08.03.08: Out to Mas y Mas

A nice long trek through Mitte and Kreuzberg eventually led our ravenous trio to Mas y Mas, a tapas joint that seduced us with its massive house platter of all tapas - the 'mas y mas', of course: chorizo bites, chorizo done pig-in-blanket style, olives, feta, cheese, stuffed peppers, and fried everything (cheese, razor clams, fish croquettes, seafood empanadas...well, you can see for youself).

HE SAYS: Definitely the worst meal we had on our trip, We chose the restaurant over others on our search for its ambience, low lighting and cosy seating and were not disappointed on that front, but the food turned out more like greasy-deep fried bar snacks then anything resembling authentic tapas. Enjoyed the chorizo skewer-looking bites but it's very hard to make chorizo taste bland however you try.

SHE SAYS: I kind of knew we were in trouble when our waitress brought out 'the dips'. But I was practically faint, so at first I dived into the platter with a good heart. It quickly became clear that they'd raided the freezer and plugged in the deep fryer; the fried mozzarella sticks would not be out of place in any campus cafeteria. However, the wine was superb and they let us sit on the table for 4.5 hours. And I certainly ate my share.

MISS INFORMATION SAYS: I concur: a very disappointing meal, comparable to bad bar food or baby showers catered by Costco. We were hoodwinked by the warm atmosphere of tiled walls and candlelight. While it was a great environment for lingering over wine and great stories, this was nothing like the tapas we had come to expect from living in New Orleans (where the decadent small plates at Vega are delightful flavor explorations!). I had hoped that Berlin -- being closer to Spain than New Orleans -- might give a more authentic (albeit German) twist to our baseline, but instead it ended up being a global-corporate-institutional near-food experience. My meal on Lufthansa was better.