Pots Modern German Cuisine at Potsdamer Platz

Polish-style cauliflower, curried carrots, pearl barley, and Frankfurt herbs - for Christopher Kujanski, home cooking is regional right down to his Polish homeland. Of course, the brasserie at the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel also serves delicate fish and meat from animals kept in a species-appropriate manner. Still, spring is also celebrated with vegetarian and vegan dishes.

Werderan fish soup once, baked Husum cheese balls once, Prignitz poulard fricassee twice - the orders come in quick succession. Pots, the casual dining retreat in the five-star Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Potsdamer Platz, is like Berlin. Never finished and constantly changing.

Adjustments are made to keep up with the metropolis's zeitgeist without bending. Each chef has always brought his own signature and shaped the restaurant. For the past four years, Christopher Kujanski has been putting his soul food stamp on the local cuisine.

When it comes to his culinary home, it's his grandma. He learned to cook from her as a three-year-old near Poznan and immersed himself in Polish cuisine. His Polish roots and love of regional products from Brandenburg and the North Sea are brought to the plate without any airs or graces.

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It's like always at Pots this evening: really good! The professionals in the kitchen of this chic but homely brasserie, with its shiny, warm brass tones, Parisian flair, and international guests, are simply masters of their craft. Creativity, yes, but not for the sake of showing off.

Home cooking is feel-good cooking, and for us, it starts with a tartare of Holstein pasture-fed beef with capers and remoulade. It's a full-bodied classic that reflects the still French atmosphere of the pot. The cod with North Sea crab and Riesling butter is also worthy of a brasserie, metropolis, or luxury hotel.

But the good-humoured chef has a very contemporary mischievousness about him. And so he takes the much-ignored pearl barley from grandma's treasure chest and combines it with organic eggs and Frankfurt herbs - his ode to spring. With his vegetarian curry carrot, he also brings the Berlin currywurst into the 21st century. The carrot with spicy curry sauce needs no substitutes and is so delicious that Kujanski should run a food truck.

La Bota de Florpower, a white Spaniard with 93 Parker points, the young, wild, and mineral Pinot Blanc Stein & Lehm Forst from Scheuermann in the Palatinate, and the red Le Pilou from Domaine Olivier Pithon in Roussillon—let's do some more vinophile name-dropping. To clarify, the sommeliers in the pots are also doing a great job.

Incidentally, the excellent noble drink champagne is courted with two events: the monthly, large-scale "Champagne Brunch" and, from May, the "Secret Champagne Garden".

Manuela Blisse

Author Berlin