Restaurant Otto Indulgence from the region

It's tiny, but that's not the only reason why it's not easy to get a table spontaneously. We are sure that Restaurant Otto would also be fully booked if it were four times as big. After all, it can now confidently be called an institution of modern cuisine in Berlin - it's about time that this jewel of Berlin's gastronomic scene was featured on Creme Guides.

If you can, be sure to take a seat at the counter with a view directly into the amazingly small kitchen. From there, you can watch how the wonderfully unconventional yet amazingly approachable and uncomplicated dishes are created that make Otto so popular: the almost legendary koji butter, for example.

Or these delicious flaxseed crackers, which don't sound like much, but taste like all the more. They do a lot of things right at Restaurant Otto: from the small wine list with positions of organically produced and natural wines to the small seasonal menu, which - as you know in the capital by now - gradually adapts to the regional offerings of the respective (micro-)season, to the charming and attentive service. 

Speaking of wine: we indulge in one of our favourite drops. Grignolino, an autochthonous grape variety in Piedmont, is cultivated little because it demands growing and vinifying. Alexandra Brera vinifies the "Ronco Matto" in the traditional style and without any intervention - the result is drinkable, accessible, simply fun and you never really get enough of it.

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And that, in turn, describes Vadim Otto Ursus' cuisine quite well. After numerous pop-ups in Berlin and Brandenburg and stints in some well-known international kitchens, he opened his own small restaurant where he serves a small selection of à la carte dishes - and they are surprisingly modern and, at the same time, pleasantly unpretentious.

We try the oyster mushrooms with egg yolk and brown butter, for example, and are just as taken with them as with the zebu beef with spinach and a deep, dark jus. But how does the humpbacked tropical beef zebu end up on a restaurant's menu dedicated to the region, you might ask.

The service, which is not only extraordinarily charming but also highly competent, clears things up: Acquaintances of the restaurant keep a small herd of zebu in Brandenburg. So that's settled, too.

About the presentation: Reduced in the way it is served, complex and well thought-out in taste and always surprising with a touch of unconventionality. Or the whole-cooked brook trout, which - this sounds a bit martial - has been cut in half along its belly, folded outwards on both sides and thus comes to the table evenly grilled.

Personally, it reminds us a little of roadkill, to be honest, but the tender fish meat, the crispy roasted skin and the addition of wild herb salad and garum are convincing in terms of taste. And the dish is always an unexpected eye-catcher.

That's the way to go, dear Berlin restaurateurs, one might say. And everything else at Otto is just right. It's just a pity that there is a limited time in the first seating, but that's understandable, given the size of the Otto. The brutalist interior cannot hide the warm service; the atmosphere is relaxed. The cuisine is approachable. A wonderful place that you truly can't get enough of.

Ronja C. Kolls

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