Month: July 2020

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Restaurant review “Il Calice”, Walther-Benjamin-Platz

Mathias Brandweiner, the restaurant manager and sommelier of Pots recommended Il Calice to us. And right he is!

Il Calice, Vorspeisenplatte

Il Calice is located at Walther-Benjamin-Platz. This is the large square behind the Kudamm between Wielandstrasse and Leibnizstrasse. The square looks like it was built by the Nazis, but the houses are not 20 years old and were designed by Hans Kollhoff.In one corner of the square is Il Calice. It is run by the owner Antonio Bragato and the sommelier Nitya Kostka. Bragato’s restaurant has been known for good food for 30 years and is a safe haven for good Italian cuisine alongside the Francucci.
Bragato became very popular with Berlin’s gastronomy and its guests, as he overturned the Corona curfew by court order. This is very handy when top lawyers eat at your place.
Eating outside under large sunshades is very enjoyable. The service is affectionate, professional and pleasant.

We started with the appetizer plate for 2 persons. The plate is very large and we were full, although the three of us shared the plate.
And we had ordered pasta.
The appetizer plate is called SUPERDEGUSTAZIONE and costs 46 €uro /for two. It is worth the price. It includes
VARIOUS ITALIAN SAUSAGE AND HAM SPECIALITIES; CARPACCIO DI CARNE SALADA OF BEEF; VITELLO TONNATO; VITELLO GENOVESE; AROMATIC RAW MILK CHEESE; GRILLED PICKLED VEGETABLES; CAPONATA and pretty good bread-

Afterwards we had Spaghetti al Alice (16 €) and CULURGIONES (Sardinian ravioli 21 €). Both were new and tasty dishes for us.

Il Calice, Sardische Ravioli

We had a nice evening, with 2 glasses of Italian sparkling wine and a good glass of red wine and two bottles of S. Pelligrino for 150 €. We left very happy!

The only criticism was that the kitchen sent very slowly and that there was only this terrible Nestle water. Otherwise we are looking forward to a revisit at Il Calice.

Revisit September 2020

This time we just took the starters as above, Tafelwasser and a glass of their classy dry prosecco. All good. We had a good time and left happy

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No Name, Mitte

Restaurant review NoName, Berlin – first published at Gourmet Report

It’s quite a weird restaurant. It doesn’t want to have a name (NoName) and according to self-advertisement has no boundaries (no boundaries, no limits). It’s in the middle of the worst tourist corner, on Oranienburger Str., which every Berliner tends to avoid, because only tourists are there. But inside the NoName are the Berliners. It is Corona time and the restaurant is surprisingly filled to the last table.

There are reasons for this which we now understand. The main reason is Janina Atmadi, the boss of the whole thing. She created the restaurant as it is. She selects the staff and determines the style. And what she does, she does with great passion and enthusiasm, that immediately is passed to the employees and the guests. Even the toilets are made with love! Actually, the restaurant should better be called “Chez Janina” instead of NoName.

Atmadi’s team works like a clockwork. The main servers Sunny Bruchwalski, Sarah Buchbinder and Steve Hartzsch know how to please their guests. And you can tell that they love to do it and love to spoil their guests. Nothing is hectic here, everything is done with joy and passion.

The brigade with Vicenzo Broszio (centre), Konrad Most (left), Verena Voges (centre left), Joao Mendonka (centre right) and Eric Alonso (right)
From the kitchen comes michelin star quality (1), although it is (still) missing. The young chef with the Italian name comes from Berlin and studied at Borchardt and Grosz am Kudamm. After the expected fast retirement of his predecessor David Kikilus, who stayed for almost a year this time, the NoName became the first chef’s job for Vicenzo Broszio.

We had the 5-course menu in the NoName (80 € p.p.) All dishes were of consistently high quality.

Chef Broszio tends to hide his creations under chips. For the photo, I often got crazy with the chips! Only the cod cheeks were not covered.

My favorite course was the Pluma of the Iberian pig with an addiction factor sauce. (Why did I eat my bread before?)

I think the photos give a pretty good impression and yes, it tasted better than the photos look. Vicenzo Broszio composes quite intelligent and quite tasteful.

We enjoyed a very nice evening in a pleasant atmosphere and unusual surroundings and will come back 100%. But next time I would take the big menu. The small menu is quite little for a voracious person like me.

The NoName had bad luck that no stars by Michelin were awarded this year. Gault Millau awarded 15 points and Gusto even awarded 7.5 pans. If Broszio continues to cook so brilliantly, he will surely bring home a star.

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The NoName made the visit possible. But this has no effect on the above report. Had it not been good, we would not have written anything. See all pictures at Gourmet Report: https://www.gourmet-report.de/artikel/377894/restaurantkritik-noname-berlin/