What to Eat in Berlin: Local Specialities and Where to Find Them

Berlin specialities at a glance

You will find these dishes all over the city, from station kiosks to old-style restaurants. The sections below give the best-known addresses.

Currywurst, Berlin's signature dish

Currywurst is a grilled or fried pork sausage, cut into slices, covered in a tomato-based sauce and dusted with curry powder. It is eaten standing up, from a paper tray, with a small wooden fork, alongside chips or a bread roll.

Its invention is credited to Herta Heuwer, who ran a snack kiosk in Charlottenburg. According to tradition, she created her sauce on 4 September 1949. A plaque put up in 2003 on the building at Kantstraße 101, on the Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße side, marks where her stand stood.

In Berlin you will often be asked whether you want your sausage with or without skin ("mit oder ohne Darm"). The skinless version is a Berlin habit, especially in the former East Berlin.

Where to eat currywurst

• Konnopke's Imbiss, Schönhauser Allee 44B, in Prenzlauer Berg, under the viaduct of the U2 line, at the foot of Eberswalder Straße station. Founded in 1930 by Max Konnopke, it is the best-known kiosk of former East Berlin. Open Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 6pm and Saturday from 12pm to 7pm; closed on Sundays and Mondays. Our guide to Prenzlauer Berg includes it in a walk through the neighbourhood.
• Curry 36, Mehringdamm 36, in Kreuzberg (Mehringdamm station, U6 and U7). Opened in 1980, this stand is still very busy and serves every day from 9am to 5am. It also has counters at the central station (Hauptbahnhof), at Zoologischer Garten station and at Warschauer Straße.
• The gourmet floor of KaDeWe, on the department store's 6th floor, also serves currywurst at its counters, if you would rather try it sitting down.

The döner kebab, born in West Berlin

The döner kebab as it is eaten across Europe, in Turkish bread filled with grilled meat, salad, onions and sauces, is a Berlin invention. It is credited to Kadir Nurman, a Turkish immigrant said to have served the first sandwich of this kind in 1972, at his stand at Zoologischer Garten station. Until then, the meat from the spit was served on a plate. Nurman himself never claimed the idea was his alone, but it was in Berlin that the formula took off.

Döner remains the most common cheap meal in the city. Its price has risen sharply in recent years: surveys published in 2026 put the median price at around €7 in Berlin. Our guide to Berlin on a budget compares it with other costs of a trip.

Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap

The most famous snack bar is Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap, on Mehringdamm, a few steps from Curry 36. Its chicken döner comes with grilled vegetables, feta and a squeeze of lemon. The queue often lasts more than half an hour, and longer in the evening and at weekends. The stand opens Monday to Thursday and Sunday from 10am to 11:30pm, Friday from 1pm to 1:30am and Saturday from 10am to 1:30am.

If you do not have time to wait, any Turkish snack bar in Kreuzberg or Neukölln will do: quality is generally good across the city. Our guide to Kreuzberg describes the streets where they are most numerous.

Traditional Berlin cooking

Berlin cooking is pub food, filling and based on pork, potatoes and cabbage. The dishes to know:

• Eisbein: cured pork knuckle, slowly cooked and served with sauerkraut and often a pea purée (Erbspüree). It is a large dish, best shared if you are not very hungry.
• Buletten: the Berlin name for minced meat patties, eaten hot with potatoes, or cold with mustard at the bar of a Kneipe.
• Königsberger Klopse: meatballs poached in a white caper sauce, served with potatoes or rice.
• Kassler: salted and smoked pork loin or chop, served with sauerkraut.
• Leber Berliner Art: pan-fried calf's liver with apples and onions, served with mashed potatoes.

Zur letzten Instanz, Berlin's oldest restaurant

To try these dishes in a historic setting, Zur letzten Instanz, Waisenstraße 14-16, 10179 Berlin, presents itself as the oldest restaurant in the city: an inn has been recorded here since 1621. Its current name, "The Last Instance", dates from 1924 and refers to the neighbouring court on Littenstraße. The menu follows the seasons, with produce from regional suppliers; from 11 November, Saint Martin's goose is served. The restaurant opens Monday to Thursday from 5:30pm, and Friday and Saturday from 12pm, with a break from 3pm to 5:30pm; it is closed on Sundays. Book for dinner. Klosterstraße station (U2).

All over the city, the Kneipen, the neighbourhood pubs, also serve simple dishes at moderate prices: Buletten, herring, eggs in mustard sauce (Senfeier) or pea soup.

Pfannkuchen and sweets

The jam-filled doughnut that the rest of Germany and the world call a "Berliner" is known in Berlin as a Pfannkuchen. Elsewhere the word means a pancake: in Berlin, ask for a Pfannkuchen in a bakery and you will be handed the doughnut. It is dusted with sugar or glazed, and most often filled with plum, strawberry or raspberry jam.

It is eaten all year round, but above all on New Year's Eve and during carnival. On 31 December, tradition has it that a few doughnuts in each batch are filled with mustard to catch out the guests.

In the afternoon, Berliners take "Kaffee und Kuchen", a coffee and cake break: fruit tarts, quark cheesecake (Käsekuchen), crumble cake (Streuselkuchen). Neighbourhood bakeries and cafés serve them everywhere. In winter, the Berlin Christmas markets add gingerbread, roasted almonds and mulled wine.

What to drink in Berlin

The city's historic drink is Berliner Weisse, a light, sour wheat beer. In the 19th century it was the most popular alcoholic drink in Berlin. Today it is mostly ordered "mit Schuss", with a dash of syrup: red with raspberry (Himbeere) or green with woodruff (Waldmeister). It is drunk on summer terraces, often with a straw, from a wide stemmed glass.

Otherwise, Berlin's everyday beers are pilsners: Berliner Kindl, Schultheiss or Berliner Pilsner, available in every Kneipe. Craft breweries have also multiplied across the city.

The Späti (Spätkauf), the corner shop that stays open late and on Sundays, is the other Berlin institution: buy a cold beer and drink it on the bench outside or by a canal. Most drinks carry a deposit (Pfand): €0.08 to €0.25 per container, refunded at the supermarket. To go out after dinner, see our guide to Berlin at night.

Markets and food halls for a quick bite

Markets are the best way to taste a bit of everything for little money:

• Markthalle Neun, Eisenbahnstraße 42/43, in Kreuzberg: a covered hall from 1891, open Monday to Saturday. Every Thursday from 5pm to 10pm, Street Food Thursday brings together stalls of food from around the world.
• The Turkish market on the Maybachufer, along the Landwehrkanal, on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11am to 6:30pm: fruit, olives, cheeses, bread and Turkish snacks. Schönleinstraße station (U8).
• Winterfeldtmarkt, on Winterfeldtplatz, in Schöneberg: one of the largest open-air markets in the city, on Wednesdays from 8am to 2pm and Saturdays from 8am to 4pm, with many stalls where you can eat on the spot. Nollendorfplatz station (U1, U2, U3, U4). It does not take place on public holidays.
• The Mauerpark flea market, on Sundays: street food counters between the second-hand stalls.

World food: Vietnamese, Turkish and vegetarian

Berlin has a great many Vietnamese restaurants, partly a legacy of the workers who came from Vietnam to the GDR. The Dong Xuan Center, Herzbergstraße 128-139, 10365 Berlin, in Lichtenberg, is Germany's largest Asian wholesale market: six halls of shops, grocers and small Vietnamese restaurants. It opens Monday and Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 8pm; it is closed on Tuesdays. Trams M8 and 21 stop in front of the main entrance.

Turkish food, beyond döner, is everywhere in Kreuzberg and Neukölln: gözleme (filled flatbreads), lahmacun, grilled meats and syrup pastries. Berlin is also one of the easiest cities in Europe to eat vegetarian or vegan: most restaurants mark these dishes on their menus, and many snack bars offer a vegan döner or currywurst.

Practical tips for eating in Berlin

• Cash: many kiosks, snack bars, bakeries and Kneipen only take cash or set a minimum amount for cards. Keep coins and small notes on you.
• Tipping: in restaurants, you state the total, tip included, when you pay, rather than leaving coins on the table. Our guide to paying in Berlin explains the customs.
• Mealtimes: Berliners eat dinner early, often from 6pm or 7pm. Many kitchens close around 10pm, but snack bars stay open late, some until the early hours.
• Sundays: supermarkets are closed. That leaves the Spätis, bakeries open in the morning and the grocery shops in the main stations.
• Booking: needed in the evening and at weekends at well-known traditional restaurants; unnecessary for snack bars and food halls.

What to eat where: summary of addresses

Opening hours as checked in October 2026. Kiosks and markets may close earlier on public holidays and in winter.

Further reading

To combine currywurst, döner and a market in a single day, our guide to Kreuzberg brings together Curry 36, Mustafa's, Markthalle Neun and the Turkish market. Our guide to Berlin on a budget helps you plan what meals will cost, and our guide to paying in Berlin explains when to have cash ready. To end the evening, see our guide to Berlin at night.