Shopping and Eating Suggestions in Berlin Germany

Hi, John. Try the website visitberlin.de under Experience then Shopping. You'll have to do some reading, but you might be able to find the kinds of stores that you are looking for. Also, under the Experience tab, you will find a food & drink section that looks pretty informative. If you find some places worth recommending, please come back and post here or under trip reports. We'll be there in a few weeks.

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but the well-known KaDeWe department store has a famous and very well-stocked food hall. It is upstairs - the 5th or 6th floor, if i remember correctly, and has a multitude of food products - both traditional German plus international choices. Full of interesting foods that you will never see in a neighborhood grocery. It's worth an hour just to look around. Think Harrods or Fortnum & Mason or Dahlmeyers - same idea.

Have you been to the Europa-Center? Huge shopping mall, with restaurants, etc. located right next to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche (Berliners call it the hollow tooth), left as a ruin as a reminder of the destruction of war. The Europa-Center is the building with the Mercedes star on top.

Eberswalder Strasse/Danzinger Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg has many cool boutiques and restaurants along it. It's not too far from the Mauer Museum/Mauer Park on Bernauer Strasse, near Nordbahnhof.
I'm not so much into authentic German food, but there is a great selection of inexpensive ethnic (Thai, pasta, kebab) restaurants nearby. It's also a good opportunity to escape some of the touristy ripoffs and find good deals.

The best cheap food in Berlin is international food. (And currywurst of course!) Prussia never really developed a renowned, distinctive regional cusiene the way other parts of Germany did. However, if your heart is set on German food, maybe try a restaurant there that specializes in a different regional German food? The Schwartzwaldtuben is supposed to have very good Swabian food and be sort of traditionally hip. I haven't eaten there because I'm surrounded by Swabian food all the time, but it gets good reviews. Berlin does have very good high-end "new German" food. If you're willing to spend the money, Hartmann's is fantastic. Shopping in Berlin is fantastic every but the mitte, really. Prenzlauerberg and Kreuzberg both were overflowing with unique, hip boutiques.

I've eaten at the Schwartzwaldstuben and can recommend it. I liked the flammekuchs, anyway...

Hi, Any district in particular in Berlin where you want to find the traditional German, Prussian or Berlin cuisine?

Definitely currywurst at the little stand outside Kaiser-Wilhelm! Delicious!