Reservation & Web

On recommendation we spontaneously decided to visit The Grand in Berlin. In the afternoon we were looking for a location in Berlin Mitte and made an ad hoc reservation by phone. A refreshingly friendly and courteous opposite took off – Daniela – she told us a bit about The Grand and immediately made us feel welcome.

The restaurant officially opens around 19:00, but we were warmly welcomed at 18:00 and bridged the time with two visually and tastefully impressive non-alcoholic cocktails…but more about that later.

Since The Grand is located very close to Alex, we had expected a longer search for finding a parking lot – but far from it, right next to the restaurant we were lucky to get a parking space on foot after successfully filling the parking ticket machine.

The website of The Grand is nicely done, but could be a bit more performant and the clicks to the menus could be less. The site is responsively designed and therefore also for mobile devices a fine affair – on the large monitor, however, font and graphics seem a bit “lost in space”.

Ambience

From the outside, the building of The Grand is quite reserved, only the two entrances, one to the restaurant, the other to the bar, reveal that there could be a restaurant here. This is perhaps due to the monument protection of the historic school building from 1842 or only to the understatement – in any case this is more appealing than a brewery sponsored neon sign – discreet lighting accents at the left entrance together with a golden sign revealed to us that we had found The Grand.

The Grand is also a club & event location next to the restaurant & bar. Stylistically, The Grand relies on a mixture of bare masonry, modern accentuated lighting scenarios and high-quality club furniture with chic. In the restaurant area, the food on the white tablecloths plays the main role – here, one still feels a little of the spirit of the East Berlin locations after the opening of the wall.

Up to 240 guests can eat and celebrate at The Grand, around 80 in the restaurant, 60 in the gallery just above the large guest room and around 100 on the terrace. In addition, the attached bar and some suites offer additional capacity for any events.

The “Business Card”

The toilets of The Grand are very stylish, spotlights illuminate everything important – the atmosphere is interesting in any case – club-like – and the quiet places were clean. Olfactory gimmicks could still make the difference here.

Service

When we entered The Grand we were welcomed directly by Daniela in the entrance area and immediately placed at a centrally located table in the restaurant area. We didn’t take the nice offer to leave our wardrobe this time – but we found the fact itself to be a pleasant and not to be found in many places anymore.

During our entire stay, every wish was read from our lips. We didn’t perceive this as intrusive or annoying, but as a constant and courteous companion. Many thanks for the great service – we enjoyed it throughout.

Drinks & Bar

As mentioned at the beginning, we were bridged the time until dinner with two great drinks. These were prepared in the in-house bar and tasted interesting & very balanced, one based on passion fruit with mint, the other with ginger & lime.

We have rarely been able to enjoy such nuanced non-alcoholic cocktails – the bar understands its craft and offers a pleasant ambience.

The air there is filled with the scent of different woods and I thought I had noticed a touch of patchouli while roaming through the room.

Appetizers

In the very beginning they served some bread. These were slices of baguette and a darker grain bread – both of remarkable quality – and each of us was given a small portion of well-tempered butter.

 

The appetizers were all worth mentioning, tasty as well as optical highlights, which showed the care & professionalism with which they had been prepared & arranged.

A real dream was the gratinated, extremely mild goat cheese on a slice of grilled watermelon, garnished with fresh lamb’s lettuce with a hazelnut-carrot dressing and thyme honey – this starter was a real insight – my compliment. The combination of textures was a great and unique treat for the palate.

 

Our second starter was The Grand Caesar Salad, consisting of Roman salad hearts, tomato crostini, bacon croutons, Parmesan cheese, a wonderful Caesar dressing salted with a hint of anchovy, served with half a lobster.

The salad was very fresh and crunchy, the dressing balanced and by no means intrusive, the Parmesan impressed and the lobster was cooked to the point. So also, this starter was of special quality and craftsmanship and with almost 30 Euro absolutely within a fair price range.

Main Course

Our choice fell on the Porterhouse (US BEEF) from the outdoor enclosure, according to the menu “corn feeding” and therefore with pronounced marbling and a deep, harmonious taste. The meat had matured for six weeks and the slice weighed 1200g.

The Porterhouse has both a back and a fillet portion – visually similar to the T-Bone – and is served grilled on the bone and sliced served at The Grand. After grilling, the meat is given enough time to rest so that the juice does not run out when it is sliced. For this steak you have to invest 129 Euro at The Grand.

 

The Porterhouse was very tasty and certainly of high quality, but the barbecue taste should have been much more intense and the temperature of the steak much higher. After the overwhelming impression left by the starters, the steak wasn’t really something special – another dish from the rich selection at The Grand would certainly have been a better choice for us. But that’s the price if you’ve visited almost every steak house in the city in the recent months.

In addition, we were especially looking forward to the original Chimichurri Salsa. A Latin American sauce speciality based on a handful of green herbs, garlic, shallots and some more – unfortunately in The Grand it was only an interpretation of this actually green delicacy – miles away from the original.

But then the Portweinjus was a real experience. In addition, we were served a Bearnaise sauce – it was quite tidy, didn’t come too “heavy” and the tarragon had been used with a sense of proportion.

Dessert

Unfortunately, the desserts disappointed us a bit, especially the crème brûlée which was too small and therefore hardly had room for the development of a proper consistency (Just visit the Ritz-Carlton at Potsdamer Platz and a little spiking – there’s still something possible – less is not always more).

The sorbet of the cherry was top, the sorbet of the raspberry was really boring and also the fruit salad seemed bland and loveless.

Here is air clearly upwards, the “sweet things” should be able to keep up with the appetizers, a little more love for textures and also the conclusion would convince.

Conclusion

We can make a very clear recommendation for The Grand. The flair of this location, the good service and the fine food invite you to linger. We will surely stop there again to try some more dishes. From our point of view a must for every guest, the goat cheese on grilled melon.

The prices are justified with the offered quality of the food in each case, whether it absolutely must be a steak, must decide everyone for itself. Our choice for the next time will surely be more refined dishes, such as the saddle of venison on the menu.

Especially to mention is the cordiality of Daniela, she made sure that our visit became an experience…and Daniela – I hope the photos are good – because of the Shiraz I will contact you again at the appropriate opportunity.