Berlin Cuisine

About Berlin Cuisine

By the ULTIMATE Berlin Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Berlin’s cooking mirrors its history: hearty, unpretentious Prussian home cooking, the street food of the post-war city and the flavours brought by generations of newcomers. From a late-night döner to a pork knuckle in a beer hall, eating like a Berliner means embracing both. This is our guide.

Berlin cuisine

Berlin’s food is a mirror of its history: unpretentious Prussian home cooking, the street food of the post-war years and the influence of the many people who have made the city their home. Eating like a Berliner means a currywurst at a stand one day and a pork knuckle in a beer hall the next.

Currywurst

The city’s own snack, invented by Herta Heuwer at her sausage stand in Charlottenburg in the post-war years: a sausage, with or without skin, sliced and smothered in a spiced tomato and curry sauce, dusted with curry powder, and eaten standing at an Imbiss with a bread roll or chips.

Hearty, honest and multicultural: a city that eats standing up at the Imbiss.

Döner kebab

Turkish in origin, the döner in its Berlin form, thinly sliced spit-roasted meat in a crisp flatbread with salad and garlic or chilli sauce, is a perfect example of the fusion of German and Turkish cooking, and the great late-night meal of Kreuzberg and beyond.

Hausmannskost

Classic Berlin pub food is substantial, salty and made for a cold beer. Eisbein is a cured pork knuckle, boiled until tender, with sauerkraut, pease pudding, boiled potatoes and sharp mustard. Königsberger Klopse are meatballs of veal or pork in a white caper and lemon sauce, with boiled potatoes. Buletten, sometimes spelt Bouletten, are Berlin’s pan-fried meatballs, somewhere between a meatball and a burger, seasoned with onion and mustard, eaten hot with mash or cold in a roll. Senfeier, eggs in a creamy mustard sauce with mashed potatoes, is pure nostalgia.

Sweets and drinks

In Berlin a jam doughnut is simply a Pfannkuchen (elsewhere in Germany it is a Berliner): fried yeast dough filled with plum or strawberry jam and dusted with sugar, in every bakery. To drink, Berliner Weisse mit Schuss, a sour wheat beer sweetened with a shot of green woodruff (Waldmeister) or red raspberry syrup, and Berliner Luft, a sweet, clear peppermint liqueur sold in pubs and late-night Spätis.

Where to taste it

For currywurst, Curry 36 on the Mehringdamm in Kreuzberg, with or without skin, and Konnopke’s Imbiss under the elevated U-Bahn on Schönhauser Allee. For a feast of everything, the food hall of KaDeWe and the traders of Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg. All are in this guide.

Our advice: have a currywurst standing up, a döner after dark and a Pfannkuchen with your morning coffee.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Berlin Cuisine before you go.