Restaurants in Berlin

Visitors to Berlin used to complain that they could eat anything they wanted there as long as it was Wurst - sausage, or Schnitzel. A little unfair, since traditional Berlin cuisine has a lot more to offer: Eisbein (knuckle of pork, served with peas), fresh trout and salmon from the rivers of Brandenburg, Hackepeter (steak tartare), gherkins from the Spreewald to the south, and in early summer, fresh asparagus.

The French Huguenot immigrants who arrived in the 17th Century laid the foundations for international cuisine in Berlin, but since the Wall fell and Berlin reestablished contact with the world, the choice has exploded. Indian, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese, French, Latin American, North American, Turkish, Lebanese, Egyptian, Moroccan..... the range of cuisine on offer in the restaurants of this cosmopolitan city is extraordinary.

And not only the food, but the decor. You could be sitting in a cosy, dark wood-clad, typical Berlin cellar restaurant like Zur letzten Instanz sipping a Berliner Kindl, or watching the sushi float towards you round the counter of an ultra-modern Japanese bar in an alley behind Savignyplatz.

You could be savouring an arabic dish of Falafel amongst the white stalagmites and stalagtites of Morgenland in Kreuzberg, or taking in the clear modernist outlines of the Carpe Diem restaurant in Charlottenburg, while you select from a mind-boggling range of Tapas.

You could be sitting at a pavement table outside Café Arada, Berlin's Ethiopian restaurant, your eyes wandering from the enormous platter of meats and delicacies in front of you to the tantalising street life all around. Or pondering the array of Russian dishes at Pasternak.

Like in most big cities, you can pay as much as you want to eat, but it has to be said that by European standards Berlin's eating establishments are relatively low-priced.

And if you just feel like a snack, look for the sign "Imbiss" - the word means snack. Try a Berlin hamburger (a Boulette) from a corner bar, or a Currywurst (curried sausage).Or a delicious and incredibly cheap Döner Kebab from one of the countless small Turkish "Imbisse" that scatter the city.