A real estate company has tried to establish a new type of restaurant in Munich under the deliberately funny name Sir Helga: a restaurant that is open daily from 9 a.m. to midnight and offers hot food throughout the day. This all-day dining room was conceived by internationally active housing brokers who want to offer their “residents”, the temporary tenants lured from one city to another, not only attractive apartments, but also a restaurant in the same building that offers food and drinks all day long can serve drinks. However, during the pilot project in Munich, the operators of Sir Helga had to significantly reduce the almost utopian opening times after a few months of testing due to staffing problems. The restaurant in the Lehel is currently only open from 9 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. On these mornings, however, the success of the gastronomically ambitious concept is nice to experience. At most, in the lobbies of large hotels, so many foreign languages could be heard at the same time. In none of these lobbies, however, can you dine so pleasantly so early.
In the culinary field, the restaurant tries to find a compromise between German and international cuisine. And the drinks try to be regional and international at the same time. There is Chiemsee beer on tap and decent open wines from Germany, Austria, Italy and France. The bottled wines all come from the best producers.
On the breakfast menu, which also features American dishes such as pancakes and maple syrup, we were particularly interested in the in-house version of the German classic Strammer Max, the Stramme Helga: instead of fried bacon, there are a few slices of smoked salmon and an exemplary yolk-soft fried egg on a bed of sprouts , which spreads out on a slice of crunchy toasted sourdough bread – a hearty-tasting filler at the start of the day (11.50 euros).
Astonishingly friendly service to annoying background music – but there is also a sidewalk café in front of the door.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
When it comes to the starters, the restaurant’s inventors have skilfully concentrated on dishes that can be put together without great effort from freshly prepared materials that are available cold. The gratinated figs with goat’s cheese, bulgur, honey and walnuts are a convincing example of this way of combining things that at first glance don’t go together, but cleverly complement each other on the plate, even enhancing each other (11.50). Or the smoked trout fillets, which are served with a surprisingly good, bite-sized, lukewarm potato salad with radishes and horseradish (12.50).
The bouillabaisse can be ordered as a starter or as a main course. It is adapted to Central European tastes, i.e. it is much more restrained in flavor than its Mediterranean counterparts. The garlic in the Rouille sauce doesn’t explode in your mouth, it nestles tamely into the mayonnaise-like cream. The seafood that goes with it – the pieces of cod and the shrimp from ASC-certified farms – are prepared for themselves, so they can be lifted pleasingly plump and firm from the vegetable-based grainy soup. Instead of thin slices of white bread, toasted thick slices of sourdough bread are included, which goes well with this mild but cleverly balanced Nordic version of the dish.
The other classic of French cuisine, the coq au vin, is prepared with root vegetables, pearl onions and – as it should be – with red wine and comes very close to its Gallic model (18.50). We were also very satisfied with the roasted Duroc pork chops; there were two of them on the plate, they harmonized perfectly with the side dishes ratatouille and rosemary potatoes (24.50).
Cocktails are also on the drinks menu.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
In addition to the dishes that are on the menu all year round, Sir Helga is also happy to offer seasonal specialties. So in winter you could discover something specifically German, which unfortunately is rarely found on Munich menus: green cabbage. Unfortunately, we have not yet visited the restaurant, which was plagued by corona restrictions at the time. But we were there during the asparagus season and chose the asparagus salad from the small special menu, a salad version with a wide range of flavors made from green and white asparagus, enriched with spinach leaves, feta cheese, a soft-boiled egg and truffle dressing (12.90).
Conclusion: There is no experimentation in Sir Helga’s kitchen, but not much is done wrong either. The menu offers dishes that are easy to prepare and can be served comparatively quickly. A decent level is almost always achieved. One can also marvel at the friendliness with which the remaining staff who returned after the pandemic keeps an overview, even when the restaurant is full. The spatial confinement is less pleasing. The tables are much too small for the elaborate place settings and are crowded together. The best place to sit is in the sidewalk café outside the door. There you don’t have to listen to the banal background music either, the dull pounding of which can be quite annoying indoors.
Sir Helgaaddress: Mariannenstraße 3, 80538 Munich, telephone: 089/27275470, [email protected]Opening times: Monday to Friday 5 p.m. to midnight, Saturday 9 a.m. to midnight, Sunday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m
The SZ taster
The restaurant review “Kostprobe” in the Süddeutsche Zeitung has a long tradition: it has been published weekly in the local section since 1975, and online for a few years now and with a rating scale. About a dozen editors with culinary expertise from all departments – from Munich, science 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 taster: The authors write under pseudonyms, often with a culinary touch. They go into the restaurant to be tested unnoticed about two or three times, depending on how long the budget given by the editors lasts. Iron basic rules: a grace period of one hundred days for the kitchen of a new restaurant to familiarize itself. And: never get caught working as a restaurant critic – to be able to describe food and drink, service and atmosphere impartially.