Erick T.
Yelp
Wow, I wasn't expecting to write this review for Einsunternull. I read such amazing reviews of this new entrant to the fine dining scene in Berlin. My friend and I were super excited when we arrived at the restaurant.
However, what ensued was a painful 3 hours, after which point we were still only halfway through the menu. I have to imagine the restaurant was super short-staffed our night there, because the food was literally arriving one course every 45 minutes. I'm not exaggerating. It was tortuous.
To the restaurant's credit, the staff was super friendly and cheerful. They were all eager to please, but (perhaps because they were short-staffed), everyone was mildly frantic. We were given the same welcome speech twice by two different people, and then again asked for our aperitifs order by two different people.
The space was also pretty cool. Dinner is served in an underground cellar decorated in a very minimalist fashion.
However, the wait between courses killed the experience. Even bread took forever. Because we were starving, and no food was coming, we asked for more bread, and even that took 30 minutes. We had to ask for the wine list twice
I asked the staff about the long wait, and the response was pretty unprofessional (certainly not befitting a restaurant that is clearly trying to angle for a Michelin star). The staff member's immediate response was to blame the kitchen for being backed up. There was no attempt to apologize or own the problem.
After 3 hours, we couldn't bear it anymore. We were only halfway through our prix fixe, and there was no way we were going to stay for another 3 hours. We asked to cut the dinner short.
The food was only so-so. It seemed like the chef was more interested in presentation than taste and flavor. The wines by the glass selection was pretty poor. Their fullest body red was an Italian cabernet franc that was pretty thin. The sommelier was kind enough to open a bottle of something off menu for us, but even that wasn't very full-bodied. Disappointing.
Here were the menu items we were served:
1) Amuse bouche: baked potato with wheat flour, summer vegetables with zucchini cream, carrot emulsify soup
2) Shaved beef heart on radish and watercress
3) Thinly-sliced mushrooms on a paste made from mushroom, linseed oil, and deconstructed bread. The paste was a bit bitter, and the mushrooms were cut too thin to have much taste
4) Mayonnaise roe on a cucumber. The leaves were a bit bitter, and the roe was flavorless
5) Braised onion soup and spruce. The onion was a bit too tart, and the spruce made it taste like I was eating a Christmas tree (not in a great way)
6) Chicken served with a solitary chicken yolk. Also: a chicken soup with chicken liver, tobacco leaves, and white garlic. The chicken soup was quite good, but the chicken itself was overcooked -- chewy and tough
7) Sliced carrots with anise and walnut cream sauce. Good flavors