10.14.2011

Date Night In Berlin {with Luisa + Max}

It's Friday, date night and reunite night for today's sweet Newlyweds Cook couple, Luisa + Max. In case like me, you're dying to know where Luisa Weiss + her hubby are eating tonight in Berlin, here are three of their favorite sweet spots in and around their sparkling city. 

Our favorite Friday night haunt is a fantastic Japanese restaurant in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg called Sasaya. We invariably sit at the bar, always wedged into a corner, so we can watch the head sushi chef work while we eat our dinner. It’s like theater, only with better food. I usually order the wakame salad and the omakase sushi, while Max is incapable of walking into the place without getting an appetizer of fried chicken (crisp, greaseless and delicious), which comes with a wedge of lemon on a Kraft paper-lined straw plate.

Sasaya
Lychener Strasse 50
10437 Berlin
Tel: (030) 4471 7721

When Max’s train is delayed, we head to a Spanish restaurant in Kreuzberg called Bar Raval, where the kitchen still bustles after 10:00 pm and the wait staff is sweet and kind, if slightly harried. The crisp cava is served in coupe glasses, there are complimentary dishes of addictive green olives on the table and their pan con tomate (or pa amb tomaquet, technically, since it’s a Catalonian restaurant) is a smoky, salty, chewy, juicy delight.

Bar Raval
Lübbener Strasse 1
10997 Berlin
Tel: (030) 5316-7954

If it’s one of those Friday nights, you know, the kind that caps a no-good-very-bad-stinky-to-high-heaven kind of week, then we hop in the car and drive to a quiet part of the Ku’Damm (western Berlin’s shopping mile), where, at a stand that’s an institution for old West Berliners like us, we each order a currywurst, a Berlin specialty consisting of a deep-fried hot dog sliced into rounds, doused liberally with curry-flavored ketchup and served with a hot roll on a fluted paper plate with a small plastic trident. Yes, currywurst is an acquired taste. Yes, it can be delicious. And yes, sometimes it is just what you need for dinner. Take it from me.

Bier’s 195
Kurfürstendamm 195
10707 Berlin
Tel: (030) 881 8942


2 comments:

Dorothee said...

I'm so glad you revealed your beloved sushi place. It will be a necessary stop on my next visit. We used to do Kiel - Münich, which was beautiful for summer and winter activities, but then we had to agree on a city when I got pregnant. Now we're hoping to each find jobs in that employmentless city you call home in order to be closer to the grandparents...

Anonymous said...

In case like me, you're dying to know where Luisa Weiss + her hubby are eating tonight in Berlin, here are three of their favorite sweet spots in ... airmaxweibe.blogspot.de

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Sarah Copeland is a food and lifestyle expert, and the author of Feast: Generous Vegetarian Meals for Any Eater and Every Appetite, and The Newlywed Cookbook. She is the Food Director at Real Simple magazine, and has appeared in numerous national publications including Saveur, Health, Fitness, Shape, Martha Stewart Living and Food & Wine magazines. As a passionate gardener, Sarah's Edible Living philosophy aims to inspire good living through growing, cooking and enjoying delicious, irresistible whole foods. She thrives on homegrown veggies, stinky cheese and chocolate cake. Sarah lives in New York with her husband and their young daughter.