Berlin’s wine bars: what to drink and eat

You can tell a good wine bar by what sits next to the glass. At these nine it is more than a bowl of olives: sardine toast, house-made ham, cauliflower with egg-yolk sauce. Some are nearly restaurants, others stay bars you drop into for a glass.

Material – coffee first, then Spanish natural wine

Material on Schönhauser Allee is café and wine bar in one, run by Carlos and Ebrahim. The coffee comes from Ebrahim’s own roastery in Brandenburg; the wines are mostly Spanish natural wines chosen by Carlos. The open kitchen bakes in-house, sourdough included, and drinks are poured at a tiled bar. In the evening, a glass of Spanish natural wine with sardine toast is the move. Open from eight in the morning until one at night.

MaterialPrenzlauer Berg · Café

jaja – natural wine in the Reuterkiez

Jaja is French slang for simple wine, and it is the name of the bar on Weichselstraße that has focused on natural wine since 2016. Today it is run by Hannes Broecker, who came first as a guest, then as a cook and finally as owner. The wine bar has become a bistro, with seasonal small plates and a listing in the Michelin Guide. When it is on, the cauliflower with egg-yolk sauce is the dish of the evening. Guest chefs regularly take over the kitchen.

jajaNeukölln · Wine Bar

Must Eat

jaja

One dish here made it onto our cards.

Bottega Seppel – more butter, more wine

Lidia and Luiz built most of Bottega Seppel on Giesebrechtstraße themselves and opened in October 2024. “Seppel” is a childhood nickname. Their own motto: more butter, more wine and time to linger. You can come just for a glass; the menu changes with the seasons and is meant for sharing, such as scallop with crispy curry leaves or house-made ricotta with vegetables. Besides the plates to share, the Seppel chicken, which is also in the logo, belongs on the table.

Bottega SeppelCharlottenburg · Wine Bar

Must Eat

Bottega Seppel

One dish here made it onto our cards.

Estelle – stone oven meets natural wine

Rebecca and Jared Bassoff met in New York at Joël Robuchon’s Atelier. Rebecca started at Traube Tonbach and spent five years at the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong; Jared cooked at the Hôtel de Ville in Crissier, among others. Estelle on Kopenhagener Straße is their neighbourhood restaurant, with modern European cooking and a stone oven at its centre that reaches 450 degrees. What comes out of the stone oven is the most rewarding, in the evening pizza too. At weekends there is brunch, on weekdays lunch, and dogs are welcome as long as they sleep under the table.

EstellePrenzlauer Berg · Wine Bar

Must Eat

Estelle

One dish here made it onto our cards.

Pluto – cave and pintxo bar on Kastanienallee

Pluto is the project of Vadim Otto Ursus and Sören Zuppke, a few steps from otto. The models were French caves and Spanish pintxo bars; the studio kore projects designed the room with cherry wood, zinc and walls in warm red. The wine list leans on biodynamic growers from Europe, plus champagne and beer on tap. The team buys whole animals from Brandenburg farms and butchers them together with otto and Trio. Baguette with butter and the house-made Mangalitza ham belong with the wine. No reservations; you sit wherever there is room. Open Thursday to Monday from 5 pm.

PlutoPrenzlauer Berg · Wine Bar

Freundschaft – the long bar in Mitte

Willi Schlögl came from Cordobar, Johannes Schellhorn from Nobelhart & Schmutzig; both are Austrian sommeliers. In 2018 they founded Freundschaft on Mittelstraße with Moritz Estermann and Stephan Landwehr: a big wine list without the pressure of a set menu. 450 entries have become nearly 800, focused on Austria, plus Germany and France. The food is small dishes so that, as they put it, nobody falls off their stool too quickly. At the long bar the sommeliers recommend one of the wines by the glass. Open Monday to Friday from 6 pm.

FreundschaftMitte · Bar

ORA – wine bar in the old pharmacy

ORA sits in the former Oranien pharmacy on Oranienplatz, its lettering still on the façade. The woodwork and ceiling stucco from the 1860s and 1920s survive. Head chef Alan Micks previously ran the restaurant at the Michelberger; sommelière Amyna Le is in charge of the wines.

For two, the chef’s choice menu to share is worth it; à la carte, the razor clams with seaweed-garlic butter and the duck-fat potatoes with blue-cheese aioli. The house recommends the wine.

ORA Restaurant & Wine BarKreuzberg · Wine Bar

Le Balto – wine on tap on Hobrechtstraße

Le Balto on Hobrechtstraße is the natural wine bar of Aishah Bennett of Geist im Glas and Laurel Kratochvila of Fine Bagels. The ceilings of both rooms are hand-painted, one with clouds, the other with a night sky. The wines come mainly from Austria, France and the Czech Republic, and some are drawn fresh from the tap. The wine on tap is the speciality, and the challah toast with salmon goes with it.

Le BaltoNeukölln · Wine Bar

Sardinen Bar – vintage tins in Schöneberg

Thomas Vetter opened Germany’s first sardine bar on Grunewaldstraße in 2016. His motto: everything comes from a tin except the wine and the cheese. Behind the bar and along the walls are stacks of tins from Portugal and France, including vintage sardines that mature over the years like wine. In the bistro they are opened fresh at the table. The vintage sardine is the reason to visit, and your favourite tin is for sale to take home afterwards.

Sardinen BarSchöneberg · Wine Bar

Must Eat

Sardinen Bar

One dish here made it onto our cards.