Berlin In Four And A Half Days

I spy with my little eye something beginning with F… (Fernsehturm in the Fog)

Before we head off on our travels, we always ask for recommendations and gather as many insider tips as we can. We’d heard good things about the food scene in Berlin – hence why we planned to visit, but we didn’t anticipate the massive influx of recs that we received.

We thought four and a half days would be more than enough time initially. Wrong. We ended up running all over town trying to get to the places at the top of our list, a task that was never going to be easy. We admitted defeat and just did what we could, hopefully we can come back one day, Berlin is so close, so cheap to get to and even cheaper to eat there.

So, here’s how our trip panned out:

Monday:
LUNCH: A little snack at a Currywurst stand near our hotel (not one we were advised to go to, just the closest we could find and were starving.) It was fine, but try Curry 66 instead.

DINNER: We were knackered and wanted to stay local – an ideal time to check out Neni, the restaurant upstairs at the 25hours Bikini Hotel (where we were staying for two nights). Read our post on the hotel here.
neni.at/berlin

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Tuesday:
BREAKFAST: Neni at the 25hours Bikini Berlin hotel. Our first of two great breakfasts there, read all about it here.
neni.at/berlin

LUNCH: A brilliant and great value lunch at District Môt with their want-it-all menu. Don’t miss the Bao burgers (€6/£4.40), Bánh tôm hồ tây (€5/£3.70) – crispy fried hash brown with shrimp, Cánh gà chiên nước mắm (€4/£2.95) – fried chicken wings in fish sauce. Cocktails and drinks great too, loved the Xin chào (€4.50/£3.30) – their own blended juice with strawberries, lime, peppermint, lychee and sweet basil seeds. Their Whiskey sour (€7/£5.15) is huuuuge. Dessert and coffee is a must, we shared a Coconut panna cotta (€4.50/£00 and Cà phê sữa nóng (€3/£2.20) – a pick-me-up Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk.
districtmot.com

CULTURE: A busy day visiting the Victory Column, Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the Berlin Wall Memorial. We wouldn’t recommend doing all of those in one day, not just because it’s physically tiring but it left us feeling incredibly sad too. What Berliners had to go through during these times is truly heartbreaking and beyond comprehension.
visitberlin.de

DINNER: We were shattered, both physically and emotionally after a day doing the tourist thing so we had a quick bite to eat at Bourbon Dogs. Like Bubble Dogs but better and more us. The Bourbon dog (€5.50/£3.90) topped with house recipe coleslaw, rittenhouse rye BBQ sauce and crispy onions was a winner. Cocktails great too, if you have a sweet tooth, try the Cherry Cola (€8/£5.70). Whisky shots and dogs are BOGOF on Tuesdays, the Breakfast Bourbon (€4/£2.85) with maple syrup was right up my street, loved the minature bottle. 
bourbon-dogs.com

DRINKS: A quick nightcap up at the Monkey Bar back at the 25hours hotel – it gets busy so be prepared to be cramped, cocktails and service are great though so it’s worth it. Best to get there early though to nab a seat with views of the monkeys in the zoo below. Try the King Kong (€14/£10) with homemade Guatemalan vanilla rum, chocolate spirits and cherry bitters.
25hours-hotels.com/en/bikini/restaurant/monkey-bar

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Wednesday:
LUNCH: In my confusion with all the places I wanted to visit I merged two places in my head – the picturesque Club der Visionäre on the river and House of Small Wonder. Oops. Anyhow, we ended up at the House of Small Wonder and had an unasumming but fantastic lunch, the Soboro Don (€10/£7) – ground chicken and scrambled organic egg (crumbled Japanese style) over rice, spinach and red pickled ginger was so tasty I almost ordered another. Had I not cared what anyone thought, I would have done.
houseofsmallwonder.de

DRINKS: Two days before we flew out to Berlin, we read that Buck & Breck was voted number 16 in the World’s Best Bars so obviously we had to go. A little speakeasy bar in Mitte with room for just 14 people with a secret entrance, just ring the doorbell at the discreet entrance and wait to be led in. We arrived early and were the first there, it’s sleek and cool, smoking is allowed, phones aren’t and cocktails are expertly crafted and all cost just €12 (£8.55). Sit at the bar and be prepared to be mesmerised.
buckandbreck.com

CULTURE: A look around the Bauhaus museum where we wanted to buy everything in the shop but instead came away with a door stop that our cats promptly chewed up.
bauhaus.de

DINNER: Lokal is a great restaurant, hearty German food in huge portions, we ate at the bar chatting to the staff as it was rammed and we hadn’t booked. There is no English menu but our waiter painstakingly deciphered it for us, then we clinked glasses, he took a swig of wine and off he scurried. I had Pork with apple (€21/£15) and veg and Ade had Ox steak (€27/£19), both were incredible, an excellent dinner spot.
lokal-berlin.blogspot.co.uk

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Thursday:
LUNCH: Oh, La Soupe Populaire… What a place! I won’t repeat myself, just read about it here and make sure you visit. Due to government regulations, it’s only open Thursday to Saturday. It’s a stunning space, you’ll never eat anywhere like it again.
lasoupepopulaire.de

CULTURE: We’d planned to take a look at the TV tower but the weather said no.
tv-turm.de

DINNER: We’d heard Street Food Thursdays at Markthalle Neun are not to be missed and all those people who told us that were right. An unpretentious, good value and friendly market, the best thing we ate was from J.Kinski – a sandwich called Smashing Pumpkin – spelt bread, coleslaw, slow-cooke beef, pumpkin mayo, fried onions and seeds (€7.50/£5.30)
markthalleneun.de/maerkte/street-food-thursday

DRINKS: We slid into the Absinthe Depot for a tipple around 4pm, it’s right next to our second hotel thank God, as we needed a lay down after. There’s a massive choice, I could only handle a few sips of my Hausmarke bitter (€4/£0). Be prepared to get hammered.
absinth-berlin.de

We hadn’t found the time for some German beer but managed to slide into Kaschk for a sweary one. There’s coffee too and the entire space downstairs is dedicated to a game of Shuffleboard. Heard of it? Neither had we.
oslokaffebar.com/kaschk/

Talking of coffee, Berlin are mad for it. We had a great coffee at The Barn where they use biodynamic milk (we’d never heard of that either) but it certainly enhanced the flavour.
barn.bigcartel.com

Our last drink of the day was at the Fairytale bar which had rave reviews and sounded special, with staff wearing full face paint and fairytale costumes. It was another speakeasy doorbell job, we waited ages for anyone to answer it but then wished no one had. A massive let down. There was no face paint, costumes – yes, but with trainers finishing ‘the look’. Half-hearted and tacky. The menus were good though and the cocktails not bad.
facebook.com/Fairytale

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Friday:
BREAKFAST: Home time and only enough time for one last meal – heartbroken! We nipped into The Store Kitchen at Soho House (but not part of the hotel). They’re newly open and have one of the best brunch dishes we’ve ever tasted – Sourdough waffle, speck, sautéed kale, house hot sauce and egg (€6/£4.20)
thestores.com

We discovered My Google Maps shortly before we left so frantically created a map, if you want a better one then go to Matt The List. If not, click on ours here. You’ll see why it was impossible to get to everything.

It’s also worth checking our Berlin Food Stories before you go.

And Visit Berlin is pretty helpful too.

For more of our pictures on Instagram of our travels, click here.