Review of Restaurant Charlotte & Fritz I Berlin

Fischers Fritz (now called Charlotte & Fritz), Berlin, Germany, 1,5 NJP of 5,0 NJP (18-10-2014 by Nenad Jelisic)

Because of I can not visit dozens of restaurants in a big city for a short time, 2 to 3 days, I usually use, as one of my many sources, the Michelin Guide. The Michelin Guide states the following about this restaurant: "The elegant wood panelling, open fire and fine chandeliers at Fischers Fritz are somewhat reminiscent of the classic English style. While Christian Lohse's fish inspired cuisine, unforgettable for its use of high quality produce and painstaking preparation, clearly shares equally classic roots. It is not for nothing that the restaurant has been awarded two Michelin stars for the past seven years!". This description and very good reviews from other sources did that I visited the restaurant and since then I have wondered how the Michelin Guide could give two stars out of three available to it. If someone from the Michelin Guide reads this, I would appreciate it very much if you contact me and explain me how it happened when Fischers Fritz last time got the two stars.

The restaurant, which is located in the very beautiful and super luxury five star hotel Regent, is very elegant and beautifully decorated. Everything looked perfect, interior, entrance hall, dining rooms and, even, the toilets. The restaurant's atmosphere beamed luxury and a relaxing and comfortable atmosphere. The reception at the entrance and the service were absolutely brilliant (5,0 NJP). Unfortunately the food was beneath contempt.

The menu I chose looked like this: roasted scallops caramelized Hokkaido pumpkin curry Jaipur, char grilled Limousin calf's kidney with carrots potato purée and sauce Foyot and creme brûlée.

The scallops were almost cold, dry and tasted almost nothing. Here, before I go any further, I want to point out that scallops are one of my absolute favourites when the starter is in question, that calf's kidney tastes fabulous if done correctly, and combined with a good Burgundy Pinot Noir wine, and I love the classic and wonderful crème brûlée. The biggest disappointment, or better to say the biggest disaster was the main course. The worst was that I did not get calf's kidney that I ordered, I got the calf’s thyroid surrounded by disgusting fat that was far from enough fried. In my wildest, and now I have to admit, crazy fantasy I thought that the dish was a surprise from the kitchen or that the restaurant was short of calf's kidney and because of that I got the calf's thyroid instead of calf's kidney. I also thought that the waiters will at any time come to inform me about everything and apologize, but so much luck I did not have. Regardless everything that I wrote so far in this article, I must take a minimum of 50% of the responsibility for what happened to me because I should have questioned everything as quickly that disgusting fried calf's thyroid arrived at my table. Note that there was no some type of calf's thyroid on the menu at the Fischers Fritz then and I believe that there never will be.

Even the "simple" crème brûlée did not Fischers Fritz succeed with.

The only reason that I did not give 0,5 NJP to the restaurant is the restaurant's "invisible", super-efficient, kind, courteous and perfect waiters. By "invisible" I mean that I never saw that one of the waiters watched how it looked on my table, and I checked them out carefully, but independent of it so quickly I was close to finish my wine glass or needed anything else, they came from nowhere and fixed it. I think to succeed with that and not be detected by such a finicky and detail fixed person as I am, it is a pure art.

That the Michelin Guide two stars Fischers Fritz got so extreme low points (NJP) of me might be partly explained by the facts that the restaurant, which is located in the large and internationally very well-known Berlin, was almost empty on a Friday night when I was there.

NJ Wines