Habana, Brunch in Simon Dach Kiez

Once, on a sunny day, I decided with some friends to go for a spontaneous brunch and we headed to Simon Dach Strasse, sure to find something. We chose Habana who had a nice terrace, an interesting buffet and a few free tables left. The buffet has all classicals charcuterie, salads, cheese, jams, nutella, breads, sausages as well as hot dishes with potatoes, chicken and fish.

They also have a wide variety of drinks (can’t recall if the formula includes drinks) and the orange juice can be fresh pressed or in bottle. Nice service, enjoyable atmosphere, after such a brunch, you don’t need to eat for the rest of the day!

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Chalet Suisse, eating in the woods

I twice took a 1 hour ride by tram, metro und bus to Grünewald to have a dinner/lunch at the Chalet Suisse, a nice gourmet Swiss restaurant. When you get off at Königin-Luise-Str./Clayallee bus stop, the way is quite easy to find, there are some signs. But it can look quite gloomy at night, few light, a path in the woods, I was happy that a couple got off the bus at the time as me and I could follow them very close. ^^

As for my first visit, I had heard their fondue was a hit, so as a cheese lover, I gave it a try, with a friend, since you have to be at least 2 for it. First, we had a free amuse-bouche, fish tartare, I don’t like anything coming from the water so I gave it to one of my friends, and everybody loved it.

The fondue was very tasteful but the portion was kinda small and not really worth the price, we had to take an extra portion, too bad, because otherwise it’s really good. All my friends loved their food, the service was very friendly, very nice decoration, kinda classy. It’s also quite expensive but  except maybe for the fondue, it’s worth it.

2nd visit was on a Saturday that was supposed to be sunny, but weather forecast got it a bit wrong, so because of the light rain we had to sit inside. Nonetheless, we had a nice time, very tasty lunch, I had some Bündnerfleisch, Grison, dried beef served cold. Very good! Then I went for a (big) rösti with Tête de moine cheese. Delicious! Schnitzel are huge and were good according to my friend, everyone was happy with their dish.

     

 

 

 

 

Bruselas, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

During my last trip to Mallorca, I was flickering through my travel guide for some ideas of where to go for my birthday dinner and the word “argentinian steak” caught my eyes, so I decided to give it a try and headed to Bruselas in the city center.
The place is very charming, the staff really friendly, very large choice on the menu, sadly lots of interesting items were for minimum 2 persons (and I was alone).
I had some Jamon Iberico as tapas, very tasty and then one of the best piece of beef I ever had, delicious, tender, cooked as I wished.
A very charming place I highly recommend to meat lovers in Palma.

 

     

Kurhaus Korsakow

Another nice place to brunch in Friedrichshain is Kurhaus Korsakow in the Simon Dach Kiez. It kinda looks like a hunter house, but don’t worry if you don’t like meat, it’s vegetarian friendly. For about 10€ you can help yourself at the big buffet with all brunch classicals, including lots of salads of all kinds, the staff always make sure everything is full and fresh.

For a few € more, you can get also a formula that includes prosecco or hot drink. The service is nice but can be long (fot the drinks that is).

Valentino, Leipzig, Germany

After a long bus ride,I arrived in Leipzig starving, found nothing near my hotel and headed back to the city and found the Italian restaurant Valentino. It’s located in the mall Höf am Brüll. The service is great, the staff superfriendly.

I first had a really nice virgin cocktail, very refreshning. The pizza very tasty, a good thing is that they add the Parma ham after cooking.  Just a small disapointment with the crepes that was too thick and not very sweet, but all in all a nice place.

 

   

Hamburger Mary’s, a unique experience

I once saw on FB an add for Hamburger Mary’s, a nice burger picture, so I had a look at reviews, sounded great, so I quickly booked a table. All I knew about this place was it was the restaurant of an hotel close to U Wittenberg Platz. The place is very colorful, rainbow colors, friendly staff, nice cocktails. As we were looking at the menu for the burgers, someone saw something I did not see: on Friday and Saturday evenings, at 21:00, there’s a drag show. I personnally don’t mind, I actually had never seen one and was quite curious about it.

First the burgers, all of them can be with beef or veggie pattie. I had the Black and Bleu Boy, with bacon and blue cheese, really tasty, the fries were also good. I had a brownie sunday for dessert, also great.

Shortly before the show, the drag queens went to greet the guests, they asked us which language was for us better, German or English, and if we were gay, they were surprise to have a table of 10 straight people… That’s when we were told it was a gay hotel. So as the only straight table, of course they had to choose some of us to volunteer for the sgow. Was really funny indeed!

 

 

 

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Le Dauphiné, Metz, France

Located in the city center close to the City Hall and Cathedral, Le Dauphiné is a very nice French restaurant. The menu is quite small but various: meat, fish, salads.

Friendly staff, quick service, they cook with local bio products. I had the beef (bavette d’aloyau), prepared rare as I wished, it was really tasty, the Gratin Dauphinois (kind of potatoe gratin) is delicious. They also have a nice charcuterie/salad plate, one of my friends had it, looked very good. For desserts, most of us had strawberries with cream, I had a damson pie (Quetsche in French, typical fruit from around here), really nice. Prices are very fair, they have a few nice formulas.