I’d eaten at the much acclaimed Horvath’s at the beginning of the year. It’s an unusual find in Kreuzburg, focusing much more on the higher end of the market offering modern twists to Bayerish cuisine.
It’s more of the place you’d take your parents to meet your partner for the first time, rather than as a casual night out. Fortunately Berlin is as happy serving a bunch of geeks (seven of us to be exact) as they are entertaining German families.
We opted for a mix of the the tasting course menu – me, of course, hoping to try as much as we could given the time. The courses end up much more than the six expected courses.
They first brough a bread basket to the table, a mix of wonderfully different styles including one that had notable chunks of black pudding throughout. My favourite, of course, a lighter bread surrounded by a crisp crust lightly dusted in flour.
Just as unusually, their “butter” proved to be a combination of cream cheese, some butter and some toasted pumpkin seed oil. The oil proved less popular at the table as it was surprisingly bitter, not the smooth subtle flavours one would normally expect of a more classical olive oil at the table.
It’s a while since I wrote this up, so the details of each dish are less forthcoming, however I hope you enjoy seeing some of the pictures anyway. Here I think we had a pureed celeric with some fresh celery and apple. As the first dish, it proved refreshing to the pallette.
Round two, a chunk of duck liver with a majoram glaze and a caramellised corn pudding accompanied by some other pureed vegetable stuff (I think). If you look closely you can see there was a very thin sugar crust layering on top that provided both the element of crunch and sweetness to an otherwise very rich dish.
Next followed a really delicate dish confit fish filet with dark berry sauce, and mushrooms. The dish had been finished off dotted with lots of capers and two chunks of a very small sour cream cream. Mmmm. Delicious.
Next up was a softly cooked venison strip. I honestly can’t remember what it sat upon but I do remember it being amazingly tender and very well cooked.
Our next course would make vegetarians envious with generous chunks of aubergine with a generous selection of fresh chanterelles sitting on some more pureed turnip.
Being Bayerish food, one doesn’t expect too many vegetables and predictably changed with the next round, a duck breast accompanied by a selection of pototo and red cabbage.
Some of us then had the additional cheese course, a strong blue cheese that went really well with the small sultanas dotting the plate.
Dessert finished off our meal with an amazingly fresh red carrot sorbet, a soft cake, and a couple of other puddings. Everyone was so impressed by the strong flavours of the red carrot sorbet, someone even asked for the recipe.
With tea arrived a small selection of biscuits and soft caramels but I literally coudln’t eat anymore.
An enjoyable evening and a place I would definitely return to again.
Name: Horvath’s
Website: http://www.restaurant-horvath.de/
Found at: Paul Lincke Ufer 44a, Kreuzberg, 10999 Berlin