Berlin's best restaurants and bars for Informa's SuperReturn International 2020

The world's largest private equity and venture capital event, SuperReturn International, comes to Berlin this February, bringing with it 3,000 influential members of the global equity community and countless networking opportunities. Ahead of the event, we explore the best restaurants and bars in the city in order to help attendees plan everything from power business dinners in Michelin-starred restaurants to late-night cocktails in trendy speakeasies.

If you're attending SuperReturn International, which takes place at the InterContinental Hotel Berlin from 25th-28th February 2020, you can access the official hotel deals from HotelMap™here.

by Steven Potter & Vicki Forde

Michelin-starred Pauly Saal serves inventive tasting menus within a striking, design-led dining room

Visitors to SuperReturn International needn’t venture far to find an exceptional evening meal; Michelin-starred restaurant Hugos is located on the 14th floor of the InterContinental Hotel Berlin, where the event is taking place. Having held onto its star since 1999, the restaurant has been at the forefront of Berlin’s dining scene for the past 20 years, with Eberhard Lange’s down-to-earth yet sophisticated dishes – a blend of French and Mediterranean cuisines – served against sleek Scandinavian-inspired interiors and sweeping panoramic views across the city. The hotel is also home to Marlene Restaurant – another spot that's ideal for business dinners – and Marlene Bar, offering a menu of more than 150 cocktails in elegant wood-panelled surroundings.

Also in Tiergarten, Facil is a sleek two-Michelin-starred restaurant found within The Mandala hotel. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a pretty outdoor courtyard create a tranquil dining experience while Michael Kempf’s exceptional culinary creations are innovative yet unfussy. 

A number of destination restaurants and bars can be found within the colourful Hotel Zoo

Nearby, the eccentric Hotel Zoo is home to a number of designer restaurants and bars. Grace Restaurant serves a creative Southeast Asian-inspired menu in a theatrical setting of velvet wingback chairs, bottle green leather banquettes and quirky birdcage lamps while the intimate Grace Bar has a 1920s speakeasy vibe with exposed brickwork, dimmed lights and a purple panelled bar punctuated with seductive velvet, fur and tassels. The hotel’s rooftop, meanwhile, is home to a lounge and bar area where DJs play clubhouse tunes against a backdrop of panoramic city views. Provocateur Hotel also transports guests back to the 1920s with its glamorous in-house restaurant, Golden Phoenix. Headed up by Chef Duc Ngo, known for Kucki – Berlin's first trendy Asian restaurant – the French-Chinese restaurant sees the Hanoi-born chef combine French techniques and complex Asian flavours in Paris meets Shanghai surroundings.

Panama serves refreshing yet punchy cuisine that revives German classics with modern cooking techniques | Photo © Caitlin Collins

Housed within a former Jewish girls’ school in Mitte, Pauly Saal is another restaurant that puts design at the forefront with ceramic tiled walls, velvet green banquettes, Murano chandeliers and a huge rocket art installation that spans the full width of the room – a scene that’s sure to make a striking first impression. It’s certainly not a case of style over substance, however; Arne Anker’s creative cuisine has propelled the restaurant to Michelin star status, serving up inventive tasting menus created using locally sourced ingredients. The restaurant sits within Moritz Estermann and Stephan Landwehr’s prolific restaurant group, which also encompasses infamous steakhouse Grill Royal, its little sister Le Petit Royal and Viennese-style Cafe Einstein Stammhaus. The latter is just a ten-minute walk from InterContinental Berlin and is best known for serving some of the best coffee in town as well as traditional Austrian delicacies. After dinner, saunter to the charming Les Climats wine bar that sits a few streets away. 

Facil is a sleek two-Michelin-starred restaurant found within The Mandala hotel

A more recent addition to Estermann and Landwehr’s group is Dalad Kambhu’s high-end Thai restaurant, Kin Dee – meaning ‘eat well’. Utilising local produce rather than importing traditional Thai ingredients, the restaurant offers a contemporary and innovative take on Thai cuisine. This winning formula led to the restaurant winning its first Michelin star in 2019, just two years after opening. This makes Kambhu the youngest woman to ever receive a Michelin star in Germany. 

It’s not just Thai food that’s packing a punch in the city. Thanks to a wave of exciting new Indian restaurants, diners can now find bold, vibrant flavours all across the German capital. Chutnify led the way back in 2015, opening ‘to fill a glaring void in Berlin’ with authentic Indian food served in a colourful setting. The brand now has two restaurants in the city as well as an outlet in Lisbon. Opened more recently, Bombay Café Bunty’s brings seasonal and contemporary Indian cuisine to Charlottenburg while India Club offers a more refined experience with authentic tandoori dishes and curries served against elegant interiors of British colonial style furnishings and Indian colours and patterns.

The aesthetically pleasing Tiger Bar is the sister venue to Panama | Photo © Philipp Langenheim & Corina Schadendorf

After ten years of serving experimental vegetarian cuisine, Heinz Gindullis’ uber-trendy restaurant, Cookies Cream, was elevated to Michelin star status in 2017. Hidden down the service alley of the Westin Grand Hotel, the restaurant’s entrance is marked only by a lone chandelier and a well-used doorbell – a sign of the venue’s popularity. Once successfully inside, diners can feast on Stephan Hentschel’s award-winning cuisine, which utilises techniques such as fermenting, reducing, preserving and salt-crust baking to elicit maximum flavour from each of the vegetables, successfully creating dishes that appeal to vegetarians and meat lovers alike. 

Cafe Einstein Stammhaus serves some of the best coffee in town as well as traditional Austrian delicacies

Offering a more traditional culinary experience, Joseph Roth Diele serves schnitzel, sauerkraut and spaetzle in a wood-panelled brasserie reminiscent of the 1920s. For a taste of new German cuisine, however, pay a visit to the bright and airy Panama – named after German children’s book “Oh wie schön ist Panama” as a nod to its German roots and exotic influences. With white-washed walls and light wood furnishings punctuated with pops of colour, neon artworks and potted cacti, the aesthetically pleasing dining room is the perfect setting to enjoy Sophia Rudolph’s refreshing yet punchy cuisine that revives German classics with modern cooking techniques and exotic ingredients. The restaurant’s sister venue, Tiger Bar, can be found right next door and serves experimental cocktails made using ingredients from the restaurant.

The lakeside beer garden at Cafe am Neuen See boasts one of the prettiest settings in Berlin

Taking the fusion concept a step further, Neni Berlin draws inspiration from all over the world for its menu, presenting a menu made up of Russian, Arabian, Moroccan, Persian, Isreali, Spanish, German and Austrian flavours. Pots and pans are taken straight from the kitchen to the table ready for diners to tuck into a sharing feast. Located on the top floor of the colourful 25 Hours Hotel, the dining room is enveloped within floor-to-ceiling glass walls, offering outstanding views across Berlin and the nearby zoo. The neighbouring Monkey Bar – so called due to its views over the monkey enclosure within Berlin Zoo – is one of the city’s most popular watering holes. The interiors have an urban jungle aesthetic with oversized plants and treetrunk seating while the outdoor terrace is a fantastic spot for post-work sundowners.

Provocateur Hotel transports guests back to the 1920s with its glamorous in-house restaurant, Golden Phoenix

On the other side of the zoo, within Tiergarten park, the lakeside Cafe am Neuen See boasts one of the prettiest settings in Berlin. The outdoor beer garden sits under a canopy of trees and string lights, making it an idyllic summer destination, while the indoor restaurant is a dreamy winter spot with stone-baked pizzas and classic Bavarian dishes served next to roaring fires and panoramic windows. Bringing the outdoors inside, Journey into the Night serves classic and bespoke cocktails under a ceiling filled with hanging foliage. Palm tree wall prints, stuffed animals and neon signs continue the urban jungle theme. The first hip bar to arrive in upscale Charlottenburg, the venue is a popular spot for post-work drinks and is just a five-minute drive from InterContinental Berlin. A little further south, in Wilmersdorf, Stairs Bar is an intimate speakeasy that puts cocktails at the forefront with a carefully crafted menu made up of well-known classics and innovative creations.

BOOK NOW

A number of special hotel deals have been arranged for registered visitors and exhibitors for SuperReturn International: Check out the hotel deals for SuperReturn International 2020.

CONTACT THE SUPERRETURN INTERNATIONAL CONCIERGE TEAM

If you are attending SuperReturn International you can access the official hotel deals from HotelMap™here.

Alternatively, email: Jessica@HotelMap.com or telephone on +44 20 7292 2320.