ichi いち — Restaurant in Berlin

Shun & Ikue, an adorable couple, are running this little gem in Prenzlauer/Mitte (walking distance from Rosaluxemburg Station U2), in a hidden spot. From the outside, you just can see a tiny door that takes you to the underground restaurant. The atmosphere is minimalistic and cozy. Like Japanese tradition, you have to take off your shoes. So good! So relaxing! There are 2 rooms. One with a big and shared (wonderful wood) table. So charming! The other room is a small one. With a particular detail: Izue left one of the curtain opened to her beautiful ikebana! Ichin for us is that kind of place wich all the details are taken seriously! The service is impressed! Omotenashi spirit! Very Kindly and Respectful! I’m so grateful when I, as a Coeliac Person, found places that really includes me! We visited them for 2 times. The 1st time we had a lunch! I explained to Ikue about my disease and then she suggested the Sake Dom! They prepared a special meal without gluten ;) amazing! So fresh!!!! In our second time there, we had the 5-course Dinner Menu. Sometimes it’s difficult to describe a place in words. It’s a real Japanese Cuisine experience! An intense explosion of umami flavor matched with a delicate presentation! Everything was consistent in deliciousness!!! The highlight for me: the gluten free tempura!!!! I hadn’t had eaten tempura since I discovered the coeliac disease 5 years ago. What a tremendous comfort food!!! What a feast!!!! FOR SURE THE BEST JAPANESE RESTAURANT & IZAKAYA IN BERLIN!!!Thank you so much Ikue and Shun!!! #glutenfree...

First, I’ll start with the menu highlights: The desert is absolutely delicious, balanced in flavor, and satisfying! My set meal dessert consisted of a cream cheese cookie, red bean gelatin, sliced kiwi, and green tea to finish — delightful. My next favorite dish was the cold miso soup with mackerel rice — what light and tasty miso, I was in love!! I will prepare my own miso this way at home from now on.

Now, the criticisms for the rest of the meal before my favorites.

The atmosphere is nice but a majority of the omakase is truly mediocre. I personally found the flavors to be neither authentic to Japanese cuisine nor inventive enough to be regarded as extraordinary.

The flavors also are a bit too bold and strong (heavier on the salt/sodium, soy sauce, and deference to mustard/horseradish rather than wasabi. One must presume the chef is heavy-handed in the flavors to accommodate a German palate…

A fun experience for about €71, but if you ask a snob (me, I admit it), the food is really sub-par. This is coming from someone who regularly cooks Japanese dishes at home and has dined both in Japan and at Michelin-rated, Japanese-run restaurants across the States — so this review is CLEARLY biased.

I say, save your money and get western food in Berlin instead, all the Asian food in Berlin is highly underwhelming due to lack of true competition. If you want great Japanese food, either just go to a cheaper spot or go straight to Japan or a city with a...

Absolutely wonderful. Attentive service, great food, overall a fantastic experience of the Japanese culinary philosophy.

I had the 7 course October menu, and was positively surprised to see how the chef could put so much efforts into the dish design, where all the ingredients contribute to create the autumn feeling of the season, and yet still appear so effortless and elegant.

The menu started with a light sour taste soup based on plumes and salmon to stir up the appetite, and quickly developed into a small climax by the third course, the Obanzai, where I was presented with a plate of small Japanese dishes: a couple of marinated potatoes, roasted duck, turnips, salmon and bamboo shoots and avocado, before finishing with a seasoned rice with chestnuts and mushrooms, and a pumpkin pudding topped with azuki bean paste, a very strong ending with a long after taste.

If anything, I kind of wish the seasoned rice could be stronger in taste, and the fried tuna before the rice also seemed slightly bland to me, but that may just be my personal bias. It could well be a bit tiresome if all dishes were equally strongly seasoned, so the chef decided to go this way.

I will definitely come back next time I visit Berlin, and can only give いち my strongest recommendation as well as my whole-hearted gratitude for such a...