Stoke

Berlin, that famously nonchalant, underdressed dinner guest of Europe’s fine dining scene, has a new reason to feign sophistication: Stoke, the city’s most anticipated restaurant in years. A place that smolders—both literally and figuratively—in a quiet part of Kreuzberg, directly across from Axel Springer, where the scent of wood fire seeps into the very fabric of the street.

The restaurant occupies the ground floor of a gallery house, now repurposed as an altar to Japanese yakitori. The layout offers two modes of worship: at the kitchen counter, where the alchemy of open-fire cooking unfolds before your eyes, or by the windows, where you can sip on an expertly crafted highball and pretend you don’t care what’s happening at the counter. If you do care (which you should), grab a counter seat—it’s where the magic happens.

Now, let’s get one thing straight: Stoke was never going to be a sleeper hit. This place has had more buzz than pretty much any opening in the last years, especially since Berlin hasn’t seen many high profile expat openings (emphasis on expat). Originally set to open over a year ago, it was instead teased through Torikabin, a pop-up on the rooftop of Aufbauhaus last summer, where diners got a fleeting taste of what was to come. Naturally, expectations swelled like the overproofed crust of a Neapolitan pizza. The big question everyone is holding their breath to: Does Stoke live up to the hype?

I’ve visited twice in the past three weeks, both times securing a coveted counter seat. Here’s what struck me:

1. The venue is gorgeous. Bigger than you expect, with a sprawling open kitchen that commands attention.

2. The team is a force. Familiar faces from Berlin heavyweights like Coda, Kin Dee & Barra work the floor next to the founders and grill with effortless cool.

3. The fire is the star. A massive, Japanese yakitori grill, custom designed for double-sided action, hums alongside a custom made wood-fired oven shipped in from Italy—because one fire simply wasn’t enough.

The People Behind It

At the helm of this inferno are three individuals. Jessica Tan, with a background in Copenhagen’s Relæ Group, steers the front of house with finesse. Jeffrey Claudio, a Canadian chef with Filipino roots, honed his fire-cooking chops at Yardbird in Hong Kong before stints at restaurants like Burnt Ends, cooking with some of the most acclaimed chefs on the planet—so this guy knows his way around a grill. Their combined expertise is evident in every dish and if that’s not enough, they also have Niklas Harmsen at their side as an active consultant, mostly known for his Japanese inspired Slurp restaurants in Copenhagen.

The Food

In its first week, Stoke flirted with a three-tiered menu concept—small, medium, large, plus extra skewers—but swiftly abandoned that for a singular, streamlined experience. Now, €75 buys you a set menu featuring five skewers and a row of extra dishes, making it less of a “choose your own adventure” and more of a well-conducted symphony. Adventurous and extra-hungry diners can add extra skewers to their menu.

The meal begins with pickles— to eat with the meal—before a grilled bread with chicken liver parfait arrives, rich and unrepentantly decadent. A potato leek soup follows, warm, comforting, the edible equivalent of an affectionate pat on the back.

Then commences the skewer action, served omakase-style, each one a study in yakitori precision. Expect everything from classical the Negima (chicken thigh skewered with thick pieces of spring onion), yuzu kosho-covered chicken wings to poached chicken breast with —each bite showcasing an uncanny level of knowledge on how to cook this Austrian chicken breed. Midway through, a sublime cabbage and apple salad with ponzu dressing create balance.

The optional add-ons—raw tuna touched by hey smoke, aged beef, pork secreto— are (unfortunately) some of the most memorable items on the menu, and you should order some of them. Same goes for the extra chicken skewers, the Thyroid one I had last time literally blew my mind with its unusual texture and immaculate juiciness. But you better come hungry, because this is a LOT of food . The final skewer from the menu, a marvellous Tsukune chicken meatball on a stick, grilled to perfection, served with a raw egg yolk in soy sauce for ultimate dipping please, is the undisputed headliner everyone is ad will be waiting for. It’s velvety, smoky, and borderline erotic. You mix it all up, dip, bite, and for a moment, everything else in life feels utterly irrelevant.

Dessert? A shaved ice with citrus and an orange custard—refreshing, palate-cleansing, deceptively simple. There’s also a mochi chocolate cake that manages to be a surprise in a meal that has already pulled off every trick in the book.

Drinks: More Than an Afterthought

Drinks here are serious business. The wine list—curated by Jessica Tan—is a low-intervention wine and sake lover’s dream, while the bar program, run by Adam Tudoret (ex-Coda, ex-Oukan), focuses on highballs. These are not your sad whisky-and-soda combos from a basement Izakaya; these are finely tuned, ice-forward masterpieces served in custom glassware with custom ice cubes. In short, a playground for drink nerds with insane potential.

Verdict: Is It Worth It?

Let’s put it this way: At €90-€140 per person, depending on how deep you dive into food and booze, Stoke will divide the crowds: One one hand, lovers and connaiseurs of Japanese fine food will reel of joy but on the other hand, people less familiar with the cuisine might find it exagerated for "some grilled chicken".

I would argue though, that there are not many restaurants like this in Europe. It’s polished but not pretentious, ambitious but not overwrought, obsessive about hospitality but in a way that makes you utterly glad and privileged you’re on the receiving end of the obsession.

With the closing of restaurants like Ernst, Berlin is definitely endangering to loose it’s status as a “destination dining spot” for the upper echelon of savvy diner. Stoke might just change that. So for the informed diner, the answers are easy: The hype? Justified. The future? Blazing.