On my last visit to Hamburg, I asked a local colleague for recommendations on where to eat and sadly the proposal I got was for a creperie. I really wasn't that excited by the idea of pancakes (I used to go to Holland a lot and the whole Dutch pancake thing doesn't work for me) but Alison, the person I was travelling with, fancied the sound of Ti Breizh and couldn't be persuaded out of her choice. I got my way the time before so I shut up and agreed to go along with it - knowing that if it was awful, I could blame her afterwards.
If I have to eat pancakes, I'll need to be a bit drunk
Earlier in the evening we'd been invited for cocktails by a bunch of students who'd been working with us for 6 months. They'd found a bar with a two hour long 'Happy Hour' and they were determined to get appropriately happy. By the time Alison and I rolled out of the cocktail bar we were already pretty full of booze and foolish enough to decide that our own innate sense of direction would undoubtedly bring us to the right location. Hence two slightly drunk ladies swayed down Willy Brandt Strasse towards the Speicherstadt district with only the vaguest sense of where they were going.
Two slightly sozzled ladies in hunt of food
But as the luck of the slightly sozzled would have it, we did
find the restaurant, despite it being on a small quiet side street. Admittedly you could be forgiven for walking straight past - which we did - because from the outside Ti Breizh doesn't look like a restaurant at all and that's because the restaurant is only one side of the Ti Breizh 'coin'. In the mornings it's a shop - mostly selling Breton French things like, predictably, striped T-shirts and jumpers. At 11 am the shop closes and the restaurant comes on-line at noon. Clearly the early bird catches not only the worm but the nautically-inspired knitwear as well.
The restaurant
By the time we arrived it was around 8.30 pm and we had no booking but that wasn't a problem. If there had been an early evening 'rush' it was over by the time we got there and we were sent straight upstairs to a table for two. The restaurant was about half full on a Wednesday night. Downstairs the floor is black and white checkerboard, there's lots of stripped wood and bright white walls picked out with blue paintwork around the windows. At the back of the restaurant the windows look out over a canal and we heard later that the place is one of the oldest warehouse buildings in Hamburg. There's a touch of 'Venice' about the place and it must be lovely in summer.
The waitress quickly brought us a menu which was, predictably, full of pancakes. There are alternative starters - such as French fish soup, a tomato soup and a couple of sardine dishes as well as a bunch of salads - but after that it's pancakes all the way. The main ones are described as Buckweizengalletes - which I guessed to be buckwheat pancakes. There's a second long list of mostly sweet Weizen-crepes which I assume are crepes made with white flour.
The list is immense - I couldn't have imagined so many different combinations of what you could put on a pancake. We were both too full of brightly coloured booze to contemplate starters and it took ages to work out what to go for on the pancakes. There's no English menu but with a bit of French and a bit of German we muddled through and I chose a buckwheat pancake with smoked salmon, spinach, tomato salsa and leeks (although I was a bit shaky on the translation and not sure if they'd be leeks or pears). Bizarrely I haven't been able to find this particular combination on the on-line menu but I'm absolutely sure that's what I ate. My second choice would have been Roquefort, walnuts and spinach. If the fancy takes you, you can order everything from a big fry-up on a pancake (fried eggs, ham and cheese) through to mussels in cream and a zillion different types of cheese or meat.
The prices were very reasonable - varying from Euro3.30 for a gallette with butter, up to the most expensive (artichoke hearts, country ham, goat cheese and nut salad) at Euro9.20. Most of the savoury ones were around Euro6-8.
The proof of the pancake is in the eating
When our pancakes arrived they were quite a surprise. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I got a large plate with a browny-coloured pancake folded in on two sides and open on the others. For those old enough to remember, it was about the size of an old LP record (does anyone remember the sketch in 'Not the Nine O'Clock News' where the young shop assistant taunts the old boy with the words "A gramophone, Grandad"?). There was smoked salmon all over the base and three 'blobs' on the open side, one of salsa, one of spinach and one of leeks. By supplying them in blobs rather than all mixed up together, there was no risk that one poorly chosen ingredient could spoil the over-all balance. As it was, I liked all my blobs and took great delight in combining them in many different ways.The base was crisp around the edges, perforated with lots of bubbles, looking not entirely unlike a giant Staffordshire Oatcake (a culinary reference that won't mean much to most people outside the area but never mind - suffice to say it tasted a lot better than an oatcake). The salmon was lightly smoked and not too salty.
We didn't have space for a pudding after tucking into the pancakes and I think that if I'd not been full of brightly coloured cocktails, I still would have struggled to eat two pancakes in one meal. You really do need to go hungry in order to do justice to this restaurant. Instead we each ordered coffees to finish with. The bill for two large savoury pancakes, a large bottle of mineral water and 2 coffees was just Euro25 - which even at the current awful exchange rates was still only £10 each and was almost certainly the cheapest meal that I've bought in Hamburg. Whilst we finished our coffees, the restaurant happily called a taxi firm for us and ten minutes later we were back on the road, heading back to the hotel.
Do I recommend?
Would I go back? Yes I think I would - particularly when it's a bit warmer and we would be able to sit out next to the water. I'd make sure not to eat too much earlier in the day though because a double-pancake challenge is something I would have to prepare for.
Footnote
I work with a French woman who was born in Brittany so I asked her today how to pronounce the name. She had to admit that even she wasn't totally sure but she thought it was something like 'Tea Brez'. Whilst I applaud the owners loyalty to his origins and the use of a real minority language, I do think it's always a bit daft to give any product or restaurant a name that can't be pronounced. Why else would so few Brits ever order Gewuertztraminer off a wine list? Can't say it, won't buy it (or in this case, can't say it - unlikely to ask a taxi driver to take you there). Not only could Marina not pronounce it, she also wasn't sure what it meant although I've later found out that - rather disappointingly - it seems to just mean 'Breton House'.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
We often go for galettes when we eat out over at the French house . I love them . And as we are in Brittany , they are authentic Breton pancakes . Except that the restaurant owner is Mexican , but thats another story .. J xx
duskmaiden 19.05.2008 12:31
Pancakes yum. I still miss the Dutch Pancake House in Manchester. I know all about Staffordshire Oatcakes and LP records as well.if they are better than Staffordshire oatcakes they must be very tasty.
tallulahbang 03.05.2008 13:12
Tsk, you buy chips from a botulism-ridden mobile catering van in the street when you're pissed up, not crepes from a restaurant. Somebody needs to revise Alcoholism101. xx
exceptional by (12%):
very helpful by (88%):
