I've now come and gone from the places I gave above. My suggestion re Johann Lafer's property: eat but do not stay. The food was perfectly fine and what one would expect at 139 euros for 6 courses. The hotel, on the other hand, irritated me tremendously.
[rant]I should have taken the TripAdvisor reviews of the hotel seriously. Think of Johann Lafer's self promotion in the hotel as the Kardashian family on steroids. I booked the hotel one year ago. Even that far in advance, they only had standard rooms. There was a wedding on the day we arrived. Perhaps wedding guests took the rooms; I don't know. I discovered a week before our trip that the hotel lost our reservation. After I sent a copy of the booking, they rediscovered it.
The lobby serves as check in for the hotel and entrance to their two restaurants. I have no quarrel with books and food products with Lafer's face on them. I cringe at the bobble head dolls and cringe more at having sweaters, caps, vests, and sweatshirts advertising him for sale. Every wall is covered with pictures of Lafer with someone I'm meant to recognize. There must be hundreds of pictures as every stair way and every corridor is covered in them.
We were taken to our room, named OConnell after the chef at the Inn at Little Washington. It was minuscule. Looking at the floor map, it was the smallest room on our floor. The room was barely bigger than the king bed stuffed catty corner into it. There was no chair. There was no style. The round table bolted to the wall as a bedside stand was broken. There was advertising everywhere. Every surface was covered with advertising about Lafer. There was an electronic picture frame scrolling thru pictures of him and his helicopter. The turn down service came with cards on our pillows advertising him. The box of 2 chocolates came with an order form listing all the candy he makes and how we could purchase it.
When I checked out, I expressed unhappiness as to the room. I was told this was a luxury hotel and we had only booked a standard room. Yes, I know that, but I would have hoped for good taste. [/rant]
Compensation for my husband was the Porsche Carrera GT and the Ferrari 458 Italia parked outside the front door. The drivers had brought their $1MM in cars from Puerto Rico and the US to drive on German test tracks.
Schonberg Castle continues to delight. And we enjoyed a very pleasant meal on the terrace of
Burg Schwarzenstein.
