A table for two: date nights in Berlin

Not every date needs a menu of many courses. On a first meeting, a big restaurant can be the opposite of relaxed: if you have committed to three hours, it is hard to leave after one. Both places here leave it open. You can leave after one plate or stay until closing.

Joseph-Roth-Diele – a date in a tavern

Schöneberg · GermanJoseph-Roth-Diele GaststätteOn the map

A tavern on Potsdamer Straße named after Joseph Roth, who wrote about everyday Berlin here in the twenties. Roth quotes line the walls, and you sit on Thonet chairs at tables with red-and-white checked cloths. The cooking is home-style with a Swabian accent: lentils with spätzle and Wiener sausages, matjes on buttered bread, cheese spätzle, and Kalter Hund or crème caramel for dessert.

The catch is the calendar: the Diele is only open Tuesday to Friday, and the kitchen closes at 8 pm. That makes it a weekday date, early in the evening, ending with a shared Kalter Hund.

VOLK – oysters for two by Weinbergspark

Mitte · FrenchVOLKOn the map

The second address is in Mitte, on Brunnenstraße opposite Weinbergspark. Margaux Arabian, daughter of the two-star Parisian chef Ghislaine Arabian, and Oliver Chesler opened VOLK as a tiny oyster bar in January 2019. Today it is bigger, with coloured lights and white tablecloths, and on the way to the toilet you suddenly find yourself in a vintage shop.

The two import their own oysters, mussels and langoustines, and the wines too, and the menu changes almost daily. Oysters for two are a good format for a date: you eat with your hands, share the platter and have a while for it. A dozen and a bottle of white, and then you decide whether another course follows.