Bouillon in Tassen.
Eier Skobeleff.
Seezunge gebacken, Sauce Tartare.
Kalbskopf aux Champignons.
Mutton Chops.
Pfirsich nach Condé.
Käse.
The English bar in the Passage is a grill-room and restaurant, and ladies can lunch there, though the sporting British element is rather too prominent. In the evening it is frequented by the theatrical world and is practically open all night. One can enjoy a peaceable supper there without having to pay the bill and leave shortly after one has sat down, as is the custom in England.
Kempinsky's, in the Leipzigerstrasse, a very popular restaurant and always crowded, rather corresponds to Scott's in the Haymarket. Here you get very good oysters (when in season) and excellent Holstein crayfish, lobsters, etc. The cook at this restaurant has an excellent manner of cooking lobsters, called Homard chaud au beurre truffé. It consists of chopped truffles worked up into best fresh butter rolled out, and then laid on the hot lobster.
I subjoin a menu, in order to show the moderate charge for an extremely well-cooked dinner. As a rule a portion of any dish on the bill of fare costs M. 1.25.
Menu.
Hors-d'œuvre.
Consommé double à la Moelle.
Homard chaud au Beurre Truffé.
Escaloppes de Veau.
Choux de Bruxelles.
Faisan Rôti.
Salade.
Fromage, Céleri.
Café, Cigare.
1 Bottle German Champagne.
For two people, including the champagne, the total came to 12 marks 75 = 12s. 9d.
As to the German champagne, "Sect," as it is called, they are now making very pleasant light wines of this character in the country at very reasonable prices. They are excellent of their sort, though they are rarely kept long enough in the cellar, and I should certainly advise their being tried, in preference to paying heavily for soi-disant French brands which in Germany are of very doubtful origin. "Herb" does not guarantee what we understand by "dry."
If you wish to sample German dishes well and inexpensively, you could not do better than go to the Rüdesheimer in the Friedrichstrasse. The house can provide you with an excellent bottle of Rhine wine, having a special celebrity for this.
The Reichshof, in the Wilhelmstrasse, is a café of a more Bohemian description. It is most frequented towards the evening and for suppers after the theatres; usually a first-class but very noisy band is engaged there. It is also a good hotel. It is next door to the British Embassy.
There are also two cafés in which the military element predominates, one might almost say exclusively. These are Topfer's and the Prinz Wilhelm, both in the Dorotheenstrasse. Here the officers usually lunch and make a general rendezvous, often bringing their wives.