The 14 best bars in Berlin

Burnt lavender, rhubarb, and lime gimlets. Hazelnut, toasted sesame, and honey-coffee Old Fashioned. Alcohol-free grapefruit, lapsang souchong, cherry, and soda highballs. Cooking up original flavours in the laboratory (literally) basement is what the Wax On team do best – and it’s something they are getting more than noticed for (they’ve just made the World’s 50 Best Bars). Stop by this moodily lit, casually curated bar and prepare to have your mind blown.

Bar meets club meets artist collective at Klunkerkranich. Hidden away on a top floor, this is an oasis in the urban jungle of Berlin, a relaxed rooftop bar that turns into a club or concert venue, depending on the night.The journey here is part of the adventure, with entry requiring access to a mall, a quick elevator trip to the car park, and finally finding the entrance to get onto the top floor ‘parking lot’, decorated with purple, red, and blue neons, strings of coloured bulbs, and even a giant coloured light sculpture shaped like a blinking cat. From here you can see one of the best sunsets in town – all the way to the TV Tower. 

One of Berlin’s best date night bars and definitely one of its historically fascinating ones, the beautiful Ora bar flirts with its past status as a pharmacy, and accentuates vintage fittings with modern-day glamour. Built as an Apotheke in the 1860s, rows of old medicine bottles, brass-gold-coloured countertops, and the square-panelled wood are still evident among the bustle of wait staff in this converted bar, who bring out seasonal small serving plates and champagne to the candlelit tables. Is it Berlin’s cheapest bar? Afraid not. Is it a contender for its most romantic? Absolutely.

This long-running cocktail bar is an oasis of fine drink in the sparsely served Prenzlauer Berg. It follows the classic speakeasy model; enter via an unmarked door and find yourself in rooms draped in red velvet. Settle back on the chesterfield sofas and enjoy the fresh air of the no-smoking room – a relative rarity on Berlin’s bar scene. Try the Aviation, a paean to the classier days of air travel: a florid mix of gin, violet, maraschino and lemon. A grizzled portrait of playwright Samuel Beckett – not averse to a drink himself – keeps watch over proceedings.

From striking wooden panelling to Victorian curios dotted along the bar and an esoteric toilet, the attention to detail in the décor is reason enough to come here. The speciality is infused alcohols, shots of which are poured from a giant bottle at the bar or mixed into house cocktails, such as the Geist Russian, a rich blend of vodka infused with vanilla, cinnamon, Kahlúa and cream. The weekend brunch features huevos rancheros, chicken with waffles and fabulous Bloody Marys, but you’ll need to get there early.

Down a backstreet off Torstrasse, this cosy bar is a favourite of Mitte media types. With a large horseshoe-shaped bar dominating the room, it’s bar stools or standing only, as this place seriously packs out with a slick, bespectacled clientele and the occasional actor or celebrity. The house wine is excellent. Alternatively, try the Kölsch beer from Cologne – tradition dictates that it’s served in a tiny glass, constantly refilled by the barman until you abandon it half-full or lay a beer mat over the top.

It’s a bit of a mouthful, but this sultry boozer is named after Luis Buñuel’s absurdist masterpiece The Exterminating Angel, in which a group of bourgeois worthies find themselves inexplicably unable to leave a lavish dinner party. The smartly dressed waiting staff, glass-latticed ceiling and leather booths evoke an old-world sensibility, but despite the glamour, it’s accessibly priced.

A vast 1960s estate housing a majority of Turkish families is also home to Möbel Olfe, an always-packed alternative gay bar. Old chairs are glued to the ceiling in a cheeky nod to the space’s original function as a furniture shop. Thursdays really get pumping – you often see a foggy mass of bodies pressed against the windows on either side of the building – while Tuesdays are more for the ladies (though all are welcome any night). 

Dicke Wirtin is a proper German pub: nine beers on tap, bizarre house schnapps – tiramisu liqueur, anyone? – and dirt-cheap prices for the area. If you get tipsy, there are plenty of Schmalz-based (lard) treats to bring you back to earth. Come early for a massive plate of Wiener Schnitzel or sausage, and stay until late.

This dive bar just off Kottbusser Damm is a particularly eccentric example of a Berlin Kneipe (pub), decorated with dolls, old bicycles and instruments. It’s usually rammed all day, with rowdy characters propping up the bar or hammering away at the table football. Naturally, the beer is both cheap and plentiful.