CHOI — Restaurant in Berlin

For the three of us, the concept of a Korean fine dining restaurant does not work, hence the two stars only. Overall it seems overpriced and not inspired.

We had the 6-course dinner on a Thursday evening and were very warmly received and tended to. The team and chef go a long way to use carefully selected ingredients and try to come up with a surprising menu every season. They also aim to create a cozy and zen atmosphere in their restaurant with decorations, seating arrangement and music.

When reviewing the details and the overall combination, one must admit that it's all too conceptual however, and does not truly inspire or excite:

Atmosphere The atmosphere gets annoying rather quickly as being seated next to each other becomes awkward as one has to turn to the neighbors left and right all the time. Normal conversations as with a regular table are not possible. We also had another group dining at the same time (6 people) and they tried to communicate among the whole group which meant a lot of noise. In a bar setting with drinks being the main attraction, I like the setup, especially as one can watch the drinks being prepared. In this restaurant, the arrangement creates more annoyance than use and gets old quickly.

Food Most of the six courses were disappointing. I probably have to disclose that I enjoy lots of different Asian kitchens, and specifically spicy, hot and soy- or garlic-flavoured food. The starter (chestnut rice porridge) was not bad and probably the most balanced and surprising, especially for a cold winter evening. The second (one-bite vegetable salad) quite boring and the vegetables a bit too hard. The third/main courses were ok - beef steak or spicy pollock - especially the latter an authentic dish with good balance and interesting flavours. The meat however, is something that was nice to eat, but not special in itself, something that one could get at any steak restaurant. The fourth course disappointed us greatly, it was a noodle soup with kimchi and chicken. Being regulars at ramen restaurants in Düsseldorf and also enjoying cooking lots of Asian noodle soups at home, we felt it was just a lukewarm, underwhelming and somehow bland version of any of these, with too little broth and noodles. The last course (choux craquelin) in itself is not bad, but could greatly benefit from more and colder filling, addition of some kind of sweet fruit maybe, and a fork instead of spoons to eat it.

Wine pairing/drinks The wine pairing (3 glasses, 24€) was not bad, some better, some ok. I won't go into detail here as I feel that it's too much a question of personal taste. I'm not an expert, but I think the wine was too expensive per glass, even though being organic or natural wine. The water that we had, was also too expensive, with 7€ per 0.5L bottle.

Overall, I believe that Korean food is and should actually be the very opposite of fine dining - spicy, hot, flavourful and simple, and is meant to be served in larger quantities, to be enjoyed in big groups and in loud surroundings.

We had a longer talk with the head chef after our dinner and I felt that she is very dedicated, thoughtful and her and the team try to create a great experience from good ingredients and a curated atmosphere— for us it did not work and felt too theoretical or forced. We wish you all the best however, and hope that our...

Looking back, CHOI was my absolute favorite discovery of 2018!

My husband and I stumbled across this restaurant on the search for another and ended up choosing CHOI instead because of the intriguing interior and intimate atmosphere. From the sign in front of the door to the menus, from the gorgeous wooden bar to the subtle artisan decorations and tableware - every part of the interior is carefully curated and meaningful, refined and minimalistic.

But what really blew us away was the food! Because we were on vacation we splurged on the "Sura" set and didn't look back! :) The beef ribs are to die for and the plating of the dishes completely reflects the aesthetic and concept of the restaurant itself. As a frequent visitor to Korea I have had my share of Korean BBQ, spicy seafood soups, every manner of kimchi popularly served and even vegetarian temple food. Even so, this culinary experience was completely new to me and felt more like I had been invited to a royal banquet than what I am used to ordering at the plethora of "traditional" Korean restaurants in Seoul.

The owner, Ms. Choi, was very hands-on and extremely forthcoming with explanations on her concept, the history of certain unique ingredients and the perfect wine recommendations for each of her fabulous dishes, while still sensing when we wanted a moment to enjoy our rare date.

Experiencing all that CHOI has to offer comes with the corresponding price tag, so expect to splurge (whether on yourself - you deserve it! - or to treat someone you love). It was more than worth it for us and we've been urging our friends in Berlin to give it a...

Firstly, this is not Korean food. While there are Korean elements, it is far from traditional. There is a huge discrepancy between the price and the flavor. Some elements were good but these are my issues:

Kimchi: the taste was quite one-dimensional and lacked depth of flavour. It was predominantly spicy but did not have any other notes. Maybe it was missing fermented shrimp or something else.

Eggplant: severely under-seasoned. A bit of salt would have gone a long way. Putting a cube of steak in the middle also did not make any sense to me. The texture of the eggplant was silky and very soft whereas steak has a firm texture that requires some work to cut meaning that it was very difficult to actually eat both at the same time.

Tartare: not a proper tartare in my opinion. Typically, tartare has cubes of beef whereas the beef here was totally mushy - it was as if it was shoved through a meat grinder and lost all its texture. This leaves you with this sticky mouth-feel that was not pleasant. I could just feel congealed fat/meat stick to the roof of my mouth. The quail egg was also not enough to provide moisture to the entire dish.

Chicken stew: taste was pleasant but for a restaurant at this price, I am expecting more than a home-cooked stew. It was just so basic - throw in some chicken thigh into a pot with potatoes, onion stock etc and wait. There was really no “wow” factor for the main course of the evening and no elevation to the dish. There was also no textural elements. Chicken, soft. Vegetables, soft....