Although not an Italian city I thought I’d share my food experience of Berlin as a recommendations for others if you visit. I’ll start to do all the Italian cities I visit too as well as food recommendations closer to home.
East Berlin Food Tour
A great way to see the city and taste some of the local food – but in addition a great insight into the history and politics of East Germany. We went with Secret Food Tours and as well as exploring the street food scene we explored Vietnamese food, vegetarian delicacies, Turkish influences as well as a traditional beer house and flammkuchen.
The Food Hall at KaDeWe department store. The top two floors of this old department store is dedicated to food. A traditional Art Deco feel with fantastic produce which can be cooked for you to order by dedicated chefs.
Fassbender and Rausch Chocolate Shop
A very old shop with fantastic chocolate sculptures and a top floor coffee shop serving innovative hot chocolate and amazing chocolate deserts – try this mini cake stand of chocolates.
Restaurants
For a traditional German Restaurant try Zur Gerichtslaube, set in the beautiful old court house. German specialities in hearty portions – try their pear and stilton starter or their beef roulade. This is a very meat based menu but generally Berlin is brilliant for Vegetarians and Vegans – very innovative cafes and restaurants – try the many Vietnamese and Thai restaurants too. We found a gem in the Chen Che Vitenamese Tea House tucked away in the Mitte area.
By chance we found the Judische Mädchenschule building in Mitte. This is an old Jewish Girls School which has been recently turned into an arts and food venue retaining lots of interesting art deco features and it’s school character. It has a classy and pricy restaurant Pauly Saal and Bar. The bar is very cool with old vinyl jazz playing and interesting cocktails and bar snacks together with a trendy after work crowd of Berliners. The much less expensive Mogg cafe serves good interesting food. It also houses the private Kennedy Muesum.
Sights
The traditional sights are not to be missed – the Holocaust Memorial museum for instance and the East Side Gallery, but try to get to the Jewish Museum too for a much more wider view of Jewish family life in Berlin. Book a tour of the Reichstag Parliament Building, the Bundestag before you go – they book up a long way in advance. Amazing architecture and the guide is a parliamentary researcher. We went at night which gave a magical view of the city.