Atelier

An artist's studio inside a grand hotel

Atelier is the fine dining room of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof on Promenadeplatz, in Munich's Altstadt, and it is named for the idea of an artist's studio. Anton Gschwendtner has been its executive chef since November 2021, holding two Michelin stars, and he arrived after the room's three-star era ended when Jan Hartwig left to open his own restaurant.

Taking over a kitchen that has just lost a star is one of the least enviable jobs in the trade, and Gschwendtner's brief was continuity rather than reinvention. He has held two stars along with four toques in Gault et Millau, nine upward pans from Gusto and three F from Feinschmecker, which is a consistent read across four separate judgments. Valentin Krehl, a long-serving sous-chef, has also stepped up from inside the team, which suggests the brigade has depth rather than a single dependency.

Purist French, with Asian inflection

The cooking is purist French technique subtly enhanced by Asian flavour, worked on seasonal, regional produce. The house describes it as creative seasonal gourmet cuisine of the highest standard, and the underlying idea is to redefine indulgence as something light rather than heavy.

The dishes bear that out. Glazed veal sweetbreads arrive with lentils, button mushrooms, pickled celeriac and sherry. A sauerkraut macaroon comes with grilled octopus, pointed cabbage and Black Forest ham belly, smoky and moving toward pork without turning sour. A chickpea tartlet carries duck liver praline, pumpkin, apricot and mustard for earthy crunch against sweetness. Pasta with chives and savoy cabbage reads like a light version of sauerkraut noodles, which is a Bavarian reference made inside a French structure. The pastry section works to the same standard, with chocolate gels running through pumpkin, brown butter, mango, hazelnut, cinnamon and strawberry.

Grey tones, raw wood, a moving wall

The room was designed by the Belgian Axel Vervoordt, and it works in chic grey tones with raw wood, low-slung ceilings and contrasts between matte and gloss. A mobile wall by Dirk Vander Eecken opens to reveal either a private room or the Silent Garden terrace, planted with a fire maple.

That is an unusually restrained interior for a grand hotel, and it is the reason the room reads as a studio rather than a salon. The scale is intimate, the service personable, and the house takes couples, families and connoisseurs marking an occasion. During the pandemic the operation moved to a covered outdoor area and kept its standards, which is the kind of test a hotel restaurant either passes or quietly fails.

A gem that requires a detour

Atelier sits inside a hotel with its own prestige, one that hosts the Munich Security Conference, and it has kept culinary excellence ahead of that profile rather than trading on it. In a city that blends Bavarian heritage with international luxury, the room stands out through hotel integration and a Michelin pedigree that survived a change at the top.

The verdicts are consistent. One diner called it the premium fine dining experience in Munich, ahead of the alternatives on quality, friendliness and wine service; another rated it the best meal eaten in Germany. The house has also taken a Travellers' Choice award for consistency. What Gschwendtner has to hold is what the name promises: pleasure treated as art on the plate, in a grey room on Promenadeplatz with a maple growing outside the wall.