’t want to rush people through the courses.
- Like many places across Europe, they close for a week at the end of the summer. So be sure to check their website and confirm they’re open when you plan to go. We got lucky and our anniversary fell on the first day they reopened after their break!
- It’s located just down the street from the Österreichischer Platz station, making it super convenient to get there by public transit.
The Délice Restaurant Experience
You won’t receive a menu at Délice Restaurant, so you don’t actually know what you’ll be getting until it’s in front of you. The chef often adjusts his Mediterranean-focused menu based on the season and what is fresh/available. The only things you’ll be asked are if anyone at the table has food allergies, and if you want to do the wine pairing (I recommend you do!). While they say it is 5 courses, the plates just kept coming – so don’t fill up on the bread like we almost did!
We figured we might as well get the full experience, so we got the wine pairing. Before the start of each course, the waiter (who is also the restaurant’s sommelier) walked us through all the important details of the new wine we were poured – from the vintage, to where it was from, and tasting notes. I wish I’d paid a little more attention here, I would’ve loved to track down a few of the wines once we got home.
Food & Wine
Obviously I was trying to be in the moment as much as possible while still documenting, so before we dug in Jasper jotted down a quick note about each dish while I snapped a photo. Unfortunately I can’t give as detailed a description about each dish as I would’ve liked, there were just so many elements!
The meal started with two different amuse-bouches. The first was two spoons – one with a tartar and the other salmon. Raw meat/fish makes me really nervous (and I have texture issues), but I’m trying to be more adventurous and these were delicious. The second was a little bowl of mushroom soup which was a nice earthy contrast to the spoons.
Our first official dish was suckling pork and king prawn with avocado and a Mediterranean sauce. Jasper generally avoids shrimp or prawn dishes, but he surprisingly enjoyed this one! Our other seafood dish was a panko crusted halibut over ratatouille in a white tomato sauce. I’d never had ratatouille before, but had wanted to try it since seeing the Disney movie (is that cheesy? maybe). The final two savory dishes took us back onto land – veal cheek with gnocchi and porcini mushrooms, and then lamb with shitake mushrooms and spinach. Our note taking got noticeably less detailed the further we got into the meal (probably because of all the wine).
I was starting to get full, but thankfully the sweet dishes were fairly small and light. First up was a “pre-dessert” lavender foam with blueberry compote that was the perfect way to transition from the savory to the sweet. Dessert was a passionfruit cake with mango sorbet. By this point I was struggling, but at least we were done, or so I thought. I saw one more plate being dropped off at the table next to us: passion fruit and chocolate truffles with some little brownies. The waiter apparently overheard my, “oh no, more?!” and responded with a laugh and, “this is the last one, I promise.” As if that wasn’t enough, of course I had to wrap things up with some espresso.
Overall Thoughts
This would definitely rank among the top 5 dinners we’ve ever had, well worth the high price tag. The passionfruit cake dessert was honestly the only thing I wasn’t blown away by, but that is likely because passionfruit isn’t my favorite. I still ate the whole thing though! The lack of a menu is great for going in with an open mind and expanding your palate by trying new things you wouldn’t have normally ordered. Jasper is picky with the wines he drinks (he isn’t the biggest fan) and even he enjoyed the entire wine pairing experience. The space is small, but you never feel cramped. If I had to nitpick one negative? The floor in the dining area/kitchen looked like it had seen better days and could use a refresh. If we’re ever in the area again I would 100% make a second trip.
Michelin Star Overview
How does a restaurant receive a Michelin Star (or three)? According to the Michelin Guide, a star is awarded to restaurants offering outstanding cooking, based on 5 different criteria: ingredient quality, flavors, technique expertise, how the chef expresses their personality through their food, and overall consistency over a period of time. You can find a more in-depth overview on the Michelin Star guide website!
While going on a little Michelin Guide deep dive, I learned a few surprising things:
- Contrary to what one might think, décor/ambiance have no impact on the score.
- There are two different Michelin guides – Green is for travel planning and Red is for Restaurants/Hotels. Only cities on the red guide are eligible for Michelin Stars.
- My home city of Philadelphia isn’t on the Red guide. So while there are plenty of deserving restaurants in the city, none have a Michelin Star!
- Getting a Michelin Star is hard. Not only do you need to get a reviewer to come to your city (multiple times), but there is a LOT of competition. Its estimated there are over 15 million restaurants worldwide. Of those, around 2,000 have one star, a little over 400 have two, and less than 200 have 3 stars.
Have you been to a Michelin Star restaurant? Let me know in the comments!
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