Vegas Food Finds Goes to Berlin

During our trip to Berlin to attend the Berlinale film festival and visit family, we dove right into the very diverse Berlin culinary scene. With more than 7,000 restaurants in town and a very eclectix mix of cultures and cuisines, Berlin is a true culinary wonderland.

We were staying in one of former East Germany's old working-class neighborhoods, which now is one of the trendiest parts of town: Prenzlauer Berg. In addition to spectacularly beautiful buildings with incredible details and graffiti art that somehow looks good here but would make me cringe in Vegas, Prenzlauer Berg literally has four restaurants at each corner. This is exactly what I miss about Europe: being able to go outside and walk to a restaurant. Thai. Sushi. Mauretanian. Tapas. Traditional German. Fair trade and all organic. Fondue: take your pic.

Following the advice of a major German magazine, we headed to Ars Vini, the city's foremost fondue restaurant. We'd spent the day sightseeing and watching a movie at the Berlinale, and fondue sounded just right. Located in a small, cozy space on a cobblestone street, Ars Vini is a charming little place. With less than a dozen tables and wine-bottle lined walls, this is a restaurant where you can sit for a long time and talk without being brought the unsolicited bill. The downside of this is, of course, that many times you have to be on look out for the waitress, who was running the room by herself (not unusual in Europe). Occassionally, she was also just hanging out with customers and sharing a drink (I know, this doesn't happen in the U.S.)

We wanted to share a bottle of Rioja but were confused: no wine list, but a note saying they really thought that personal recommendations were best. Interesting approach. After several tries, we ended up with a decent red, which was neither from Spain nor as dry as we wanted, but good enough. We were stunned that the waitress filled our glasses to the rim. Not very elegant, but certainly more bang for the euro.

Ars Vini has a large and eclectic fondue menu, at higher-end prices for Berlin (dinner for two, with only one full fondue order and wine, was 60 euro). We went for a traditional meat fondue (combination of pork, shrimp, and beef) with several good dips (the BBQ dip missed the mark, though) and a small side salad. We chose to cook the meat in broth rather than oil, which makes for a lighter meal. We sat at our comfortable, rustic wood table, nibbled on the hearty bread, cooked our meat, and enjoyed the smoke-free (!) ambiance. We heroically resisted the several tempting chocolate fondues for dessert and for some reason also turned down the on-the-house digestive. All in all, a great evening. It's not The Melting Pot, and that's a good thing.

Ars Vini
Dunckerstrasse 78
10437 Berlin (Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood)

--By Judy Jenner