Berlin Travel Guide
What to Eat in Berlin
A guide to eating well in Berlin — the street-food classics, traditional Berlin and Brandenburg dishes, Turkish and Vietnamese Berlin, market halls, brunch culture, coffee and cake, and how to book the city's best restaurants.
Berlin was never famous for its cuisine the way Paris or Rome are, and Berliners will be the first to tell you so. But over the last two decades it has become one of the most exciting places to eat in Europe, not because of one grand tradition but because of many: the hearty dishes of Prussia and Brandenburg, the snack culture of a working city, the cooking of Turkish, Vietnamese, Arab and other communities who have made Berlin home, and a generation of young chefs cooking with produce from the farms around the city. Eating here is affordable, informal and international. Here is how to do it well.
The street-food classics. Start with currywurst, Berlin's most famous snack: a sliced pork sausage, with or without its skin, smothered in curry-spiced ketchup and served with fries or a bread roll. It was invented in post-war West Berlin, and every Berliner has a favourite stand. Konnopke's Imbiss, under the elevated U-Bahn tracks at Eberswalder Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg, has been serving it since before the Wall, and Curry 36 in Kreuzberg is the classic western rival. The other great Berlin snack is the doener kebab, which in its modern form, stuffed into toasted flatbread with salad and sauces, was popularised by Turkish immigrants in West Berlin in the early 1970s; the queues at Mustafa's vegetable kebab stand on Mehringdamm show how seriously the city takes it. For something lighter, look for a Berliner Pfannkuchen, the jam-filled doughnut that the rest of the world calls a Berliner.
Traditional Berlin and Brandenburg cooking. Old Berlin food is filling and comforting: Eisbein, a boiled pork knuckle with sauerkraut and pea puree; Boulette, the Berlin meatball; Koenigsberger Klopse, meatballs in a white caper sauce; potato soup; liver with apples and onions; and Brandenburg specialities such as Spreewald gherkins, freshwater fish from the lakes, asparagus in spring and game in autumn. You will find these dishes in traditional pubs and restaurants, especially in the Nikolaiviertel, Charlottenburg and Prenzlauer Berg, often served with a Berliner Weisse, a sour wheat beer traditionally sweetened with raspberry or woodruff syrup, or a local pilsner.
Turkish, Vietnamese and global Berlin. Berlin's immigrant communities have shaped its food more than anything. Kreuzberg and Neukoelln are the places for Turkish bakeries, grills and breakfasts, and the canal-side Turkish market on Maybachufer is a lively place to shop for produce and snacks on market days. Vietnamese food, brought by contract workers in East Berlin and refugees in the West, is everywhere, from simple pho to modern restaurants. Middle Eastern and Levantine cooking flourishes along Sonnenallee in Neukoelln, and you will find excellent Korean, Japanese, Indian and Georgian food across the city.
Market halls and food markets. Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg, a nineteenth-century market hall revived by local producers, is the heart of the city's food scene, with its weekly Street Food Thursday evening and regular producers' markets. The food hall on the sixth floor of KaDeWe, the great department store in City West, is a gourmet palace with counters for oysters, sausages, cakes and champagne. Weekly farmers' markets, such as the one at Kollwitzplatz in Prenzlauer Berg, are a good way to see how Berliners shop.
Brunch, coffee and cake. Berliners love a long weekend brunch, and the cafes of Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg and Neukoelln fill up from late morning on Saturdays and Sundays; book or go early. The coffee scene is excellent, with many speciality roasters. In the afternoon, Kaffee und Kuchen, coffee and cake, is a German institution, and the classic cafes of City West and the bakeries everywhere serve cheesecake, plum cake in season, and Bienenstich, a cake filled with custard and topped with caramelised almonds.
Fine dining and the new Berlin kitchen. Berlin has a large number of Michelin-starred restaurants for a German city, from the classic luxury of the grand hotels to small, inventive places focusing on regional produce, sustainability and fermentation. Many of the most interesting kitchens use ingredients from Brandenburg farms, and several hotels, including the Michelberger with its own farm in the Spreewald, cook in this spirit. Book the top restaurants weeks ahead, especially for weekend dinners. For a special occasion with a view, Sphere by Tim Raue at the top of the TV Tower turns slowly over the city.
Practical tips. Berliners eat dinner relatively late, from about 7pm, and many restaurants close on Sundays or Mondays, so check before you go. Reservations are wise for popular restaurants on Friday and Saturday evenings. Many small places take cash only, so carry some euros. Tipping of around 5 to 10 per cent is customary, given to the server when you pay. Vegetarians and vegans are exceptionally well served; Berlin is one of the most plant-friendly cities in Europe. And do not leave without a late-night snack from a Spaeti, the corner shops that sell cold drinks and snacks at all hours.