A Food Guide To Berlin, From Fine Dining To Kebabs

A Food Guide To Berlin, From Fine Dining To Kebabs

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Berlin’s food scene is flourishing as never before. Over the past decade or so, partly thanks to relatively inexpensive rents and the city’s reputation for fostering creativity, local culinary entrepreneurs have been given platforms to experiment and grow, and chefs and restaurateurs have been drawn here from all over the world. Danish-born, Icelandic-trained chef Victoria Eliasdóttir is currently culinary director at vegetable-focused Dóttir; Vancouverite Dylan Watson-Brawn, chef and co-founder of Michelin-starred Ernst and its minimalist ‘little brother’, Julius, was named the top chef in Germany by Gault-Millau in 2022. From supper clubs and street food to natural wines and Levantine fare, Berlin has embraced international trends and immigrant cuisines. Newly Michelin-starred restaurants sit alongside innovative takeaway stalls, making the city’s food scene diverse and constantly evolving. For visitors, the sheer volume of options can be overwhelming. To plan a weekend in Berlin that features lots of good food, you need to know where to look — not least because you’ll often find memorable meals in unexpected places. In the former East German borough of Mitte, for example, there are cute cafes tucked away in courtyards, and across the city, restaurants can be found in surprising spaces. Contemporary German venue Lovis is housed within the red-brick walls of a former women’s prison; brunch spot 21gramm is located in a beautifully restored former chapel. And you can sit on the pleasant, leafy terrace at garden-to-table Café Botanico and enjoy fresh, light, Italian-influenced dishes with a view of its otherwise completely hidden permaculture garden. Vegans are famously well-catered for in Berlin, in fact plant-based dining has led the charge for innovation in the city, from the flavourful doughnuts sold at plant-based chain Brammibal’s Donuts, founded in Berlin in 2015, to the four-course menu at Michelin-Green-starred Frea. And thanks to a recent boom in third-wave coffee shops and roasteries, bean hounds have lots of options, too: head to Distrikt Coffee, in Mitte, or Kreuzberg’s Kaffee 9 for some of the best speciality brews in the city. And a visit to the capital isn’t complete without sampling its two legendary fast-food staples: currywurst (fried pork sausage, served with a tomato-based sauce, curry powder and fries) and doner kebab, the sandwich version of which originated with Turkish immigrants to Berlin in the 1970s. This is a city that’s long attracted tourists with its storied past and thriving arts and music scenes, but until recently it’s never really been a magnet for food-focused travellers. But now, Berlin is the perfect place for gourmands seeking a vibrant, multicultural, creative hub where you’ll find everything from fine dining to exciting street food. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Left: The terrazzo counter at the Mitte branch of Five Elephant is a popular breakfast spot. Photograph by Five Elephant Right: Enjoy views of Brandenburg Gate, a neoclassical symbol of German unity in Mitte, from cafes on Pariser Platz. Photograph by Sabine Lubenow, AWL Images How to spend a day in Mitte It began life as a small, 13th-century settlement on the Spree River, but Mitte is now the historical and geographical heart of the city. It’s here you’ll find some of Berlin’s best-known landmarks, historic sights and museums. So, fuel up for exploration with breakfast at the Mitte branch of Five Elephant, a modern cafe with a long terrazzo counter stocked with freshly baked croissants, cakes and pastries. Order a speciality coffee — Five Elephant roasts its own beans — and pocket a portion of its cult cheesecake for later. A 15-minute stroll through Hackescher Markt, a lively square with cafes, shops and nightlife spots overlooked by the 1,200ft Berlin TV Tower, will take you to the DDR Museum. Its interactive displays, including a remarkably detailed recreation of an archetypal East German high-rise flat, will have you fully immersed in what was everyday life in the German Democratic Republic. For lunch, wander over the bridge and across Museum Island (a UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s home to five museums) to Liu. This small restaurant is extremely popular for its mouth-numbing Sichuan-style dishes, but the Shengjiao beef noodles, doused in homemade chilli oil, are well worth queuing for. Walk 10 minutes to the striking Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, for which 2,711 concrete slabs were installed along a former section of the Berlin Wall. A short distance north, on the edge of Tiergarten park, you’ll find the Brandenburg Gate, a magnificent neoclassical symbol of German unity. Head east along the Spree to Clärchens Ballroom, one of the city’s last remaining 20th-century dance halls and a Berlin institution. Come for classic German dishes such as königsberger klopse (meatballs and capers in a cream sauce) and stay to dance the night away with a mixed crowd, old and young. A former apothecary is the venue for Ora restaurant and wine bar in Kreuzberg. Photograph by Diana Nagirnyak Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. How to spend a day in Kreuzberg Until the fall of the Wall, Kreuzberg was one of West Berlin’s poorest districts, a place also known for its alternative lifestyles and cultural diversity. Today, it’s a hub for media and tech startups, and although pockets of it have been gentrified, its creativity and diversity remain. What’s more, Kreuzberg is now home to a dynamic, multicultural food scene. Start with coffee and a pastry at Café Dix, at the Berlinische Galerie. Housed in a former glass warehouse, the museum displays interdisciplinary collections of modern and contemporary art created in Berlin from 1870 onwards. From here, it’s a 20-minute stroll through a quiet residential neighbourhood to Ora, an elegant wine bar and restaurant located in a former 19th-century apothecary. With its bottle-green banquettes and antique wooden cabinetry, the restaurant offers respite from busy Oranienplatz outside: the regularly changing, producer-led menu offers dishes such as North Frisian lamb with fregola, turnip and peas. After lunch, head towards the Landwehr Canal, either via chaotic Kottbusser Tor U-Bahn station or, if you’re a fan of street art, detouring to see Victor Ash’s Astronaut Cosmonaut, purportedly the largest stencil drawing in the world. Cross the Kottbusser Brücke: on Tuesdays and Fridays, a turn left along the leafy Maybach embankment will take you to the food and handicraft stalls of Kreuzberg’s Turkish market. Continue through the pretty Gräfekiez neighbourhood, stopping for a pre-dinner drink at gastropub St Bart (there are draught beers, a widely praised wine list and some inspired cocktails), until you reach Turkish barbecue restaurant Fes. This is the spot for some refined grills: lamb, chicken or beef that you cook yourself on your table’s built-in electric hob, with plenty of mezze to accompany, and finish with irmik helvasi — warm semolina cake topped with shredded filo pastry, chocolate rasps and ice cream — best accompanied by a glass or two of rakı. Two Trick Pony in Kreuzberg’s Bergmannkiez neighbourhood is another of Berlin’s breakfast and brunch hubs. Photograph by Julie Comfort Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Three of the best all-day brunch spots in Berlin 1. Two Trick PonyLocated on a wide street in Kreuzberg’s Bergmannkiez neighbourhood, Two Trick Pony is a breakfast and brunch spot with a regularly changing menu. The Full English features locally made bacon and black pudding; vegetarian options include poached egg on rye bread with grapes, roasted walnuts and hollandaise with pul biber (dried Turkish chilli flakes). Wash it down with a pink grapefruit mimosa. 2. AnneliesA relaxed neighbourhood cafe popular for its excellent single-origin filter coffee and Insta-famous for its stacks of thick buttermilk pancakes served in a pool of maple-berry syrup, topped with butter, granola and a quenelle of cultured cream. 3. Isla Coffee BerlinA bright, minimalist refuge in a noisy part of Neukölln serving excellent third-wave coffee and brunch dishes such as almond granola with clementines, and smoky mushrooms on toast. There’s a focus on sustainability here: to minimise waste, leftover foamed milk is made into ricotta to go with brioche, honey-baked pumpkin with thyme. Isla Coffee Berlin Three must-visit street foods in Berlin 1. Mustafa’s Gemüse KebapBerlin takes its kebabs seriously, and Mustafas has reached cult status for its chicken doner: grilled chicken layered with roasted vegetables and a choice of homemade sauces, all stuffed into a toasted pitta. Avoid peak mealtimes if you don’t want to risk waiting in a long queue. Mehringdamm 32, 10961 Berlin 2. ThaiparkWhat originated in the 1990s as a gathering of Asian immigrant families has evolved into an official Thai street food event. On weekends from April to October, tree-filled Preussenpark hosts around 60 food stalls serving everything from fried grasshoppers and papaya salad to corn fritters and pad thai. 3. Markthalle NeunThe best known of Berlin’s 14 historic indoor markets is held on Friday and Saturday. Stop by at lunchtime for a focaccia stuffed with stracchino cheese from Italian bakery Sironi, or head over on Thursday evening for Street Food Thursday where you can sample specialities from all over the world. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Left: Nobelhart & Schmutzig's owner, Billy Wagner and chef Micha Schäfer. Photograph by Nobelhart & Schmutzig Right: Kale and parsley at Michelin-starred Nobelhart & Schmutzig. Photograph by Meike Peters Ingredient-led restaurants Of all the trends that have shaped Berlin’s culinary evolution in the past decade, the one that’s arguably had the greatest influence on upscale dining is a focus on seasonal, regional ingredients. This is partly thanks to Markthalle Neun, which acts as a central supplier, sourcing from small producers in the surrounding state of Brandenburg and beyond, making it easier for city restaurants to use ethically sourced ingredients. With its uncompromising ‘brutally local’ approach to dining, Nobelhart & Schmutzig is considered the ground zero of this movement. The 10-course menus at this one-Michelin- and Michelin-Green-starred venue are a celebration of high-quality ingredients, the origins of which are shared with diners as they receive each dish. Velvet Bar Berlin has won awards for its inventive weekly cocktail menu, which is determined by seasonal fruits, plants and vegetables, from mirabelles to magnolia petals, foraged in and around Berlin. At one-Michelin-star Kin Dee, head chef Dalad Kambhu combines the flavours she grew up with in Bangkok with locally grown produce to create innovative contemporary versions of traditional Thai dishes, including white asparagus with lemongrass and pickled egg yolk, and mussels with wild garlic and chilli paste. Getting thereEurostar London to Brussels, then a Thalys service to Cologne and ICE to Berlin (journey time from 9h). British Airways, Ryanair and EasyJet fly direct. raileurope.Com Where to stayOrania Berlin, in Kreuzberg has doubles from €177 (£152), room only. How to do itBritish Airways Holidays has a two-night weekend break in December 2023 from £309, including a double room at Max Brown Hotel Ku’Damm and flights from Heathrow. Published in Issue 21 (autumn 2023) of Food by National Geographic Traveller (UK). To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only). Gleaning - Picking Leftover Crops For The Food Bank Gleaning is the ancient practice of gathering up leftover crops after harvest but it is being revived to meet very 21st Century needs. In a field in Perthshire, volunteers are picking blueberries which the farmer says are not economically profitable to harvest and donating them to food banks. Lorraine Malone usually helps out at the Dundee community fridge, which offers food free to people who are struggling. She normally collects goods from supermarket to stock the food bank but today she is carefully picking blueberries from branches heavily laden with fruit in a field in Blairgowrie. "It's hugely different but at the same time it is for the same purpose," she says. "You're achieving the same goal. You know that what you're doing is helping." This blueberry harvest is part of the first ever official "gleaning" project in Scotland. Alex Daniels, who coordinates the project in Dundee, says: "Gleaning has been going on for thousands of years, ever since agriculture started really. "People who lived locally to growers would walk up and down the fields post-harvest and collect whatever had been left behind, or what was considered not good enough quality or not the right size. "It is an old idea that has come again. It still goes on informally but we've formalised the process a bit." Mr Daniels says it is about saving the food from waste as well as getting more nutritious food into communities that need it most. Craig Day usually helps out at the food bank in Dundee, making up parcels and handing them out. Today, along with other volunteers from local food banks, he is picking fruit. As he walks up and down the rows in the autumn sunshine, he says the fruit they are picking will be getting distributed the next day to people who are in real need of it. "It's unusual to get produce straight off the bush and so we are certainly going to make the most of it today and pick as much as we can and get it distributed around Dundee." Peter Thomson watches all the activity. He has 60 acres of blueberry bushes on his farm. He's allowing groups in to harvest the fruit because it's not economically viable for him to do it. He says: "It's happening because we cannot sell to the supermarkets. "If we were doing that, we would be losing a lot of money so we had to take the hard decision to stop picking the fruit for them. "We thought it was much better that some local projects and local charities could get the blueberries rather than it all going to waste." Scottish blueberries have traditionally commanded a high price as they were ripe at a time of year when those produced in other countries were not ready for harvesting. New varieties are now grown in places such as Peru and South Africa, meaning that advantage has been lost. Normally 200 full-time workers would have picked hundreds of tonnes of blueberries this year. But Mr Thomson, whose team have been operating for 30 years, said the cost of growing, picking, packing and transporting the blueberries to the supermarket made that unviable. So local charities are stepping in to pick as much fruit as they can before it goes off. Mr Daniels hopes the Gleaning Project can harvest leftover potatoes and broccoli next. California Minimum Wage For Fast Food Workers Raised To $20 An Hour [1/3] Cars drive past the signs of restaurants along a busy street in Los Angeles, California, May 11, 2012. REUTERS/David McNew/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights Sept 28 (Reuters) - Fast-food workers in California will earn a minimum of $20 an hour and have a greater say in setting workplace standards under a new bill signed into law on Thursday by Governor Gavin Newsom. "The future happens here first," Newsom said at an event in Los Angeles, with labor officials and fast-food workers flanking him. The legislation emerged as part of a broader compromise in which fast-food companies agreed to remove a 2024 ballot referendum asking voters to repeal a law aimed at improving wages and working conditions for employees. Labor unions, meanwhile, dropped their push to hold fast-food corporations liable for violations committed by their franchisees. The median fast-food worker in the U.S. Earned $13.43 an hour in 2022, while those in California made an average of $16.60 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new minimum, which takes effect in April, equates to an annual salary of $41,600. There are more than 550,000 fast-food workers at 30,000 locations statewide, Newsom said. The majority are the primary providers for their families - contrary to the perception that fast-food workers are teenagers in their first jobs - while 80% are minorities and two-thirds are women, he added. "We're not just about growth," he said. "This state is about inclusion." In addition to the higher wages, the law also establishes a "Fast Food Council" including representatives for both workers and employers that can approve further pay increases and set standards for working conditions, in what labor leaders hailed as a historic move. The overall minimum wage in California is $15.50 an hour, among the highest of any state. The federal minimum wage, which has remained unchanged since 2009, is $7.25 an hour, or $15,080 a year for an employee working 40 hours a week. Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Josie Kao and Rami Ayyub Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.