Wirtshaus Fünfländereck, Rathausstrasse, Berlin

Berliner Bitok

Wirtshausschnitzel

Bratkartoffeln

Unexpectedly, stumbling into decent restaurants is what makes my day. I’m very interested in modern german history (late 19th century onwards), so I started off my trip by visiting the Stasi Museum. I couldn’t resist the lovely stall outside selling meat and over the counter take away offering they had in the shed next to it. I went for a “Pferdebulette” which is a horse burger for a mere 1 Euro 50 with a nice bread and mustard. It’s not often that I head to a museum in such a good mood. The museum itself was somewhat bland since it’s currently residing in a side building and it focussed too much on the technical gadgets. Important topics such as the Rosenholz Dateien are not even mentioned. Oh yean and they wouldn’t let me into the Stasi archives either, since I did’nt have an appointment. How very german. But you’re not reading this blog since you wan’t me ranting about museums in general, you’re interested in my experiences in the world of dining. Wandering back I first picked up a sweater at a local department store since I had tickets for two Berlin Unterwelten tours in the afternoon and thougt I might be cold. Let me tell you something, I did the standard tour 1 and tour 3. Three is not as spectatuclar for a swiss guy, since you’ll most likely have spent time in similar bunkers in the army (except for the one where the whole subway station transforms into one). The first tour is fantastic and I even went so far as to give the tour guide a golden handshake (slipping him a Euro bill) since he was rivetting, interesting and entertaining. If I were a billionaire, I’d donate a hefty chunk of cash to this simply fantastic organisation. But again, I’m missing the point. I walked to a place called Wirtshaus Fünfländereck which I saw when taking the taxi to the museum. I was literally the only guest and even asked if they were opened, but she replied sure no problem and that they’re serving food for lunch. Another two guest appeared about 30 minutes later, but that was it. Now I keep making the same mistake in german restaurants, I apply my swiss baseline of prices and serving size which tends to lead to surprises. Keeping in mind that I already had a horse burger I see something on the menu which catches my attention since it’s pitched as a small thing to eat while drinking. So as an appetizer I order Berliner Bitok, whicH are meatballs, mustard and a pickle. They were homemade, of decent quality and just a bit too much to start off a meal. My main course was a pretty good Schnitzel accompanied with sauteed potatoes (Bratkartoffeln) a staple german dish. What pasta is to italian sons, Bratkartoffeln are to german boys. I’ve once seen a program on television where the crew of a large german freighter went into full-fledged mutiny, since the Smutje (boat cook) couldn’t make Bratkartoffeln. Anyway – they were great and so was the Schnitzel. The whole course was dubbed Wirtshausschnitzel. Only downswide was, that I didn’t finish them since it was too much. Prices (for a swiss perspective) were cheap:

Rechnung