Now, being that I am German, I have never been to the capital [Berlin] and to my surprise, neither has my father who was born and bred there. So this time around when we were in Germany, we went up north to see if there was any difference between the north and the south.
Having spent three days there, I was the ultimate tourist, went to the museums, rode the site seeing buses and learned more about the history of the Berlin than I knew before. What I also learned was that Berlin has some really great spots to eat! Now with the majority of the city being destroyed in the war, you have some really modern buildings and within those buildings there are some hidden gems to eat, particularly in Bikini. Bikini is situated in Budapester Str opposite the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and it’s a shopping mall that has independent/ urban shops from what you would see at the regular high street. Now when there is a shopping mall, there is guaranteed a mixture of places to eat right!? Bikini in total has 14 places that one can eat & drink and each has its own unique style to it. Unfortunately I didn’t venture to all places however that gives me all the more reason to go back! The two places that we ventured to were, Super Concept Space [Super: shop, eat, meet] and Spreegold. We went to super concept space for our coffee and could honestly describe it as hipster due to it’s décor. Although the majority of places in Berlin I would consider to have this slightly hipster vibe. It’s situated on the outside of Bikini and if you’re seated outside in a particular location you can see the animals from the Berlin Zoo. Only had a cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate tart (which was heavenly) but I felt I should have had something more. Looking at the menu there was such a variety of interesting things to eat, and the names of the dishes were so unique that I thought to myself “I just want to try that because of it sounds funny”. The service as well was really great, felt very welcomed. Initially when we ventured to Bikini we were only keen to go shopping there since we didn’t necessarily think about eating there too. However due to my fathers interest in food and planning where to eat, he discovered on Google that in Bikini there is a hotel called 25 hours and on the roof there is restaurant called Neni Berlin that has great food and is highly recommended. Unfortunately we found this out to late and couldn’t get a table, so at this point we walked to nearest restaurant that we saw, Spreegold.
Spreegold is similar to a German beer garden however it’s a bit more modern. It’s a great place to eat in the summer as their restaurant has a cosy setting to sit outside. Believe me in the summer it is packed! The first time we went luckily we got a table, nothing is better than sitting outside on a hot summer day. After a long day of walking around the sites, I had a BIG appetite so obviously took the choice of having a burger. I had the Jesse Buffalo Burger and it was a “healthy” burger as it came with a side of sweet potato fries, but whom am I kidding it was DIVINE. For my burgers I normally ask for the meat to be cooked medium rare/to well done as I find you can taste the flavour a lot better when it still has some of its juice. The juice from the meat worked really well with the melted buffalo mozzarella (which is the creamiest), sun-dried tomatoes, pesto and basil. Even though the meat was fried it tasted somewhat fresh. After the meal I didn’t feel that I over ate, I was satisfied. It was a great experience, the service was good, the food was fantastic and the atmosphere was pleasant. After the success of eating at Spreegold the first time, we were clueless as to where to eat on our last day so we decided to eat at Spreegold again. This time around it nice was but due to it being so busy the service was a bit poor. However the food again was great! This time around I had a salad as I had been eating quite a bit in the previous weeks and I felt as if I should take it easy on the meat and carbs. So decided I’d try what my aunt had on our first visit to Spreegold, which was a Quinoa Power Salad. The salad had quinoa, mashed avocado, tomato, coriander, garden cucumber and lime dressing. Now the portion was reasonable again to the price, but I would honestly say that the burger that I had a day before was much better. However for those who enjoy a lively atmosphere and good food this is the spot to visit in Berlin.
The beauty of not having been to a city or a place before is exploring it, and luckily being on holiday with avid explorers when it comes to food is a bonus! Before coming to Berlin my father scoped the Internet on where are the best places to eat and he found a biergarden & restaurant within the city that is quite popular during the summer. Café am Neuen See (which is the name of the biergarden/ restaurant) is situated in front of the Spanish embassy and what a charm this place has. What I really loved about the biergarden/restaurant was all the foliage, trees and the river that surrounds it. It creates the illusion that you’re not in the city but somewhere in the German countryside. You could tell that is was the restaurant as each table was fitted with checkered red and white tablecloth. The menu is continental, a mixture between German and Italian cuisine. I had ordered a pasta tagliatelle with cherry tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed with my choice because firstly the portion of the pasta was relatively small (not like in from my recent places I ate at) and secondly I was bit hungry, and the serving of the cherry tomatoes were a bit lacking. If I would choose again I would have chosen the pizza. Having a few slices of my parent’s pizza, it was out of this world. It tasted as if you were in Italy, thin crust, sweet tomato sauce and it was BIG haha, for someone who was hungry it was a dream. This place I would say is the ultimate summer destination to go if one wants to get a drink or a bite to eat.
During the three days busy walking or well taking a joyride to each tourist spot, one does tend to get hungry. Luckily my aunt visited Berlin before and she recommended a shopping mall, which is not to far from Checkpoint Charlie called Galeries Lafayette. Now it’s a pretty huge shopping mall, well French department store that is similar in my mind to the size of Selfridges in the UK. When you enter the food section, it seems as if you’ve stepped into Paris. The amount of cheese, bread, wine and most of all the pastries I saw, I was just in HEAVEN. Now there plenty of places to eat in this food hall and they have all the French produce that you can buy. My highlight was looking at the assortment of pastries, now for a sweet tooth like myself I could have eaten I don’t know how many cakes, and for a moment I thought shame that we don’t have a fridge in our B&B. Anyway long story short after having my quiche from one of the food stalls, I decided to try a raspberry meringue tart which was filled with raspberry coulis and raspberry meringue. The tangy and the sweet of the pastry was a beautiful combination. I wish we could have explored Galeries Lafayette a bit more but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. One day I’ll be back though!
Before we went out for dinner in Berlin, we always stopped at a café where we had a coffee and a piece of cake. By the way the cakes in Germany are out of this world ! They all have a technical finish, which makes you question how they make it. Always have room for cake if you ever visit Germany. We were lucky that during the time we were there it was hot so whenever we went to a café I ordered an ice coffee. Now in Germany an ice coffee is not like in Starbucks or any other coffee chain where they will give you an Americano with ice or if you like a latte with ice. An Ice coffee is pretty much like a sundae. You have your coffee but the cold component of the drink is not ice but its ice-cream (amazing, right!?), so you have coffee, a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, and then cream (Germans love their cream in sundaes). For a hot day, it’s the perfect drink!
Berlin was full of adventures that will always hold wonderful memories, however I still felt as if I hadn’t ventured to all the right food places…only gives me more reason to go back and discover.
Do you know any good places to eat in Berlin? Let me know in the comment box below I would LOVE to know for my next adventure!
Thanks for reading, have a happy week folks!
