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History

Hunters' cottage first built in 1620 by Count from Mämmingen had had several owners. Since 1955 it is owned by Ortners family. The building was rebuilt a few times, but always with caution so that the former character was not destroyed. In the rooms is still the original furniture.

Restaurant

During nice weather offers the restaurant view of Dolomity, vineyards and orchards in valley. If the weather is favorable, it is possible to sit on an outside deck, absorb the energy from the sun and enjoy a dazzling view of the rough Alp sceneries. Regarding food, Castel Fragsburg's cuisine combines traditional South-Tyrol and Mediterranean meals with emphasis on ease and elegance. The Chef is Luis Haller, who achieved the Michelin star. His talented and young team focuses on creativity, authenticity and quality of meals. The menu consists of local, seasonal and organic ingredients. Menu is accompanied by a vine list of 170 wines from local, as well as other Italian and foreign winemakers.

Tasting Menu

As it is usual in restaurants of this kind, waiter seated us and offered tasting menu that introduces their cuisine the best. The menu was supposed to show South-Tyrol and Mediterranean cuisine as they grasp it. After an exhausting day on festival in Merano I chose the tasting menu. We got three kinds of home-made spreads and home-baked goods while waiting for the first appetizer. All kinds of bread: sweet, salty, white, brown or whole-grain, all of them fresh, crunchy and good-smelling. All that combined with the lovely spreads could be a nice and sufficient supper. Afterwards we got the first appetiser consisting of three little appetisers: porcini mousse, scallops and salmon nigiri. I tried the porcini mousse as first. It was a dream of every mushroom lover, fantastic, good-smelling and concentrated mushroom bomb at one sip. The scallop was so soft that it melted in mouth without chewing, like “a sea butter”. Wonderful! I called the salmon savory, nigiri, because it was raw and cut into pieces. My sensual experience was enhanced by flower decoration. I have to note that the start was very swift. After a while I got a square plate with a creation that I called „Die Fantastischen Vier”. A homonymous band from Stuttgart earned worldwide fame in early 90's. Four guys played something like hip-hop. I had “a fantastic four” on my plate then. It was terrine with valerian, tuna tataki, beef tartare and “suckling pig” as waiter described it. Yes, I can imagine judgemental reactions, but suckling pig is famous local speciality. It is not worse than lamb ribs or veal, from ethic point of view. Additionally, I have to state, that the whole course was fantastic, especially the pig and therefore I called it “the fantastic four”. The set of starters was closed with truffle ravioli. Since I am a truffle enthusiast, homemade pasta with fresh truffles delighted me. Pasta like from mommy pronounced the taste of truffles. This creation was decorated with rose petals. Everything was fresh, simple, but inventive and tasty. Bravo!

The second act

In between appetisers and main courses they served us sorbet and homemade elder lemonade served unusually in test tubes. First out of two main courses was trout. It was juicy and tasty. Originality of this course was in skin that was baked separately like a thin crisp. The combination of tender meat and crispy crisp was unbelievable. Between two main dishes I walked around the restaurant and recognized some faces from the festival. They were well known winemakers. It was cold and raining outside. Rain with snow – November in South Tyrol. When I sit at my table, I had Pinot poured in my glass already and in a while veal on a plate. Waiter poured sauce and foam over the plate. It was impressive. We had high expectations after previous courses, but we were not disappointed. Food was juicy, slightly spiced so that taste of ingredients stepped up. Yummy!

Desserts

I am not a dessert type and I was completely full, so I didn't feel like eating desserts. Because of objectivity I couldn't skip them. I didn't know what was ahead of me. Mango ice-cream with grape mousse was nice and refreshing surprise. I was glad and thought that was the end. I was mistaken. It was supposed to help me digest and handle what followed. Sweet spoon as pre-dessert, chocolate ecstasy as dessert itself and six little sweets with coffee were all excellent. This restaurant was visited by many famous people such as Luciano Pavarotti or Ben Kingsley. If they had similar experience to mine, I believe they were pleased. In case you will go to Merano festival, I can only recommend this restaurant to you.

My rating:

The author does not visit rated restaurants at the invitation, but chooses them himself. Impressions and evaluation are based on single one visit. All expenses are covered by the author.

Text and photos: Dodi Fodor