Jómo Restaurant
Oysters, octopus and truffle pasta are on the evening menu at the Ukrainian-German neighborhood restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg. At the weekend, dishes such as croque monsieur and poké bowls tempt you in for brunch.
A pub that served German home cooking to the residents of the neighborhood for three decades made way for "JOMO". Now the food here is contemporary - from a team of restaurateurs with Ukrainian and German roots who have a soft spot for Japanese comfort food. Sounds pretty wild, so let's take it one step at a time: "JOMO" - short for "Joy Of Missing Out" - is all about feeling pure joy at not having to do anything other than sit and eat. This is particularly impressive when you know what the owners left behind in Kharkiv to bring their gastronomic expertise and their team from Ukraine to Berlin. The menu includes a large selection of Japanese comfort food such as okonomiyaki, udon cacio e pepe and poke with teriyaki chicken, as well as Mediterranean, German and French-inspired dishes such as tarama as a spread, Sicilian fish crudo and a smoked trout tartare. Of the main courses, the dry-aged beef rib with a hint of prunes in the lacquered sauce and a rather unconventional combination of fried scallops, oyster mushrooms and pointed cabbage leaves, served with Sardinian pasta balls in a lemon and butter sauce with cauliflower puree, are impressive. Normally, such a mix of styles is a horror. Here, however, craftsmanship, good products and a flair for harmony are convincing - even when it comes to Japanese food: delicious is the right word for the okonomiyaki pancake. Shredded cabbage is used in the batter, giving it subtly sour and nutty notes, while melted Gouda and pickled eel, bonito and egg yolk as toppings provide umami.