Part of East, Central & West Berlin · AN EXPATVISTA COLLECTION
The program cover for Marriott’s Berlin Gourmet Odyssey.
The Berlin Gourmet Odyssey was the centerpiece of a Marriott Moments package we won for 80,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. Along with the food experience, the package included a night at the Ritz-Carlton Berlin, breakfast and a €100 hotel credit.
It also fixed the dates for our Berlin trip. The Odyssey took place on Saturday, beginning at 11:30am at the Ritz-Carlton Berlin before moving through three restaurants over the course of the afternoon.
Guests were divided into three groups, each visiting POTS, Lutter & Wegner and Bocca di Bacco in a different order. Our group started at POTS.
Starting at the Curtain Club
Guests gathered at the Curtain Club inside the Ritz-Carlton from 11:30am for Ruinart Champagne and canapés. Arrivals were staggered, so people filtered in gradually rather than sitting down together at a fixed starting time.
Toward the end, staff explained how the afternoon would work and divided everyone into three groups. Each group would visit the same three restaurants, but in a different order.
For us, the first stop was easy: POTS is inside the Ritz-Carlton, just around the corner from the Curtain Club.
POTS
Our first seated courses were at POTS, the Ritz-Carlton’s modern German restaurant.
An anise-marinated salmon arrived with cucumber, apple juice, ginger and red radish, followed by beef tartare with smoked remoulade and crisp onions.
One of our courses at POTS in the Ritz-Carlton Berlin.
The courses were paired with Rieslings from Maximin Grünhaus in the Mosel and Karl Haidle in Württemberg. My wife and I have often declined Riesling in the past, but the first of these was unexpectedly convincing: dry rather than sweet, and very easy to drink with the food.
This was also where we began talking properly with the other people in our group. They had arrived at the Odyssey for quite different reasons. One couple built entire holidays around Marriott Moments experiences. Others were long-standing Marriott loyalists and were soon comparing properties in Miami, Vietnam and elsewhere. Another pair seemed primarily interested in the food.
One guest lived in Berlin and was using the package, including the hotel night, to bring a friend to the city. Another couple were expats living in Switzerland. Around sixty percent of our table spoke German, but conversation moved easily between German and English.
Our route through the Gourmet Odyssey: POTS, Lutter & Wegner and Bocca di Bacco.
Lutter & Wegner
From POTS, we transferred across Mitte to Lutter & Wegner on Gendarmenmarkt.
Founded in 1811, the restaurant serves traditional Austrian-German food in equally traditional surroundings. It also has its own winery.
The first course here was pike-perch fillet over kimchi risotto with beech mushrooms and sesame foam. The portion was substantial. Several people deliberately stopped before finishing it because we knew what was coming next.
The pike-perch was paired with a dry Pinot Gris from Schloss Vollrads in the Rheingau.
Pike-perch with kimchi risotto at Lutter & Wegner.
Then came the dish we had been waiting for: Lutter & Wegner’s schnitzel with potatoes and cucumber salad. It was a substantial plate, particularly after the pike-perch course, and was paired with Bründlmayer Kamptaler Terrassen Pinot Gris.
The three groups received different courses as they rotated through the restaurants, so having Lutter & Wegner as our middle stop meant we got the schnitzel here. Another sequence would have given us a different dish, so we were pleased with the order we drew.
Lutter & Wegner schnitzel with potatoes and cucumber salad.
Bocca di Bacco
From Gendarmenmarkt, we walked to Bocca di Bacco on Friedrichstraße for the final stop.
Dessert began with vanilla parfait and mulled-wine pear, paired with Moscato d’Asti from Marchesi di Grésy. That was followed by panettone tiramisu and coffee.
Vanilla parfait with mulled-wine pear at Bocca di Bacco.
Gendarmenmarkt between stops on the Gourmet Odyssey.
After the Odyssey
By mid-afternoon, the Gourmet Odyssey was over, leaving us with the rest of Saturday free. We returned to the Ritz-Carlton later that evening, where a band was playing in the Curtain Club, and used the €100 hotel credit for drinks.
The Odyssey had been the fixed-date booking around which we built the three-night Berlin trip. We had spent the previous night in Friedrichshain and would move west to Kurfürstendamm the following day.
The Ritz-Carlton Berlin later that evening.
I’ve also written about how Marriott Moments auctions behave in practice, including how max bids get exposed and why identical packages can drift apart over time.