The Diverse Restaurants in International Berlin

With Over 190 Nationalities in the City, Good Food is Easy to Find

by Beebe Bahrami

One of Berlin's street cafes and restaurants, with food and drink from many cultures represented.

Berliners seem to be having a love affair with Indian, Thai, Syrian, and Turkish cuisine. Every other restaurant seems to be Indian, Thai, or Middle Eastern. Even the "fast food," still locally procured and made with healthy ingredients, reflects an Eastern twist: try the Turkish Döner Kebaps of lamb or chicken or the Berlin sausage specialty, Curry Wurst. Curry Wurst? It's the perfect marriage, based on a sausage like the Bockwurst, enhanced with tomato sauce, curry, and paprika — and can be had anywhere in the city at neighborhood stands and subway kiosks. Beyond these offerings, falafel joints and sushi bars also abound. I also ate in one of the best Iranian restaurants anywhere, including those of my childhood from summer visits to Tehran before 1979. The Russian vegetarian food was sublime, using local ingredients like just-gathered forest mushrooms and fresh winter spinach.

Berlin as a Living Museum of Every Food Tradition

Berlin is a living museum collection of every food tradition, and it reflects the vast diversity of people who have made Germany's new capital their home. Here, restaurants range from Tex-Mex, Mexican, Russian, Italian, Turkish, Iranian, Syrian, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Polish, Balkan, and beyond. Initially, I thought this diversity was an influx of people worldwide after the Wall came down. I was profoundly mistaken. The rich diversity of people in Berlin resulted from the Cold War and the Wall.

When the Wall went up in 1961, many jobs sat vacant on both the east and the west sides as their former occupants could not commute to work. The vacancies were filled on the east side by people from around the world who were under the Soviet sway or shadow. The same happened on the west side, where job vacancies were filled by migrants from other capitalist countries, including Turkey. By the time the wall came down in 1989, all these people were as much Berliners as natives of their ancestral places. Consequently, Berlin is now incredibly culturally diverse, and this diversity is well-established and is not only a recent phenomenon. Recent statistics count 190+ nationalities in Berlin out of a population of 3.75 million. The diversity results in a wealth of restaurants of all kinds that represent modern Berlin.

In Berlin's restaurants, cafes, and bars, you will discover the warmth of the best Berliners. In these places — Berliners really relax, enjoy the moment, share space and time with others, and take their time over a coffee or a beer. Such gathering places in Berlin are created for such lingering, with incredibly hospitable servers, warm colored walls (rust red, ochre, burnt sienna, café au lait brown), white candles on every table, warm wooden floors, chairs, and tables, and all-natural greens or flowers infusing the spaces.

Below are places where I have had a great meal or cup of coffee and enjoyed the society of the place. I can only hope these places remain open in the future (one way to check is by using sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp as a cross-reference). One of the standard features of Berlin is the opening and closing of restaurants, cafes, and bars in the blink of an eye. The reasons have nothing to do with how good they were. Still, they are about making it in a continually transforming and growing economy. So, take the below as a guide, and follow your instinct: if you wander by a place that calls to you, go in.

An intriguing cultural note: Don't be surprised if people ask to share your table when a restaurant is packed, and there is a spare seat or two where you're seated. It is a very common practice, and most people respect your space by not speaking to you, and they expect the same from you. It makes dining alone more communal while still being non-invasive.

Beebe Bahrami is a freelance writer and cultural anthropologist specializing in travel, food and wine, and cross-cultural writing.