Patakha Indian street food & exciting cocktails

Indian restaurants with delicious, authentic cuisine are rare in Berlin. The newly opened Patakha restaurant on Urbanstraße in Kreuzberg is one such restaurant. It serves the favourite street food of owner Gaurav Sharma and his Indian chefs. An experienced barkeeper prepares exciting cocktails and creative lemonades that perfectly match the fantastic, aromatic cuisine.

Born in the Punjab region of northern India, Gaurav Sharma came to Berlin to study almost 20 years ago. In the end, however, he followed his passion for good food and first opened the Indian restaurant Bahadour in Wilmersdorf and later GapShap in Günzelstraße. He had to close the latter after one year due to horrendous rent increases.

With Patakha, he continues his vision for GapShap and once again demonstrates his expertise in the subtleties of Indian flavours. An incredible 100 spices, some of which are brought directly from India by friends because they are unavailable here, are at the kitchen's disposal. These include the utterly unknown stone flower, a plant that grows like moss on stones and has a wonderful, intense aroma.

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The menu focuses on chaats, i.e. street food that you can find everywhere in India, delicious kebabs and favourite dishes from the north and south of India. "Our food is as authentic as you can only get in excellent restaurants in India," enthuses Sharma about his own cuisine. High-quality ingredients and the same variety of spices are the basis for this. And indeed, both the colourful snacks and the fragrant main courses taste outstanding.

It isn't easy to pick a favourite at Patakha. Each dish is so well-rounded and aromatic that we would like to recommend them all. Starting with "Bombay Bhel Puri", a speciality from Mumbai with crispy, spicy puffed rice, potatoes, onions, tamarind and tomatoes, to "Naidu's Fried Chicken", deep-fried chicken pieces in cornflake breading with mustard seeds and curry leaves, to "Kadak Bhindi", crispy fried okra with dip as a starter.

It gets even more complicated with the main courses because we rave about every single one: from the "Paneer Tikka Masala" - grilled paneer with onions and peppers in a sauce of tomatoes, ginger and coriander to "Aloo Gobhi" - baby potatoes and cauliflower cooked with turmeric, cumin, ginger and coriander to the outstandingly good "Chicken Dum Biryani", a chicken leg braised with rice under a pastry lid.

It is a colourful and intensely fragrant feast, and it is not easy just to taste everything. Along the way, we sip on a fantastic curry leaf gimlet, one of the young barkeeper's own creations, and refreshing lemonades, in which salt and cumin add exciting accents. The small but fine selection of European wines also includes natural wines.

For lovers of Indian cuisine, Patakha is an absolute must!

Constanze Hallensleben

Founder Creme Guides