Yesterday was my 33rd birthday. I’m officially moving closer to my mid-30’s than my early-30’s. But that doesn’t bother me all that much since I’ve always felt that age is relative and you’re only as young/old as you feel. At the same time, I know that it’s definitely time to take better care of myself — which I will talk more about in another post.

But right now, I want to talk about the wonderful celebration I had with four newfound friends here in Berlin who really made the night enjoyable, my wonderful husband who put it all together, and my absolute favorite restaurant here in Schöneberg, Bardeau.

Bardeau is a small, intimate French restaurant which also happens to be a gallery featuring works of Thierry Noir, who is most famous for painting large sections of the Berlin Wall when it was still standing. We’ve been to this restaurant 4 times in the last 2 months…and for us, that really says something. We’ve tried a different meal each time (from steak tartar to slow-roasted duck) and never once been disappointed…and now that we’ve found out that the head waiter, Wendell, is taking over the place, we could not be more thrilled!

Last night the restaurant was actually closed, but Wendell was kind enough to open for our private party. And the food was incredible — actually better than ever before. We later learned the reason: the new chef was cooking for us! My only regret at this point is that I didn’t take any photos — but I was too busy enjoying the evening!

My birthday menu

We started out with an essence of green tomato soup, a clear tomato broth which smelled just as incredible as it tasted. The fresh tomato flavor was powerful and helped to warm us up on that cool fall evening.

Then we moved on to a salad of mixed greens with smoked cold Barbary duck breast and a raspberry dressing. The duck was wonderfully good, with a salty, almost ham-like flavor.

For the main course, we had Chateaubriand from the filet with potatoes au gratin and a mangold-pomegranate side topped with a poached fig. The Chateaubriand was cooked to perfection and ready to melt in your mouth. The potatoes were the best I have ever eaten there, with a wonderfully crunchy cheese crust on top and just the right creamy flavor inside. And the mangold pomegranate dish was spicy and delicious, with the fig providing just a bit of sweetness to balance out the spiciness.

For dessert, we had the most exquisite profiteroles, filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with a thick fudge which has the most delicious chocolatey flavor. This is my favorite dessert at Bardeau and last night the pastry was light and wonderful, just like it should be. I seriously want to throw all properness out the window when we dine there and lick my dessert plate clean — but somehow I always manage to refrain. 😉

And although we were all beyond stuffed after all the yummy food and wine, we also had a cheese platter which was loaded with all sorts of delicious Brie and other cheeses, with my favorite being a feta which seemed to have been lightly fried on one side (or maybe just marinated) so that it was just slightly sweet. It was heaven. In fact, all the cheeses and fruits were so good that we managed to polish off at least half of the enormous cheese tray before us despite the fact that we really weren’t so hungry at that point.

All in all, it was a really fantastic evening and if you are ever in Berlin and want to celebrate a special event, or just treat yourself to a fantastic meal, I highly recommend Bardeau. Who knows, you might even bump into us there on a Friday or Saturday evening. 😉

And many thanks again to my husband, our friends and the staff of Bardeau for making it such a fantastic evening!

photo credit: laura padgett via photopin cc