For the flavour and the heat

“No spice, no joy” reads the sign outside 0086. At this Sichuan restaurant near Savignyplatz, lazi chicken, fish in chilli broth and cold dishes dressed in chilli oil make a good place to start. Chilli fragrance, the tingle of Sichuan pepper and contrasting textures run through the meal. Rice-coated steamed meats, steamed fish and vegetables leave room for different tastes at the same table.

Start by choosing a main dish. The sea bass comes in three styles: in fragrant, spicy chilli broth; in a sour, tingling pickled-mustard broth; or steamed for tender flesh and a delicate aroma. Add mouth-watering chicken in chilli sauce, blistered green peppers or dry-pot cauliflower, and you have a dinner for two or three.

Lazi chicken captures the restaurant’s fragrant heat: crisp chicken combines the warmth of chilli with the tingle of Sichuan pepper. For another stir-fry, the menu also has twice-cooked pork, farmhouse-style stir-fried pork and fish-fragrant shredded pork.

A Sichuan meal like this deserves a place for fen zheng — meat steamed with ground rice. The lamb is worth trying; pork, ribs and pork intestines are other options. Alongside stir-fries and dry-pot dishes, they bring another cooking style to the table.

Offal appears in several forms, too: spicy shredded pork stomach as a cold dish, pork intestines steamed with ground rice or served in a dry pot, and stir-fried pork kidney. In October 2025, Tagesspiegel’s Felix Denk tried a dish of offal and seafood cooked together, calling it “a powerful pleasure” (translated), with particular praise for its contrasting textures.¹

Other highlights alongside the fish and meat include mapo tofu, dry-pot cauliflower and fried aubergine.

After the savoury dishes, finish with something sweet. Choose caramel-coated sweet potato, glutinous rice cakes with brown sugar or chilled glutinous rice balls with fermented sweet rice — a little sweetness to ease the lingering heat.