Adam Ain't Cooking

Marjellchen is in Berlin. Yes, Berlin. I went on holiday recently to the German capital and had a great time. Marjellchen is a quaint and wonderful hidden gem of an old fashioned Prussian and German restaurant which I first discovered a few years ago on my first trip to Berlin.

When I walked into the restaurant, I fell in love with the old-world charm and décor, the dark panelling and long darkened paintings which are embedded into the walls, the candles, gas-style hanging lamps, pink tablecloths, dainty silk flowers, and framed photos of old celebrities who have visited over the years. To sit in it feels like being in a Christopher Isherwood novel.

The service is attentive, but with a degree of respectful distance, and a touch of dry German humour. This approach with the décor and the style of cuisine gives it a distinct feel of having dinner at a great aunt's house. The man who served us even brought out our Cokes in large wine glasses, so that we would look and feel more part of the atmosphere than to be seen drinking out of tumblers whilst other tables had large foaming glass steins of German beer.

The menu itself is wonderfully traditional, with options often listed as "grandmother's style" or from old family recipes etc, with plenty of emotive language, telling you how delicious this dish is, even if you've never heard of it before. This is a place for hearty old fashioned German and Prussian fare.

For our starters my dining partner chose to opt for East Prussian Beetenbarsch, which is a delicious beetroot and beef soup with cream. It was very refreshing but still full of flavour. I chose to go for fried cockerel legs, which were boned and came in their own gravy seasoned with rosemary, and served with "bread for dipping - a dream!" to quote the menu, which to be honest was true! It also came with a large fresh salad. When the gent came back to take our plates, my dining partner commented, "that was a really good soup!", the gent smiled, "I know" he chuckled.

For the main course, my dining partner at first took the advice of the gent to order the duck, but after a few moments, he returned and embarrassedly told us that duck was no longer available tonight, so instead my dining partner ordered the Meatballs Königsberg, from an old Prussian recipe with parsley potatoes and red beetroot. These turned out to be three very substantial meatballs in a wonderfully creamy sauce, and served with very tender boiled potatoes, baffling us as to how well they were cooked yet hadn't fallen apart! The meatballs themselves were delicious, and very filling! I chose to go for the pork knuckle, which was the size of my head, and came with delicious fried potatoes in its own gravy, complete with that "sheen" on the surface of the gravy, promising you its authenticity. The colossal pork knuckle was so tender that the meat simply pulled away from the bone with no effort, and as you can imagine, was very filling indeed!

The only downside of the hearty and belly filling fare is that by the end, we just didn't have the room to try one of their wonderful desserts such as baked apple dumpling, or vanilla ice cream with hot cherries. Seriously... we genuinely were considering it, but it just wouldn't have worked! Next time we may skip a starter and have a dessert instead!

From the menu

I have a very secure spot in my heart for Marjellchen, and whenever I am in Berlin, it's extremely unlikely that I will ever be able to resist making a reservation for this gem of a place. If you too fancy a visit to Marjellchen, be sure you reserve, it's popular, even though it's away from the main streets, and rightfully so, proving that an old fashioned restaurant can survive and thrive without Wi-Fi, or much of a web presence, in the face of popular restaurants all around, and chains within walking distance. Good for you, Marjellchen, Wunderbar!