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Berlin eating, drinking and dancing

Berlin Food and drink

We've tracked down the best cafés for people-watching, the bars with the coolest cocktails, the most accomplished restaurants and the liveliest local nightlife in Berlin.

Eating, drinking and dancing

We've tracked down the best cafés for people-watching, the bars with the coolest cocktails, the most accomplished restaurants and the liveliest local nightlife in Berlin.

Restaurants

(+49 (0)30 2175 1646)

Alpenstück

Who'd have thought you could indulge in hearty southern German cuisine such as sausages, sauerkraut and schnitzel in a stylish environment? There’s not a heaving dirndl in sight.

9 Gartenstrasse, D-10115 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 2859 8585)

Brecht’s

This bistro-style restaurant down by the river on Schiffbauerdamm specialises in Austrian cuisine. Try its veal sausages or gnocchi in a creamy cheese sauce.

6–7 Schiffbauerdamm, D-10117 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 2265 2611)

Margaux

Young Michelin-starred chef Michael Hoffman does astonishing things with seafood at this hip Unter den Linden hangout.

78 Unter den Linden, D-10117 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 211 1182)

Susuru

Just along Rosa Luxemburg Strasse from Lux 11, Susuru is an excellent Japanese noodle bar with chic decor. Its udon selection makes for a good lunch option.

17 Rosa Luxemburg Strasse, D-10178 Berlin

+49 (0)30 615 2810

Engelbecken

Kitsch Bavarian-style eatery, which stops just short of lederhosen and oompah bands. The menu, however, is excellent – and you’ll find everything from veal sausage and sauerkraut to piping-hot apfelstrudel here.

31 Witzlebenstrasse, D-72413 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 442 9229)

Gugelhof

Wonderful Alsatian restaurant (as in the region, not the dog) that specialises in sturdy choucroute and tartes flambées. Bill Clinton stopped by a few years ago…

37 Knaackstrasse, D-10435 Berlin

+49 (0)30 612 5170

Abendmahl

Set in the middle of Kreuzberg’s Turkish quarter, Abendmahl is perhaps the city’s finest vegetarian restaurant. It also serves fish.

9 Muskauer Strasse, D-10997 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 214050)

Die Quadriga

One of Berlin’s finest restaurants, this is where chef Bobby Bräuer serves up Michelin-starred cuisine to a sophisticated, urbane crowd. The 1920s-inspired interiors are beautiful, too.

14 Eislebener Strasse, D-10789 Berlin

Cafés

+49 (0)30 261 5096

Café Einstein Stammhaus

An old-fashioned but elegant Viennnese coffee house in Tiergarten, this airy café serves up schnitzels and noodles against a backdrop of mahogany and oversized mirrors.

58 Kurfurstenstrasse, D-10785 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 614 2373)

Hasir

It may be the post-pub, pre-brawl food of choice in the UK, but the doner kebab is a far more acceptable snack in Germany. The combination of pitta and sliced meat was invented here, at Hasir, in 1971 by owner Mehmet Aygun.

10 Adalbertstrasse, D-10999 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 7895 7900)

Café Neues Ufer

This long-established gay and lesbian hangout near Heinrich Von Kleist Park in Schöneberg was a favourite of David Bowie and Lou Reed when they shared an apartment next door in the 1970s. It’s still an atmospheric haunt.

157 Hauptstrasse, D-10827 Berlin

Bars and clubs

(+49 (0)30 2809 3840)

Altes Europa

Drink in the evening at this atmospheric café bar with an old-fashioned ambience. Dress up – it's frequented by Berlin’s beautiful people.

11 Gipsstrasse, D-10119 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 448 5688)

Prater

The city’s favourite spot for an alfresco drink when the weather’s fine. The tree-shaded garden fills up quickly in summer with fashionable Berliners who come here for cocktails and food – and for a nightclub called ‘Bastard’.

7–9 Kastanienallee, D-10435 Berlin

(+49 (0)30 2838 7676)

Reingold

A long room dominated by a Thirties-inspired mural at the far end, this stylish Mitte cocktail bar serves up delicious concoctions to a hip thirtysomething crowd. Low-key techno with a Latin bent is the soundtrack of choice.

11 Novalisstrasse, D-10115 Berlin

+49 (0)30 7889 9704

KitKat Club

Perhaps the best known – courtesy of its namecheck in Cabaret – of Berlin’s numerous sex clubs. This is the place to come for fetish parties and to meet other liberal (and we’re talking extremely liberal) consenting adults.

2–14 Bessemer Strasse, D-10179 Berlin