My husband will be off to CeBIT in Hannover later this week--any suggestions on restaurants, cafes? Hotel is already taken care of. Thanks!

Hope you are not cross anymore -) )- here are some places I like:

- Gruener Pelikan right in front of Hotel ArabellaSheraton on Podbielsky ("Podbi&quot: Young crowd in stylish setting. Pretty good pizza and "Flammekuchen".

- Opus 1 right in the center of town:
Part of the Moevenpick restaurants. Some cross-over cuisine from America and Asia plus a good wine list

- Pier No.1: Modern building right on the Maschsee shores over the water: Modern cross- over cuisine, too. Stylish place.

- Brasserie Bruxelles: Belgian food in a shopping mall right next to Central Station (although I guess you will not be that keen on it)

- Fischers: German name and Mexican food in Linden district.

Pls note that these are all comparatively casual places. In general, it is my impression that real gourmet food is pretty hard to find in Hannover and the price/ value ratio is in many cases not as good as probably somewhere else.
I do remember an Italian place that was pretty good but currently I cannot recall its name. I will try to think of it and come up with it in case I do find out.

Nice weekend to Brussels
hsv

Don't know if you're still interested:

Roma in Goethestr. of the Calenberger Neustadt district is an upscale Italian restaurant featuring really nice Italian dishes in pleasant atmosphere.

An old Hannover classic for upscale continental cuisine is Biesler Weinstube in Sophienstr. right in the city center.

Both of these places are frequented from time to time by German chancellor Schroeder - if this is a recommendation or not is to be left up to you ;-)

Kind regards
hsv

Thanks for the recommendations. My husband got back this evening. They did go to one Italian and one Mex restaurant, although not the ones you mentioned. They did go Opus 1, which you recommended, and give it thumbs up.

No, I'm not cross anymore! But someone from my husband's company is from Hannover and saw the printout of your messages, which my husband brought with him to CeBIT. *She* was offended by *your* comments about the lack of real gourmet food and the price/value ratio. What goes around, comes around! ;-)

- seems like with you I have a dubious talent of offending someone...

Glad your husband liked Opus, which I truly enjoyed.

Of course good and very good food can be found in Hannover, just in my opinion not in the abundance as e.g. in Berlin or Munich (not to mention another German city that would only raise some controversy here... ).
Plus, IMO the real gourmet restaurants in Hannover come at truly exorbitant prices. That is all I had wanted to indicate and it was at least an honest opinion, which I believe is what makes this board so valuable, regardless of whether one consents or not!
I also have to admit to not being a resident there which has to be taken into consideration with my list of choices. I have been to Hannover quite regularly over recent years, though, so I felt reasonably qualified to comment. My trips were predominantly of private character, though, so for budget reasons I frequented mostly some of those medium range places.

Wishing you a nice start into the week
hsv