Restaurants
Rocoto Peruvian cuisine with a touch of Japan
Map
Tuesday till Thursday 17-23 h
Friday and Saturday 17-24 h
Rocoto
Winterfeldtstraße 17
10781 Berlin-Schöneberg
.How to get there
A small red chilli, reminiscent of the Nazca lines, forms the logo of the Schöneberg restaurant Rocoto. How fitting, since the Peruvian restaurant is named after the fiery vegetable, which has its origins along the west coast of Latin America. We visited Andrés Cerdeña Rendón in his restaurant with upscale Peruvian cuisine.
Rocoto is located in the quiet part of Winterfeldstraße, midway between Winterfeldplatz and Potsdamer Straße. While sitting comfortably inside between brick walls and discreetly placed decorations of pictures and plants, we are drawn to the terrace on this warm summer evening.
The wide pavement and the less frequented street offer space and peace to fully relax and concentrate on the dishes from Andrés' hands, which he describes as his own interpretation of traditional Peruvian cuisine.
This starts, of course, with Pisco Sour - with a Twist. Raspberry and passion fruit pisco sours go perfectly with the evening sun, while we learn more about the rocoto. Andrés actually came to Berlin to study engineering, but during that time he worked in all areas of gastronomy, from dishwasher to service in the Schlosshotel Grunewald to chef in a Spanish restaurant.
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So he was soon faced with a landmark decision: Office or gastro. We know the result and are glad that he opened Rocoto after a period of catering with Latin American cuisine, because our starters are already convincing.
We get three kinds of ceviche, as well as a selection of tacos. The ceviche, pickled fish marinated in leche del tigre, an aromatic sauce of lime, chilli and more, comes in three variations. Classico, Nikkei and Mixto. Nikkei is Japanese-inspired, with tuna, sesame and soy, while Mixto offers a colourful alternative with yellow chilli, eagle fish and octopus.
The two types of tacos are also colourful: grilled octopus with coriander sauce in a purple corn tortilla is juxtaposed with the Nikkei version with yellowfin tuna and wan tan batter. The inclusion of Japanese cuisine is born of interest. After attending a few workshops, Andrés, together with chef Jhimy Vega, integrated it perfectly into the Rocoto cuisine, which is obvious since both kitchens work with (almost) raw fish, among other things.
Our main courses are also colourful and aromatic. Anticuchos de Carne, grilled and well-seasoned strips of beef, traditionally of the heart, but here tender meat, taste just as fine as the grilled yellowfin tuna with green asparagus served on yellow risotto. We enjoy a light summer wine with it: Intipalka Sauvignon Blanc.
With the dessert, elaborately arranged alfajores, a combination of biscuit, dulce de leche ice cream and berries, it still has to be a classic pisco sour. With its stinging whipped egg whites and a dried lime slice on top, executed here par excellence. Peruvian cuisine never fails to delight us, especially as here, in the middle ground between fine and home cooking.
