Casual fine dining in Kreuzkölln and a nod from Michelin. We got a taste of Fa:me.

It’s good to be back, guys. We had a long period of reflection and soul-searching and… what have we learned? Absolutely nothing. Then Fa:me contacted us.

Fa:me (Italian for hunger… not ‘Fame’ like some schwarzgeld shisha bar, mate) is an unlikely spot of refined eating that, for the past 4.5 years, has weathered the storms of corona, inflation, rising rents and the rest… and has actually flourished. It’s in Kreuzkölln – and I use that phrase relatively ironically – where the crack addicts and the wine drinkers coexist in perverse harmony. It’s a bougie hotspot for sure, with a side order of depravity.

Their story starts with hippies. German hippies. They took the boy from Bayern and dropped him in Umbria, Italy. Nino. He went native. He had no choice. Plunged into a world of farming, food and quality produce and no Sauerkraut. The boy learned to cook.

Enter: Adrian. Nino and Adrian worked together in a kitchen. Because Nino is a chef. And Adrian wanted to gather experience to help fuel his dream of opening his own place. After a time, a unit opened up on Lenaustraße. It was a pizza place. A real dive. The kind of joint where you could order your Margherita with a gram of coke chaser.

They decided this was their moment. This was their place. Fa:me was born.

The concept: let’s do better. Let’s reach higher. Let’s make a name for ourselves. Nino in the kitchen. Adrian front of house. A 100+ bottle wine list. Food that elevates the whole area around it. …When asked if they had ever considered moving into the drugs trade themselves, they politely declined to answer.

The result: a restaurant with big ideas. Big ambitions. And a dedication to customer service that, in Berlin, seems almost subversive.

‘Modern Mediterranean’ is hard to define.

They sell modern Mediterranean food. If you know what that means, please write us a postcard explaining it. Address in impressum.

Because Nino’s Italian upbringing is clear. 66% of the mains include pasta. But beyond that, Fa:me incorporates ingredients and techniques that belong more to the internet than to any specific geographic location. It’s a trend-food tour de force, where miso makes everything better and sous vide is king. And that’s not a bad thing.

What Fa:me really sells is deconstruction. Abstraction. Complication. Nino says: If there’s a rule, we break it. They choose to go to the moon. Not because it’s easy. But because it’s hard.

Dishes are built around contrast. Strong initial flavours – cheesy cheese, salty, salty bacon, bitingly herby basil – give way to milder flavour layers that complement them. They play with texture. Crisp Parmesan tuiles, crunchy nuts and (very) al dente vegetables play against gummy gnocchi and foamier things like onion foam or burrata foam. Man, they love foams there.

The best dishes make all this complication feel worthwhile. The carbonara and truffle-miso gnocchi are traditional dishes taken back to the drawing board. Broken down and reassembled so the key flavours are isolated. Reinforced. Unleashed.

That fucking carbonara…

Ridiculous levels of detail.

Normally, I’d take you through the meal course by course. I’m not doing that here. Too many courses to mention them all. Instead, I’ll give you a hint about how Fa:me approaches its cooking. The skills, processes and techniques involved.

Take the bacon on their (pretty outstanding) deconstructed carbonara. Guanciale. It comes from a farm near Rome, costs €50 a kilo and it’s worth every penny. They take this, remove the rind, cut it into long lardons, sous vide it, dry it out and then rehydrate it by frying it in its own fat. The trimmings go into the sous vide liquid, which is later reduced and used in the sauce.

One ingredient. Seven processes. The result: one of the most intensely flavourful mouthfuls you’ll ever have.

Then there are the tomato pearls from their pea starter. The tomatoes are sous vide’d for hours, sieved, clarified, distilled down into a 100% clear, transparent liquid of pure tomato essence. A gelling agent is added, and every tiny pearl is individually pipetted right before the dish is served.

And the result? Well, they certainly look fine-diningy-y.

This is Fa:me. The food is complicated. Intentionally complicated. Sometimes over-complicated. But when it hits its mark, it’s worth every minute (or hour) of effort.

Service that goes beyond good.

When Adrian first dreamt of opening his own place, he had a pretty solid idea about how the service should be. Relaxed. Attentive. Knowledgeable without being performative. In a word: phenomenal. And, in Fa:me, he’s realised that idea pretty completely.

The staff know everything. They haven’t just learned it, they know it intuitively. When they talk about the wines, they’re excited. When they talk about the food, they’re not reciting; they’re reliving.

It’s infectious. It makes you want to stay for dessert. Adrian told me: when you get the service right, next time they’ll bring their mothers. Mother’s Day is on the second Sunday of May, FYI.

That nod from Michelin.

And all their hard work has attracted the attention of a certain tyre brand that will remain nameless. And good – they deserve it. They’re striving for it. They got stars in their eyes and they’re well aware of it. Bravo, boys.

How has this nod changed them? Added pressure? An extra push towards even greater levels of greatness?

For chef Nino, no. Not really. The fire was already there. A fire that not even Pirelli and Firestone combined could put out. He’s just doing his thing.

And Adrian? Well, he sees his role as keeping everything casual. Casual fine dining. No bow ties. An untucked shirt and a wry smile. Just the way it already is.

More is more. Until it isn’t?

Fa:me has almost everything you could want from a restaurant: exceptional ingredients, serious technique, excellent wines and service with a smile that makes you feel special.

Nino takes you on a journey with every dish. In most cases, you arrive at his culinary destination right on time. Occasionally, it’s more Deutsche Bahn than FlixTrain (zing!).

At its best, Fa:me is bold, precise and genuinely memorable. At its weakest, the kitchen adds an idea or two too many. Fine dining doesn’t become finer with every extra complication, and some dishes would be way stronger if stripped back a little.

But at Fa:me’s core is a chef who knows what he is doing, knows where he is going and knows how to get there. He has real ambition and the drive to pursue it. Trust in Nino. He’ll take you where you want to go. Bravo, boys.

So, if you like fine dining, book a table at Fa:me. Now. Because when they get their first star, you won’t be able to.

Fa:me Gastrobar
Lenaustraße 21,
12047 Berlin
famegastrobar.com