WHERE TO EAT
21 Gramm Located in a beautiful converted Chapel of Rest, this café-bar-restaurant is a popular choice with locals for breakfast. Highlights include mushrooms and poached eggs on sourdough toast, which come with pickled dill and chilli gherkins on the side and buttermilk pancakes with sticky date mascarpone. Breakfast with coffee, from £11. Hermannstrasse 179, 12049, 00 49 30 7679 5810, 21gramm.berlin Albatross Bakery This is a bakery with cult status – specialities include the Queen A, a dense pastry made with caramelised croissant dough sprinkled with salt. Open every day from 8am – get there early and be prepared to queue. Pastries, from £1.60. Graefestrasse 66/67, 10997, albatrossberlin.com Café Botanico The Italian dishes on offer at this eccentric, welcoming café feature organic wild herbs and vegetables from the on-site permaculture. Pick a spot on the patio to enjoy a refreshing wild herb lemonade and a plate of ‘pasta alle erbe’. Three-course meal (excluding wine), from £21pp. Richardstrasse 100, 12043, 00 49 30 8962 2000, cafe-botanico.de CODA Each course of René Frank’s two-Michelin-starred, seven-course tasting menu comprises a dessert with a creative drinks pairing. An unforgettable experience. Seven-course tasting menu with snacks and drinks at 7pm, from £118pp; four-course tasting menu with snacks and drinks at 10pm, from £71pp. Friedelstrasse 47, 12047, 00 49 30 9149 6396, coda-berlin.com Eins44 Located in a renovated old distillery, the modern European menu on offer here changes weekly, and the solid wine list features both natural and conventional wines. The chef’s beef cheeks with plums dish is a real must-try. Three-course meal (excluding wine), from £43.70pp. Elbestrasse 28/29, 12045, 00 49 30 6298 1212, eins44.com Five Elephant Close to Neukölln’s border with Alt-Treptow, the Kreuzberg outpost of this speciality coffee shop also houses its roastery. Their
Philadelphia cheesecake is legendary. Coffee and a pastry, from £4.70. Reichenberger Str. 101, 10999, fiveelephant.com
Isla Coffee An unpretentious circular economy model café. The horchata panna cotta with plump blackberries and granola is a sweet, crunchy delight. Brunch with coffee, from £5pp. Hermannstrasse 37, 12049
Jaja A natural wine bar and bottle shop run by a French-German couple with a passion for sharing the French way of drinking. Sit inside with a carefully considered cheese plate or take a bottle out onto the street. Three-course menu with paired wines, from £43pp. Weichselstrasse 7,
12043, 00 49 30 5266 6911, jajawein.de
Kreuzberger Himmel Freshly prepared Syrian food made and served by refugees as part of an integration project run by a local initiative, ‘Be An Angel e.V.’ The restaurant’s mixed starter platter offers myriad textures and flavours such as fried flatbreads with sheep’s cheese and sabaneh pastries with pomegranate. Two-course meal (excluding drinks), from £22pp. Yorckstrasse 89, 10965, 00 49 17 1785 8939, kreuzberger-himmel.de Orania.Restaurant & Orania.Bar Dinner at this plush yet relaxed hotel restaurant is a lot of fun. Choose head chef Philipp Vogel’s Xberg Duck menu and enjoy a high-quality bird four ways, including grilled breast in a sweet pepper sauce with soured pickled apple, and crispy hoisin pancakes made from the bronzed skin. XBerg Duck menu (for two or more, excluding drinks), from £56pp. Oranienpl. 17, 10999, 00 49 30 6953 9680, orania.berlin
Velvet Bar Moody lighting and elegant, understated decor set the scene for seasonal and foraged cocktails. Try the Old Fashioned Twist, made with korn spirit that’s been infused for six months with spruce cones foraged from a nearby park. Cocktails, from £10. Ganghoferstrasse 1,
12043, 00 49 163 4605031, velvet-bar-berlin.de