Restaurants
Skykitchen Above the Clouds of Berlin
photos © Skykitchen
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Opening Times
Monday to Saturday from 6:00pm
Address
Skykitchen
Landsberger Allee 106
10369 Berlin-Friedrichshain
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A few years have passed since our last visit to Skykitchen, the Michelin-starred restaurant on the twelfth floor of the Vienna House Berlin, not far from S Landsberger Allee. In February, Sascha Kurgan took over the kitchen, and we were allowed to see his sophisticated menu for ourselves.
As soon as you enter, you are reminded of what remains unchanged and breathtaking in the Skykitchen: the view. We take a seat with a view of the TV tower, which we can watch in the evening hours in constantly changing splendour.
The interior is the usual elegant yet casual. The light-flooded room is furnished with a subtle play of colours, which lends everything a certain lightness. Loosely spaced tables with blue upholstered armchairs and bare tabletops of dark wood, cleverly placed plants, and scattered decorative elements on shelves and walls give the room a living room-like feel. Today's flower decoration is also particularly exciting: on enquiry, we learn that it is a saffron root, in whose calyxes, lying on the stem, water collects in nature. You never stop learning.
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After Alexander Koppe, who had been in charge of the Skykitchen kitchen since 2012 (with a Michelin star since 2014), left the restaurant, Sascha Kurgan gradually adapted the menu to his style. Taking over a kitchen shortly before the awarding of the coveted stars is a challenge, but renowned teachers have prepared him well for this challenge. Sascha learned from Joachim Wissler and also worked with Alexander Koppe at Skykitchen in the past. So he was able to continue to secure this year's star.
We split up this evening. My companion chooses the vegetarian menu, and I the one with fish and meat, both of which, spoiler alert, are thoroughly convincing. Anyone who knows fine dining knows how nuanced the plates are and what unique flavours they can contain, always to be discovered anew. Skykitchen's cuisine goes one step further. Each dish is fundamentally different, arranged like a painting and does not rely too much on the effect of pouring on elaborate sauces.
Even the greeting from the kitchen, which we enjoy with a glass of Veuve Fourny Blanc de Blancs, melts in your mouth as you read it: tartelette of char with nori straw, smoked eel jelly & praline of veal mask with mustard cream, in the vegetarian version with aubergine and falafel.
After the greeting, restaurant manager Barbara Merll brings us the in-house bread and introduces us. "Our sourdough is called Robert and was born in January." Humorous, easy-going and highly accommodating, the service from her and her team add a delightful informality to the high gastro experience.
The individual courses are too much and too complex to list them all. We enjoy the sweetbreads with anchovy, summer truffle and pea as much as the poverade with celery, sultana and barigoule. Meanwhile, one dish has a tradition: under Alexander Koppe, there was always a place on the menu for an egg dish, which enjoyed great popularity among the guests. This tradition continues, in our case with a delicate onsen egg marinated in soy sauce. It makes us happy that Sascha is sticking to tradition.
In addition to Sharin Polte's excellent wine accompaniment, we also taste her own non-alcoholic creations, which fully delight us. The non-alcoholic vermouth, which she prepares from muscatel grape juice, various spices and citrus fruits, is particularly tasty.
Since the eye is not only on the plate but also on the food itself, each course is served on matching, particularly fine china. Plates of herring and bordamsen are a real eye-catcher, which is particularly noticeable during dessert, an airy mix of Ivoire chocolate, orange, jasmine tea and rice served on a cloud-like curved porcelain plate.
The evening is drawing to a close, the sun has already set, and, with a view of the big city lights, we enjoy a digestif whose name just smiled at us: Grandma's apple pie. We are glad that the transition to the new kitchen has been successful and that Skykitchen continues to be as dignified and informal as ever.
