Per's perfect food weekend in Berlin
"What are your favorite restaurants in Berlin?" That's probably the most common question I get, but at the same time the one I most want to avoid answering. Berlin has countless fantastic restaurants, and having to choose favorites is like choosing a favorite among your children – it's simply impossible!
Exclusively for Scandlines, however, I have made an exception and selected five really sharp restaurants that I love to visit, which offer culinary experiences you may not be able to get in quite the same way in Denmark. Simply perfect places for a really good food weekend in Berlin.
Per Meurling is a Swedish blogger and freelance journalist based in Berlin and known as one of the German capital's most important restaurant experts. He runs the acclaimed restaurant blog Berlin Food Stories, the food travel blog Finest Food Stories, and leads his legendary guided Food Tours through Berlin's culinary jungle.
Adana
Late night food in the form of Turkish food from the charcoal grill
If you want to know where Kreuzberg's restaurateurs eat after closing time, the answer is often 'Adana Grillhaus'. This legendary 'Ocakbaşı' (Turkish for charcoal grill) is located in the heart of Kreuzberg and serves the city's best Adana minced lamb skewers and lamb ribs. The perfect place for a larger party and a wonderful dinner with mezze appetizers, large platters of juicy, grilled meat, and plenty of Raki snaps.
Go to the new, fresher location on Skalitzer Straße, and don't forget to order their ridiculously delicious Künefe for dessert.
Annelies
Innovative brunch and pancakes to die for
Berliners love their late brunch more than anything else, and right now the city's most die-hard brunch enthusiasts are flocking to a particular breakfast spot opposite Görlitzer Park: Annelies, where the airy pancakes are world-class, but where the menu also offers much more. For example, the silky scrambled eggs on sourdough with grated smoked egg yolk and their homemade pork sausage with potato terrine and Christmas salad. Or why not "overnight oats" with yogurt, strawberries, and homemade granola – a dish so beautiful and delicious that it wouldn't be surprising at all to get it as a dessert at one of the city's best restaurants.
Gazzo
Sourdough pizza + soft ice cream made from buffalo milk
Gazzo is an ultra-cool eatery in Neukölln, where a constant queue of hungry people winds around the building in the hope of sinking their teeth into one of Gazzo's super-hyped and super-crispy sourdough pizzas. The pizzas deliver big time, and the only thing hipper than the customers is the serving staff.
However, all the guests who eat here have an ulterior motive, and it's called "soft ice cream". Not just any soft ice cream, but one made from buffalo milk and topped with peppery olive oil, salt, and shortbread – a fabulous creation that is unanimously hailed as one of the very best things to eat in Berlin right now.
Madame Ngo
Vietnamese-French noodle magic in West Berlin
The restaurant that puts the hundreds of other Vietnamese eateries in Berlin in their place: no one makes a better "pho" noodle soup than Madame Ngo. The cool brasserie is located in an old pharmacy on Kantstrasse, Berlin's own Chinatown, and is a tribute to French-Vietnamese cuisine.
Keep an eye out for the huge soup pots in the window, where "Phở gà" (chicken pho) is made from French chickens, and "Phở tái" (beef pho) is poured over paper-thin slices of fatty entrecote. These are two world-class noodle soups. Don't forget to order the fried spring rolls, the secret of which lies in the paper-thin rice paper that is smuggled from Vietnam in a suitcase every week.
