Horváth — Restaurant in Berlin

We came to Berlin and wanted to.go to Horvath as we were informed it was the best restaurant and chef in this city.

We were in a group of six, one vegan ( me ) and other five man, all involved with gastronomy and turisam, even as they say the best Croatian chef.

First of all, if you are vegan or vegeterian dont even bother to try this restaurants food, they just are not about that, as a vegan I broke the rule and accepted vegetarian five course menu. It was DISGUSTING. first of all that is not vegeterian food, and sooooo far from any form of vegan food. But lets put that asside, because vegan and vegeterian food is specific and restricted, so we are use to that most of the staff and chefs are not up to that challange.

Problem is that all the people at our table, so.five of them who eat everything, no restrictions were suprised how blunt and uninspired dishes were, and commented that everything had the same after taste. All five of them said it was very bad. But the sadest part is non alcoholic juices, that are actualy replacing wine if you are not drinker. Three of us took that menu and with every course they bring you another juice. We were so excited to try that, but when we tried it... we started laughing, those juices were like those watery cheap store bought juices but with addition of for example papper, or salt, or orange peel and things like that. I thought I would throw up after first one and than I really threw up at the end. It was the almost.the worst dinning experience I had.

The staff was kind but too pushy and never letting you have conversation, they were around us and explaining dishes, in a very borning and annoying way, every time we tried to start a conversation the woman that was serving us would come with another dish and spoke for like 5 min. Then she brougt shoots of grappa and sad it was on the house.

And then here comes the check! Wow, overpriced as hell, those juices from before and even just that bottle of water were suprisingly expensive even for a high end restaurant, and those shoots of grappa were on the bill too, guess that is what " on the house" means.

Ambient is pubish, reminded me of scottish pub, but pubs sometimes look so much better than this place, what I mean it looks very modest and old fashion and not in a good way, and smells like mold or something and it was cold to sit there.

The bill was a shocker, what they made us pay was just arrogant and we felt ripped off, it ruined our night because we are all in businesses that has to do with gastronomy, we even have our own restaurants in our country and we all enjoy high end expensive restaurants, and usualy we pay with a smile and satisfaction because we get what we came for, but not this time, bad food and bad juice drinks.

Wine was fine.

Only thing that we said it was realy great was the bathroom, very clean, there is a basket with some hair spray, and hand lotion and even some tampons. Thats nice and thougtfull.

Conclusion: spend that money somwhere else because for that prices you can get like hundrad time better food and...

This is going to be a long one. I I’ll say start with The location. It lies in the heart of a hip and mixed area in Berlin. The restaurant itself have a very old Woden interior with a nice yet too much on the road terrace.... so in case it is not stuffy inside, I kindly advise that you choose indoors over the garden.

The waiters in the black shirts are not good. They are not attentive and sometimes rude. This includes how they receive you, how they put things on the table and how attentive they are to your needs. Like an empty glass of wine for 30 minutes is something. Amazing how staff can create the dinning experience or repel you.

Food wise, from the beginning, you can realize that food will be heavy on butter. Mesh potatoes served as appetizer was soaked with oil and heavy on butter. I did not understand the point. Two out of the three bread served were good. Nothing exceptional. A rice with chicken reduction followed. Bland on the palate and lacks luster to say the least. And yes, they serve an espresso cup worth of vegetable reduction that is a bit too much. The celery ripe and young is an attempt to present difference between aged and fresh vegetable... all you can taste is chicken reduction and salt, the sturgeon followed, I was chasing the onion taste in the accompanying butter for some taste. Needless to mention, my glass was dry and still it is as I type until here....35 minutes to be specific

The soup meat was good. A bit too much chicken skin. The vinaigrette reduction, calf tendon and the dried skin apple balm was good. Two hours now with three courses.

The mushroom leek reduction with almond mild made a good base. Nonetheless the plate lacked texture. Reduction is soft, mushrooms are soft, mayo is soft. Am not impressed and having second thoughts of leaving

Vegetable casserole, the dried zucchini was perfect... the rest of the dish was like all the presiding ones and anticipate the ones to follow. At this stage I asked to reduce the rest of my meal to what is already prepared...

The parsley root milk is excellent. Frozen white base topped with black crushed pumpkin seeds. The pumpkin might take you to sweet thoughts. Nonono. The seeds taste more earthy. This one was the only dish that stood out. Like it was good.

The sucking pig plate looked great and tasted good. The garlic was way too salty though. But the combinations of the pig, fat, garlic and smoked onion was good. Down to one desert now.

I should have stopped at the pig stage...

I would have given 5 stars if food was good, 4 if service was bad, 3 stars if the wine came late, 2 if the wine just did not come, and 1 star if the journey had no meaning.

Waste of...

Tasteless experience

I have always trusted the Guide, and I came to Berlin with several plans including a clear intention to add Horváth to the collection. Unfortunately, it was indeed a disappointment. First of all, my reservation for the "Terrace" turned out to be a reservation for a dehor annexed to the street, with no visual or acoustic separation from the surroundings, really noisy and forcing us to talk loudly all evening. We were very kindly suggested to go inside, but a hot environment with no air conditioning forced us to stay outside. The menu was really a disappointment, as the 8 courses were more side dishes than main courses. It is not that they were not good, but from a two-star restaurant one expects unique flavors and pairings, whereas we had sterile and tasteless dishes, with few exceptions. Absence of meat or fish dishes, making us get up from the table as if something was missing. Not that the absence itself was a problem, but rather because of the trivial interpretation of the vegetables used. Bitterness also stems from the fact that the restaurant is not classified as vegetarian due to the use of some basics such as chicken broth or cream of lard, in any case not worth mentioning. If the absence of a welcoming at the entrance is strange, I think the absence of a sommelier at a two-star restaurant is inexcusable. Also unwise is the request/suggestion to use the same cutlery for all eight courses, effectively contaminating each dish with the one before. Cute idea of leaving a sort of a collectible card with written the dish tasted, ruined however by the uncaring service that forgot to hand us two cards. In short, I had never experienced a starred restaurant so far from expectations, which bring it in my opinion well below the minimum threshold of a single star for both creativity and palate...