Berlin Trip: 23 – 27 May 2024
See also the posts on Berlin June 2023 for more food and travel and recommendations.
At our family lunch over the weekend the subject of curry wurst came up. We have all been to Berlin, albeit separately, and wanted to know who had eaten it during their travels. Everyone had, but it seems only Mr Gochugaru and I had a good experience. This was at KaDeWe, Berlin’s equivalent of London’s Harrods. The cost was 14.50€, plus service charge. Money cannot buy you happiness, but it can elevate your dining experience somewhat.
Our version of the curry wurst was very good indeed, with crispy fries (photo above) and the ketchup tasting like Heinz’s but with curry powder added. Mr Gochugaru joked that maybe in Germany they have 58 and not 57 varieties of Heinz. The online supermarket Ocado actually have a Heinz Curry Tomato Ketchup, though I am not sure if this is a regular line. Junior 2 sent a message to say that you can get the curry ketchup in the German supermarket Aldi.
The other question everyone asks is if we ate schnitzel, the heavily-pounded piece of pork or veal, thinned out until it is the size of a dinner plate, coated in breadcrumbs then deep-fried. Yes we did, also at KaDeWe, but it was not good and we struggled to finish it, all the while mumbling that (honestly) Japanese tonkatsu is so much better.
The schnitzel we had at Baret, the restaurant on the rooftop of Humboldt Forum, had a crispier crust. However we could not understand the need for rocket leaves and mayonnaise over the top.
Most of our dinners in Berlin were leisurely affairs i.e. the service is quite chilled, and it took me some time to adapt to the slower pace. We had four dinners in restaurants recommended by the Berlin Michelin restaurant guide and enjoyed REMI and otto the most, so I shall feature them in a separate post. The other two restaurants were Kochu Karu (we were not convinced the half-Korean half-Spanish concept works) and Oh, Panama (seasonal and modern German with a daily specials board).
There are many fine dining restaurants in Berlin but we get these in London too, and I did not want to bring formal clothes and shoes. It would also stress me a lot to have to spend more than 1½ hours over a meal when there is so much to see.
The fastest, and best, lunch we had was at Monsieur Vuong. Provided a table is available, and ordering only one dish, you can be in and out in half an hour. We ate their signature beef soup noodles (pho bo) and rice noodles with grilled beef rolls (bo la lot). Fiery chillies in fish sauce make it an authentic experience. Mr Vuong also opens on a Sunday which is a bonus.
About the only German food word you need in Spring is spargel, which is asparagus. The season, which runs from mid-April to 24 June (St John the Baptist Day) is called spargelzeit (zeit = time and spargelzeit = asparagus season). There are asparagus trails all over Germany, in the manner of cherry blossom trails in Japan and South Korea.
Almost every restaurant menu has an asparagus dish. Niece Number 2, who had spent the same weekend in Cologne, said that the asparagus dishes there were always served with hollandaise sauce or as asparagus soup. Here are the grilled asparagus dishes we had in Berlin.
Served with burrata (Baret at Humboldt Forum)
Asparagus from Beelitz with ajo blanco and blackcurrant wood oil (Oh, Panama)
With pumpkin seed mole and ramson/ wild garlic leaves (otto)
We always fitted in an ice cream here and there. My favourite is Cuore di Vetro, because they use a paddle to scoop out the ice cream. The others used ice cream scoops – I know you can’t make a mistake then, but with shrinkflation I am concerned the scoops have become smaller.
Tribeca makes vegan ice creams, with stores in the popular areas of Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuz Berg
Jones Ice Cream had an outstanding whisky and pecan ice cream
Rosa Canina makes a unique flavour called Mozartkugel (Mozart’s Bonbon) which is a mix of nougat, marzipan and pistachio (below, with matcha)
Besides regular gelato, Caffe e Gelato in The Playce Potsdamet Platz has a cabinet full of frozen treats
For coffee, simply follow the queues or download the European Coffee Trip App which will lead you to any number of great cafes. One of our favourites is Bonanza Coffee. I have yet to locate a matcha latte place.
A word about water: none of the restaurants we visited would serve tap water. It was filtered/bottled water or beer/ wine/ other bottled drinks. The most expensive was a 75 cl bottle of San Pellegrino at 9.50€ (Lutter and Wegner at KaDeWe) but most restaurants had filtered still/ sparkling water at around 4€ per bottle.
We still have not tried a kebab but we saw a long queue outside Rüyam in Prenzlauer Berg, which serves vegetable kebabs. The thought of handling such a big stuffed bun without plate and napkin frightens me a bit.
The best snack we had was a cheddar cheese biscuit (a biscuit is what Americans call a scone) from Goldmond Bakery located within Markethalle Neun (Market Hall Nine) in Kreuz Berg.
Finally, here is where to find schnitzels in London. I have tried them all, but still think tonkatsu is better:
Fischer’s in Marylebone
German Gymnasium in King’s Cross
The Delaunay in Covent Garden
Bradley’s in Swiss Cottage (Modern English food, but their Vienna Schnitzel / Holstein is a constant and popular item on their menu).
The best schnitzel we had was the schnitzel sandwich from Fischer’s, eaten outdoors in the small park opposite the restaurant during the Covid lockdown. Mr Gochugaru and I still talk about it, always with fondness and with gratitude that we survived the pandemic.