Restaurant Tim Raue is the gastronomic flagship of star chef and “famous Berliner” Tim Raue. The restaurant is located in the upscale part of the Kreuzberg district, just a few metres away from the famous Checkpoint Charlie. The restaurant is housed in an industrial office building at the Rudi-Dutschke-Straße and guests will find the entrance in a small side street at the left side of the restaurant. The interior of Restaurant Tim Raue is contemporary and reflects the atmosphere of Berlin today. A concrete floor, minimal but artistic wall decorations, gallery-like lighting and playful accents give the restaurant a relaxed atmosphere. The kitchen is located at the left side of the entrance and big floor-to-ceiling windows provide a good view into the dynamics of the kitchen. It is also possible to reserve the Krug table, a big oak table that seats twelve guests, located just in front of the kitchen. A special menu, accompanied by Krug champagnes, is served here. Downstairs you can also reserve (part of) the private dining room, a beautifully decorated room that is illuminated by 300 bulbs.
Chef Patron Tim Raue is one of Berlin’s most famous chefs. He was born in the city in 1974 and gained experience at several gourmet restaurants in Berlin, taking each one of them to the culinary top. It was only in 2010 that Tim and his wife Marie-Anne decided to open their own restaurant ‘Tim Raue’. Shortly after the opening, the restaurant received several awards and recognition from the culinary world. Restaurant Tim Raue is not the only restaurant from the Berliner chef. In 2013, he opened two other restaurants: restaurant ‘Sra Bua by Tim Raue’ in the Adlon Kempinski Hotel, where he serves a Japanese-Thai cuisine, and ‘La Soupe Populaire’, where guests discover German and Prussian dishes in artistic setting with changing art exhibitions. Tim Raue gets a lot of inspiration from his travels to Asia. When he first went there at the age of 28, he instantly fell in in love with the ‘no-nonsense’ cuisine full of flavours. Today he still travels to Asia three to four times a year and he also plans to open several restaurants there in the future.
At Restaurant Tim Raue, the Chef serves Asian-inspired cuisine that can be described as an innovative flavour-driven kitchen where he uses Thai, Japanese & Chinese aromas and techniques to bring out the best of high-quality products. The focus is put on the products in the plate, and therefore no side dishes such as bread, noodles or rice are served. Animal products form the basis of the dishes and kitchen only work with lactose-free dairy products. What makes the restaurant so special, is the simple fact that the Chef perfectly knows how to turn traditional Asian products and flavours into high-end, contemporary gastronomy. By adding luxury products such as caviar or truffle, he adds an extra dimension to the dishes, always respecting, and even enhancing, the Asian flavours.
A good example of this kitchen-philosophy is the ‘Imperial caviar’: a small bite-size merengue and butter cream of sprat, lettuce, green chili, skin and jelly of yuzu and sorrel. A Berlin knuckle of pork from suckling pig (crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside) is cut at the table and served with a cream of Japanese mustard, young pickled ginger and dashi jelly. Peking Duck is served in three times: the breast comes with a five spice waffle, apple, leek and jus of duck feet; the brew comes with tongue-heart-stomach, winter melon and bamboo mushroom; and the duck liver is served as a terrine with pickled cucumber and ginger-leek-cream. A meal at Tim Raue traditionally starts with a table full of Asian bites and snacks such as ‘Pork belly & sesame’, ‘Cashewnuts with Thai curry’, ‘Shanghai cucumber with rice vinegar’ or ‘Marshmallow of green curry’.
A total of 32 staff members work at restaurant Tim Raue. The team is led by Head Chef Christian Singer and the Restaurant Manager and Sommelier, André Macionga. André has the difficult task to combine Tim Raue’s powerful dishes with pairing wines, but does a fantastic job. He serves international wines, supporting the dishes of the chef in subtle, refreshing way, and he is not afraid to use natural or very authentic wines, matching the intense flavours of the chef’s dishes.
Restaurant Tim Raue is a unique restaurant that truly excels in innovation by combining traditional, strong Asian flavours with modern cooking and presentation techniques. There are few restaurants in the world that successfully manage to retain the character of Asian cuisine in creative top gastronomy, but Tim Raue surely is one of them.
Written by Sven & Frank
