Japanese Bento at Daruma

Daruma is not a restaurant, it's more like a tiny supermarket that has expanded into a cafeteria. I like them because they have a simple menu that only has 8 items on it. This is good because it shows that they only specialize in authentic Japanese food (at least the waitress and the chef are japanese).

Here is a picture of Ebifrai Bento served with Miso soup as an appetizer
This bento has all of these: deep fried prawn tempura with rice served in traditional black-lacquered box, cooked green beans, tamago, and some other veggies as side dishes. In the middle of the box they serve two slices of pineapple as dessert.



As the "special of the day", Daruma also serve Saba Bento with miso soup. Like any typical bento, Saba bento is also served in a traditional black-lacquered box. Saba (which means mackerel in Japanese) bento consists of three pieces of salt-grilled mackerel, with similar side dishes like the ones in Ebifrai Bento. The only exception is that they have green beans instead of potatoes.



For drinks, I recommend calpico



And before you leave the shop, don't forget to grab their store-made dorayaki at the counter. Dorayaki are pancakes filled with red bean paste. I remember watching Doraemon eating dorayaki (a manga/cartoon character) as a kid and I remember being really curious about this dessert. Daruma's dorayaki doesn't dissapoint. The pancake is thick but it's pillowy-soft and bouncy (you'll know this because when you lightly press on the pancake, it'll spring back to its original thickness). Better yet, the thick layer of azuki (red bean paste) gives the dorayaki just the right amount of sweetness.





Daruma
Uhlandstr. 61, Berlin
U Hohenzollernplatz
Tel: 030 873 61 31