Restaurants  :  Italian

When ranking the average German’s favorite pastimes, “enjoying a fine meal” should appear near the top of the list. For Berliners, dining out is a particularly serious business, especially in light of the city’s ever-evolving roster of chic European and quality ethnic eateries. Along with classic city delicacies like rouladen (beef rolls with bacon, onions, and pickles) and schlachtplatte (a plate of cold meat and sausage), die einheimischen incorporate cuisine from India, Japan, and Thailand into their weekly regimens. In fashionable Mitte and Schöneberg, fare from Italy and France is strongly represented, and restaurants like Charlottensburg’s Alt Luxemburg and Paris-Moskau near Tiergarten herald Berlin’s status as a city with a knack for the gourmet. Oenophiles, meanwhile, happily discover that wines from the Rhone Valley and abroad have an esteemed place in most restaurants and street-side cafés. Turkish food, too, plays a prominent role, especially in Kreuzberg, thanks to corner stands that specialize in falafel and döner kebabs (flat bread-wrapped grilled lamb).