Stepping into Gipfeltreffen feels like stepping into a stranger’s house, and immediately wanting to become his friend. The place is warm and cosy, with old furniture, sofas in different shapes and colors, wooden tables and many little artsy artefacts laying around or hanging on the walls. Someone at Gipfeltreffen has a great eye for detail.

 We tested the cheese breakfast, a sandwich and the Canadian pancakes. The pancakes where the fluffy (and best) kind and made everybody smile, the sandwich girl was content with her modest choice and we all chipped in to help clean out the Käse Frühstück plate.

The bottom line: nothing too special, but an overall delightful experience

The plate test: all cleaned out. We wouldn’t have refused another round of the fluffy Pfannkuchen

Soundtrack: chill-out, soft jazz, Bob Marly, Yael Naim

Sitting arrangement: outside tables are added during the summer. Always full, natürlich

Crowed: local, friendly, many families

Kids: yes, and lots of them

Pets: yes, and lots of them

Service: slow-ish and nice. But who’s in a hurry, anyway?

Prices: 3.50€ for the sandwich, 6.50€ cheese breakfast, 6.60€ for the pancakes

Gipfeltreffen

http://gipfeltreffen-kreuzberg.de/

Gorlitzerstr. 68, Berlin

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One would want to get to Schuchmanns as early as possible on a sunny summer Sunday. Sadly, we got there past 11:30 on a cold Sunday morning, only to find the place packed, the beautiful outside-on-the-maybachufer deck closed for the winter, and no available table to rest our freezing behinds. We made a reservation for the following Sunday and went for a nearby option not worth mentioning.

Seven days later we were there “Punkt” on time and were escorted by a kind waitress to our table. The place was packed again, and for good reason. Even before the food reached our table we liked the setting. It’s warm and cosy, with red brick walls, beautiful lamps that make for a pleasant light, and an overall great atmosphere.

From the breakfast menu we chose the pancake breakfast, the veggie-cheese one and the vegan offering. The pancakes were fat and fluffy, the vegan breakfast was full of nice original spreads and the cheesy was, well, full of cheese. Both breakfasts came with lots of vegetables and fruits and a variety of breads, and though we cleared our plates we didn’t want to leave.

The bottom line: nice, warm and tasty. We’ll be back

Crowd: young, groups of friends or couples

Kids: no kids spotted

Pets: none detected, and the place might be a bit too crowded

Soundtrack: none. Just mellow chatter

Service: flawless

Schuchmanns

http://schuchmanns.com/

Paul-Lincke-Ufer 22, Berlin

Reservation are recommended

What would you do if you owned a bar that stood empty during the morning, while you recover from last night’s hangover? In the case of Lagari, the answer is: rent it out to people who are serving what some might claim is the hottest American Brunch in town. So hot, that you can now get it on weekdays as well (10:00-16:00).

 The California Breakfast Slam is the local answer for American expats with a craving for brunch that tastes like home. And by “home” we mean “California-Style” – with a delicate and blessed Mexican influence. Amongst the brunches you can find fluffy pancakes, black beans and eggs on a tortilla, eggs Benedict (or Florentine, if you’re a veggie) and more.

The location itself is mundane and irrelevant. On a nice sunny day everyone is sitting outside, on the traffic island. It seems like ages ago now, but when we visited there it was a hot day. Too hot for Berlin, and believe it or not – there were not enough parasols to shade all the tables. You couldn’t fit a Brötchen between the brunch-eners: youngsters, expats and locals. But nothing was gonna stand in our way of enjoying the enormous portions. We fell head-over-heals for the pancakes, bitched about the heat for a while, and sat there for quite a while before we were able to stand up. It was filling.

The city is crawling with expats (as we know from being ones ourselves), so reservations for groups of more than 4 people are highly recommended during the weekends.

 The bottom line: For hungry California lovers, who are not shy of some black beans.

 The plate test: couldn’t finish. We were out numbered.

 Price: 8-10, not including drinks.

 Soundtrack: of the street. Pleasant multi-lingual chatter.

 Kids: why not? Sitting in the street.

 Pets: why not? Sitting in the street.

 Crowd: locals and visitors who know why they’re coming

California Breakfast Slam (at Lagari)

 Pflügerstrasse 19, Neukolln-Kreuzberg

 Email for reservations: cabslam@gmail.com

There are a lot of good reasons to go to Südblock (or “The Camel and Moose” as one of us calls it due to the sign hanging above it), in all hours of the day. We’re definitely planning to check them all out, but this time it was for brunch. Sunday morning, slightly raining, and the inside space was crowded, lively and joyful. Same-sex families, families of three generations plus leather jackets and dogs, large groups of friends, couples – an interesting collection of characters, with a quality soundtrack in the background, mixed with children chatter and dog barks. Happy.

The Südblock brunch is possibly, and probably, the biggest and longest in town. It’s so rich and diverse that no plate will be big enough. And our stomaches are definitely too small. There’s sweet and salty, meats and cheeses, warm and cold salads, quiches and pastries and quite a few options for vegans. We had (and loved) the cauliflower salad, antipasti, potato pancakes, hummus, beats, Spetzle and the cream puffs for dessert. We would have loved to binge on those small and perfect cream puffs endlessly, if we weren’t already so full and powerless to get up. So we stayed there for quite a while, to recover. And it was really nice. ‘Cause it’s really nice to sit in Südblock.

The bottom line: Exciting brunch flavor-wise, and nice brunch taste-wise

The plate-test: Cleaned it, and went back for seconds

Soundtrack: Wonderful, rock ballads, American country

Price: 7-10 EURO is the recommended price range. You pay as you see fit

Crowd: Happy and gay

Service: Friendly and informal

Kids: Yep

Pets: Yep

Yesterday’s cloths: Yep

Südblock

http://www.suedblock.org/wp/

Admiralstraße 1-2, Berlin