The bar guide to Berlin requires a different approach to most city bar guides, because Berlin does not have a bar culture in the conventional sense. It has a 24-hour drinking culture that bleeds between bars, clubs, and venues that do not fit either category. The best drinking here happens in basements, courtyards, disused buildings, and spaces that in most cities would not be permitted to operate as bars at all. This guide covers the ones that are worth your time on a non-clubbing evening, which is its own category entirely.
The relevant geography: Kreuzberg and Neukölln for neighbourhood bars and late-night. Mitte for cocktail bars and the newer scene. Prenzlauer Berg for wine bars and the slightly older crowd. Friedrichshain for live music and the bar-clubs that blur the line. Understanding which neighbourhood suits your evening saves a lot of time.
Kreuzberg and Neukölln
These two neighbourhoods contain more bars per square kilometre than anywhere else in Berlin and represent the city's drinking culture at its most authentic. The bars here are not trying to impress anyone. They are priced for the people who live nearby, lit at a level that makes everyone look acceptable, and open until everyone has decided to go home or to the club next door.
01
Hops and Barley
Friedrichshain$$Craft Beer / Brewery / Loud
Berlin's oldest and most celebrated microbrewery bar, operating out of a converted butcher shop that still has the original tiling on the walls. The beer is brewed on-site in 4 to 6 rotating styles, and the Pilsner here is genuinely one of the better examples in the city. The crowd is a cross-section of the entire Friedrichshain neighbourhood, from the 22-year-old art students to the 50-year-old locals who have been coming since it opened. A textbook example of what a Berlin bar should be.
Order: The house Pilsner, brewed that week, or the seasonal dark lager if it is on
02
Burg Cafe
Kreuzberg$Dive / Neighbourhood / Late
The purest expression of what Kreuzberg does. Burg Cafe has been on Graefestrasse since the early 1990s and looks exactly as it did then: mismatched furniture, no natural light, a jukebox that leans toward post-punk, and a crowd of regulars who have been meeting here for longer than most of the neighbourhood's newer arrivals have been in the city. Cheap beer, good conversation if you are in the right company, and a policy of staying open until everyone leaves. Essential.
Order: Berliner Kindl from the bottle and a shot of Korn on a Thursday
03
Tier
Neukölln$$Cocktail / Low-lit / Serious
In Neukölln's Sonnenallee area, Tier is the neighbourhood's best argument that serious cocktails and a Kreuzberg attitude are not mutually exclusive. The cocktail list is short, seasonal, and well-considered. The room is dark in a way that feels intentional rather than underfunded. The prices are honest for the quality, and the bartenders do not perform for the guests, which in Berlin is a reliable indicator of competence. A good introduction to what the Neukolln bar scene does when it tries.
Order: Whatever the bartender is most interested in that evening, usually something German-spirit based
The full Berlin bar guide
All 8 bar categories across Berlin. Hidden gems, live music, cocktail bars, and the places the locals actually use. 80+ listings.
Berlin's cocktail scene grew out of a reaction against the city's traditional low-cost drinking culture. The bars that developed it are concentrated in Mitte and the upper end of Prenzlauer Berg, and they are operating at a level that now competes with Hamburg and Munich for the best cocktails in Germany.
04
Buck and Breck
Mitte$$$14-seat / World-class / Intimate
14 seats. No music. No standing. The most austere and committed cocktail bar in Berlin. Buck and Breck operates on the principle that the cocktail is the entire point of the evening, and the room is arranged accordingly. The drinks are technically excellent, the ingredients are sourced with genuine care, and the bartenders are the best in the city. Book weeks in advance for weekend slots. The experience of sitting at one of the 14 seats and working through the list is unlike anything else available in Berlin.
Order: Ask for their signature serve of the season, then follow whatever they recommend second
05
Rum Trader
Charlottenburg$$$Rum / Old Berlin / Intimate
Open since 1976, the Rum Trader is the oldest cocktail bar in Berlin and one of the strangest in Europe. The owner, Gregor Scholl, has been running it from behind the same bar for four decades, and the rum list he has assembled is one of the most serious in the world. The room holds 6 to 8 people comfortably. The hours are irregular. Ring the bell and wait. If it opens, you are in one of Berlin's great drinking experiences. If it does not, try the following evening.
Order: A rum from the Barbados selection, served neat, with whatever Gregor recommends alongside it
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Live Music and Hidden Gems
Berlin has more live music venues than any other German city and a culture of small-room performances that is increasingly rare in Western Europe. The hidden gems here tend to be the bars that exist in the gap between neighbourhood local and music venue, serving both functions without fully committing to either.
The name means "living room" and the bar delivers on the promise. Wohnzimmer in Prenzlauer Berg is the bar that the neighbourhood uses as an extension of domestic space. Mismatched sofas, bookshelves covering the walls, low lighting, and a sound system set at a volume that permits actual human conversation. Open every night from 8pm until 6am. The drinks are straightforward and priced for people who are here for four hours rather than two. No attitude, no queue, no disappointment.
Order: A long drink — gin tonic, dark rum and ginger beer, or a cold German lager
07
Monarch Bar
Kreuzberg$$Live Music / Late / Mixed
Above the Kaiser's supermarket on Skalitzer Strasse, accessed via a door between the fruit display and the checkout, the Monarch is one of Berlin's genuinely good bar-music hybrids. The space is large enough for live acts, intimate enough for the bar to function as a local on quieter nights. The terrace overlooking the U-Bahn tracks is particularly good in summer. Free entry on most nights, which tells you something about the city's attitude to nightlife economics.
Order: Club Mate and Korn, the Berlin combination, or whatever the bar has on draft
08
Becketts Kopf
Prenzlauer Berg$$$Speakeasy / Samuel Beckett / Theatre
The portrait of Samuel Beckett in the window, gazing out onto Pappelallee, is the only indication that this bar exists. Becketts Kopf is one of Berlin's most committed cocktail speakeasies: small room, no standing, music at a thinking volume, and a list of 40-odd drinks that takes its references from literature and theatre. The quality is consistently high and the bartenders are among the more knowledgeable in the city. An underrated counterpoint to the Buck and Breck intensity.
Order: The Beckett, a proprietary Negroni variation, or the current seasonal signature
Berlin live music bars
Where to hear live music in Berlin without the club cover charge. Small venues, neighbourhood bars with stages, and underground spots.
Berlin is the most democratic drinking city in Europe. The same people who queue for Berghain on Saturday night drink Berliner Kindl at Burg Cafe on Tuesday. The hierarchy that exists in other cities between the expensive cocktail bar and the neighbourhood dive does not really exist here. This guide covers both ends of that spectrum because in Berlin, both are worth your time.
The hidden gems of Berlin section of the city guide covers 25 more bars across all neighbourhoods. For the full picture of Berlin's cocktail scene specifically, the Berlin cocktail bars guide organises the best venues by neighbourhood and price. The Berlin bar guide is the comprehensive starting point for any visit.
Where locals actually drink in Berlin
The neighbourhood bars that Berlin residents use every week. No Airbnb guests, no stag parties, no tourist pricing.
