OUKAN
In typical Berlin backyard fashion, you may have to search for a second to find the entrance to Oukan, but your inner aesthete immediately comes to life as soon as you step through the red door. Meter-high ceilings, light wood, concrete and black, an oversized bonsai and lots of indirect light refine the sensory experience that Oukan invites you to. Tran Mai Huy Thong together with Trung Le set a bold marker in Berlin's gastro scene with their restaurant - fine dining with Michelin star aspirations. Inspired by Japanese and Buddhist cuisine and built on the so-called Shōjin-Ryōri tradition, the menu speaks a seasonal, purely plant-based language, mostly using locally sourced produce. Soy sauces, miso paste and koji come from Berlin. Wheat flour and white sugar are not found here, but the magical power of tea is liberated in abundance. The tea sommeliers, share with devotion their knowledge of varieties and explain the healing properties of the cold brewed drink. Of course, the precious leaves are not just somehow brought into contact with water. Premium water in spring water quality provides for that fine but decisive difference. In this way, pure LEOGANT water figuratively flows freely from the tap to the table, freshly treated.
