otto — Restaurant in Berlin

i do love what otto is doing. the size, the menu, it’s great. i got the chef’s choice menu. they adjust portions to a solo diner which is considerate and appreciated. the bread is ok, the koji butter is good, strong parmesan flavor, good pickles. the oyster mushroom is really nicely grilled over charcoal, but i found i needed an escape from garlic flavor. more tomatillo presence. the white asparagus with egg yolk was really solid. the char was extremely delicious. i had a smaller piece that was a perfect bite of food, but the larger was a bit under and lacked the same quality. i would like to have seen them pre sorted by size to avoid that. the lamb sausage was good, just barely over, but good. i wish the sauce were thicker because it was delicious but it doesn’t hold on a piece of meat well. the smoked eel i liked but the eel itself was salty, which would have been enjoyable if the potato wasn’t right on the edge as well. that spinach sauce is really special. final course was beet, rehydrated in sloe berry. i wish maybe the beet was strained and then served in the brown butter, because with all the extra reduction it was wildly sweet. paired with labneh it was entering dessert territory. maybe intentional, but i wanted some savory depth. for dessert i had the toasted buckwheat koji ice cream. the quality of the ice cream itself was truly perfect. texturally so good. i thought the play of using koji to achieve that flavor was impressive (strongly of coffee and cacao) but almost too good of an imitation? i wanted to taste the source material’s depth some more.

in total i really like the space, the way the kitchen worked, the service, the house red is really good too!! their commitment to keeping with german grown ingredients and home grown produce is how it should...

Was visiting Berlin for a week for some culinary experiences. Took me some days to research and make a list of places I wanted to eat in. Otto was one of those places that were recommended in most of my research. Expectations were high. That’s definitely the first mistake you shouldn’t make when you approach a restaurant for the first time. Anyway fact of the matter: -We were 2 people we got two 5 course menu for 60 euro each. We get 5 dishes yes of course but 5 dishes to divide in 2. Quantity to divide was ridiculous. -we expect at least to eat some nicest dishes that was wrote on the menu a la carte (of course not) we only had the steam trout served as you can see on the picture with very poorly presentation with a mizuna leaves on top .. Not Venison or wild boar n’dujia only vegetarian dishes. -Service was not the greatest, wine was poured on our glasses and on our table too. No one came to clean the table. -Big up only for one of the dishes the Jerusalem artichoke, unfortunately was only a baby bite each. -Overall, one of the overrated hipster place that are opening right now in Berlin. IBetter to avoid and go around the corner to get the best hand pulled noodles I ever had in my life at Weng Chang 2. Of course this is my opinion ;)

Price we pay for 2 120 menu - 35 bottle of wine - 18 two extra glasses of wine = 173

We got back home and cook a pasta. I’m sorry 8(otto) but my vote...

These were some of the most thoughtfully prepared dishes we’ve ever had with great focus on local ingredients and inspiration from regional foods. Normally we go to restaurants and there’s one favourite dish but in this case we had trouble deciding! Sorry in advance to readers who won’t get to eat what we had but whatever you get will be great. The bread, koji butter, and pickled roasted tomatillo/onion were great. The pepper and sunflower tahini dish was very seasonal with a smoky gently spicy paprika oil. The trout escabeche and tomato-gooseberry-nasturtium salad had perfect salt and acid balance and you could taste the seasonal locality of the ingredients. Next, the mutton was excellent, dry aged and seared perfectly with brown butter outside and rare on the inside, with charred fat reminiscent of Kobe beef. The beet dish lives up to the hype in the reviews, with great texture from dehydration beforehand and slow cooking. Lastly the two desserts were excellent with the very fun final touch of a blowtorched spoon being used to burn an indent in the top of the meringue. We got to sit at the “chefs table” or kitchen counter, and saw everything being prepared to order. Super nice service and professional kitchen staff! Note we got a last minute reservation so do recommend getting in the...