Dinner at the Paleo Restaurant Sauvage in Berlin

I was recently in Berlin, Germany, and had dinner at the Paleo restaurant, Sauvage (sauvage is French for "wild" or "savage") and want to report on the experience.

First of all, the only lighting in the restaurant was candle light, so most of the following photos are blurry, as my not-so-smart-phone had trouble focusing on the dishes.

Also, this is upscale, fine dining. Berlin has some very inexpensive restaurants, but this one is for the foodies among you, and, consequently, has prices to match. I ordered a starter, main dish, dessert, and bottle of designer mineral water. I do not drink, so wine is not included in my total. I spent 45 euros on the meal, or approximately $60. But I am a foodie and it was so very worth it. The only thing missing from the experience was my wife, who is also a foodie, but who did not accompany me on this trip. The other professors on this study abroad trip had no interest in eating "caveman" food and I know them well enough to know they are not foodies. So I went alone. Melissa McEwan, you are not the only one who dines alone from time to time.

The restaurant is rather small and I doubt it could hold more than 35 to 40 patrons. It was minimally decorated, but that was fine because they only used candles for lighting and you couldn't really see a lot (though there were electric lights in the kitchen and bathrooms). Very Paleo, that. The wait staff was very friendly and helpful, but professional and unobtrusive. They never interrupted my meal to ask me how if I liked it (I hate it when American, non-professional wait staff interrupt my meal to ask me that banal question). The staff at Sauvage only asked about the meal when they removed the plates.

Here is the menu in German (click to enlarge). The wait staff was very helpful with the translations.

Not all items were available, and the menu changes often, depending on the fresh foods they can obtain. So what did I order? In addition to the designer bottle of mineral water, I had a Paleo antipasti plate as a starter.

The plate had some crackers made with nut flours and other natural ingredients (crunchy and tasty), some dried seeds, two types of fermented vegetables, some carrot chutney, a roasted garlic clove, and a meat sampler. It was served on a stone plate and was very, very tasty.

Here is the main dish (sorry for the poor quality of the photo):

The main dish was a 100% grass fed filet mignon with  a garlic and coconut oil topping, a salad, some mashed celery root, and some fermented beet and carrot shreds. I must say this was an exceptionally good choice that delighted my taste buds. I eat a fair amount of steak, including filet mignon, and this was perhaps the most tender piece of beef I have eaten in a good, long time. Perhaps ever. And it was cooked to medium rare perfection.

This was my dessert:

It was an orange custard cake on a Paleo crust, though I am not sure what the crust was made with. This was called a "Primal" dessert choice, not Paleo, since they used butter in the custard (egg yolks, orange blossoms, butter, and spices) and was topped with a small amount of cooked apples. The apples were the only thing that was really sweet about the dessert, but it was perfect and I have lost my sweet tooth anyway.

This was an excellent meal and in all my future trips to Berlin, I will stop by, if it is still open. Which I think it will be, since the restaurant was full on a non-weekend night. I made a reservation a few weeks in advance and I was very glad I did.

The meal was very European in the sense that it took several hours to complete and was served by a professional wait staff who were also very knowledgeable about the Paleo lifestyle. I arrived at 6:30 p.m. and left at 10:00 p.m. The thing I love about European cuisine is the savoir vivre that accompanies the food. You don't do dinner and something else, such as a show, dinner is what you do. You savor the flavors and spend time on conversation. Unfortunately, I was alone, but the experience will be a treasured one for me. And the best possible compliment I can pay Sauvage is this: I will be back the next time I am in town with another group of students. And not because I wish to support Paleo restaurants (though I do), but because the cuisine was simply superb.

Directions using public transportation: Make your way to the Alexanderplatz station on either the S-Bahn or the U-Bahn. From Alexanderplatz, take the U8 (direction Hermannstrasse) and get off at Schonleinstrasse. Head south on Kottbusser Damm for a couple of blocks and turn left at Pflugerstrasse until you get to number 25. All in all, about a 10 minute walk from the Schonleinstrasse U-Bahn station.