Kopps

Patrick Berlin, Restaurants, Vegetarian

Berlin is probably the paradise city for any vegetarian or vegan place in Germany. Not really a country known for its affection for meat, The Happy Cow lists just as many, if not more, vegetarian places in Berlin when compared to even larger cities such as London.

Kopps is the latest addition Vegan restaurant on offer, the decor following the trends of clean walls, large windows and very modern decor. As a Berlin friend told me, “Very Mitte.”

I happened to chance upon the week they opened, serving a very excellently valued four course menu for only €15 excluding drinks.

To start was a pumpkin soup served with roasted pumpkin seeds. The use of coconut milk in this dish made it taste slightly more tropical than what it probably should have but it was still very, “lecker” (tasty!).

Second round came the red beetroot ravioli filled with a cashew-herb ricotta and a fennel salad. Not only was it really well presented but I really enjoyed the contrast of the slightly sharp fennel against the typically sweet beetroot. A clever concoction and one that I’ll try (though probably with the use of real ricotta instead of some weird vegan substitute).

The main course was an attempted “meat substitute”, including a roasted soya roulade with red cabbage and potatoes. A tasty dish although I found it slightly over-seasoned for my liking.

Round four, and by this time, I was pretty full. However it was definitely worth the effort being a delicious chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce. Given it being a vegan place, I have no idea how they managed to make the mousse so creamy and delicious as I was expecting some sort of gritty, or slightly off tasting mousse. A definite highlight and something you should try.

Name: Kopps
Found at: Linienstr 94, Berlin Germany 10115
Website: http://kopps-berlin.de/

La Cantina at Tausend

Patrick Asian, Berlin, Restaurants, Tapas

One of my work colleagues, Tom talked about this very interesting restaurant hidden away, literally with just a door underneath the bridge that crosses the river into the Friedrichstraße S-Bahn station. It’s best to book ahead for the restaurant, as even just for popping into the bar appears to require some level of planning. Or at least you need to be dressed to impress with most people wearing suits, or stylish dresses for the ladies.

The restaurant isn’t very big although several people seemed to be dining at the bar there. The food focuses on both Asian, and Spanish foods. Not really a fusion, but more a variety that spans both. I’m a little skeptical of places like this, but I can say that it seemed to work okay.

Be prepared to spend. Although it won’t break the bank, the dishes are small and you will need a few to probably fill up. Here we have the aubergine with miso sauce (€7), a light miso sauce infused with sesame. It’s a very good classic Japanese dish that I love and they did very well.

Spicy pimientos in padron salt (€6) never fail to impress. They arrived steaming and fresh, very full of spice. Mmmm. Very nice.

This dish of garlic prawns (€10) definitely came with lots of prawns. They weren’t the big prawns I’ve seen and I’ve had better, more spicy garlic oil at other places in Berlin but it was still good.

A decent serving of sashimi (€17) arrives looking very impressive.

The main courses aren’t cheap by Berlin standards. I went for the grilled miso cod (€28) and it literally comes by itself. As did the US prime beef steak and it’s best to get some sides although this adds up. A serving of herb risotto, or mixed vegetables or green salad at €5 or garlic rice, udon or edamame at €4.

I guess one of the most impressive parts of the evening was sipping on cocktails provided in their lounge. Although amazingly smoky for such an airy room, it didn’t really seem to fill up although we did come on a Wednesday and we left my about midnight – both probably very early standards that you cannot properly measure the place by for Berlin standards.

An impressive light at the end of the bar is enough to light the the entire room. Its rays scattered by the mirrored ceiling into the rest of the very darkly furnished bar. Saying that the bar staff know their stuff is a bit of an understatement. Not only do they have their huge list of signature cocktails but it’s pretty easy for them to whip up something they’ve never made before (at least the classics) and they do it pretty well.

Name: La Cantina at Bar Tausend
Found at: Schiffbauerdamm 11, Berlin
Website: http://www.tausendberlin.com/

Lucky Leek

Patrick Berlin, Restaurants, Vegetarian

Continuing the great adventures I’ve had with the Happy Cow website, I ended up at a relatively new vegan restaurant located in the heart of gentrified Prenzlauer Berg. They had a few tables outside when I went as it wasn’t so cold, and had probably about eight or ten small to medium sized tables on the inside. Make sure you reserve if you want a spot on popular Friday or Saturday evenings as they are often sold out.

It’s modernly decorated and offer a changing menu both daily and it looks like their regular food changes as well. I guess a focus on seasonal produce and local ingredients definitely make it worth while.

I had the food pretty much from the daily menu. A wonderful yellow pepper gazpacho, a slight adaptation from the typical spanish dish with plenty of chunks of fresh vegetables and a very spicy garlic bread that went well with the dish. It was a huge serve for being an appetiser and a bit more and I think it could have served as a main.

I’m glad that it didn’t though because the tagliatelle was marvellous. My Italian friends would have been impressed by the al-dente-ness of the pasta and combined with fresh steinpilz (porchini) and wonderful truffle flavours, was just an absolute delight to eat. Fresh cherry tomatoes bursting with their sweet goodness provided a nice counter balance as did the fine strips of chilli sitting atop the dish – not advertised but wholly welcomed by myself.

It’s probably on the pricier side of being a vegetarian, but the portions were well worth the price and the flavours alone demonstrated how impressive vegan cooking could be.

Name: Lucky Leek
Found at: Kollwitzstrasse 46, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin
Website: http://www.lucky-leek.de/

Die Henne – Alt Berliner Wirtshaus

Patrick Berlin, Restaurants

This restaurant is so much of an institution, it’s one of those rare restaurants in Berlin where you must book ahead. They have their speciality and pretty much just does it all on its own – a version of a fried chicken where the chicken is soaked in buttermilk resulting in a super crisp skin that is also just as juicy on the inside.

While they also serve some wurst and either a cucumber salad or potato salad, there’s really not much to choose from if you come here. Don’t bring your vegetarian friends or they’ll be eating side salads chock full of mayonnaise. The main even here is the chicken, so don’t bother coming if you’re not planning on having it. It’s that good. Of course they have plenty of other things on offer, particularly a huge variety of schnapps to enjoy as a post-dinner drink.

Here’s a picture of the chicken that arrives steaming fresh. They do each one fresh, and it takes up to thirty minutes before the chicken comes out from the tiny kitchen, super crisp and juicy on the outside. While it’s good for the wait, bear in mind that it is still a certain type of fried chicken (but a good one at that!)

Here’s the potato salad (above) that comes along with the main dish. Don’t be fooled as these are tiny portions and are really there to help mop up the extra chicken that’ll be left over when you’ve eaten the small piece of bread that comes with.

A really nice venue for when you want something that will be consistently be made and results in a delicious result.

Name: Die Henne – Alt Berliner Wirtshaus
Found at: Leuschnerdamm 25, 10999 Berlin, Germany
Website: http://www.henne-berlin.de/

Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester

Patrick French, Michelin Starred, Restaurants, UK

My sister and I have this agreement when it comes to any event where presents are involved: Don’t buy me anything I don’t really need. The consequences of this mean that often we spend time buying each other experiences, rather than material goods that will often go unused. When it came to my birthday this year, she suggested that we dine at the 3-starred, Alain Ducasse in the Dorchester.

I’ve been past here, plenty of times before although normally it’s on the the top floor of the double decker buses that zoom around Hyde Park as you admire the fancy cars that sit in their driveway. Not tonight! This time, all suited up to go (apparently a “highly” recommended dress code of at least a jacket) and enter the hotel we are.

Being the first time in this hotel, I notice how the doormen manually revolve the revolving doors as you enter the building, and arriving for our 6:30pm (early I know!) booking, are greeting by no more than four or five different people in the lobby all decadently dressed up, as one would expect for such a well known British hotel.

We move into the stretched hallway, lined with gilded statues, overly ornate furnishings that shine in constrast to the dark streets we just stepped out of. Families celebrating birthdays, and obviously special events sit in comfy lounges entertained by a talented pianist and celebrate with a late afternoon tea. We walk amongst them as we move towards the entrance to Alain Ducasse.

Slightly early for our booking, we perch at the bar for a drink. The prices are sharp contrast to the cheap berlin bars I’m used to frequenting. Even when we went to Tausend to “splash out” on ‚Ǩ10 cocktails in Berlin, the ¬£20 equivalents here I’m sure are to be good. I opt for a simple classic Martini Bianco with a lemon slice as it seems to be my current apertif of choice.

The restaurant opens and slowly but surely we’re seen into the cavernous dining room. We are shown into one of the comfy corners. There’s plenty of space, and the drapes around make it feel a lot more intimate than waht the space realistically is. I note three two-person dining tables in our area, a couple already present against one side, we are seated against the opposite. Already able to overhear the furtherest table, I’m thankful the middle table remains unoccupied for the rest of the evening.

As we peruse the menu, a mountain of gruyere profiteroles arrives, freshly made, warm salty and ever so light. It’s tempting to continue snacking on them as we consider the two menus but I’m conscious we’ll be trying the tasting menu up ahead of us.

There are actually two different menus to choose from. A reasonable seven course menu that is listed on the website, and another using more in-season ingredients that comes in at almost double. We opt for the first and the menus are whisked away.

It’s not long until the bread basket lies. We have a choice from many breads. Not quite the same selection that Tom Aikens offers that requires a push-cart for just the bread itself, but good nevertheless. An interesting range from bread with bacon, an olive bread, sourdough, plain white roll and a baguette. Not super warm, but the winner for me is the small baguette, crispy on the outside and definitely freshly made.

It comes served with creamed cheese, and a pat of salted french butter shaped into what looks like a giant Chinese dumpling, or maybe more approrpiately, a bulb of garlic.

It’s not long before the first course arrives, a Spicy crab and broccoletti dish. The streak of red is some sort of spicy salt that definitely gives the dish zing. The foam on top suspending luscious amounts of crab, and a warmed jelly like seafood concoction that is as velvety as a very smooth foie gras. It’s a good start to the meal, a generous heaping of seafood and packed full of flavour.

In what seems like a trend to come, it seems almost as soon as we’ve finished one course, our plates are whisked away and another soon replaces them. I’m still uncertain as to whether or not they were rushing us (they weren’t really doing another sitting) or this was some aspect to the service that gets them that second or third star.

Anyway, the second dish arrives, Crispy raw and cooked vegetable tart served with a fresh herb condiment. This dish was not only spectacular to look at, but also an wonderful confusing mix of flavours and textures. Raw vegetables give the dish a fresh crunch that contrasts against the stewed vegetables that sit in a circle at the bottom of the dish. I break the flaky pastry dish, destroying the beautiful masterpiece, but eagerly using it to soak up all the amazing flavours that make up this dish. I almost think that my vegetarian friends would be amazed at finding this dish in a french restaurant, but a part of me suspects some of the strength of flavour from the sauces must come from a basis of animal stock. Not that I care as I scrape the last bits from the dish.

Our waiter presents, the next dish, apparently a very signature dish of Mr Ducasse, a “Saute gourmand”of lobtser, and truffled chicken quenelles. Exquisite, luciscious and no wonder Ducasse’s customers demanded for this dish to be brought back on the menu. Huge chunks of lobster sit amongst freshly made, perfectly Italian al-dente pasta, made even more divine by the chicken dumplings flavoured generiously with truffle. Strongly aromatic and a sauce so gorgeous that I cannot help but soak up some of the left over sauce with the remnants of my baguette. Probably breaking lots of ettiquette, but hey, I’m appreciating the food right?

Visually bland, at least in contrast to the previous dish, we start on the Simmered halibut, celeriac, shellfish and squid. I can only imagine how much butter (it’s French cooking, mmm-kay) went into the velvety sauce that surrounds the fish. A good meaty fish that flakes easily with a fork, with “tears” of celeriac dotting the plate. Shellfish came in the form of tiny cockels that provided pepper-like contrast to the dish.

We finish with the seafood course and then arrives our main meat course, Saddle of venison, grand-veneur, pumpkin, beetroot and quince. It’s a good thing too because it’s a sizable chunk. I take a sip of the Rioja wine that I enjoy even more having actually went against the sommerlier’s recommendation for a merlot, it’s strength of flavour matching well and not outpowered by the venison hung for only two weeks. He seemed to want to recommend all the most expensive glasses of wine which I’m sure were good, but my wine pallette’s not that refined. I take a slice of the venison, swoosh it around in the rich dark sauce, perfectly balanced with background notes of dark chocolate and enjoy the dish very slowly as the amount of food consumed starts to kick in.

Fortunately that was our last main course, with the cheese platter to arrive next. It’s spectuculalrly laid out with four different cheeses. A goat’s cheese accompanied by a red-pepper paste (very good!), a camembert with apple chutney, a hard cheese (can’t remember which) with a mushroom and macadamia paste (didn’t really do it for me) and my favourite of the evening, a roquefort blue cheese with quince chutney with a slight kick provided by mustard.

I found it a bit strange but they served it with a side salad topped with blanched almonds.

And more appropriately a walnut and sultana bread. Of course there were crackers as well.

Amazing the petite fours arrive without even being asked for tea and coffe and we’re both struggling to put away more of the food. There were six(!) macaroons. Flavours we think included strawberry, lemon and coconut.

The truffles were also very good – a hazelnut with crispy rice crackers remindining me of my favourite Finish chocolate brand, Geisha, and a more classic chocolate truffle.

My sister wans’t particularly thrilled by the sound of our last dish on the menu, and they substituted for her, the raspberry almond dish that looked delightful and appropriately red for my birthday (Chinese tradition says it’s good luck to be wearing red on your birthday).

Still not excited by the prospect, what arrived was definitely a good surprise in my book for the exoctic fruits dessert containing two different sorbets (vanilla and lime, mango and passion fruit), light puffs in the form of coconut meringue chunks of fruit and finished off by a warm mango passionfruit sauce. My only complaint was that it was a bit sweet for me (but I think that’s just me more than anything).

Thinking that we were completly finished, we were then shocked to have a whole dessert trolley roll up to us including many sweets, biscuits adn extra pastry cakes for us to choose from. We could have any and all although at this time, only opted for a small caramel and a pistachio pastry to split between the two of us.

They even gave my sister a nice “breakfast” take-away dish to go.

Everything about the evening was pretty good, as one would expect from a 3-starred Michelin place. I found the dishes coming a little bit too fast for my liking, but maybe that’s part of the service that is required for a place like this. Food was amazing, and some of the flavours really refined and divine.

Name: Alian Ducasse at the Dorchester
Found at: The Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, London W1K 1QA
Website: http://www.alainducasse-dorchester.com/

Assortment of four french cheeses (goat’s cheese, blue, camembert)
Exotic fruits – coconut meringue, vanilla lime sorbet, mango passionfruit.

Almont raspberry

Spoon Restaurant in Budapest

Patrick Budapest, Restaurants

Budapest has a huge selection of floating, moored boats for the unsuspecting (or even the suspecting tourists). After running the half marathon, we headed on down here given such a lovely day to have a very late lunch. We’d come down here before scoping out each boat and decided upon Spoon.

It seemed modern, a decent menu and popular based on the number of people on the boat, but all who could also be unsuspecting tourists drawn in by other previous crowds. No matter, as we were pleasantly surprised.

The menu is a surprising mix of Hungarian foods and Italian ones. We started with two more common local dishes, my sister opting for the sweeter and strangely pink, Apricot Soup.

Where I went for the more traditional paprika-laced Goulash Soup. Fortunately I found my light and refreshing with chunks of vegetables and a small number of beef bits.

Carbing it up, we both also decided to follow this up with pasta. I definitely needed more energy after the long morning run. I think this was some sort of Porchini Mushroom pasta

And mine was the seafood pasta served with huge prawns, lovely fresh lemon juice and strong sun dried tomatoes. Mmm.

We were surprised by how good the food was going to be in this place. Service was unbelievably friendly and we ended up having a very nice view of the river from our table.

Pleasantly surprised by the experience I wouldn’t hesitate to return. You will pay a bit more compared to other restaurants, but it is still an experience that won’t break the bank.

Name: Spoon Cafe Lounge
Found at: 1052 Budapest, Vigadó tér 3. kikötő, Hungary
Website: http://www.spooncafe.hu/

La Rosa in Budapest

Patrick Italian, Restaurants

According to many people who’ve been to Hungary before, it’s best to avoid the Hungarian food if you want something that is going to delight the taste buds. It’s not because Hungarian food is bad, but it does tend to be rather bland and a little bit all the same after a while. Spending a longer weekend in Budapest meant looking for alternatives, and one that cropped up in one of the tourist guides was the opening of a new restaurant, La Rosa or sometimes referred to as La Rosa Lux.

It’s a bit strange because the guide wrote about it being a “fusion” menu though the only fusion I could tell was the fact there were some hungarian dishes on the menu, and the rest being Italian. Besides being a little bit skeptical of restaurants listed in guide books, we still gave it a go. There are a few tables (four if memory serves me right) sitting outside where you get a lovely view of a… bus stop. Not the best view but it’s still nice to be out in the open. The interior was pretty empty on the Sunday evening we dined out.

The biggest recommendation on the menu is the Roman thin style crust pizza that comes straight out of the oven. I went for the Firense, a spicy and admittedly meaty pizza that the waitress also recommended. When it arrived, it was huge, literally overflowing the plate and the smoky charred edges promising goodness.

While not the thinnest Roman pizza I’ve ever had, this was definitely up there in taste and flavour.

Name: La Rosa (or La Rosa Lux)
Found at: 1071 Budapest, Damjanich utca 47-49.
Contact number: +36.1.788.5608

Budapest’s Mix Restaurant

Patrick Budapest, Restaurants

One of the biggest surprises for me as dining at the Mix Restaurant. It’s located almost directly opposite a main train station, and arriving for their superb value for money lunch offer, was a little bit worried that more people were seated at the nearby restaurant. Nevertheless, we still wanted to try out the place. The lunch offer is pretty amazing value with a two course for HUF1500 (~£4.50) or three courses for HUF2000 (~£6).

Of course drinks add up and with a couple of drinks (non alcoholic!) we still managed to double our bill. Considering how good the food was, and already felt like we were underpaying I don’t think this was too much of a problem for us.

Their menu offers a diverse selection with plenty of interesting dishes I could have ordered even if I wasn’t going for the lunch time offer. It just means going back in the evening another time to try it out.

Being a club as well as restaurant, they had a huge assortment of tables sitting outside. Facing the old school train station, it was a wonderful way of soaking up some sun and enjoying the lively atmosphere of people going by.

For starters, my sister had the meatball soup, quite literally containing only a single meat ball. The soup itself was a clear broth, untouched like the creamy french soups and apparently very tasty.

Needing some greens and vegetables to offset the dish to come, I opted for the mushroom salad, packed full of flavour and delicious.

I wasn’t really enthused by the paprika chicken on offer, but got to try a little bit of the one my sister offered. A bit bland for my liking.

The ribs on the other hand served with paprika roasted potatoes were perfect. Surprisingly with some kick and amazing tender, just like good ribs should really be.

We finished off with a couple of desserts, literally stuffed from all this food. We had the mango pudding and the cherry cake both of which I could really have passed on. The latter was a recommendation by our waiter being quite a traditional dish and as I learned throughout the weekend, cakes in Hungary tend to be based on weird jelly like concoctions, not the light cakes one is used to in the UK.

Pretty great food, amazing value and a great place to boot, it’s hard not to recommend this place. Of course, I have no idea what it’s like dining when it’s also a club, but it seemed like a pretty great place to be.

Name: Mix
Found at: 1062 Budapest, Teréz körút 55-57, Hungary
Website: http://mixclub.hu/

Trattoria Barca Bianca in Budapest

Patrick Budapest, Italian, Restaurants

Despite the reputation of fairly unexciting food in Hungary, I have to say that we ate very well during our time in Budapest. Perhaps it’s because we stayed clear of many of the “traditional” foods and searching around on the web for recommendations make it much easier for bigger places. The other good thing is that Budapest is still very cheap compared to many other places, making it much easier to have good food without breaking the budget so much.

Anyway, the first place we ate for dinner was intentionally Italian as it was all about the carb loading (but not too much!) before the day of the race.

We walked around and picked, what turned out to be a very nice restaurant where we could eat alfresco, and had an enjoyable meal.

We started with two different soups, my sister picking this clear beef broth with a single ravioli (pictured above). Good but she was surprised just to have the one.

I went for the lobster bisque that also came with a bread dumpling, and also just the one. I can’t really say that I’m a bread dumpling sort of fan. The soup really could have done with some croutons for a contrast of texture, to which the bread dumpling didn’t do much. Fortunately the soup was really tasty and made up for it.

My sister proceeded to have the mussels, admittedly not very Italian but figured it would be a bit of a lighter alternative to some heavy pasta meal.

I, opted, for a Tagliatelle with speck and porcini mushrooms, a lovely and generous serving of perfectly al dente pasta and amazing chunks of flavour.

We finished the dinner off with a Tiramisu, decadently rich and presented in a very different manner, almost as if they used an ice cream scoop for each bite. Service was friendly, the atmosphere busy but not overwhelmingly noisy and an enjoyable meal to start off the long weekend.

Name: Trattoria Barca Bianca
Found on: V. kerület Fehérhajó utca 5, Pest side of Budapest.
Website: http://barcabianca.eu/

The Publican

Patrick American, Brunch, Chicago, Restaurants

I was due to meet Danilo and Jenny in Chicago on the short weekend I had there. Thanks to Jenny we decided to have lunch at the Publican. They also invited Matt along who happened to be in town. Let me emphasise that this is a good thing. It’s a nice bustling place and one where you definitely have to book in advance. Or plan to wait for a long time.

Jenny and Matt below.

We tried far too much for a brunch, starting with one of their sticky pecan rolls. Topped with nuts, thankfully not too excessively sweet (at least compared to their Cinnabon brethren) yet surprisingly filling.

The pork rinds had been recommended, dusted with a slightly picante (calling it spicy is not quite fair) dusting of spices and a cone of chips that were supposed to accompany the chicken fried chicken.

Highlight of all the sides was the recommended maple glazed bacon. I’m not normally a fan of thick cut bacon – it turns out to be to excessively fatty to a point it dominates the smoky and salty flavours that make it a wonder to behold. And besides, if something is going to be so fatty, it’s best that it crisps up from that benefit. There’s a good reason people who like fried chicken expect a crispy crust.

I opted for a bit more of a twist on a classic, the eggs benedict. The eggs, poached in red wine and served with prosciutto and toasted bread. I appreciated the attempt at something different, but the red wine flavouring kind of dominated the rest of the dish.

The toast wasn’t quite toasted enough or maybe they really should have chosen a sourdough instead of plain bread because I think what the dish lacked was a contrast of flavours. That perfect maple glazed bacon, crispy on the outside, would have made the perfect accompaniment but instead everything seemed a little bit soft. Picture of an overcooked egg.

Other people ordered interesting dishes including a massive weisswurst (white sausage) that came poaching in a big copper pot.

Matt was brave enough to order the artery clogging chicken fried steak with two fried eggs.

And Danilo opted for a more sensibly portioned Ploughman’s platter.

Name: The Publican
Found at: 837 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607
Website: http://thepublicanrestaurant.com/