überlin

Category: Food & Drink

  • Das Gegengift: Scottish food at Das Gift

    by

    James Glazebrook
    Category:

    You probably already know Das Gift as an awesome expat hangout, a Neukölln Eckkneipe owned by Barry Burns from Mogwai and his lovely wife Rachel, and the site of the best jukebox in Berlin – with exclusive playlists from the likes of Caribou, comedian David Cross and Robert bloody Smith! But did you know that they also serve homemade Scottish food on Tuesday – Saturday evenings?

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    As I’m 1/16th Scottish, was born within 60 miles of the border and lived for six months in Edinburgh, I am of course qualified to judge the national cuisine – despite what any Scot might tell you – and my verdict is: delicious. I enjoyed the best haggis I’ve ever tasted, served with neeps and tatties (mashed turnip and potato, if you’re going to be all *English* about it), while Zoë plumped for the steak and ale pie – all washed down with cider and Pincer Sours made with vodka from Glasgow. For dessert, so often a disappointment in Berlin, we enjoyed a taste of childhood with marmalade bread and butter pudding, and the Glaswegian chef’s wonderfully unpretentious take on crème brûlée: “Burned Cream”.

    In case you were wondering, Das Gegengift means “the antidote” and I can personally recommend this scrummy no-nonsense food as the ultimate hangover cure. If you don’t have as much hunger as I did, try one of the (still pretty generous) €4 dishes, such as the mini haggis plate or the mini sausage roll plate – served with homemade baked beans! You can taste the care that the chef, a lifelong friend of Barry’s flown in especially to run the kitchen, puts into her food, and Das Gift makes for a warm, cosy dining experience. We’ll be back soon!

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  • Restaurant Tim Raue

    by

    James Glazebrook
    Category:

    Tim Raue Restaurant Meal

    If you’re in Berlin and into food, you will have heard of Tim Raue. The former delinquent from Kreuzberg is the ultimate Berliner-made-good, now running three restaurants, including his eponymous flagship – one of just four Berlin establishments to have earned two Michelin stars. We were lucky enough to be invited to Restaurant Tim Raue and sat at the chef’s table (The Krug Table), for an introduction from the man himself. Raue started us off with eight small dishes, which illustrated how he tailors Asian cuisine to fit European tastes – and in the case of the not-actually-alive drunken prawns – local food laws! Over six succulent courses, we sampled high-quality ingredients prepared meticulously, from caviar to Cantonese-style langoustine to truffle brought all the way from Australia. We aren’t the food writers to do Restaurant Tim Raue justice, so we’ll leave that to Berlin Food Stories, and jump straight into the pretty pictures – feast your eyes!

    Tim Raue Restaurant Menu

    Tim Raue Restaurant Starter Closeup

    Tim Raue Restaurant Gurken Dish

    Tim Raue Restaurant Meal

    Tim Raue Restaurant Meal

    Tim Raue Restaurant Meal Shot from Above

    Tim Raue Restaurant Dessert

    One Response to “Restaurant Tim Raue”

    1. papaerk says:
      October 16, 2013 at 11:05 pm

      great article and pics guys well done!!

      Reply

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  • Café Matilda

    by

    Zoe
    Category:

    What a difference a bit of sun makes! This weekend the temperature topped 20°C, and the Berlin we’ve been cursing through the winter months, was finally transformed into the city we all know and love. If you’re one of those weirdos who (like us!) decide to move to Berlin during winter, then the most important advice you’re likely to receive from anyone, is to make sure you stick it out until summer. They claim you haven’t seen the REAL Berlin unless you’ve enjoyed idyllic walks along the canal and cold beers in the sun, surrounded by smiling happy Berliners… AND THEY’RE RIGHT!!

    Today was the first time this year we’ve been able to sit in the sun and brunch at Café Matilda, one of our fav haunts, and it felt goooood. As depressing as winter can be here (-20°C anyone??), it’s the thought of Berlin in the summer that keeps you holding on and stops you running to the hills. How long this recent hike in temperatures will last, no one knows, or cares… as most importantly it’s a taste of things to come!

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  • ULA Berlin

    by

    James Glazebrook
    Category: ,

    ULA Berlin dining room

    Whatever your misgivings about the gentrification of Berlin, one obvious upside is that upscale restaurants are fast opening in the city. One of the most recent is ULA Berlin, a modern Japanese restaurant and bar with an intriguing menu and an enviable sake selection.

    ULA Berlin sign

    Once we had been welcomed inside the handsomest dinner spot we’ve been to in Berlin, we admired the warmly-lit dark wood interior while supping on distinctive, Eastern-influenced cocktails. Zoë enjoyed a smooth Asian Tonic (vodka, ginger ale, tonic, St. Germain, lemongrass stirrer), but the highlight was my Basil Smasch – gin with lemongrass, sugar syrup and basil. The Kubota sake we were then served was refreshing and sweet, whetting our appetites nicely.

    ULA Berlin bar

    ULA Berlin place chopsticks

    Struggling to choose from all the delicious-sounding dishes, I made my life easier by opting for one of ULA’s set menus. You can see my centrepiece course, the Sukiyaki (Kanto style) – a hot pot of beef sirloin – sizzling away in the background of the photo below, behind Zoë’s grilled Iberian pork chop with soy sauce and butter.

    ULA Berlin grilled Iberian pork chop

    For our other many, many courses, we chose equally well. ULA’s Three Signature Appetizers were particularly delightful: Sashimi shrimp and vegetables in Ponzu (citrus jelly), vegetable roll with tuna confit and sesame sauce, and chicken roll with budock root, served with grilled spring onion.

    ULA Berlin Three Signature Appetizers

    ULA Berlin tuna

    ULA Berlin sushi

    As well as this creative cooking, ULA offers that rare thing in Berlin: a decent dessert menu. We limited ourselves to sharing a flourless foundant au chocolat, with sesame and coconut crème glacée, which was rich and sumptuous, just like our surroundings. For refined dining and upscale Asian cuisine, both hard to find in this city, we thoroughly recommend ULA Berlin.

    ULA Berlin dessert

    ULA Berlin place settings

    One Response to “ULA Berlin”

    1. Papaerk says:
      August 18, 2012 at 11:56 pm

      Looks an amazing place guys.

      Reply

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  • PANTRY

    by

    James Glazebrook
    Category:

    One of the few downsides of living in Berlin is a lack of mid-range, refined restaurants. There are great street food vendors and homely, local-owned eateries, and, at the other end of the scale, Michelin-starred “dining experiences”, but not much in-between. That’s why we were delighted to hear that PANTRY had opened at Friedrichstrasse, on the site of the short-lived second location of Chipps.


    PANTRY specialises in “Iberian-Pacific” cuisine, a fusion of the chefs’ training in Melbourne’s Thai restaurants and love of the Mediterranean. For us, that meant starters of an expertly-spiced hot and sour beef salad with rocket, wild herbs, pomegranate and orange couscous, and grilled Pulpo Fuego with corn crackers, chili and caramelised crispy pork. I then suppressed my envy as Zoë tucked into a succulent entrecôte served with sweet potato pommes and PANTRY’s “Double Impact” blend of Bernaise sauce and BBQ paste… but when I sunk my teeth into my perfectly-crisped free range chicken with liquorice Spargel all my jealousy melted away.


    My only criticism is that PANTRY’s crème brûlée-like “Californication” (!) take on key lime pie strayed a little too far from the American pud I love so much. Never mind – as the menu changes monthly, we look forward to seeing what other sweet treats emerge from their open kitchen. Overall, PANTRY is a sleek but welcoming restaurant which turns out some of the most distinctive, well-flavoured dishes we’ve tasted in Berlin; an exciting addition to the city’s cuisine scene.

    PANTRY
    Freidrichstrasse 120
    10117 Berlin-Mitte
    pantry-berlin.com

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