Fine Dining Berlin: When Only the Best Sauerkraut Will Do

Trendy, even for a Michelin star-graced restaurant, Vau's food isn't so Deutsch in execution, but it sources as many of its ingredients as possible from the countryside … around Berlin. I'm hankering for the sautéed foie gras with fennel salad, dates, and almonds followed by creamed poppy-seed with honey ice cream and cranberries. Nom nom! [link]

The legendary Adlon Kempinski Hotel's "Gourmet Restaurant" has the Michelin star, but it focuses on French food while its cheaper, less grand sister, the Restaurant … Quarré, often serves up German reinventions. Its springtime asparagus spread is daring to the point of Heston-Blumenthal eccentricity. White asparagus crème brûlée, anyone? Now's the time of year to sink your teeth into the game menu and try wild boar braised in Pinot Noir or fallow deer loin with sprouts and mace. [link]

Restaurant 44 is based in the Swissôtel, just off the Ku'Damm. Presiding genius Tim Raue just bagged Gault Millau's Chef of the Year 2007 and has traditionally always … offered an NDK menu alongside a more haute-cuisiney French one. The combinations are inventive without being inedible: duck confit and sausage with mace cream, say, or king prawns with braised cucumber, tarragon, and pink grapefruit foam with mustard. [link]

This long running establishment has plenty of poseurs at the tables, but the NDK food is unpretentious and good, and largely inspired by the cuisine of Swabia and Bavaria … -- a region that's the butt of plenty of German jokes. Nobody's laughing about the cuisine, though. The menu's new every day, but after 11 p.m. you can always get dainty marjoram and pork Nuremburg sausages on a bed of (what else?) sauerkraut with a side of mustard and horseradish. [link]

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Bobby Brauer was crowned with the (metaphorical) golden toque of Berlin Master Chef of the Year 2007, and he's already racked up a Michelin star and a not-so-shabby 17 … points out of 20 from gourmet authorities Gault Millau. The menu isn't strictly Deutsch, but the wines are, and there are over 850 on offer -- serious oenophiles should mug up on terroir and worthy vintages before they make a reservation. Do you prefer the Egon Müller 1976 or 1959? For which of 450 Rieslings will you plump? Ah, decisions, decisions. [link]

This half-timbered former customs house on the Landwehrkanal was destroyed in World War II but rebuilt in 1979 and has a waterside garden for summer diners. The head … honcho, Herbert Beltje, is a local celebrity who also runs the Aigner-Gendarmenmarkt restaurant (Viennese-German cuisine) in the center of town. He's former chancellor Gerhard Schröder's favorite caterer. The emphasis here is on the regional: roasted Swabian noodles stuffed with morels; veal cheek; duck in every permutation (hopefully not fished out of the canal). The cellar is stocked by Altes Zollhaus' own vineyard down in the Rhineland. [link]

Karl Wannemacher has been wielding the big chef knives at this Michelin-starred Charlottenburg joint for a quarter of a century now, and he keeps the menu interesting … with fresh dishes and revivals every month. His signature specialty is a lobster lasagna -- in fact you'll always find crustacea, Wannemacher's favorite ingredient, on the board. A five course set meal costs a mere €68, and if you're prepared to go early in the evening, there's a discount. [link]