The Icecreamists

Patrick Dessert, Restaurants, UK

This group first popped up on the food radar a year or two ago when they Selfridges hosted them and their “wholistic” experience to giving people uniquely flavoured ice cream. They recently returned with a vengeance and to much more controversy this time serving an ice cream named Baby Gaga, an ice cream made out of human breast milk.

Don’t expect for your ordinary run of the mill ice cream. Walking inside feels a bit like walking into, what I imagine, some sort of BDSM or fetish club might seem, and with ice creams named, “Cold Sweat”, “Sex, Drugs & Choc and Roll” it’s only the public openness of the store that convinces you that it really is just an ice cream parlour.

They didn’t have a full cabinet when I went and since I’ve enjoyed chilli infused ice cream in the past, decided to go for their challenge with a one made with plenty of Thai bird’s eye chillis combined with a soothing white chocolate one to balance the heat out. Servings aren’t cheap at £5+ however it was more than enough ice cream to almost defeat me.

I have to applaud them on their efforts to try new ice cream flavours, and new experiences with ice cream. I can’t say I’m going to try the Baby Gaga anytime soon, but it might appeal to some of you out there.

Name: The Icecreamists
Website: http://www.theicecreamists.com/
Found at: 15 Maiden Lane WC2E 7NG, Covent Garden, London, UK

Dada Falafel

Patrick Berlin, Restaurants, Vegetarian

I think I stumbled across this place on the Lonely Planet website, looking for other vegetarian friendly places in Berlin. It’s really not that hard. However on one particularly very cold evening, I ended up at this place with another vegetarian workmate.

The shop is actually split into two sections – one side, you order the food and can choose take out or eat in. The other side opens up to a very large, bright space that looks more like an art gallery than any other restaurant. You order drinks from the bar (I highly recommend the classic mint tea) and they have a number of other desserts and small bites.

The whole process seemed a little unclear to us. After finding out whether or not you order from the side with tables and seats (you don’t), we were then unsure of whether or not they would bring the food when ready (they did in our case), though you still order drinks from the bar. Fortunately the food was really worth the wait and the strange confusion. My workmate ordered for both of us, getting the falafel plate with the spicy sauce that we really could have done with more of. Given Germany’s general aversion to anything with spice, this sauce finally had some kick and something I really wanted more of. The plate came smeared with hummus, super fresh salad and accompanied by a couple of small pitas that let us eat the food the way that we wanted to (as a pocket sandwich, or bit by bit).

They have a nice atmosphere and the entire dinner is a pretty cheap affair. Combined with a tea, dessert (yummy baklava below!) and the plate, I think the whole affair would be around €10-€12.

I have no idea how busy it gets, but it’s also definitely worth eating on the premises, taking in the nice atmosphere.

Name: Dada Falafel
Website: http://www.dadafalafel.de/
Found at: Linienstraße 132, 10115 Berlin-Mitte, Germany

Get Some White Trash Into Ya

Patrick American, Berlin, Restaurants

Located just down from where our office is a place whose names just begs you to come in just to see what’s inside, White Trash Fast Food. Its a confused mix of too many cultures – Asiatic symbols and decorations adorn the outside, strange movie memorabilia line the walls and dot the roof, pinball machines dotted around and all serving American style fast food.

We came here on a Friday evening, and it’s a definitely popular spot with some locals and many visitors and expats. In fact, my improvised and small amount of German failed when I found out our waiter didn’t even understand any of it just yet! The drinks menus is pretty long, extensive and contains some pretty interestingly named drinks. Beer was definitely up to be had with the rest of the meal. Fortunately they manage to execute all the food exceptionally well. Here’s a picture of the veal ribs (yes, veal!) both tender, flavoursome and fall of the bone easy to eat. They went well with the perfectly huge onion rings covered in a perfectly light bread crumb coating and served with a light ranch sauce.

They even have bands playing and although I didn’t really get a chance to wonder the huge insides, apparently they even have a dance floor somewhere in the corridors.

Definitely a little cheesy, but at least you know what you expect when you walk in. Perfectly executed for just that, it’s not the sort of place you’d want to go eat and drink at everyday, but you can’t fault it for having lots of character.

Name: White Trash Fast Food
Found at: Schönhauser Allee 6-7, Berlin. Nearest UBahn: Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
Website: http://www.whitetrashfastfood.com/

Jimmy Woo

Patrick Asian, Berlin, Restaurants

Stef had another suggestion about eating out in Neukoln, yet another part of Berlin I was yet to venture to. Just a little bit south of Kreuzberg, it’s supposed to be a bit edgier, and a little bit less developed. Based on his reading, he suggested we try this place called Jimmy Woo, a Laotian restaurant.

Fortunately Stef thought to book ahead, and it proved to be a good decision with plenty of people coming and going throughout the evening, even as we departed after finishing our meal. It seemed like plenty of local people as well, so that’s always a good sign (even if they’re not exactly going to be experts on Laotian food).

Lao, being very close to Thailand shares a very similar style of cooking, so expect similar dishes though not exclusively the same Thai dishes. Our mixed appetisers make a good example with things like chicken satay, prawn balls, prawn crackers, vegetable spring rolls served with four different dipping sauces.

I ordered the Pad Lao (think of Pad Thai), so rice noodles stir fried with a number of other ingredients. They lavished mixed in some fried onions giving that perfectly crisp texture with each mouthful and I added plenty of spicy chilli flakes they had at the table. I like how I could add as much chilli as I wanted to this, rather sweet derivation. Spice doesn’t seem to sit well with the German palette, with our waitress checking to make sure our dish wasn’t too hot.

Stef reported his duck curry had plenty of kick and Alex opted for a sweet sour dish whose sourness might be the only thing capable of raising a slight sweat. Both dishes went down a treat. I would make sure on ordering to tell them to not hold back on the chilli.

The interior was pretty cosy with tables much closer together than many other Berlin restaurants I’ve eaten in. However the whole place is worth coming to just for the decorations adorning the room.

Name: Jimmy Woo
Found at: Friedelstraße 24, 12047 Berlin (nearest UBahn Schönleinstraße)
Website: http://www.jimmy-woo.de/

Average Alpenstueck

Patrick Berlin, German, Restaurants

A small deer on a white sign on a typically dark Berlin street marks the spot for Michelin Bib Gourmand recommended Alpenstueck. I was scheduled to meet Jo, Nigel and his wife after their viewing of the Blue Man Group and although they asked if we had a reservation, tables on a Sunday evening were quite easy to come by.

The deer motif runs throughout all of their menus, representing an icon for their focus on South German foods.

The others were running late, so I had a bit of time to take in the atmosphere. They brought bread, not accompanied by oil or butter, but by a mayonnaise blended with, what I think was some fresh dill. The bread tasted like it was freshly made, my guess is on the premises given they also have a bakery open from 7 in the morning during the week.

Another thing I noticed was the open kitchen views from our table, something I really appreciate when dining in any restaurant. The waiters were very friendly, checking to make sure I had something to drink or if I needed anything whilst waiting. More on that a bit later.

Several things caught my eye on the menu, and since I hadn’t had a schnitzel for sometime, I figured this place would be a great place to try it. When the others arrived, we placed our order and waited for a while. Unfortunately we sat, waiting for our food, until the waiter came back to our table with bad news that he’d somehow lost our order and needed to take it again. Being that it was already a late meal, I was a little disappointed by this and we were offered no recompense in our meal.

When the food finally arrived, the schnitzel was freshly cooked and quite delicious. I’m guessing that it’s not that hard to cook well, but the meal was definitely flavourful and not excessively over cooked. The swabian potato salad was nice, although strangely cold in contrast to the rest of the dishes. The food elements to the meal were quite reasonable although slightly more expensive than your average Berliner restaurant (€19.50 for the schnitzel). The killer though was the bottles of water, not realising each 750ml bottle cost €7.50. Extortionate! I’d rather have had a bottle of wine from their extensive list instead.

I’d like to offer them another chance, but on this visit, they managed to disappoint in a couple of areas.

Name: Alpenstueck
Found at: Gartenstrasse 9
Website: www.alpenstueck.de

Thai in Transit

Patrick Asian, Berlin, Restaurants, Thai

Several people mentioned the popularity of the Thai food place called Transit. I remembered it when I walked past its foggy exterior one night, observing the large groups of people waiting inside. Rachel and I went in for a late lunch on a Saturday, to find it less busy and much easier to find a table.

Tables look like they could be communal, and I was thankful that it wasn’t as crazy busy as I’m sure trendy Vietnamese serving Monsieur Voung would be only a handful of streets away. The menu provided serves up small plates, and you decide what you’d want by marking them on a piece of paper, reminiscent of several London dim sum restaurants too small to have carts. I figured this would be a great way of trying several Thai dishes from what they had on offer. Thai, tapas style.

I think I ended up ordering three dishes as did Rachel, turning out to be slightly too much despite the assurance of our waitress who thought perhaps we’d eat much more. I really enjoyed the chicken satay – definitely recommended. Grilled and seasoned and slathered in a lovely peanut sauce who’s only fault was that it needed that much more of the kick. I’d skip the pork rice rolls next time. They reminded me of a stewed pork dish, rolled together in sticky rice reminiscent of a Chinese style sushi roll that didn’t quite work out.

Their green chicken curry also disappointed me. Perhaps I ended up where they’d definitely toned down the spices for the local market and it really needed much more heat. The fact they also served fried chicken instead of stewing chicken on top instead of in the curry where the flavours of both components should fuse together beautifully, it seemed a little.. uhn.

Our waitress proved friendly and seemed pretty good for the typical German service. I’d like to try a number of their other dishes yet there are many more places to try in the area.

Name: Transit
Found at: Rosenthaler Straße 68, 10119 (Mitte) Berlin, Germany
Website: http://www.transit-restaurants.com/

Cocolo Ramen

Patrick Asian, Berlin, Japanese, Restaurants

Looking for a light dinner, Alex suggested we head out after our evening Tiergarten run to Cocolo Ramen for, as you can guess, some refreshing Ramen. It’s a tiny little place, just down from the hotel I was staying at and next door to a nice sushi place (I’m guessing owned by the same folks). It doesn’t look particularly look big from the outside, although I think they had tables at back. We got to sit at a full counter experience where you pretty much look at the people preparing your meal. Very Japanese style.

Soft techno beats pulse from a tiny ipod nano into the surrounds, and I start to notice the interesting mix of artistic Berlin fusing with the traditional Japanese styled restaurant. Like the napkin holder, for example.

The menu is short and simple, and just like a proper Japanese restaurant, focusing on a small set of variations of the same dish – ramen.

Alex orders some edamame whilst we wait although it’s not too long before the ramen arrives.

Viola. Rich hearty broth. Being on my vegetarian day, I crossed my fingers hoping the broth was vegetarian as I didn’t quite understand the German-Japanese-English trifecta of message passing. Oh well. It was still very good.

With people constantly popping in, even as we left our reasonably late dinner, I’m guessing this place is doing pretty well. Try the calpico soda here too! Mmmm. I love that stuff.

Name: Cocolo Ramen
Found at: Gipsstrasse 3, 10119, Berlin, Germany
Website: http://www.oliverprestele.de/

Duke of Wellington

Patrick British, Gastropub, Restaurants, UK

With Frankie visiting in town, and Luca returning from out of town, I suggested we try somewhere different other than our usual Marylebone haunt, The Providores. I searched my list and suggested we try the gastro pub, The Duke of Wellington.

Things looked good with a very busy pub downstairs and a small dining room upstairs. Interesting memorabilia, almost slightly tacky, line the walls catching my eye as we head towards our table, beers in hand. It’s not a very large dining room and like most London institutes, fairly tightly cramped together. Here’s the menu, full of interesting things divided into the usual three sections.

The dining room definitely brings a more formal environment to your typical gastropub. White table clothed dining, oh my!

Here was someone’s starter, the Goats Cheese Salad. It disappeared rapidly and not because it was for a lack of cheese I’m betting.

Unable to make the effort at home, I’m tempted by the crab bisque, strong flavours distilled into the soup. Perfect to balance out the chilly winds outside.

Frankie and Toni got drawn in by the burger with pulled pork. It’s an impressive assemblage, although like the GBK chain, almost entirely impossible to eat without a knife and a fork. The lack of any chips leftover also meant they were pretty good.

Luca was a little bit less impressed by his steak sandwich although it looked pretty impressive to me.

Going for a richer, smaller option, I go for the unusual truffled artichoke layered lasagne served with some red cabbage on the side. Though the portion size looks small, the big flavours and rich creamy bechamel easily make up for it.

Unable to resist pudding, a couple of us went for the sticky toffee pudding served with banana ice cream. It was huge and definitely a showstopper for the evening.

Just a cool doorhandle on the way out.

And the gang, Frankie, Toni and Luca outside responding to my paparazzi camera flashes.

With wine, the total evening came to about £45 a head.

Name: The Duke of Wellington
Found at: 94a Crawford Street, Marylebone, W1H 2HQ, London
Website: http://www.thedukew1.co.uk/

Kim Chi Princess

Patrick Berlin, Korean, Restaurants

With the upcoming Chinese New Year, Sha Sha and I decided to host a closely related celebration at a Korean restuarnat, one that I’d found called Kim Chi Princess. Owned by the same people that own Angry Chicken, I thought the food was going to be pretty good. Located in Kreuzburg, literally next door to Angry Chicken, Kim Chi Princess focuses on the more traditional side to Korean food including individual meals, and the Korean BBQ that we all love and adore.

In this case, they bring portable gas BBQ plates to grill at the table, unlike the ones that have it embeded. Just like one would on a Chinese New Year, we seemed to over order on the food but walked away very satisfied and extremely happy.

Along with the meat, we somehow managed to get through quite a few bottles of red wine…

The result of over ordering on the meat meant that we ended up almost surrounded by portable grills of various kinds though due to various diet restrictions kept the beef down one end, and pork down the other.

The over ordering probably started with the appetisers, not realising how big their Korean pancakes were and some of us also ordering a set of dumplings. Here you can see the Kim Chi version, although I went for the more traditional seafood one.

Someone (Rachel!) couldn’t wait to dig into their dumplings. She did pretty well with the chopsticks don’t you think?

Unlike in London where you have to order a side dish, they brought out five or six different Bon Chon and an awesome salad that I couldn’t get enough of. Felix, commenting its similarirty to German sauerkraut, this cabbage version had enough sesame oil, plenty of spice and good depth of flavour that added to the meat.

Little rice bowls arrived as well.

Finally we have the meat grilling. We went for two different types of beef, and two different types of pork, although each plate is designed for two people. The pork belly, crisped up wasn’t as good as the other marinated pork, and the beef that I tried fell in between. I think the thinly slice Entrocote (that I didn’t try) probably wasn’t as nice as it was almost instantly cooked on the grill in its very thinly sliced form.

Not the cheapest of our meals in Berlin, I think it’s still pretty good value for Korean food when the equivalent in London for the food alone probably would have seen us hit £40. I think we paid EUR45 including four bottles of wine at the table, a number of bottles of sparkling water and the giant amount of food that saw, at least me, feeling like I needed to be rolled out.

For Korean food, I was quite surprised at how good it was. Not the best I’ve had but much better than I was expecting to find in Berlin.

Name: Kim Chi Princess
Found at: Skalitzer Strasse 36, Kreuzburg, Berlin, Germany (between Kottbusser Tor and Gorlitzer Bahnhof U-Bahn stops)
Website: http://www.kimchiprincess.com/

Vegan Viasko in Kreuzburg

Patrick Berlin, Restaurants, Vegetarian

The Happy Cow has proved to be an essential partner to easily finding some vegetarian places in Berlin. The lastest on our trail was another Kreuzburg location called Viasko. This place serves entirely vegan food and had a reasonable selection of different things to please the appetite.

They’re interior’s really interesting and we couldn’t work out if effects were intended, or simply painted over effects. It fits in almost too well. I booked us for a table of eight, and we took up one side of the restaurant. I’m guessing that they probably can cover about thirty people before running out of room.

Several of us ordered the gyro which tasted so good and realistic than we had to confirm that it was definitely made out of tofu, and not some magical meat mixture. The portion sizes were huge and defeated me that I couldn’t really think about dessert.

Other people got some dumplings served with some potato salad. Apparently pretty good but very stodgy and filling.

I was pretty happy with this place. It’s not quite as high end as several people thought I’d make it, but the prices were very reasonable with dinner for eight of us including a few beers and various drinks coming to about €150 (and some people managed to fit in dessert).

Name: Viasko
Found at: Erkelenzdamm 49, Berlin, Germany (closest U Bahn being Kottbusser Tor)
Website: http://www.viasko.de/