The best bakeries in Berlin – and what to order there

Berlin and bread were a one-sided relationship for a long time. The cheap breakfast roll, the discount supermarket bake-off oven, done. If you wanted proper sourdough, you looked to Copenhagen or San Francisco.

That has thoroughly changed. Over the past few years Berlin has grown a baking scene built on long fermentation, ancient grains and open bakehouses – with weekend queues that stay calm because everyone in them knows it's worth it. These are the places we keep going back to.

SOFI – Nordic calm in the Sophienhöfe

SOFI sits in the second courtyard of the Sophienhöfe in Mitte – you have to want this place, you won't stumble past it. The baking runs on ancient grains from small organic farms in Northern Europe, long fermentation and visibly little hurry. The bakehouse is open, and most of what's on the shelf comes more or less straight from the oven.

The sourdough croissant is the reason for the queue on the cobblestones. Come early: whatever is still out after eleven is usually what's left.

Albatross – the flagship in Graefekiez

Albatross on Graefestraße is widely considered the flagship of Berlin's new baking generation – and delivers to over fifty cafés across the city by cargo bike. In other words: this is where the people who supply everyone else buy their own bread. The bakehouse runs behind a curtain, in front of it a narrow café room with terrazzo tables.

On a first visit there is no way around the Queen A: a Breton kouign-amann built from countless layers of laminated dough, butter, caramel and salt. The pistachio-ricotta croissant can wait – the Queen can't.

Gorilla Bäckerei – sourdough and Roman pizza

Gorilla bakes at two locations – on the EUREF campus in Schöneberg and on Hermannstraße in Neukölln – with flours from small mills in Germany and Italy and long proofing times you can taste in the crust. Sourdough loaves, focaccia and Roman pizza slices travel from the glassed-in bakehouse straight into the display.

In Neukölln, get the kouign-amann early; in Schöneberg, order the zucchini pizza whenever it's on the board. The loaves are often gone before noon – that's not marketing, that's experience.

JOHANN – five breads, one idea

JOHANN in the Akazienkiez does the opposite of choice overload: the core is five breads, among them an ancient-grain loaf of emmer and einkorn, Danish rugbrød, and a rye that only comes out of the oven two days a week – and sells out fast.

Go on a weekday. On weekends, half the neighbourhood lines up in front of the glassed-in bakehouse.

AERA – gluten-free, no compromise

After her coeliac diagnosis, Ava Celik spent two years developing a gluten-free sourdough before opening AERA on Charlottenburg's Fasanenstraße in 2018 – there's now a second branch in Mitte. The result is noticeably different from anything else that calls itself gluten-free.

The pick: a sourdough loaf to take home. The green courtyard in Charlottenburg is calmer than the room inside. Card payment only.

LA MAISON – Paris on Herrfurthplatz

LA MAISON brings French boulangerie craft to the Schillerkiez: croissants plain, with chocolate or almonds, plus financiers, tartes and croque maison – much of it also available vegan. The light-flooded home base on Herrfurthplatz works perfectly as a supply stop for Tempelhofer Feld; the pop-up on Helmholtzplatz covers Prenzlauer Berg.

Get the croissants in the morning – by lunchtime the display is audibly thinner, on weekends even earlier.

Taktil – wood-fired in Nogatstraße

Katharina and Lennert learned their craft in Provence and have run Taktil on Neukölln's Nogatstraße since 2021 – rye and wheat sourdoughs, baguettes and brioche, all from the wood-fired oven. The tagline "Bakery in Progress" is meant seriously.

The insider move: Friday night pizza from the same wood-fired oven – vegan, vegetarian or classic.

Bottom line

Berlin has relearned bread. The shared formula of the new bakehouses: few varieties, long fermentation, an open bakery – and shelves that can be empty before noon. Getting up early isn't a recommendation here, it's a requirement.