NaNum — Restaurant in Berlin

The plating is exceptional in this restaurant. All of the food is served on hand built ceramics which is pretty beautiful. The flavors are really authentic to Korea. There were some novel use of fermentation which I quite enjoyed. There were some tastes that I had actually never experienced before as someone that has both visited Korea and also had Korean heritage. Having said that to be honest, I wasn’t blown away by the main courses. We had both vegan bebimbop as well as the Neck of the pork today. From the other reviews, it sounds like the food is rotated so perhaps this is a non-issue from other meals but when I go to a fine dining restaurant, I really would like for there to be something special in the main course. My main course was the vegan Plate and it was just some small Bachchan with some rice served with a radish top soup and some vegetable based sauce. I’ve had Korean food and a lot of different context and to be honest I’ve had a lot of bibimbop in my life and it’s one of my favorite dishes. This one just didn’t do anything for me. The tofu dish right before it was also just OK. The tofu is handmade, but you can get handmade tofu pretty abundantly in Seattle, where we’re from so again, it was hard to justify that this was an entire dish. Perhaps in Berlin this is more novel and I understand that due to a different audience this might be really interesting but for me, it was just OK. If you’re not used to a lot of Korean food, it was a great experience. I’m sure because it was really for the most part. Well done. I love the fact that they have natural wines as a wine pairing. I did like all of the wines except for the last one and I really like the mission that this restaurant has so I really wanted to give it five stars, but I...

I am very picky when it comes to food and NaNum is one of my favorite restaurants in Berlin (in the evenings, for lunch they do more simple food). I am not an expert on Korean food, but I must have gone there at least 10 times and was always pleased. On a few occasions, I went with Koreans or with people who spent months living in Korea. Each time we all agreed the food was excellent. I tried several other highly rated Korean restaurants and always got disappointed, so I always go back to NaNum. The owner is friendly, always there, and she even makes all the plates and cups herself. Some of the vegetables are also grown in her garden, and she makes her own pickles and other delicacies. She always tries to improve. You can choose to have meat or not in your set menu (for dinner, that's your only choice beyond drinks and desserts), but even if you choose meat, most of the food will be vegetarian: the cooks really strive for excellent mostly vegetarian (and even vegan) cuisine. Last but not least, it is one of the rare restaurants in Berlin where you can talk to your friends and hear them without having to shout. It does not feel like a monastery either. They just got the balance right. You can eat inside or outside, both in pleasant settings (no cars next to you, lovely mix of concrete and wood inside). For evenings, better book ahead. My prediction: soon or later, this little gem will get a Michelin star or similar...

Went for the 8 course fish menu, the portions were incredibly small like literally a few bites on each dish, and the taste was mediocre at best. Even after eating the 8 dishes I was still hungry.

Besides that, the owner interrupted the whole restaurant every half an hour using a microphone to talk about her staff and the next dish and how it's prepared so we couldn't have a proper conversation at our table...

There was a different wine served with every meal and the variety was nice (hence the 2 stars).

It was €140 per person in total damage. For me to pay that much and leave hungry after eating a not so tasty food I would never repeat that experience again. Overall not...