A Piece of Montmarte on Saturday, 18 Jan 2014

Do you, like me, sometimes wonder where the top chefs like to eat when they are not in their restaurants or at home? Well, I happen to know that one of Berlin's top Michelin-star chefs, Christian Lohse of Fischers Fritz, likes to sneak off to this place where we will be dining this Saturday. And if it is good enough for him, it should be good enough for us!

Firstly, I have to apologize for the very short notice - it has quite a lot to do with Sylvia being away for a long time in Nepal trekking and chewing momos, something I wouldn't normally do myself, at least not the trekking part.

But regardless, this is the first dinner of 2014 and we intend to start the year in some style - with a delicious touch of Paris and Montmarte which has been brought to Berlin by Régis Lamazères. His name and menu may sound French but his mother is a Berliner so that's another reason to come along to taste his eclectic rendition of French classics, served mostly in cocottes or their cooking utensils. Please also note that Régis was trained by Alain Ducasse so you are not at all likely to be disappointed, especially as the wine list is excellent and you pay only for the wine you have drunk.

The closing date for all bookings is Thursday 16 Jan and dinner is on Sat 18 Jan so you really should stop reading and start hitting the Reply button now to book your place. I am serious - this is one of the best opening annual dinners of the club so I hope to see a healthy crowd for this event. The address is Lamazère Brasserie, Stuttgarter Platz 18, Charlottenburg and the website is www.lamazere.de if you would like to check out their menu.

See you all soon!

Chris (on behalf of Sylvia)

How it went on the night...

The place is really very small and was packed when we arrived. So chatting with all the dinner club people was pretty impossible. For the dinner, most of us went for the menu of a starter and main dish for 24 €. My starter was two eggs backed with ham and came in a little stove with the eggs still liquid inside. Other had some goat cheese with beetroot but more bee root than cheese. So quite a few people were a bit disappointed. The main dishes came all heaped onto one plate and we all had to take our own portions from it. I had a winter cod with potato and a salad heart. The taste was really good but to be honest, it was an extremely some portion considering I only had a spoonful of fish, and another spoonful of potato and the salad heart. The service was okay but also not the best we have ever encountered. So overall the feeling is that the place is highly overrated. I think for this kind of prices and tiny portions, you easily find better places in Berlin. And obviously Herr Lohse doesn't eat a lot. Later on a couple of us went to the Bar Galanger. Now this was a really cool bar...