Kongfu Chili — Restaurant in Berlin

This place might have the best Chinese noodles in all of Berlin (depending on what you're looking for) and unlike some of the competition, they have reasonable opening times, ability to reserve a table, and no long waiting lines (yet?).

It's exactly the kind of place I like: Fairly limited menu, but the few things they offer, are excellent and very authentic (no need to trust the white dude on this, you can tell because it's always packed with Chinese-speaking customers).

I'd say prices are very reasonable for the quality of food and the size of the portions. Service was relatively quick and friendly. No complaints here.

The pork and beef noodle soups, were definitely the best I've had in Berlin, and maybe even the best I've had in any restaurant outside of China. The cooks are actually from Xi'An, so they know what they're doing. They're packed full of flavor and the noodles have just the right amount of chew.

The "Three in One", as they call their version of biang biang noodles here, were also excellent, but noticeably different in terms of flavor and texture, compared to the famous "Wen Cheng". Overall, the portion had more veggies and noodles and maybe slightly less meat, in comparison. The meat was definitely more tender (good) and the noodles were slightly less chewy (bad for me). Flavors were excellent, but overall too different to say one is "better" imo.

The starter portions felt extremely generous for the price and the skewers were also great.

They do have vegetarian/vegan noodle options available, but I cannot comment on their quality, as I haven't tried them.

The only thing that could use improvement in my opinion is the drinks section. It's overall not particularly imaginative or cheap, but I'd say the quality of the cooking more than makes up for it.

As a final note on this novel of a review...

If you're not familiar with authentic Chinese food from the Shaanxi/Sichuan regions, please be aware that:

When they say "very spicy" they mean it, so if you're not sure, try the toned down version for foreigners first.

Foods might appear more rich/oily than you're used to, but that's how it's meant to be and you're not necessarily supposed to drink up all the oil from the soup or sauce.

Flavors are generally intense and some of the dishes use copious amounts of garlic, which I personally love, but not everyone does.

Update 3(?) years later: Competition for Chinese Noodle Restaurants has grown quite fierce in Berlin, but I still come here regularly. Nowhere else quite hits the right spot and they have luckily not toned down their spice level to appease local customers. I'm a bit sad that they no longer offer their skewers, but they have at least somewhat upgraded their...

I went to this place a second time, and I was treated really badly. We were in 3 people, and one of our friends ordered medium spicy, for one of the dishes. However, it ended up that he couldn't eat it. It was too spicy for him. So, we asked to change, the max kitchen could do was to add more soup. But it was still he could not eat, so we gave back the whole plate. They asked if he wanted sth else, he said no.

At the end, they charged us for the plate, saying that they gave us options for having another plate, but my friend could NOT eat it, and did not want to eat anything after so spicy food.

She screamed at me the whole time. Saying that she offered something else, but you should not force someone to eat either spicy food or anything else.

I worked many years in restaurants, never treating anyone near how she treated me.

After so much screaming, I paid for the plate my friend did not eat. But the point of this review is to say that service from this place is horrible. She didn't need to scream, it was nearly 15 mins of screaming. There was no word of 'Sorry'.

Very disappointing. Not...

TMI but I have stomach problems and food here didn't give me stomachache afterwards.

The food was AMAZING, the hand pulled noodles were soft, chewy, a true delight. The broth was delicious. The portions are normal, so not too large, but the quality of the food makes up for it. Tbh, eventually an entry would fix it (and a main course, a drink and an entry would be around 20€ per person, so totally fair).

Now, most of the noodles are a bit spicy by default. But the dish comes with a spoonful of chili and a spoonful of garlic on top of the noodles, so it can be easily scooped out of the plate.

The service is good, the workers are very gentle, and the place is very very cosy.

Now, if you like hand pulled noodles: please go here instead of other mainstream crowded places. These ones...