Facil, Berlin

I will declare it now, I am done with the fancy restaurants for many reasons.  I wanted to try something new and truly should have just gone back to Borchardt which we had gone to the last time we went to Berlin.  Here is the thing with the fancy restaurants.  What you order is not what you get but an imagination of what the chef can do.  It never tastes as good as you hope and it is really expensive.  I always walk out thinking that was interesting but it just isn't what I wanted. 

We started our night out on the roof of our hotel having a cocktail. 

I love these statues on top of the Humboldt building across the street.  Then we went over to the restaurant Facil.

The restaurant Facil is beautiful.  Located on the fifth floor of a hotel inside a glass box.  Even the ceiling retracts.  The doors open before you get to them.   The attention to detail is incredible. 

Our first course out was of course a little treat from the chef.  I honestly can not recall each ingredient in both bites but the design and accomplishment is what is amazing here.

Next little taste was a warm almond soup with bits of chorizo.  Interesting.

Pretzel breads as well as others.

One more treat from the chef, a bite of herring on top of a green apple mixture. 

For the bread there was butter and a white fish dip.

Also a spinach feta dip.

The menu is not large and we all chose an appetizer and a main.  There is an eight course tasting but that was absolutely not in the cards.  Terrine of fois gras with celery and hazelnuts is what the menu said.  Really delicious fois gras, small squares deconstructed with the rest mentioned and more on the plate.

Mackerel with a thai-mango and watercress dressing.

This was stated as The Artichoke – Peanut and Green Curry.  More like a soup of slices of artichoke with foam and rolls of cucumber, some cheese and a curry based flavor.

Main courses were John dory with bulgur, lemon and mint.  Nice.

Rupping Lamb Shank with BBQ-Jus and Sheperd Salad.  Slices of lamb shank and kidney and tiny deep fried balls of perhaps the sheperd salad.

We opted against dessert, again but they brought some treats over anyway.  Orange crackers.

This was a pineapple ball that exploded in your mouth sitting on top of a little piece of cake.

Chocolate covered almonds.

A few chocolate treats.

Of cousre the kitchen, clean and amazing.  One side is the kitchen, the other side is the cleaning area.

We walked home and I declared to Fred I was done with the fancy restaurants.  I know he was thrilled because he totally agreed.  On the way back we walked by this structure which shows pieces of the Berln Wall.  Very cool.