Excellent dining experience. My company's co-founder frequents Tarantella, and the wait staff was so patient with us. I'm sure we were the only reason that they closed a little after 12AM on a Wednesday night as we were busy chitchatting away. We ordered to share a truffle flatbread, a seafood platter, and shrimps a la carte. But let me first start off with their bread basket. It has an assortment of different breads, and these huge crisps, one is a plain fried crisp and the other is peppered. So tasty! The truffle flatbread was a great starter as well. The seafood platter was a smorgasbord of creatures from the sea with mussels, scallops, shrimps, a spiny mini lobster looking animal, mini octopus, seaweed and dipping sauces. I'm not a huge seafood eater, but the shrimps were delicious and the scallops were perfectly tender. We also were presented with a delightful sparkling french wine. I ordered the chicken cordon bleu and it looked different than I am used to seeing, but it was by far the best cordon bleu I've ever had! The portion was huge with two breasts molded into a patty shape. The breasts were breaded and fried, and stuffed with gooey melted cheese and a delicious mild ham. Alongside it was served with a lemon half (didn't use) and a delightful berry sauce. I enjoyed the sauteed spinach which was well seasoned which the whole table shared. My co-founder loves their fried potatoes and I could see why as they were perfectly crisp. So stuffed, but there's always room for dessert! I ordered the marzipan ice cream, which like everything else was a huge portion. They make their ice cream onsite fresh and you can tell. It was so creamy and the flavors popped out without being overly sweet. They also served complimentary apple cake bites. The European way is to enjoy your meal, so definitely expect to be here awhile also. The restaurant is beautiful, service was great, and the food was so good! Tarantella was my favorite restaurant that I dined at in Hamburg. read more

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Forget Siri, Yelp guided me to a fabulous dinner and I couldn't have been happier. Fried Goat's Cheese with lettuce, avocado, tomato, basil and smothered with truffles then paired with grilled scallops... AMAZING! This was indeed food porn as some have described dining when your meal gives you an afterglow. Emphatically yes, afterglow achieved, y'all! This was my first yelp in Hamburg and my, my did I pick a foodtastic venue to dine. The patio is lovely, right out of a picturesque setting with the warm luminesce of the orange candle lights to the orange ties the servers wear that pop off their all black attire. If every server here is as good, attentive and charming as the one I experienced you're in for a treat. My wonderful meal was accompanied by a Pinot Bianco, the sommelier's suggestion and it was delightful. Since my meal was so good I thought ok, I'll give in to temptation and try dessert. I decided on a glass of Royal white port and along with the server's suggestion of their house made ice cream and yogurt dessert what a grand finale to the evening. The dish comes displayed beautifully as you'd expect, garnished with a mint leaf as well as powdered sugar lightly sprinkled over the bowl. Two scoops, one a very sweet vanilla ice cream with great texture and the other was a black vanilla yogurt that complimented the sweetness of the white. The dish was a true ying and yang of desserts. In comparison if this meal were baseball, one was hit outta the park followed by the roar of cheers. This American Southerner via London experienced a home run in Hamburg and I hope you will too when you dine at Tarantella y'all. read more

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The Tarantella is a posh chef restaurant in central Hamburg right next to the Cinemaxx and the Casino Esplanade. The restaurant is large, very roomy and refined, and it seems that the majority of lunch customers are suit-wearing CEOs and the evening customers are some of Hamburg's more "capable" citizens. I am neither a CEO nor a "capable" citizen, so the main reason I've eaten at Tarantella on more than one occasion is because I know the owner/chef personally. Freddy is simply one of Hamburg's finest chefs and the menu at Tarantella is simply wonderful - creative dishes at premium prices, but a feast for the senses nonetheless. The staff at Tarantella is exceptionally polite and friendly, guests at Tarantella are very well served. I like drinking just a coffee here as well as having a full meal - they make a good Cappuccino and along with it, every type of sugar you could possibly imagine. Despite the high-class overtones one comes to expect from a posh restaurant, the staff here are very serious about food and really do look into every fine detail of a well-rounded meal. Recommended if you want to go all-out for a dinner, or to invite your significant other for a romantic evening out. read more

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We went fir dinner on Easter Saturday with some guys and had a perfect evening with excellent wine and food. Location: In the today's casino (former bank) building with excellent access by car, train or bus. Dammtor station or Stephansplatz are around the corner. Top of the edge inside interiour. Food and wine: We had Winer Schnitzel with asparagus. Coocked to perfection! Top! The Grauburgunder house wine was very good. Service: excellent! Felt like "old school" times. Over all: clear go and try out. The bathroom (at least for gents) has a surprise :)) read more

As a Casse-Croute regular I was really looking forward to my first meal at Tarantella (as both places are run by the same people). Unfortunately the visit turned out to be ever so slightly disappointing. Tarantella is trying to make a grand impression on every level: the restaurant itself is vast and imposing, decorated in modern style (which I suspect will age rather quickly), while the menu is similarly vast, offering everything from salads to the most opulent dishes. I chose the middleground and opted for a beef entrecote with steamed vegetables and sauce béarnaise as side dishes. The beef was of good quality and cooked just as I had ordered, but the vegetables (a portion of enormous quantity) were, if there was such a term for the vegan variety, "bleu". The sauce béarnaise, on the other hand, was a bit bland, though fortunately not of the obvious convenience product type. Desert consisted of a rhubarb crumble, which unfortunately continued with the "chewy" theme. The rhubarb's texture was like celery and the stale crumble couldn't save the day, either. The food was served incredibly quickly after ordering, but service in general seemed to be lacking focus, despite (or because of?) the low number of costumers that sunday afternoon. Some might say that the huge portions are good enough to justify Tarantella's prices, but for my liking the actual cooking left too much to be desired, considering the upper class context the restaurant wants to be seen in. I'd recommend it in case one needs a substantial meal at an unusual time (as was the case when I visited) or wants to impress a guest. The culinary experience itself isn't good enough a reason. read more

Went for lunch today and was very pleasantly surprised. I had been there in the evening for an event but decided to wait to have eaten here properly before reviewing. Everyone seems to be bitching about the people who come here. At lunch time it's a standard, business crowd. All very pleasant. A couple girls walked in a bit dolled up but you have this in most places in town which are at the higher end of the spectrum. On to the food. They have very reasonable priced lunch specials and a good selection. There's a lot of meat and fish which is exactly what I like. I had the tuna tartar dish at lunch today with wasabi mashed potatoes and it was wonderful. The bread you get while you wait for your entree is also very high quality and a tasty assortment of different types. My colleauge had the fisch "misto" or something along those lines. Looked really good and he seemed to enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed my food. The interior is quite well done and we sat in front as I thought it fun to watch the kitchen work. You can see everything in plain site if you sit at the higher, bar-style tables right past the front door. You also have a good seat to watch everything going on. I particularly like the decor and it may be very subjective but it's nothing you could consider off-putting. Service was also stellar. I was expecting a bit more arrogance and snootiness but there was none of that. All very professional, right from the maitre d' to waitstaff to those clearing plates. For me, all top-notch. All in all, my pleasant experience at lunch will have me back for dinner as I really want to try multiple dishes. Really hoping the evening experience is just as good and professional as the lunch experience. read more

The food was ok - maybe 2.5 stars, but the service was so bad that I have to give Tarantella 1 star. The waiters could have cared less that we were there - it seemed like a chore to serve us. Overall, this was one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had and I hope others will be wise enough to avoid this restaurant. read more

If you like cat food and bad service, then this is the place to go in Hamburg! Food is mediocre at best and overpriced. Their Zagat rating is way too high for the quality. Don't bother ordering a beer unless you like your mug to be 50% full of foam, how does a restaurant not know how to pour? They made us wait for 45 minutes to get the check due to "technical problems" with their credit card service, server and manager didn't ever bother to offer a free drink, dessert, or discount. The manager is a complete tosser as well, one of the rudest people I've ever met. Overall, avoid the restaurant, bad food and service and a wanna-be posh attitude. read more

OK, so I was invited here for lunch a few weeks ago and thought nothing more. I get invited a lot to places and never really think about them until I get there. I took a quick look on a map, added the place to my minds eye and forgot about it. Then the time and date arrived, I headed over to where I thought I knew it was, but I was mistaken! And then I couldn't find it even asking a few people around on the street or in the other shops. So for those of you reading this from our of town (YOU GET IN VIA A SMALL DOOR AT THE BACK OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE CASINO!!!!) . Or you walk in from the garden. Which is next to the big multiscreen cinema. Anyway, other than that I had a very nice lunch with fine company. The food was really nice, although to be honest I am not so impressed by overly presented food; my crispy Duck salad was served on a super wide thin plate with the salad bits underneath each piece of duck. Very nice and tasty but didn't add much to my enjoyment of it. Also the waiter we had seemed a little frosty but that might be him being ubercool and also I tried to speak German to him and got the usual 'Wie Bitte' after every utterance, but hey ho. We had coffee in the garden which was really nice. Also really nice was that I didn't pay so I have really no idea at all if it was good value or not. My guess was around EUR100 for 2, with main course, wine, water and coffee (and tip) based on the price of the main courses (roughly EUR25) So overall; nice. However, I didn't feel so comfortable there and as a result not sure I would go back with my own money! read more