While we can no longer sit down in our favourite restaurants, cafés or bars thanks to lockdown, we can still enjoy their food. Many of the best restaurants and cafés in Friedrichshain remain open for takeaway or delivery – and with every order you’re helping your beloved local food spot survive the pandemic.
Here’s a round-up of our favourite Friedrichshain takeaways.
Salami Social Club: Sourdough pizza pies
Photo: Salami Social Club
Pizza is the undisputed godfather of takeaway food. Fortunately, the quality of Berlin-based pizzerias has increased in recent years – a prime example being Salami Social Club on Frankfurter Allee. The pizza is made from sourdough, coated with pesto cream and garlic butter, with the toppings often pleasingly outlandish.
Since the start of the pandemic, toasty-warm pizza boxes have been dispensed via their window – or there’s Lieferando for home delivery. Our tip: the pumpkin pizza with extra goat cheese.
Salami Social Club, Frankfurter Allee 43, Friedrichshain, collection and delivery via Lieferando and Wolt, daily 12-22
Aleppo Supper Club: Syrian specialties beyond shawarma
Photo: Henry Schröder
Aleppo Supper Club serves Syrian specialties in a tiny, easy-to-overlook snack bar on Rigaer Straße. Now they deliver their legendary kibbeh and rice dishes within a radius of five kilometres – but of course you can still pick up your Aleppine feast yourself.
Aleppo Supper Club, Rigaer Str. 58, Friedrichshain, daily 12-22, minimum order €15, delivery fee €2, pre-order on 0177/743 55 33
Futura: Pizza of the year
Photo: Futura Pizza
These days, Berlin has no shortage of Neapolitan-style pizzas – but very few are as good as those from pizzaiolo Alessandro Leonardi and his restaurant Futura Friedrichshain. Happily, he’s still open for lockdown takeaways or Lieferando deliveries.
Futura, Bänschstraße 91, Friedrichshain, Tue-Sun 17-22, pre-order via 030/98 39 44 08, contactless collection on site or delivery via Lieferando
Tortillería Mexa: Tortillas, tacos and more
Photo: Aida Baghernejad
The fastest way to Mexico City is via Boxhagener Straße. The Tortillería Mexa – a Mexican speciality shop, tortilla producer and delicatessen all in one – opened there a few weeks ago. In the morning, watch the tortilla machine baking its little corn patties; at lunchtime, snack on tacos and quesadillas.
Tortillería Mexa, Boxhagener Straße 50, Friedrichshain, Sun + Mon 12-19, Tue-Thu 12-20, Fri + Sat 12-21
Fine Bagels: Baked goods and books
Photo: Fine Bagels
What do we love almost as much as good food? A good book. With the right page turner, you can spend a blissful evening alone in a restaurant. When there’s no lockdown, anyway.
Because food and books go so well together, Laurel Kratochvila from Fine Bagels, an English bookstore with an attached café (or café with attached bookstore) in Friedrichshain, set up a book and bagel delivery service during the first partial lockdown in March. This system continues with the stricter lockdown. You can also order the products individually, but why would you? The shop is still open with restrictions, so you’re free to browse the books before taking away your coffee, bagels and pastries.
Fine Bagels, Warschauer Str. 74, Friedrichshain, open daily from 8-18, delivery service for books, bagels and baked goods from €15 on Thursdays and Fridays
Tapiocaria: Brazilian comfort carbs
A little Brazilian optimism will help us through the crisis. Friedrichshain’s Tapiocaria is a Brazilian restaurant to nourish the soul, delivering ready-to-eat dishes as well as tapioca-based ingredients to cook at home.
Tapiocaria, Samariterstraße 34A, Friedrichshain, Wed-Sun 12-20
Piri’s: Deluxe chicken burgers
Burger fans grieved hard when Piri’s by Görlitzer Park closed: the place was home to Berlin’s best chicken burger. But, somehow, the crisis brought it back, in collaboration with Mexican restaurant Santa Cantina. That’s the kind of pandemic silver lining we can get behind.
The burgers are available for pick up, or delivered to your door by solidarity collective Kolyma 2 or Wolt. The incredibly good burgers (chicken, cheesesteak and vegetarian) are named after rappers – recommending just one is hard – and there are fries with vegetarian gravy and cheese.
Piri’s in Santa Cantina, Simon-Dach-Straße 22, Friedrichshain, delivery service Sun + Mon 12-21.30, Thu 17-21.30, Fri + Sat 12-22
Mutzenbacher: Schnitzel dreaming
Ah, Mutzenbacher. Such a cosy little place. We can no longer soak up the friendly Austrian vibes in person, but the restaurant’s Friedrichshain kitchen remains open. And that means we can pick up a Viennese schnitzel or cheese spätzle, or have them delivered to our homes. Turn on Austria’s best radio station, FM4, loudly, and you’ll almost feel like you’re in the restaurant.
Mutzenbacher, Libauer Str. 11, Friedrichshain, Mon-Thu 17-22, Fri-Sun 12-22, collection and delivery via Lieferando
Hako Ramen: Japanese noodle soups at Boxi
Photo: Aida Baghernejad
Yes, there are several ramen restaurants called Hako in Berlin – and no, they are not the same. We don’t recommend all of them, but the one in Friedrichshain definitely deserves a visit. We love the noodle soup, or the Japanese aubergine as a starter.
Alongside Japanese noodle soup classics such as Tonkotsu (pork broth boiled for eight to 10 hours), Shoyu and Shio (chicken and seafood broth based on soy sauce or salt) or Tantan (chicken broth with sesame paste and spicy minced meat), they also have great plant-based options, which go beyond a simple miso broth. Bon appetit and itadakimasu.
Hako Ramen at Boxi, Boxhagener Straße 26, Friedrichshain, daily 12-22
Rembrandt Burger: Premium fries and patties
We’re going out on a limb here: this is perhaps secretly the best burger in town. Thick Dutch-style fries or sweet potato fries? Both, please. The Rembrandt burger with goat cheese and red wine onions is to die for – but actually everything is recommended.
Rembrandt Burger Richard-Sorge-Strasse 21, Friedrichshain, takeaway Thu-Sun 16-21 (current information on Instagram), delivery possible via Lieferando
19grams: Top-tier coffee to take away
No, this isn’t a restaurant – but it’s still a Friedrichshain legend. Of the four branches of the likeable little Berlin coffee empire, only two are open during lockdown, including this one in Tres Cabezas Café. Valiantly they supply Berliners with their caffeine fix throughout the winter gloom.
19grams in Tres Cabezas Café, Boxhagener Str. 74, Friedrichshain, Mon-Fri, 8-18, Sat-Sun 9-18