Wise Balthazar Dinner, Sat 28 March 2009

One of the 3 Wise Men was allegedly named Balthazar, though he seemed to think that a new-born baby would appreciate frankincense, myrrh and gold, which struck me as rather bizarre and not particularly wise. Especially the frankincense. I mean, what would a baby want with the ancient equivalent of a smoky air freshener? That is, of course, if you believe in the New Testament which was either a good story told badly or a bad story told very well. I'm not sure. And interestingly, it is also what they call a 12-litre bottle of champagne or wine, which I had some rather vague memories of encountering once upon a long time ago.

But actually, to come to the point, it is also the name of the restaurant which we will be going to this month. It is actually not the first time the dinner club has gone to Balthazar but the last time we were there, Holger Zurbrüggen was ill, and as this is one of my favourite places in Berlin, I thought we will let him repair his reputation with us. This place is a gourmet restaurant, but it does not charge outrageous prices and I think it is actually pretty good value for money. For example, there is a 4-course menu for 42 Euro and an impressive 12-course surprise menu for 89 Euro. You can peruse details of the restaurant at your leisure on http://www.balthazar-restaurant.de/english/balthazar_eng.html. And also please note that the menu prices do not include drinks or coffee.

The location is Kurfürstendamm 160, 10709 Berlin, close by Adenauer Platz U-Bahn, so transport will not be an issue. After dinner, perhaps we can do some 10-pin bowling or go on drinking somewhere else - I'll let you people decide and I'll organise the after dinner plans as well so send in your suggestions. Remember, the date is Saturday, 28th March 2009.

This is our first gourmet dinner this year so I am looking forward to a great night of fine dining out. As usual, if you want to come along and join us, please send me an email asap. I have not booked many places so if we get too many people, the names will go into our electronic hat for selection. The closing date is 15 March and all the people who make it will get a confirmation email by 20 March detailing where we will have our pre-dinner cocktails.

See you soon!

Chris

PS. I know this will get boring soon but I still find this cream very funny: http://www.berlindinnerclub.com/gallery/image001.png :o)

 

How it went on the night...

Some of us had the set menu and overall I think it was the wrong choice as the a la carte dishes looked and tasted much better. We had a private room which was very nice and bright, and the service was excellent so it was a very good night.  The wine list was rather pricey although Agremont Crianza was quite agreeable and almost cheap. After dinner, some of us manage to squeeze into a Brazilian bar nearby and chatted the night away.

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