Loveliest Cafés

From specialty coffee to Sunday brunch, Berlin's café scene is diverse and style-conscious.

Berlin café culture is a subject of its own. Prenzlauer Berg is the home of the classic Altbau café, set in a prewar apartment building with high ceilings and ornate stucco, where families settle in for a long brunch. Mitte and Neukölln stand for the specialty coffee wave instead: hand-brewed filter coffee, in-house roasting, pared-back interiors and baristas who will happily tell you which farm the beans came from. If you need somewhere to work, the quieter side streets are your friend, and plenty of cafés offer wifi and outlets.

The most Berlin thing on the menu is the long, unhurried Sunday brunch, served either as a buffet or as a generous à la carte breakfast that stretches into the afternoon. On sunny days, grab a table on the sidewalk and watch the Kiez, the tight-knit neighborhood that Berliners organize their lives around, go by. One tip: the prettiest cafés are packed on weekends, and a weekday morning is a far better bet for a quiet table.