With and because of Junior, we visited the “Design in Children’s Room” exhibition in Charlottenburg’s Bröhan Museum, just opposite the castle. After the exhibition, which was well worth seeing, we were hungry.
Ristorante Don Camillo Berlin
A quick look on Google to see what’s open in the area. Hoffgarten with a 4.9 rating and pictures that looked promising. But no one answers the phone. According to Google Maps and the restaurant website, it’s open. It’s only a 5 minute walk and towards the car, so we go there. It was closed. The Italian restaurant Don Camillo is opposite. A traditional restaurant since 1979, let’s try our luck there.
Celeriac, salicornia, sea beans, sea asparagus
Three friendly gentlemen were waiting for us in the completely empty restaurant, whose tables were neatly laid with white tablecloths. Did we make a reservation? Well, we could still get a table because we are so nice.
Tongue – we uncovered it so you could see what was under the pesto
As soon as we were seated at our allocated table, bread and olives arrived. What would we like to drink? San Pelligrino or Acqua Panna? Would there be any other water besides Nestle water? The waiter didn’t really understand the question. But there isn’t. Then the menu. There isn’t one either, just a wine list.
Junior and I then ordered a Coke Zero (€4.50) and my wife chose a glass of Montepulciano (€9.50), which wasn’t on the bill later. We each got a glass of Coke and my wife got the red wine. The waiter then came and showed us a plate of each starter. I chose salicorn, my wife the tongue.
After some waiting time, the dishes arrived. The waiter wanted to sprinkle parmesan from a large bowl on the salicorn (€15.50), which I refused. My wife’s tongue (€18.50) was of excellent quality, but you could hardly taste the meat because the pesto dominated. My salicorn was warm salicorn in oil. Item.
Ristorante Don Camillo Berlin – a living menu
After clearing up, we waited again for some time – in the still completely empty restaurant – then the waiter came with the pasta “menu”. See photo above. Do we want pasta, he asked? I thought, how should we know? We don’t know what else there might be. My son spontaneously said “Yes, noodles!”, so the decision was made.
The waiter now explained every pasta on the plate. All pasta was home-made because only home-made is good. A steep thesis. My wife chose the ink-dyed spaghetti with scampi and scallops (€19.50), Junior the strozzapreti with tomato sauce (children’s portion €9.50) and I went for the same, but a la puttanesca (€16.50).
Strozzapreti with tomato sauce (the stains on the plate were caused by my son as he frantically sorted out the tomatoes)
I found it unpleasant that they only served from the front of the table. At these prices, I expect to be served with some degree of formality, especially when the tables are so conveniently located.
Strozzapreti a la puttanesca (again, the stains were caused by one of my son’s tomatoes – the plates came clean)
Black spaghetti with scallops and scampi (the light was dim)
The waiter with a 120 cm long pepper mill in his hands offered to sprinkle pepper on my pasta. Shouldn’t I try it first? Do they use every cliché here? After the pepper mill, he came back with the giant glass bowl of Parmesan. I asked him to leave it so that we could help ourselves. He then brought a small bowl with a spoon so that Junior could put cheese on his pasta. The dishes were too salty for my son and me. He only ate half. My “puttanesca” was completely without any spiciness, but very salty. I also missed the tomato. I then ate Junior’s leftovers, which I thought were better than mine – and not quite as salty.
My wife was satisfied with her spaghetti, although she wouldn’t have been angry if there had been one more scallop and one more shrimp.
We had little desire to be shown the secondi and wait a long time again. We had already been in the restaurant for 90 minutes. We asked for the bill and were offered a limoncello, which we gladly accepted.
In the meantime, another couple arrived. Obviously regulars who were greeted with kisses and “how nice that you’re back”. They took the bresaola as a starter and the waiter sliced fresh Parmigiano. As proof, there was a whole loaf next to it ….
Limoncello to say goodbye
As expected, the bill was high. With a tip, I paid €95. It should actually have been €9.50 more. I only realized that the wine was not charged when I was writing this article.
Don Camillo bill
While researching the article, I was pleased to see that the German Chancellor and the German President are supposed to be regulars. Is this punishment for their policies? Is there justice after all?
When we left the restaurant after almost two hours, there were no other guests on a Saturday evening apart from the couple I mentioned. Maybe it’s the parliamentary vacations?
The idea of the restaurant is probably that you spend a long time here. As no menu is offered, guests are supposed to eat antipasti, primi and secondi piatti + contorni alongside dessert. And send them slowly so that they get hungry again. Everything is very heavily salted, which certainly has a positive effect on drinks consumption. (I must have drunk 2 liters of Charlottenburg tap water while writing this review). The drink prices are ambitious. A glass of Coke (0.2l) from a 2l bottle for €4.50 borders on outrageous. Even better was that normally Coke comes the American way, with lots of ice! Then it would have been 0.1l!
There is a menu outside the restaurant. If I had had this, I would have chosen differently and probably made more sales.
Summary: The service is very friendly, but not particularly professional. Every cliché of an Italian restaurant from the 80s is catered for: the pot of parmesan, the giant pepper mill. I would charitably describe the food as mediocre. The big plus is probably the kindness of the waiters. Would we go there again? No, the Federal Chancellor should eat there alone.
This article was published first in Gourmet Report
The restaurant on the Internet: https://projects.saltmarketing.de/
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