893 Ryōtei Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Berlin

In my opinion, if this is such a popular place, capitalism won.

We’ve been dreaming about coming here for so long. But the experience felt… off.

The first thing we did not like how tightly packed the tables were. You could hear every conversation around you. But well, it’s okay.

Then came the service. It started with our waiter recommending us a dish we had already ordered, which made us feel like no one was really paying attention. Then we asked for five more minutes before ordering, but he didn’t come back. For 15 minutes. We had to wave him down like we were invisible.

Also, another case of poor service: when waiter brought the chopsticks they were just dropped on the bare table, no napkin. I had to ask for a replacement. I mean yeah I’m not a spoiled brat but I don’t want to use chopsticks of the table that was touched by hundreds of people.

The food? Dishes were okay.

The shrimp salad, probably our favorites, but nothing was wow. And the reason is in a long wait.

We waited way too long for everything. After 30 minutes, we asked how much longer, and were told: “There’s only one chef tonight.” Which would’ve been okay… if someone told us that earlier and we could have ordered some more starters.

Instead, we sat. And waited. Watched others who arrived later get their food faster. After over an hour, the sashimi finally came. Wait for sashimi for almost hour and a half, really????

A steak that was offered to us “while we wait” never showed up on time, why offer to bring it earlier than??

And when we finally said we wanted to skip the steak and just get the bill, we were told it was being made and will arrive in one minute. Spoiler: it still took another 5–7 minutes. At that point, we were just tired and wanted to go home.

We didn’t come here for a museum-like experience. We came to eat. And when service isn’t communicating clearly, delays feel personal, like you’re being ignored.

And it’s a shame. Because we wanted to love it. We really did. But the whole evening felt like a series of “almosts” and honestly, I don’t think we’ll be back.

PS. I see you like to drop aggressive answers, do not bother, you are great in what you do, but it is our experience and if you want to get mad at someone, judge your poor...

893 represents the Japanese mafia “Yakuza.” When you arrive at the location the exterior and decor does reflect the name and the city, dark with an underworld vibe.

Overall service was Great and pretty seamless even though my hubby and I sat at the bar. Our bartender was very enthusiastic and personable. We began with 2 cocktails a light spritz and Pisco sour. I really appreciated that he came from behind the bar and walked around to me just to take our food order. Applaudable move. The entire team seems knowledgeable and each dish is presented and explained by someone. Although the timing of one dish was delayed, our bartender noticed and proactively apologized which I thought was refreshing to experience in Berlin. From booking of the reso to the end of the evening, it is one of the more seamless dining service i’ve had in Berlin.

Food is Japanese fusion with a twist. We started off with cold dish of spinach then the Moriawase 3 type taquitos. This was the Star of the evening, out of the three the best was the Butter fish taquito. Melted in your mouth like butter. I probably could’ve ordered 10 more of those alone. We then continued with our Nigiri and sushi items: Salmon aburi toro, Uni, Negi toro meki, and the Unagi Royale. In the latter part of the evening, spicy prawn tempura and Tuna tataki. I would probably not recommend the Tuna tataki just found it lacked acidity. We topped the evening off with their Chocolate cake. In their description, it’s simply chocolate cake but it’s really a chocolate Lava cake. For those who know, they know. It has soft oozy chocolate in the middle that just drips out. Lava cakes are the best and their sinful version did not disappoint. Definitely a must try.

Amazing evening with great food, ambience, and service. I dare to say my favorite Japanese...

The restaurant is amazing, why four stars? I'll be a tiny bit extra harsh, because it really is a top-notch restaurant and I want them to change a couple of things before I go back.

Food and Drinks: Amazing food. Seriously everything was either totally delicious or incredibly good. The same for the wine choices. The white wine we had, was incredible. It should have 5 stars just because of the taste. but...

Service: Mix-bag of things. They sat us at a super uncomfortable spot at the end of the bar (we did have a reservation). We asked to be changed and they did without a hitch. We just had to wait. I'm happy they could accommodate us, but the initial seat was so bad we almost left. Other things that can be improved on: Waiters knowing what is available before taking orders, we had to modify our order several times for lack there of. Little to no help for wine pairing and picking plates. We ordered drinks that they literally forgot to bring, we had to ask for them again to get them. And other details like that. Not major... but c'mon...

Ambiance: The place is super cool. It's a bit smaller than expected, but it is very cozy. The only problem here is that the music sucked! Like seriously, if you aim to be high on the berlin-best-restaurants list, you can't be playing Top 40s. It was shocking how they completely overlooked this detail.

Price: It is important to establish that this is not a cheap restaurant. It is one of the most expensive restaurant I've been to in Berlin. It also has the potential to be one of the best. The price more accurately reflects the quality of the food. But it did not reflect the quality of the service or experience.

In summary: It's delicious! But it's not the experience it...