Berlin Restaurant favorites outside of German food

Funnily, „traditional“ German food would probably be hard to find there anyway - it is not particularly popular there. Except for the street snack „Currywurst“, or maybe some GDR themed place.
What do you like though - if you have any preferences? What price range? There are about 4 million people, many of them immigrants from various countries, and a very vivid vegetarian or vegan scene, for example.
If you have no experience with this, but are curious, I would recommend to try cuisine from the former eastern block - you can get as exotic as Armenia/Georgia (the Caucasus country) or Uzbekistan.

It would also help to know what part of Berlin you're going to be in.

We are staying at Adina Apartment Hotel at Hackescher.
We love Vietnamese food (we have a good selection of many Asian restaurants here in the Seattle area). it it’s usually are go to when traveling too.

As far as Armenian or Turkish we have not tried it but enjoy trying new foods. We tend to eat meals heavy on vegetables rather than lots of meat, starch and heavy sauces. I’m not sure if that helps.
Thank you for your replies.

Do you consider Döner classic German food?

No I think of Doner as more Turkish. I have not tried it.

Berlin has a large immigrant population. You can get just about anything to eat there. I like Doner, and the wrap version is the Durum. That's one of my favorite street foods. You'll also find Asian and Slavic places, but I'd avoid sushi if you're used to really good stuff. Understand that "traditional" food from the area around Berlin is quite different than that of Bavaria or the Rhineland.

Vietnamese and other East Asian styles (Thai, Chinese) will be common enough - many immigrants of that origin will have brought their cuisine. Similarly Indian, which is also usually high on vegetarian. Central Asian has already been mentioned.

The most common cuisines will probably be Turkish or other Middle Eastern, particularly as street food - easy to go veggie there as well, with things like Falafel (chickpea balls) instead of meat.

Also very common will be Italian food, which is likely going to be more actually Italian than what you might be used to from the US - do to more recent immigration and geographic proximity.

Greek and Slavic could be a bit to heavy on meats - look at the menu if in doubt.

You can also go for Ethiopian/„African“, which is less meaty usually.

Mexican or Texmex is frequently called disappointing by people from the Americas - for obvious reasons, as there are very few people from that background to be found.

I can’t really recommend specific restaurants tbh - Berlin has been a while ago for me. But what I usually do for city trips is to make up my mind about the type of restaurant I want, and check google maps or so for ones near to places I will visit.

Momos serves great organic dumplings and is in the general area where you will be staying. https://www.momos-berlin.de/en

Yarok serves relatively inexpensive Syrian food. https://www.yarok-restaurant.de/

Taverna Ouisa is a gemütlich (comfy) Greek restaurant with great mezza but is in the former West Berlin. https://taverna-ousia.de/

We are just back from a week in Berlin. We tried Co Chu (in Mitte) wanting Vietnamese food. It ended up being more Thai in style but was seriously some of the best Thai food we've ever had. We went back almost daily.

We also had terrific Georgian food at Kin Za.

We even tried German Dominos (we like trying the Dominos pizza wherever we travel) and it was surprisingly good! It doesn't top French Dominos (ahhh those French cheeses) but definitely better than Spanish and British, ha.

Thank you AbbeyO for your recommendations.

We also love Vietnamese food, but frankly, when I travel out of country, I don't try to track down foods I eat at home. I look for things to try that I am not familiar with.
Berlin is a bit tough to find outstanding traditional German food, but it is there. Local neighborhood establishments where you can get a pils and good schnitzel are around.
For alternatives, Greek food tends to be done very well in Germany. Asian cuisine is available and decent, but as someone who has spent a lot of time in Asia, I do not look for it. It leans towards the expected.
The other food style that is done to virtual perfection in Berlin is Italian food. You can find some really outstanding restaurants. Even something as pedestrian as a pizza can be excellent.
Street food, its gentrified street food, not street food as you would find it in Turkey or Vietnam etc.
Take the obsession over a sausage with a bit of sauce and curry sprinkled on it as your queue.

Outside of German cuisine , then I would suggest "Good Friends" Restaurant on Kantstrasse in Berlin-Charlottenburg if you want Chinese food, the real authentic version or what the restaurant staff calls the "eingedeutscht" German version, tailored to so-called German tastes, etc. How does one tell?

The pages of the tri-lingual menu (English, Chinese, German) are color coded.

We are staying at Adina Apartment Hotel at Hackescher. We love Vietnamese food (we have a good selection of many Asian restaurants here in the Seattle area). it it’s usually are go to when traveling too.

There are a number of good restaurants in that area, including a wonderful Vietnamese place called Eden, that is a quick walk across the street from the Adina. I also ate at another good Vietnamese restaurant called Viti, on Wilhelmstraße, near the Mall of Berlin.

Thank you to those who recommended specific restaurants. For those in the future here's where we ate our five nights in Berlin.
Note: We had an apartment with a kitchenette. From Eden and Babel we had leftovers (they offered the ‘take away’) for lunch the next day.

Eden - across the street from Adina. Very good. Thai
Osmans Töchter- Excellent Turkish
Rausch - best hot chocolate ever
Babel - Excellent Lebanese, cash
Curry 61- to go and took to apartment. Limited seating.
Lokal- Excellent, variety

Renee, thanks for the update! I loved staying at the Adina and I'm glad you enjoyed your stay in Berlin. It's a marvelous city!

ETA: I totally forgot that the Eden was Thai - but yes, it was good! Thanks for clarifying!

Hi,

Traditional German cuisine restaurants in Berlin are simple to find if you know where to look. How about going to Koepenick ? I've eaten at 2 aside from the traditional cuisine offered at the "mall" across from the S-Bahn station.

One of the restaurants is located on the side street from the Das Rathaus zu Koepenick, boasts of German dishes that grandma used to make. The decor is very old school, ie back to 1906, have been a few times. it's a very esoteric place. Patrons are all German, never saw a foreign visitor there. This was pre-pandemic.

The other is in the vicinity of the Jannowitzbrücke, the Marinehaus Restaurant. If you're into left wing German history immediately after WW1, this place is it.