Kochzimmer

Rating: 16
Author: Gault&Millau

Am Neuen Markt 10, 14467 Potsdam, Germany

16/20
Remarkable Restaurant

BOOK

1 PHOTOS

Chef: Nico Werner
Cooking: European | French | Gastronomic | German | Local | Vegan | Vegetarian
Services: Access for people with disabilities | Garden | Private Parking | Private Room | Terrace
Style: Bar | Casual | Elegant | Exceptional setting | Romantic | With family

Gault&Millau's review 2025

After Günther Jauch closed the "Villa Kellermann" on Heiligensee, Potsdam is one culinary attraction poorer. But that doesn't mean that you can't eat very well in the state capital. In the "Kochzimmer" on the Neuer Markt, for example, Emmanuel Macron was a guest on his last state visit. In the historic corner restaurant on a beautiful baroque square, you can sit here in the vine-covered courtyard in summer, in the cool season in the guest room smartly furnished with gray walls and orange chairs. There is only one or five courses, plus, if you like, a lobster bisque as an upgrade. A vegetarian menu is also offered. Almost a classic and programmatic match of David Schubert's self-chosen theme of the "New Prussian Cuisine" is the smoked potato, a beautifully greasy Bellarosa, with an airy sabayon and leek oil. Smoked potato peels as crunch give the course a touch of excitement. The following tomato course is sun-drenched and multi-layered, the main protagonists of which are presented in various textures and temperatures: as a lukewarm, clarified tomato stock, as ice cream, plus a wafer-thin, crispy dried tomato slice and medlars, pickled and as a gel, increase the fruit sweetness without immediately drifting into ketchup-likeness, a strip of pickled, briskly flamed mackerel refines the course, which was already great even without a protein side dish. Sous vide braised and flamed, i.e. tender and juicy as well as heartily crispy is the Duroc pork belly, hidden under a slice of radish with lettuce with buttermilk. The beautifully reduced veal jus gets a somewhat ethereal lightness with a little peppermint, which gives it a summery lightness and takes away the heaviness of the tavern. The roasted saddle of venison could perhaps have been a tad more pink, ultimately a matter of taste, with a caramelized sugar-pepper crust, a chanterelle tartare and a rolled radish with Jerusalem artichoke. Two dollops of spruce needle cream bring the deer aromatically back into the forest. We would then have two more points of criticism. We had already got the pork belly in the same way two years ago. With five courses, two classics, that's quite a lot if you only offer one menu - plus a vegetarian one. The wine accompaniment looks to Germany and France, likes to serve classic and mature dishes from large bottles. A beautiful and unconventional aperitif was the surprisingly taut Pet Nat from the Yellow Muscat from the Häußler winery. However, at 16 euros per glass for a bottle that you can get in the store for 17.90 euros, it was calculated very sporty.