I love a city break – anything that combines culture, modernist design and good coffee is a winner with me. And Berlin has all of that in spades. It’s the perfect place to enjoy an exhibition or two, geek out at the architecture, warm up in a cosy cafe then let your hair down in a hip natural wine bar. In this travel guide – my latest in a series of design guides – I’ve shared my favourite places to eat and drink, along with the best galleries and architectural gems to discover.
A design lover’s guide to Berlin
PLACES TO EAT AND DRINK
You’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to food and drink in Berlin. I had so many recommendations and saves on my Google maps I could have eaten well for a month, let alone a single weekend. Berlin’s the place to go if you’re a coffee aficionado, with a host of specialist coffee roasters that take the perfect cup exceptionally seriously. When night falls, there’s no better city to grab a cocktail or two and dance away until the early hours.
COFFEE SHOPS AND CAFES
– Jules Geisberg – Geisbergstraße 9 – this has to have been the best coffee I had while in Berlin. Go for the coffee and stay for the clean, minimalist interior. They also have another location housed in a sustainable wooden building called B-Part am Gleisdreieck on Luckenwalderstrasse 6b where they also have a large beer garden.
– Distrikt Coffee – Bergstraße 68 – the place to go for brunch in the north of the city, offering an all-day breakfast and brunch menu that includes French toast, smoked salmon on sesame sourdough and a breakfast sandwich that could cure any hangover.
– Annelies – Görlitzer Str. 68 – Distrikt’s sister cafe in Kreuzberg, which serves La Cabra coffee and a sample of brunch dishes such as buttermilk pancakes and scrambled eggs with fennel kimchi.
– FREA Bakery – Gartenstraße 9 – a 100% plant-based and zero waste bakery that prides itself on using regional and seasonal ingredients. I didn’t even know it was vegan when I passed by to pick up a pastry and I would never have been able to tell the cardamom croissant wasn’t made with dairy butter!
– SOFI – Sophienstraße 21 – a craft bakery, hidden in the courtyard of a restored brick factory, that makes cakes and breads using grains sourced from small, organic farmers around northern Europe. Get one of their sandwiches – so simple but so good.
– Chipperfield Kantine – Joachimstraße 11 – opened in 2013 as an in-house canteen for the staff of David Chipperfield Architects, their popular vegetarian lunch menu is also available for guests, alongside a selection of coffees and cakes. Sit in the courtyard under the shade of plane trees in the summer.
– Sorrel – Pannierstraße 40 – a small neighbourhood restaurant serving seasonal plates using ingredients from local producers.
– THE BARN coffee roasters – various locations – a bit of a coffee institution in Berlin, although not the best I had while I was there. They state that they ‘roast the best coffees available on this planet’ – quite the statement!
– Bonanza Coffee – various locations – this iconic coffee roaster was founded in 2006. They have a cafe in Mitte inspired by the coffee bars of Milan, a smaller outpost near Mauerpark flea market and an industrial style space housed in an old warehouse in Kreuzberg.
Below in order: Canal, Jules Geisberg, SOFI, Annelies.
RESTAURANTS AND BARS
– Lokal – Linienstraße 160 – a cosy, intimate restaurant on a quiet, pretty street corner north of Mitte, serving German food and a good selection of wine. The staff are lovely.
– Barra – Okerstraße 2 – I tried to get into here but sadly it was closed over the Christmas holidays, it just gives me another reason to go back again. A modern neighbourhood restaurant serving a seasonal menu of small, sharing dishes in a simple, pared-back space.
– Bar Normal – Oderberger Str. 7 – I enjoyed one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time here – the roast duck with mole sauce and pickled radishes was incredible. This casual bistro in Prenzlauer Berg offers a fusion-style menu and natural wine list in a minimalist setting with an ever changing display of art.
– NOVEMBER Brasserie – Husemannstraße 15 – a Japanese brasserie housed in a former Berlin pub – you’ll also enjoy the wooden interior and Pierre Jeanneret chairs.
– Morimori ramen – Oranienstraße 201 – a small, unfussy, unrefined restaurant serving steaming bowls of flavourful ramen in Kreuzberg.
– DASHI – Invalidenstraße 112 – an Asian diner in the Mitte district that combines American influences with inspiration from Hong Kong’s cha chain teng cafes. The wood panelled interior was designed by Danish studio Mentze Ottenstein.
– ORA Restaurant & Wine Bar – Oranienpl. 14 – a fixed menu restaurant and wine bar in the stunning setting of a converted pharmacy that dates back to 1860.
– SWAY – Pannierstraße 29 – a casual natural wine bar for wine buffs, with a selection of bottles only containing organically farmed grapes and nothing else. The space is designed to feel like going to a good friend’s house with live DJ sets and large scale artwork.
– Wax On Bar – Weserstr. 208 – opened in 2021 and named one of the world’s 50 best bars in 2023. Expect to queue.
Below: Jules, Bar Normal, ORA Restaurant & Wine Bar.
CULTURAL THINGS TO DO
The rebuilding effort after the Second World War has given Berlin a unique architectural landscape of old and new. It’s by no means the prettiest city – there’s a brutal, edgy feel that is simply part of it’s charm – but if you’re an architecture geek like me, you’ll enjoy the mix of modernist design and contemporary building. There’s something intriguing about seeing the layers of history in a building, especially when sensitively restored and brought back to life as in the case of the Neues Museum by David Chipperfield Architects. Of course, there’s a much sadder side of the city that remembers the horrors of the war, with Peter Eisenman’s moving holocaust memorial and Daniel Libeskind’s haunting Jewish museum.
ARCHITECTURE
– Hansaviertel – Bellevue station – in 1954, over 50 architects from across the world were invited as part of the Interbau international building exhibition to design a series of residential buildings for a bomb site in West Berlin. One architectural website describes it as a ‘living museum of modernist design’. Here you can see projects by Alvar Aalto, Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Arne Jacobsen.
– Chapel of Reconciliation – Bernauer Str. 4 – an oval chapel made of a rammed earth construction that contains rubble from an old church that once stood on the site before being blown up by the GDR government in 1985.
– The Wall Museum and East Side Gallery – Mühlenstraße 3-100 – a 1,300m-long open-air gallery that features the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall, covered in graffiti and street art.
– Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe – Cora-Berliner-Straße 1 – also known as the Holocaust Memorial, this is a place of remembrance and warning designed by New York-based architect Peter Eisenman. Over 2,000 tomb-like concrete blocks are set at different heights across a large square near the Brandenburg Gate – visitors are invited to walk through the gaps and learn more about the victims in the underground information centre below.
Below: Hansaviertel.
MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES
– Bauhaus-Archiv – Klingelhöferstraße 14 – an educational institution dedicated to the 20th century Bauhaus movement. The museum has been closed since summer 2018 while the old building undergoes a complete renovation. A temporary bauhaus-archiv can be found on Knesebeckstraße at Ernst-Reuter-Platz.
– Neues Museum – Bodestraße 1-3 – a museum dedicated to Egyptian art, prehistoric objects and classical antiquities, located on Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. Go as much for the architecture as the contents of the museum – it was painstakingly restored by David Chipperfield architects in 2003, designed to embrace the layers of the former ruin to create a modern museum rich in materiality.
– Neue Nationalgalerie – Potsdamer Str. 50 – built from 1965-68, this was the last building designed by German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He took a less is more approach, aiming to create an open ‘universal space’ with as few supports as possible.
– Akademie der Künste – Hanseatenweg 10 – The Academy of Arts is represented at two locations in Berlin – this lesser known spot is a bit of a hidden gem, housed in a 1960s Brutalist building in the Hansaviertel district near Tiergarten. There’s always an interesting exhibition and it’s a lovely place to sit outside with a cup of coffee in the summer.
– Gropius Bau – Niederkirchnerstraße 7 – originally built in 1881 as an arts and crafts museum, it now hosts acclaimed contemporary and archaeological exhibitions.
– Tchoban Foundation – Museum of Architectural Drawing – Christinenstraße 18a – a remarkable but intimate ,museum designed by architect and collector Sergei Tchoban in 2013. When I was visited, there was a fascinating exhibition of Alvar Aalto drawings.
– Jewish Museum Berlin – Lindenstraße 9-14 – Daniel Libeskind’s deconstructivist museum confronts visitors with an unflinching look at the history of Jews and their lives.
Above: Neues Museum, below Neue Nationalgalerie and Akademie der Künste.
Below: the Chapel of Reconciliation.
SHOPS AND FLEA MARKETS
I didn’t find Berlin to be the place to shop really – you’ll likely be too busy taking in all the culture and stopping for several cups of coffee! I do remember once enjoying one of the city’s famous flea markets – the perfect lazy Sunday activity to restore you back to life after a night on the town.
– Voo Store – Oranienstraße 24 – a ‘creatively driven’ concept store with a cafe space in Berlin’s trendy Kreuzberg district.
– do you read me?! – Auguststraße 28 – the place to go if you have a thing for design magazines and architectural books of all descriptions.
– R.S.V.P Papier – Mulackstraße 26 – a small Japanese-inspired stationery and paper store founded in 2001.
– Marheinekeplatz flea market – near Bergmannstraße – every Saturday and Sunday in Kreuzberg.
– Mauerpark flea market – Bernauer Straße 63 – a vast flea market that takes place every Sunday, north of Mitte.
– Indoor flea market at Arena Berlin – Eichenstraße 4 – an indoor, 3,000 sq m hall at the Arena Berlin in Treptow – perfect for bargain hunters, whatever the weather.
I hope you enjoyed my design lover’s guide to Berlin – do let me know if you visit and make use of any of these recommendations. Berlin is a remarkable city with many layers to uncover! Perhaps you have some tips of your own to share?
You can check out my other guides for Barcelona, Venice, Cadaqués, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Amsterdam.
