Fillet of Soul

Fillet of Soul has been the in-house restaurant of the Deichtorhallen since 2003, making it one of the few Hamburg venues where the kitchen and the art world operate under one roof. It is run by the Lutter & Wegner group, whose concept brings upmarket, tightly run cooking into one of Europe's most important venues for contemporary art and photography. The name points to the link between craft and attitude: precise produce, calmly composed. The location is unusual. The restaurant sits in the southern Deichtorhalle at Deichtorplatz 2, on the edge of the Altstadt, where the Kontorhausviertel gives way to the HafenCity. By day, museum visitors dominate; in the evenings, it's theatergoers and office workers from the Spiegel quarter. The menu is seasonal and modern, with a French foundation. Classics such as Wiener Schnitzel from veal, loup de mer, pan-fried scallops and boeuf Stroganoff sit alongside shorter lunch menus for the exhibition break. Mains usually run between 28 and 42 euros, the lunch menu considerably below that. The room plays with the industrial architecture of the 1911 market hall: steel girders, tall windows, sightlines into the hall itself. The setting is bright and pared back, without white-linen stiffness. In summer, the terrace facing the Oberhafen is one of the calmer spots in the city center. Reservations are recommended in particular at lunchtime and for exhibition openings. The EEE price tier matches upmarket Hamburg city-center dining and is moderate for the location. Getting there: U1 Steinstrasse or S-Bahn Hauptbahnhof, around eight minutes on foot in each case. Ideal for: visitors who want to combine an exhibition with a longer lunch in a single outing.