Berlin’s Rutz confirms three Michelin stars

Rutz in Berlin has once again been awarded three stars by the MICHELIN Guide Germany. For one of Germany’s most closely watched restaurants, the confirmation comes in a particularly meaningful year: Rutz is celebrating its 25th anniversary, has entered a new chapter in the kitchen and continues to stand for a style of fine dining that is highly precise yet never remote.

Internationally, Rutz may be best understood as one of the restaurants that helped change the tone of German haute cuisine. This year’s Michelin confirmation is also a strong signal of continuity. Since receiving its third Michelin star in 2020, the Berlin-Mitte institution has shown that world-class cooking does not need to feel ceremonial in the traditional sense. A dinner at Rutz can feel almost operatic in its precision, yet it is experienced not from a distance, but together with a team that makes the evening feel personal, generous and alive.

The MICHELIN Guide praises the “journey” through Marco Müller’s Inspirations Menu and highlights the restaurant’s ability to build tension throughout the evening. The inspectors describe a cuisine that works with exceptional precision “without losing lightness and feeling”. The dishes may consist of only a few components and appear almost reduced, yet they are full of details that create remarkable depth. The service, Michelin notes, explains the ideas behind the dishes in a pleasantly relaxed and informal way. This bridge between kitchen and guest is shaped in the dining room by Maître Falco Mühlichen, who has been part of Rutz since 2011 and has served as Restaurant Manager since 2015. For him, service at Rutz is not about rigid scripts, but about translating the kitchen’s ideas with personality, intuition and genuine closeness to the guest.

The latest Michelin assessment also underlines what has long been central to Rutz: the quality of its products and the close relationship with the people behind them. As Marco Müller explains in Michelin’s Mindful Voices series, the restaurant has built a partner network over many years: fishers, livestock breeders, farmers and suppliers, preferably from nearby Brandenburg or at least from Germany. With farmers, the kitchen team even plans what will be grown; wild herbs, pinecones and other natural elements are also gathered by the team itself. At Rutz, origin is not an abstract idea. It is part of the work.

Wine remains essential to the Rutz universe. Head Sommelier Sebastian Höpfner, named Sommelier of the Year 2026 by Gusto magazine, continues the house’s deep connection to wine culture with charm, meticulous attention to detail and a sense of discovery. Mature classics, rare bottles and contemporary discoveries all find their place here.

The current menu makes this evolution tangible. Rather than turning the anniversary into an exercise in nostalgia, Rutz brings its history into the present through dishes that are calm, precise and full of inner movement. The wine pairing follows the same spirit. Created by Stella Krol and Sebastian, it deliberately breaks with dogma and develops its own voice in dialogue with each dish – shaped by origin, craftsmanship, passion and shared philosophy.

In this way, Rutz’s 25th anniversary year becomes less a celebration of what has been achieved than a statement of intent. The restaurant knows its history, but it does not stand still. It continues to refine what has always made it exceptional: clarity without coldness, ambition without vanity, and a level of cuisine that reaches the highest international standards while making guests feel completely at ease.