At the beginning you have to look back briefly, not far, maybe ten years. Of course you could already eat well in Munich back then, but you couldn’t eat good Chinese here yet. You sat in front of ornate wooden panels, stirred gelatinous soups and in most Chinese restaurants you got the same thing: something with morels.
Today it is completely different. Hardly any other kitchen in Munich has recently changed as much as the Chinese one. Whereby – here we go – the offer has long since ramified. In Cantonese restaurants they serve duck with pancakes and hoisin sauce, in Uyghur restaurants they pull their own noodles every day, broths simmer in hot pots, and in the street food shops you can now find a kaleidoscopic selection Dumplings and Dim Sum.
So we are appropriately curious when we go to the “Seen” on Augustenstrasse. Jianguo Zhang, the head chef, is from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, and cooks traditional dishes from his homeland here. Sichuan cuisine is best known for its spiciness and, ideally, the masterful use of the pepper of the same name. On one of the first pages the menu promises “Chinese Fine Dining”, and one thing is clear: if you set the bar high, you have to make sure that you get over it afterwards.
A two-part guest room, rather bright at the front, rather noisy and with a cold window front facing the street. In the back you sit much more comfortably. Dark green walls, dimmed lights, a few mirrors, nothing else to distract from the meal. The menu is not that reduced. On the contrary. It is more of a dining book, 105 pages, and it seldom promises good when the selection tends towards the ocean. Let’s see.
The menu has a full 105 pages. It also contains the sea bass (top left) and pig intestines (bottom).
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
There are a few classics in advance. The mung beans with chili oil and garlic (6.90 euros), for example. Taken in isolation, the white strips of mung bean flour are rather unspectacular, the fresh cucumber strips give them a little texture, the chopped peanuts cushion the spiciness of the red and green chilies. The broccoli leaves with smoked tofu and sesame oil (6.90) are draped into a handsome turret, but remain watery. The chicken leg with sesame paste (7.90) and the duck leg with dark soy sauce (9.90), on the other hand, immediately remind us of one of the problems with menus that are too long: the poultry tastes as if it had been prepared a while ago and just taken out of the fridge .
Then prefer a vegetarian starter, the Chinese cabbage with wasabi vinaigrette and sesame (6.90). The wasabi blows the way for the cabbage, on top of which the flowery spiciness of the Sichuan pepper lays itself before the chopped peanuts reconcile everything again. At this point, the name of the restaurant makes sense for the first time: “Seen” in Chinese means forest – a place where the most varied of impressions and aromas meet.
That doesn’t always work for the main courses. The pork ribs (15.90) are tender, but they glue your mouth with their caramel-sweet varnish. They were announced with lemongrass and rice vinegar, but unfortunately their acidity has been lost. With pork with yeast dough pancakes (15.90) it is all the better, the fermented long beans trickle the meat with one point or the other.
Little distracts from the food here. A little decoration, however, can be found.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
There are tops and flops on every card, and of course the more choices, the more likely the quality will fluctuate. So we don’t want to talk too long about the sea bass (19.90), in which the pickled mustard cabbage goes well with the fish, but is unfortunately overcooked. The green asparagus turns out much nicer with dried scallops (14.90). The vegetables are cooked to the point, while drying gives the scallops a depth reminiscent of ham.
The flavors go even better in pork intestines with celery (16.90). The innards are almost creamy despite being baked, the dough comes with aniseed and surprisingly little fat. The celery cubes add freshness, the Sichuan pepper elegance, and the black beans, which are well dosed on the plate, add a load of umami to the whole thing.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung’s restaurant review “Tasting” has a long tradition: it has been published weekly in the local section since 1975, and for several years also online and with a rating scale. About a dozen editors with culinary experience from all departments – from Munich, knowledge to politics – take turns writing about the city’s gastronomy. The choice is endless, the Bavarian economy is just as important as the Greek fish restaurant, the American fast food chain, the special bratwurst stand or the gourmet restaurant decorated with stars. The special thing about the SZ tasting: The authors write under pseudonyms, often with a culinary touch. You go undetected to the restaurant to be tested about two or three times, depending on how long the budget set by the editorial team lasts. Iron basic rules: a hundred days grace period until the kitchen of a new restaurant has settled in. And: Never get caught working as a restaurant critic – so that you can describe food and drink, service and atmosphere in an unbiased manner. SZ
The question still remains why they use the gastro-phrase “fine dining” to describe their cuisine in “Seen”. Sounds good, sure. But if you take it seriously, it quickly becomes clear that you are more likely to shuffle under the bar here than to take a serious start. The desserts dispel any doubts. The steamed coconut balls with sesame (6.90) are successful, the Matcha-Motchi (2.50) indestructible. But the sticky rice cake with homemade syrup (6.90) makes you think more of fryer fat than fine dining.
In the end we leave the restaurant a bit perplexed. That they cook with ambition here? No question. But the ambition is still lost in some places. A leaner menu would be a start.
Address: Augustenstraße 7, 80333 Munich, Telephone: 089/37918559, www.seen-restaurant.de, Opening times: daily 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 6 p.m.