Gingi's Izakaya — Restaurant in Berlin

I have the feeling that I wrote this review before but in any case, I'm doing it again.

I went to this place because it was an special occasion . It was the chef who talked to us and he has zero charisma. Ok, fine. . We asked a couple of things and it was a fine day. The sushi is just really good but I don't like so much fusion Japanese cuisine.

At the end, I spent like €200 for a couple. Not a problem if the food is good. Almost leaving the place, I noticed that they were advertising a sake festival in 2 weeks. I signed up for the event.

Knowing that something could be wrong, I passed in front of the restaurant a day before the event. The waiter was extremely friendly saying that our reservation was confirmed. Then I asked about the festival and the waiter talked to the chef. Well, for my surprise the chef doesn't speak English. Only deutsch. Ok. Fine. But... Guess what?

The chef told us that the festival would not happen because it's too much work(!!!!). And I asked. Why you didn't call us? He replied saying that I didn't wrote my number in the reservation bool (I'm pretty sure I did). He also completed saying that he even fired the last waitress. Well... He could ask if we would come or not. Even if the festival would not happen but no. The guy(chef) is extremely unprofessional and it doesn't make any sense to go there.

I don't care about to pay for an expensive dinner but the quality has to follow the price. I'm extremely disappointed and will never come back there. Usually I give 2, 3 chances for the same place.. But this one is quite bad. Btw... There are much better Japanese restaurants in Berlin. Don't waste your time there. It's like a lottery. It might or not work. Chekc the...

100% Japanese Izakaya (日本の居酒屋の同じです).

Being honest this is the best Izakaya I've been in Berlin and in Germany.

The place is small but cozy. They have jazz style music and that makes the place even more cozy and authentic, as most Izakaya in Japan do.

The staff team are mainly Japanese, all of them are welcoming and really nice.

I would dedicate a special mention to food (well deserved). I got the sashimi menu, spinach salat, a small portion of rice as side dish and black sesame ice cream.

The fish was extremely fresh and soft (even the octopus). Honestly, I went there with the idea of having Toro (fatty tuna) on my mind, and I was a bit disappointed when they told me: "we don't have toro but the tuna (Akami) is very good", and was not only very good, was amazing, soft, tasty, melting in your mouth.

Presentation and size of dishes are more than enough.

As a final comment I want to say I've read some comments here before going there, and it seems to me that people go there without even know what is an Izakaya. Some complain about price or dish size, but this is what makes an Izakaya authentic, if you expect big portions, and cheap prices don't go there, you will be disappointed, on the contrary if you look for a real Japanese Izakaya...

The food didn't justify the price. I understand that fresh quality fish are not cheap to get in the middle of Berlin, but that doesn't mean you can't serve a bowl of rice with your expensive main and rather charge an extra 5€ for it.

Both teriyaki salmon and the tuna tatar were overly sweet. We couldn't taste the tuna in the tatar, it had almost no flavor. Whatever flavor it might have had was overpowered by the sweet dressing.

Other corners were cut: the ginger with the sushi was sweetened. The chopsticks were disposable ones. If we're paying for the experience, for the price I would expect some nice chopsticks at least. The wasabi was fresh and potent, at least. Also the middle of the sushi roll had some strongly flavored pickle in it that negated any chance of tasting the fish. Overall the dishes are made with more of a German / Turkish approach, but they still charge Japanese prices.

For nearly half the price you could get better value and similar quality of ingredients in other Japanese restaurants, even those where the staff are not...