Eating out in Berlin….

.…often feels more like feeding than dining. From start to finish, a thankless, joyless forty-five-minute-long conveyor belt ride that leaves me satiated yet unsatisfied.

I have a predilection for restaurants with tablecloths. This is not because I yearn for meticulously pressed linen or especially grandiose dining rooms. I’m a Northern British lad from Wigan, who grew up eating dinner on the settee in front of the telly. I like tablecloths partly because they remind me of Christmas dinners with my once large family; and also because (in my experience) they signal an unhurried meal, perhaps better than average service, and some hint of ceremony.

So, when in Berlin (and beyond), I keep an eye out for restaurants with tablecloths, for those times when I want more than to feel hastily force-fed like a goose at a foie gras factory. I’m not a food or wine aficionado. I don’t pretend my palate is particularly refined. But I’ve eaten my way around a fair bit of the world. I’m a reasonable cook and can navigate a wine-list. I can make a decent cocktail when the need arises, I am a chemist after all.

Tischdecken is intended to serve two purposes. Firstly, to help me to remember where I’ve been, when and with whom, as my memory is poor. Secondly, to assist those who read this in making the ultimately trivial decision about where and what to eat and drink in Berlin.

So, welcome to Tischdecken, my little tablecloth-themed restaurant review blog. I hope you like it. Obviously, the views are my own, and no I’m not paid or otherwise induced to write these reviews.