The Best Italian Restaurants in Berlin on BFS A condensed list of our favourite places to enjoy the Italian food and wine Find more great food on Berlin's most famous restaurant site!

"The German capital is home to at least a thousand Italian restaurants, which makes Italian the most common type of restaurant in Berlin after Döner kebap. The reasons are historical: Italian cuisine was the first major migrant cuisine to shape Germany in the 20th century. When "Gastarbeiter" arrived in the 1950s and 60s to help rebuild post-war Germany, many came from Italy. Quite a few eventually opened restaurants, and at the same time, Germans began traveling to Italy for holidays and returned with a taste for pasta, pizza, and dinners full of antipasti, pasta, vino and grappa that stretched late into the evening."

"The neighborhood Italian (the Nachbarschafts-Italiener) soon became a cultural institution. For many Germans, going out for Italian food was the first real "restaurant experience": a small moment of indulgence, a bottle of wine, a plate of pasta that felt just exotic enough to be exciting. That legacy still shapes Berlin today. On a Friday night, the hardest table to book in the city is often an Italian one. Whether it's a humble neighborhood trattoria or a more polished dining room, chances are it will be full."

"Here's the problem: Popularity doesn't always equal excellence. Because Italian restaurants have been so reliably busy for decades, truly outstanding ones have historically been rarer than you might expect. Fortunately, but with better access to Italian produce, a new generation of chefs, and diners who have become far more discerning, the city has begun to see a wave of restaurants pushing Italian cooking to a much higher level."

"One thing to note: this list does not include pizzerias. Berlin has seen a massive pizza boom over the last five years, which we've covered separately in our guide to the best pizza in t"

Berlin has at least a thousand Italian restaurants, making Italian one of the most common restaurant types after döner kebap. Italian cuisine became influential in the 20th century as Gastarbeiter arrived from Italy in the 1950s and 1960s and opened restaurants. Germans also traveled to Italy and returned with tastes for pasta, pizza, antipasti, wine, and grappa, creating a lasting neighborhood Italian tradition. For many Germans, Italian dining became an early “restaurant experience” involving indulgence, wine, and exotic-feeling pasta. Today Italian tables are often hard to book on Friday nights, and running an Italian restaurant is statistically safe. Popularity has not always meant excellence, but improved access to Italian produce, a new generation of chefs, and more discerning diners are driving higher-quality Italian cooking. The list excludes pizzerias due to a separate pizza boom.

Read at Berlin Food Stories