Long one of my favourite haunts, the only disadvantage bohemian Café Cinema has for me is that it seems to be one of everybody else’s favourite haunts too. It can be hard to find a table!

I first stumbled in here in 2004 and I’ve been stumbling out of it pretty often since.

Old movie posters and film snaps decorate the walls, overseen by film-set lighting above, but it’s the classic lines of its simple and tasteful furniture, with candles adorning the tables, which give this cosy Berlin institution (in operation since 1990) its cosmopolitan air.

But for the music which is always great, (I’ve never heard a bad song here), you would imagine you were back in the 1920s, a wonderful time to be in Berlin by all accounts. (I’m not that old.)

Friendly prices ensure regulars return, with coffee just €1.50, beer (.5l) for €2.90, and proper Cuba Libres being set free for €4. Snacks range from cake for €1, stew with bread for €2.50, a mixed salad with sheeps’ cheese and tuna for €3.70, or (from 18:00) two fried eggs with salad and your choice of tomato, ham or mushroom, or a combination, for no more that €3.50.

Café Cinema is a favourite meeting place for Berliners and it stays open late too. That’s probably not a coincidence.

Don’t forget to check out Haus Schwarzenberg (check the Haus Schwarzenberg article) just behind it while you’re here.

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Café Cinéma | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks | Cake € 1.00
Rosenthaler Straße 39 | Mitte | +49302806415
12:00 – late daily

Berlin is nowhere near Mexico unfortunately, and the search for a good Mexican comedor in this city can be a hungry one. I’d just about given up all hope when I met a dog out for a cycle with his owner. It was dark and he had a light on his back as he jogged along beside her. They stopped at this cosy-looking place in Kreuzberg and she recommended I go in. “Es ist fantastisch!” The dog looked intelligent so I did.

Ta’ Cabrón is warm and comforting with simple furnishings, a couple of Mexican wrestling masks and the plastic cacti demanded by stereotype. Specials are written up on a board proclaiming various types of tacos (from €4), quesadillas (from €3.50), tostadas (€5.50), burritos (€5.50), enchiladas (€5.50), tamales (€6) and molletes (€6), all with various fillings, along with nachos (€1) and guacamole (€3.50). You help yourself to cutlery so if it’s delayed, you’ve no one to blame but yourself. I ordered a taco gobernador (€6) and a beer (€2.80) and was delighted to be served an authentic taco (with real tortilla!) stuffed with shrimp. I helped myself to the homemade hot sauce. Absolutely delicious. Maybe even too delicious - portions are unfortunately never big enough.

Joaquín Robredo from Culiacán, Sinaloa is two years in business. It really is “¡Ta’ Cabrón!” to have a genuine Mexican taquería in Berlin! It quickly filled up as I was eating – it seems I’m not the only one to be grateful.

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Ta’ Cabrón Taquería | Snacks, Restaurants (Mexican) | Quesadillas € 3.50
Skalitzer Str. 60 | Kreuzberg | +493032662439
Tue – Thu 13:00 – 23:00, Fri – Sat 13:00 – 00:00, Sun 13:00 – 23:00

A short tram ride east will bring you all the way to Asia. Well, not quite – Berlin’s public transport isn’t that good – but the M8 will bring you as far as the Dong Xuan Center where a thriving Vietnamese community is blossoming on what used to be decrepit industrial wasteland.

‘Little Vietnam’ consists of an untidy collection of huge hangers stuffed to the brim with shops upon shops selling all manner of stuff you never knew you needed. Tacky and flashy are the order of the day – this is the place to come for neon shop signs, plastic flowers, cheap wedding dresses, rubber reindeer or plastic figurines. Those friendly one-armed waving cats can of course be found here, as can porcelain pigs engaging in activities no decent porcelain pig would normally be found in.

Weird wares are scattered all around, sandwiched between karaoke bars, shoe shops, barbers, hair salons and nail salons. It’s another world. Old men play cards at a furious pace around tables under clouds of smoke, money changing hands quicker than the eye can see. Live carp patiently await purchase in huge tanks at the back of supermarkets crammed with tins of things I’d never heard of and crazy fruit I’d never seen before.

Browsing through the hustle and bustle is hungry work and a number of restaurants of questionable hygiene offer authentic Vietnamese cuisine. Again, you might have no idea what you’re eating but hey, it’s cheap, cheerful, and certainly an adventure!

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Dong Xuan Center | Bars, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants (Vietnamese)
Herzbergstr. 128 | Outer – North&East | +493055152038
Mon – Sat 09:00 – 18:00

The heavenly smells wafting from Schwarze Pumpe will draw you in from the cold, or long day of exploring, even before you’ve realized whether you’re hungry or not. In fact, you may wander in for just one Hefeweißbier (€ 2.90) and find yourself ordering a delicious Chili Con Carne (€ 4.50) too, as I did.

This cozy little pub/café/Kneipe has long been a favorite with locals, offering heart-warming (limbs too) German fare at its most tempting since it opened in 1993. Daily specials like Fenchel-Tomaten-Suppe (€ 3.50), broccoli and potato bake (€ 6), cheese Spätzle (schwäbische noodles) with salad (€ 6), or Grünkohl in Kräuter (cabbage in herbs, € 3.50) are written on a board and taste much better than they sound. (Thankfully this rule applies to most German cuisine.)

A menu also offers set dishes at very reasonable prices – breakfast, including the typical Rühreier (scrambled egg) with bread for € 3.20, is served from 10:00 -14:00, the kitchen remains open to 23:00, and a very popular Sunday brunch is available for just € 5 every… well, Sunday.

This old-fashioned joint looks like it hasn’t been done up in years, exactly as I like it, and the homely feeling is extenuated by the friendly staff who seem to know everyone who walks in the door.

With the day’s newspapers available for perusal, good music, a cozy atmosphere, simple wooden decor and delicious food and drink, you might find yourself staying longer than originally planned.

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Schwarze Pumpe | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (German) | Apfelschorle € 1.50
Choriner Straße 76 | Mitte | +49304496939
10:00 – 01:00 daily (Kitchen ’til 23:00)

The alternative look of the Zosch’s façade seems not to belong in the tidy area of Oranienburger Straße. You could imagine it in Friedrichshain or Kreuzberg but Mitte has turned more or less into the home of fancy chic in the last years. The Zosch is one of the survivors of the first pubs that established itself after the political turnaround in 1989. And it still remains true to itself. The staff and the people are down-to-earth and the interior is rustic. But the attention belongs to the music.

Downstairs in the cozy cellar which reminds you of an old larder in a medieval castle, mostly every night jazz bands or songwriters play. The atmosphere is familiar even if the pub is full of people. The big wooden tables and benches almost fill out the whole room and the place is quickly crowded.

Especially on Wednesday evening when the Goethe Institute of Berlin holds its student’s regulars’ table in the pub. But normally Zosch is a place where you find a lot of native people. It’s not overcrowded by tourists and most of the bands playing here are from Berlin. The Zosch is always trying to satisfy different tastes of music. Not only jazz but also songwriters, blues or gypsy bands enter the small stage.

Every Wednesday the band La Foot Creole which is committed to New Orleans Jazz plays in the Zosch’s catacomb.

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Zosch | Bars, Music, Snacks | Beer € 2.00
Tucholskystraße 30 | Mitte | +49302807664
16:00 – open end daily

Berlin offers flea markets for every taste. One of my favorites is the quite young flea market at the RAW-Tempel, which used to be a garage area for trains until 1994. Since last year everyone is welcome here to sell and buy stuff.

The Raw flea market is the best alternative to the big and crowded markets at Boxhagener Platz and Mauerpark. Here mostly private sellers try to get rid of clothes, books, games, jewellery, art and decoration. Not only used things but also handmade clothes and jewellery is waiting for a new owner. And there is something for every style: girly, punky, chic, grungy, with flowers or without…

Thanks to the warm and intimate atmosphere this flea market is the place to be for me on Sundays – even in winter. The sellers are open for a chat and always willing to bargain. So I definitely make one or more snips! Don’t forget to bring small change.

After heavy shopping and bargaining there are live music, coffee and Waffles waiting for you.

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RAW flea market | Music, Shopping, Snacks | Free
Revaler Straße 99 | Friedrichshain
Sun 09:00 – 17:00

In the neighborhood of minimalistic Asian restaurants and newly built hotels you will find one of the many typical shabby Berlin coffee places. But this one is not only furnished with second hand seating accommodations surrounded by grey walls.

The coffee place “Mein Haus am See”, which means in English “My house at the lake”, is a quite new location which established near Rosenthaler Platz in December 2009. After entering the place through a big window you will find a high spatial with lots of space for all the inviting couches.

In the back there is a stand where you can sit on big stairs. The walls look like they do after an incomplete renovation, but they have beautiful drawn pictures on them. Next to the small room you find a separate smoker’s area behind a glass wall – a real luxury for smokers in Berlin!

Besides the interior there is another fact, which makes this location unique: “Mein Haus am See” is open 24 hours every day. They serve not only coffee, but also tea with fresh peppermint or ginger, different breakfasts and snacks, cakes and more. This is definitely a second living room!

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Mein Haus am See | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Latte Macchiato € 2.50
Brunnenstraße 197-198 | Mitte | +493023883561
24 hours daily

Chocolate, Ice cream, cakes and coffee – in this cafe you are spoilt for choice!

In a small oriel of a grand building which is situated near Savignyplatz, people with a passion for sweets will feel at home. In summer you can sit outside and watch the passers-by while enjoying your ice cream, in winter the small cozy interior invites you to a hot chocolate. In the tubular room you will find two big vitrines for ice cream and cakes in the front and comfortable armchairs in the back.

The ambiance is perfect for enjoying special coffee drinks like Chocolate café to the full. Also breakfast, yogurt with fruits, baguette, antipasti and wine is offered.

If you want to go there more often you should get a Bleibtreu-Karte (loyalty card) which gives you a loyalty bonus (a free coffee or ice cream) after 9 visits/stamps.

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Chokocafé | Coffee & tea, Snacks | Hot dark Chocolate € 2.80
Bleibtreustraße 15/16 | Charlottenburg | +493060927872
Mon – Sat 11:00 – 19:00, Sun 13:00 – 19:00

Why should I eat Canadian Pizza in Berlin? This is what you might ask the first time you hear about Ron Telesky in Kreuzberg. The answer is easy: This place is different than common Italian pizza restaurants. Here you can get big, thin pizzas with every topping you can imagine: Fresh Pesto, candied walnut, mango, potato, feta sauce and many more. A special thing you should try is the hot maple syrup – but be aware, this is really hot!

The two German owners of Ron Telesky have learned their trade in Canada so they know how to get the Canadian feeling: inside a big moose head on the wall and a mural with a typical lake and mountains on it; outside you can sit either on trunks or in a Canadian canoe while having Dr Pepper Coke and Moosehead Beer. This is real Canadian lumberjack-luxury!

And if you live somewhere near this place you can also use the delivery-service which brings your pizza on a special bike.

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Ron Telesky | Snacks, Restaurants (Canadian pizza) | Piece of pizza € 2.00
Dieffenbachstraße 62 | Kreuzberg | +493061621111
Mon – Fri 12:00 – 22:00, Sat – Sun 15:00 – 22:00

The first thing that comes to your mind when you enter Sankt Oberholz: Is this an office or a cafe? People typing on their computers can be seen everywhere. From time to time, they take a sip of their Latte Macchiato, watching who enters the room while chatting with their neighbor. The secret ingredient at Sankt Oberholz is simple: Wireless Internet. This is no new concept in Berlin but somehow this one has become the preferred hotspot for laptop owners and wireless nomads.

But don’t worry, pixel lovers aren’t the only ones welcome here. There are some more things that make St. Oberholz such a special place to visit. For example, lots of interesting, creative and international people frequent the cafe, located in Berlin’s trendy Mitte District.

So it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary if the nerdy boy at the next chair the leader of an electro band, and if you look closer, the gonzo guy buying a fresh-made peppermint tea could be the author of a popular controversial coming-of-age novel. Or maybe they are just normal students like me.

Be sure to go upstairs and have a seat next to the huge windows. There you’ll have a great view over bustling Rosenthaler Platz – that means more people to watch plus the beautiful light of the sunset in the evening.

By the way, the self-service bar in the cafe offers a huge plate of delicious Spaghetti Bolognese for € 5.00! For smaller appetites you can chose from cakes, sandwiches, bagels and soups.

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Cafe Sankt Oberholz | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Intern.)
Rosenthaler Straße 72a | Mitte | +493024085586
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 00:00, Sat – Sun 09:00 – 00:00