Hotel Concorde Berlin Blog

Collection Culinaire or what I call a delicious night out.

It‘s Saturday night almost 8 o‘clock. A charming waitress offers us a glass of well chilled champagne, which was then followed by greetings from the kitchen:  cream of chanterelles with marinated seafood.

There are worse ways to start a saturday night after a long and sunny day at the lake.

The terrace of the Brasserie Le  Faubourg  does not offer a fancy view, but once you are working your way through the menu, the priorities are back to food – the reason we came for.

The Collection Culinaire in August are very well selected five courses with the clear handwriting of the chef de cuisine Steffen Sinzinger; Chef of the Brasserie since 2011 and highly influenced by  head chef Buchholz during their common time at first floor; at the time rated with a Michelin-star.

The first course was a roll of slightly bated char, topped with lemon confit. A poached oyster, which to me was more of a nice add on to the plate, but did not need to be on it and fennel,  aromatized with safran, putting a very nice colored contrast onto the plate. Chervil cream made the right connection between the strong flavors.

The second course was a veal croquette, that literally fell apart, when looking at it and I mean this the best possible way. The meat melted away, if not held together by the delicius crust. Combined with parmesan cream and chanterelles this was just a great dish. Wait, the real star was the clover. Great lemon-like sour taste added to a dish, that could go the wrong way during a warm summer night. Those few leaves on top, looking like naive garnish only, made the dish become something very special.

The main course was not only a beautiful plate, but also my girlfriend`s  favorite . The turbot was soufleed and came on top of a very tasty black risotto. Not too heavy and not too sticky for a summer night. I would like more cheese and butter in it, once it gets a little colder outside. At this time of the year, it was just the way it should be. Some veggies on the side, including powerades, which I‘ve never heard before. The waiter shed some light and explained that it is a small version of an artichoke.

Following course number three, the cheese-trolley rolled up to the table. We decided for a nice piece of morbiere and, shame on me, I forgot the other one, which I liked too. I could have eaten them just like that from the plate, because I like cheese as it is. On very few and rare occasions I would add some chestnut honey or a few blueberries, but cheese to me is something that can hardly get any better, when adding something.

Nonetheless the cheeses came back with a basil-sauce, grape-mustard sorbet and grape confiture. Everyone who wants to eat cheese with some sides will enjoy these very much.

The dessert was served by Steffen Sinzinger himself, who immediately had to sit down to answer our questions about the menu and the restaurant. The dessert was: Iced honey with white chocolate almonds, delicious cherries, sour cream ice cream and sugarchrystals. Dear chefs out there: That is on of those dishes, that you want your guest to have as the last thing to eat.

We chatted so much, that we forgot to pick up the camera and take pictures, but I can tell you this much: If you like dessert, get as many as you can at the Brasserie Le Faubourg. We had one after the cheese and would have asked for more and more and more, if it wasn‘t already midnight  and we realized we had been out eating for 4 straight hours.

The five-course-menu incl. well selected wines comes for 64 Euro, which is great value for money. Friends of the french kitchen do have a place to go to in Berlin.