Berlin has a pretty fabulous food scene as my brother can attest and over this past weekend I’ve had the opportunity to indulge in just a few of the highlights.

La Lavanderia Vecchio Crocenzi Gastronomie

First stop of the weekend was La Lavanderia Vecchio – The Old Laundry – an Italian Trattoria located in, as it says on the tin, an old laundry! Quite a novelty. The space was light and airy and with a feeling that you were eating out of someone’s home rather than a restaurant. The kitchen was open so you could see and feel what was going on and very cutely they had their own “Trevi Fountain.”

Food is very relaxed and must change on a regular, if not daily, basis. You can go a la carte but the set menu is quite good value and seemed to be the dining option of choice for most people today.

There was nothing complex about our dishes but they were all extremely tasty and fresh. Our mains in particular were pretty stunning.

We were conscious of not eating too much because we had a pretty special dinner .lined up at …

… Maremoto …

When researching the restaurants in Berlin I deliberately looked for a restaurant which gave us something a little out of the norm. Chef Cristiano Rienzner, a student of Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame, is head chef at Maremoto. Cristiano wants guests to “be amazed, laugh, enjoy” the food. Making our visit to Maremoto even more special was the fact that it was going to be private dining – only Pat and myself and another couple! We didn’t know what to expect!

What we got was eating out of someone’s kitchen with chef Cristiano Rienzner and a sous chef catering for our every needs. We felt terrible spoilt and not a little tripped out by the whole experience. Cristiano said he was borrowing a fellow chef’s apartment whilst he was away in Australia! Luckily the couple who were also indulging in the experience were very nice and also spoke very good English so we all had a lovely enjoyable night. They were so enamoured by the experience that this was actually the second time they’d had the private dining experience with Maremoto.

Our evening was a journey through some very fine cooking techniques with a bit of story-telling. Every dish had clearly been thought out to make the most of the particular ingredients that were being highlighted. Take for example our first dish. Tomato. Right, I’m sure you’re thinking, Tomato? That’s a feature ingredient and the first dish of the night? Well, let me tell you that it was stunning. Basically, Tomato Many Ways. Isn’t the plating just beautiful.

And the taste matched the looks. There was Tomato Relish which was melt in your mouth (it was like this sweet I used to eat when I was kid in the Philippines), Tomato Pasta, Tomato Ricotta cheese, Tomato served in a sugar spiral and three different types of tomato seeds accompanied by three different types of salt (including volcanic salt from Hawaii.)

The next course wasn’t a favourite of mine (because it contained an oyster) but I could appreciate the theatre and the technique involved in smoking it. Titled Smoked Oyster and Pearl – the oyster was smoked right in front of us on the table. The oyster itself was also sitting in some sort of emulsion.

Sticking with the seafood theme up next was “Fish meets Granny Smith and Aloe Vera”. A refreshing combination. The fish was very tasty.

Meat came next with the Chinese Version of US Dakota Aged beef. Again demonstrating that no dish was going to be simple this dish was accompanied by gin soaked cucumber (very very strong), miso bubbles, sprouts soaked in a lovely soya caramel and finally the rare beef which was simply melt in the mouth.

Which brings us to desserts. First up was the relatively mild (in comparison to the next dish) lime ice cream sitting along bitter dark chocolate powder and a caramel tuile. The lime was palette cleansing and its lightness combined well with the richness of the chocolate.

Bringing us to the finale – and it was a shocker, literally. Humourously entitled Carmen Elektra this electric ice cream dish, accompanied by a raspberry sorbet and black sesame crisp, blew our mouths away. Incorporating Szechuan peppers into the ice cream produced this tingling/electric feeling in our mouths. What we didn’t cotton on to was the fact that the more ice cream we had (you’d think it would soothe) the more of the peppers we were actually eating. It was certainly and experience – quite uncomfortable at its peak. Poor Patrick suffered the most – he spent a very long time in the toilet, I imagine trying to wash the Szechuan away! Our mouths were numb and tingly for quite a long time after we’d left dinner!

What an evening we’d had. Personal service from the chefs, intimate surrounds and the food. Very special and something to be savoured.

Schneeweiss

The food at Maremoto, whilst good, was thankfully not overwhelmingly filling so when we got up for Sunday brunch we were pretty ready for a big meal. Schneeweiss, or Snow White, has a buffet brunch which consists of, what they describe, as Alpine cuisine. There were cold and hot selections, and a dessert bar. Unfortunately no schnitzel on the buffet but we found plenty to fill our bellies.

I found it really cute that salads and desserts were served in these tiny jars. I guess that encouraged people not to overindulge – the staff weren’t exactly efficient at clearing tables! (Patrick is always quick to remind me that the Germans are not known for their customer service.)

The atmosphere was young and vibrant. Clearly a place that many locals attend – very glad that it wasn’t overrun with tourists! Be warned if you come to Schneewiess that menus are not available in English.

Horvarth

Dinner at Horvarth on Sunday night was my last meal in Berlin. I’d deliberately booked an early Monday morning flight so I could fit in another dinner before leaving – heh heh. This was a surprising gastronomic experience. We opted for the simple three-course set meal since we were still feeling pretty full from brunch.

We were served three different breads to start our meal including a Black pudding bread which had been brouh from Austria. The accompaniments was butter and a rather interesting mayonnaisey pumpkin seed mixture.

Amuse bouche was a rich lemon mousse, autumn mushrooms and black salsify. This was a surprisingly substantial amuse bouche.

The meat set course starter was a terrine type beef jelly thing which held no interest for me whatsoever (Pat said it was a perfectly balanced dish) so I asked instead for one of the vegetarian dishes – parsnip with lemon, endive and semolina dumplings. Excellent dish with the bite of the endive lending itself well to the semolina dumplings.

For our next course neither of us could go past the Baked spring chicken with a potato cucumber salad. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It was juicy, tender, dripping with flavour and surrounded by the lightest crispiest skin. My mouth is watering just thinking about it – and I would pay for a flight just to go back to Berlin to have it again I reckon. Yes, it was that good.

Finally dessert was an apple fritter with sour cream ice cream and caramel sauce. Loved the caramel sauce and the ice cream went surprisingly well with the fritter.

As a finish to our meal we were given a pumpkin seed oil truffle. Very odd – I’ve never had anything quite like it. A very odd combo of the savoury of the oil with the sweetness of the truffle. I’m a fan of pumpkin seed oil any day of the week so this was good for me.