Hallmann & Klee With love and butter

First things first: unfortunately, the much-loved, almost legendary pancakes are no longer served at Hallmann & Klee in Neukölln. Instead of breakfast and brunch, Sarah Hallmann and chef Rosa Beutelspacher are now focusing on sophisticated fine dining in the evening at Böhmischer Platz - without the cuisine losing any of its regional sophistication.

In April 2016, the purist-urban restaurant opened not far from Sonnenallee, at that time still as a brunch mecca. A lot has happened since then. Both women are also connected through their culinary roots at Facil. "Honest good cuisine" comes from the open kitchen of Hallmann & Klee. Many products are sourced regionally, but without dogma: "We simply have fun in the kitchen, with good products - and everything always comes from the heart," we are told.

In other words, the white tablecloths (a welcome change given the increasing number of bare tables in the capital's restaurants) are set with what tastes good and delights the culinary heart. "And we love butter!" adds Patricia from the service team.

1 | 5

And so we are enchanted by one of our favourite dishes of the evening, which clearly comes from the heart as well... and with lots of butter! The mashed potatoes are served with nothing more than a whey foam and squeaky green lovage broth. It hardly needs more than that to make us very, very happy.

Simple and delicious - that's how the cuisine at Hallmann & Klee could be summed up: But it has a lot more to offer. The pici, for example, hand-rolled noodles, are cooked in parmesan dashi with yuzu, spinach and nori. Here, the cosmopolitan diversity of the cuisine is dismantled in preparation and products.

Butter, yuzu and nori have entered into a liaison that tempts you to clean even the very last bit of sauce from the plate with your finger so as not to miss any of it. The hand-rolled noodles have just the right bite, which is highly satisfying and comfortable. This course may look unspectacular, but the taste is really something.

The carabinero, on the other hand, is exuberantly decadent and, at the same time, light and delicate. Here, too, butter together with the carabinero head, tomato and ginger blossoms provide a lot of flavours, and champagne foam completes this luxurious course "because we love champagne," Patricia explains. And we also love champagne and this fine course.

What impresses us just as much, besides the fine selection of wines to accompany the elegant, surprising and tasty cuisine, is the excellent, creative non-alcoholic beverage accompaniment. With grilled and fresh mushrooms with burnt cream and mustard, we enjoy a delicious drink made of apple, shiso, whey and parsley oil, whose finely balanced sweetness and acidity play deliciously around the plate.

The wine accompaniment's first and last red wine, light and bright in the glass, also goes wonderfully with the fallow deer in lemon oil, celery, radicchio and the deep and intense jus of chicken stock. We sip a notable drop here: Fabio Gea stores his Piedmontese Back Grin (we taste the 2020) in homemade porcelain eggs - we pause for a moment. Did Patricia say porcelain eggs? Yes, that's right!

And so Hallmann & Klee not only knows how to convince with comforting delicacies but also to elegantly weave in little moments of surprise and amazement time and again. Like the miniature orange popsicle with a pop of fizz or the porcini mushrooms and truffles, which create successful umami notes in the deep-chocolate mousse.

The ambience is just right, with lots of wood, soft lighting and white tablecloths that contrast beautifully with the graffiti-coloured walls of Neukölln. A thoroughly successful evening is rounded off by the highly attentive and competent service, which knows its trade not only at the table but also at the counter. All this can almost make up for the pancakes...

Ronja C. Kolls

Author