Eating in Berlin: Food for the soul and the body

Berlin. What a city! 24 hours a day. Cinemas, cabarets. Bars...yes, the bars are amazing. As are the truly fantastic museums. And after a day walking, absorbing, interacting...what's better than to seat down with a good friend for a spot of dinner. borchardt is a place to see and to be seen...and the food is quite good too.

I have visited and eaten here at borchardt (like ee cummings, always spelt sans capitals, I don't know why) many times. But this time, the service was a bit lacking. Hurried. Curt. Not the worse I have encountered, but not as nice as usual. The place is a social epicenter, so to speak. Tables are crowded together...much like Parisian bistros, where the waiter has to pull out the table for one to get in.

But I was told, movie star and pop artise spottings are as common in this hall as are politicians. Even Angie Merkel has been spotted here once or twice.

I started with a rather large lobster bisque:



Beautiful. The soup had packed all the flavours of the sea and the lobster. Powerful. Lightly seasoned to bring out the crustacean. Nice!

My friend Dr. M had the wildlachs...wild salmond...



I did not taste it, but he assured me it was very good. Both the soup and the salmon went down very well with a coupe of champagne. Ruinart, I believed.

Both of us elected to have the steak...which was served with french fries at the side.



I had ordered mine in my usual style...Chicago medium-rare...charred on the outside, pink and medium-rare on the inside. I am not sure if the waiter understood me...though he presented me with an English menu, and appeared to speak English...but steak was medium-rare, no charring.



Like most European steaks, the meat was lean...but this was reasonably tender...perphaps some micro-marbling. And tasty. The fact that it lacked a nice burnt crust was overshadowed by the full beef-iness of the meat. Nice.

And to accompany, a nice St Emilion Grand Cru...Chateau Haut Pontet.



Reasonably priced at €53 for the bottle...nice, smooth tannins, though 2008 might seem young for a St. Emilion. But nice berries, ripe, ripe fruit. And an mild nose reminiscent of plums and blackberries.

And for dessert...Profiteroles



Quite nice...but profiteroles are always nice...so these are nothing special.

Nice place...but I liked it better the 2 or 3 times I was there for lunch than this time, when we came for dinner.


borchardt Restaurant
Franzosische Strasse 47
am Gendermenmarkt
10117 Berlin
Germany