This one is admittedly a bit of a stretch. I really did look for a restaurant serving Ecuadoran food, but Berlin is a little lacking in the Latin American department. But, seeing as I am trying to be thorough, I did the best I could and wound up at Amorino. In the interest of full disclosure, Amorino is a French chain of ice cream (gelato, to be specific) shops founded by two Italians. I don't know that there are any Ecuadorans involved, but they do seem to have a thing for Ecuador: three of their flavors (by my count) are sourced in Ecuador (chocolate, passion fruit, and banana). I went hoping for a scoop of the (71%) chocolate, but on a snowy February day, Amorino didn't have all of their flavors in stock. Alas, I was forced to settle for a cup of passion fruit (paired with a little Sri Lankan coconut). What is there to say? Amorino makes very, very good ice cream. The texture is spot-on, but more importantly, each flavor tastes intensely of it's main ingredient. There's none of the milkiness, which clouds the flavors of even Berlin's most hyped ice cream shops. My passion fruit was very good, but my friend's mango (made from Indian Alfonso mangos) was outstanding. The best mango ice cream I've ever had. It tastes of nothing but perfectly ripe mango. Amorino sells ice cream in a variety of sizes and you can cram as many flavors as you like in your cup or cone (a decent-sized small cup/cone goes for three Euros and easily has room for two or three flavors). After eating my ice cream from a boring paper cup, I can assure it tastes pretty amazing from any receptacle, but if you order a cone as my friend did, they will scoop it into a rose (as in the photo above). As good as my cup was, I will definitely be back to try the Ecuadoran chocolate (in a cone!) -- maybe on a day with less snow, though....
Amorino
Oranienburger Strasse 1
and in the summer, a stand in front of Galleries Lafayette,
Friedrichstrasse 76-78
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