Berlin

Bandol sur Mer

An attempted teleportation of Parisian savoir vivre into Berlin - gritty yet stylish, casual but expensive. It's the sort of place that prompts those nostalgic for gritty 1990s Mitte to moan about gentrification.

An attempted teleportation of Parisian savoir vivre into Berlin – gritty yet stylish, casual but expensive. It’s the sort of place that prompts those nostalgic for gritty 1990s Mitte to moan about gentrification. With good reason: the customers, without exception, could be described as well-off, well-dressed, kinda-good-looking, 30-something professionals. If those are the sort of people you want to spend your evening with in a matchbox-sized restaurant, fine!

The cramped black box (formerly a Döner shop) with open kitchen (smelly!) and barely legible chalkboard menu (which arrogantly shouts ‘no credit cards!’) is a pretentiously down played attempt at offering something elegant and exclusive. Key props include a hanging braid of garlic, a stuffed pheasant, and a row of posh vinegar bottles.

This six-table (more outside) joint struck gold after Torstraße hipster Brad Pitt was spotted dining there. Don’t bother going without a reservation, available only at 6pm or 9pm. It took 20 minutes for the overwhelmed waitress to take our order and about an hour to get some food. Later she forgot a second glass of wine and pepper.

To the food: It began with a shot glass of asparagus soup for amuse-gueule. So far so good. We abstained from starters like oysters, foie gras maison (tortured duck guts) with brioche and elderberry jelly, or a half-dozen Burgundy snails and went straight for the mains. We selected a run-of-the-mill Entrecote served with excellent potato gratin with herb butter and a dollop of ratatouille, and a plate of over-salted turbot with dandelion-white bean puree sprinkled with slices of merguez. The highpoint was definitely the potato gratin and a quality glass of Cote du Rhone.

Considering the insiderish comments we’d heard from friends-in-the-know, the Bandol experience was pretty disappointing, though our disappointment had little to do with the food.