House of Small Wonder — Restaurant in Berlin

We were visiting from London and went there for dinner after a recommendation from someone who loves it.

We had the tasting menu and the food was very good, although not exceptional. The prices were fair.

My biggest issue however was the standard of service we received. My wife is German and, being back in Germany, looked forward to the opportunity to speak her native language. Unfortunately our server didn’t seem to speak a word of German at all. Not really a big deal, especially for us, but it does seem like a pretty basic requirement for a customer-facing role in Germany. There was no sense of apology, explanation or conversation from the server, it was just… “English please”. Again, not really a big deal but didn’t give us the best feeling.

The worst thing was my wife explained that she has an intense dislike of raw onions/scallions/chives etc. This message was communicated by the server ONLY for the one dish where fresh scallions was mentioned on the menu. For all the other dishes, the food was served with fresh chopped scallions sprinkled over. Just a really basic adjustment that would have made the meal a much more pleasant experience for my wife and a lack of thought applied by the server and/or kitchen.

A good restaurant experience let down by deeply average...

UPDATE: I ate here three times in three weeks and attending the dinner service has changed my eating from 4 overall stars to three. The service was incredibly slow for dinner and we waited over an hour between our third and fourth dishes being brought out. Also, though I know this is a fusion restaurant, the food went from ‘interesting’ for the breakfast selections to ‘confusing/not tasty’ for dinner. We sampled fully half the menu and the popcorn shrimp and sesame tofu were highlights, but several other dishes were straight up nos for me.

The food here is insanely good (except the zucchini noodle salad which was salted probably 5x more than necessary and was essentially inedible). The space is really lovely and provides a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere. However, while the waitstaff were nice enough, we were threatened that since we didn’t have a reservation we MUST leave within an hour or we’d be kicked out. But then it took 45 minutes for our drinks to arrive and the food came another half an hour later. So, while it was physically impossible for us to eat in the allotted time, we still felt really pressured to hurry and eat. I think I’ll return mid-week to try some of the other dishes in a...

I came here 3/4 mornings during my stay around the corner. I'm super glad I did!

The breakfast food here is excellent. Over the three days I ordered potato gratin with scrambled eggs and Mediterranean salad, which was all light and fluffy. Super tasty and filled me up!

Second time I enjoyed a smaller dish: a single croissant stuffed with scrambled egg. It was a lovely little meal and worked well.

Third day I enjoyed the eggs Benedict. The biscuit it was served on was incredible, the eggs cooked to perfection: gooey whites and a runny yolk. Yum! The wasabi-hollandaise added a little kick which really elevated the dish.

With each meal I had a glass of organic apple juice which may have been the best juice I've ever had, and a cappuccino or americano, which was exactly what I want from a coffee!

I ended up spending between €9-20 each day depending on the dish, with larger ones being a bit pricier. However, considering the portions and quality this was more than reasonable. The waiting staff were also extremely friendly, spoke perfect English, and we're actually super happy to see me return each day! So yes, it's the perfect way to start each...