I never really talk about food on here which is very unusual considering my deep love for food and eating. I am also shocked considering the many great restaurants that are on offer in Berlin and the reasonable (and sometimes incredibly cheap) prices which allows for eating out to be a frequent occurrence. Well, there is a first time for everything and here is mine.
Last Friday night I and a few others went to The Bird restaurant in Berlin. For those of you who are not familiar with The Bird, it is an American-style burger and steak house which many websites boast as the ‘best in Berlin’. As a lover of burgers, vegetarian ones now, I made it my own special mission to try out all these ‘best’ burgers to see if I could truly find a winner. Considering how long it took us to get a reservation in this place I knew I was onto a winner.
I have this habit that when I know I am going out to eat, or particularly if I know exactly where, I scour the internet for hours reading the menu and the reviews of past visitors. Considering a lot of the bad reviews I read online, I was surprised at what a pleasant and relaxing experience I had at The Bird.
Firstly, we were not waiting for an hour for our food as many critics would have you believe. If the wait was twenty minutes maximum it was a lot and that was for six people in a place where they were turning people away at the door. I was also quite nervous about ordering the veggie burger as I had read accounts of bad experiences where the serving staff had been quite rude at the request, tutting and rolling their eyes. This may sound a tad dramatic but service in a number of Berlin establishments are certainly not up to scratch and it is not rare to experience some very unfriendly waiters/waitresses. Thankfully I had no problem and I am glad this was so as The Lousy Hunter was the best veggie burger I have had to date. Yes I am only a pescatarian for the last three months but like I said above I love burgers so I have had quite a few during this period. This is where the review gets dodgy because I am terrible at describing the ingredients and tastes of foods, but let me do the best I can. A lot of places offer the basic vegetable patty which you just know they took straight out of a Lidl/Tesco/Dunnes box and bunged it in the fryer. Considering meat is a God in The Bird, and that they only recently began serving a non-meat alternative, I was sure this would be the case. Boy was I wrong. From what my weak taste buds tell me the soft patty was made from some kind of bean with several standard vegetables thrown in and something special added to give it a bit of a kick (please, if you have ever eaten here, or indeed work at The Bird, provide a better explanation below in the place of my very pathetic description). I was in heaven with the burger but what I really went there was for the chips.
Anywhere that serves hand-cut chips can immediately count me as a customer. Berlin is overwhelmed with the frozen variety and I have yet to found a chip to reckon with those I am used to eating back in Ireland. I may just have found them here. Honestly, they were not the best I ever had, a bit on the greasy side, but they were probably as good as I will get in Berlin. They were a massive portion as well which I was determined I was going to devour which I did until I had a food baby coming out my back as well as my stomach. It was worth it though.
So, while more often than not, tour guide recommendations are over-hyped, this is not the case with The Bird. A nice atmosphere with great food and good music, I would certainly recommend it as an eatery. Just make sure you book well ahead of time.
Joyful Antidotes 