Ich weiß ein Haus am See

Season first, then the pass

Raik Zeigner buys by season and supply as Chef at Ich weiß ein Haus am See in Krakow am See, then lets the product set the work. Raik Zeigner has led the kitchen here since 2005, after training at Michael Laumen in 2000 and cooking at a Landhotel in Engadin from 2003, then in Tegernsee. The through-line is not spectacle. It is handwork, service discipline, and a classical base strong enough to hold regional product without crowding it.

His own description of the buying is plain: “Jetzt kaufe ich nach Jahreszeit und Angebot ein und viele regionale Produkte.” In the kitchen, that means the first decision happens before the bench is dressed. Fish, game, vegetables, mushrooms, and fruit arrive with different limits each day, and the menu moves around them rather than around an à la carte grid. The house holds one Michelin star, and Zeigner’s tenure has become part of the room’s rhythm: a country-house restaurant on Krakower See where French-school technique stays close to Mecklenburg produce.

A four-course method without distraction

The main restaurant works around a daily-changing four-course menu. That frame matters. It narrows the pass, keeps the progression legible, and gives the sauce work room to speak. Steamed char can sit on warm pumpkin-lentil salad with housemade balsamic vinegar; crisp pan-fried zander can take fennel, wild broccoli, and lemon-dill velouté; venison can carry chanterelles without losing its line. Turbot on mountain lentils and Müritz lamb belong to the same register, classical, regional, and built through sequence rather than flourish.

The wine program supports that structure with 400 positions and 10 open wines. No sommelier is named by the house, but the program is sized for pairing work, not decoration. A fixed menu asks the cellar to move with fish, game, acidity, fat, and sauce, course by course. The pleasure is in proportion: the wine neither interrupts the plate nor trails behind it.

The round room over Krakower See

The room is circular, with large windows looking across Krakower See and the manicured garden. Service stays formal and quiet, and the country-house setting keeps the work close to the landscape without turning it into scenery. The pass sends out food into warm light rather than a loud dining room. That suits Zeigner’s cooking. A steamed fish course, a game sauce, a Valrhona nougat dessert, each reads more clearly when the room gives it space.

Petra and Adi König are named as the hosts of the family-owned house, and their part of the craft is the floor rather than the stove: the arrival, the pacing, the sense that the table has been prepared for concentration. In 2025, the house added a winter bistro for the colder off-season, with smaller menus and drinks by the fireplace, while the star kitchen keeps its own discipline. Let Raik Zeigner’s four-course menu finish at Krakower See with steamed char.