BUOY

BUOY: Northern German Fine Dining in Hamburg’s Harbor

BUOY is a fine-dining restaurant at Am Sandtorkai 50 in Hamburg’s harbor. It describes its approach as “product-focused, rooted in the region, and open to the world”: high-quality local ingredients and flavors are complemented by international influences. The head chef is Marvin Böhm.

Marvin Böhm’s Kitchen

Marvin Böhm is a master chef and state-certified gastronome. His cooking is described as precise and ingredient-focused, with regional roots and international influences. His career includes positions at leading German fine-dining restaurants: from 2008 to 2010 at Schwarzwaldstube at Traube Tonbach with three-star chef Harald Wohlfahrt, and from 2010 to 2024 as sous-chef at Aqua at The Ritz-Carlton, Wolfsburg, with three-star chef Sven Elverfeld.

In competition, Böhm placed first at Bocuse d’Or Germany three times—in 2016, 2018, and 2023—and represented Germany in European and international contests, including the world final in Lyon. He also won the 2022 “Chef of the Year” final and received the Rolling Pin Award Germany as “Sous-Chef of the Year 2023,” among other honors.

The Menu

The cooking aims to evoke the warmth of home through familiar Northern German flavors—such as Büsum crab soup, plaice, and braised pork jowl—paired with surprising freshness from ingredients such as shiso, physalis, and sorrel. The five-course tasting menu is listed as follows:

• Einstimmung: beet with matjes; a potato pancake with fried egg and whitefish caviar; and sausage salad with fried onions.
• Büsum crab soup.
• Raw beef and wild oyster with capers, pine nuts, and anchovies.
• Halibut with tomato, fir shoots, and celery.
• Hamburg-style pannfisch of sole with spinach, green asparagus, and mustard.
• Salt-marsh lamb loin and meatball with peas, wild garlic, and yogurt.
• Watercress.
• Cheesecake with strawberry, poppy seed, and lettuce.
• Prilleken with smoked almond cream and bay leaf.
• Small sweets: Heidesand shortbread with sunflower seeds; “Wackelpeter” with woodruff; and financier with blood peach.

The five-course menu is priced at €195; wine pairing is €115, and the nonalcoholic pairing is €95.

Interior and Surroundings

The restaurant’s interior reflects its immediate surroundings: the red brick of the Speicherstadt, the green warehouse windows, and driftwood from the Elbe. BUOY aims to offer a stay that feels warmly welcoming, straightforward, and authentic.

Hours

The restaurant is at Am Sandtorkai 50, 20457 Hamburg. It is open Thursday and Friday from 6:30 to 11 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 2 p.m. and 7 to 11 p.m.

Location and Contact

Am Sandtorkai 50, 20457 Hamburg, Germany · Phone: 01520 4378861 · Hours: Thursday and Friday, 6:30–11 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon–2 p.m. and 7–11 p.m.