23 Best Restaurants in Germany

Sophisticated Italian cuisine is served here in a warm, elegant setting on the city's southwest side. The seasonally changing menu focuses on fish and game, and the wine list is interesting and extensive—although sometimes pricey.

So small it's easy to miss, this former dairy shop now offers a limited but fine selection of Italian fare, with a menu of fresh antipasti and pasta that changes daily. The high wooden tables and counters fill up fast at this lunch-only spot, so arrive early for the quieter, cooler window seat or take your food to go.

There are a number of fine Italian restaurants around the city, but this is certainly one of the best, with excellent, often experimental meat and fish dishes and lovely pastas that are slightly more budget-friendly. Be sure to reserve a table in good weather so you can sit on the charming patio in the back.

This cozy Mitte spot has two different spaces: the bustling and sometimes drafty front room with high tables where walk-ins are seated, and a darker, more romantic back room for those who remember to reserve ahead—as you should. The short but well-thought-out menu includes small and large antipasti plates of grilled vegetables, olives, cheeses, and meats, as well as unusual pastas like a tagliatelle with crawfish in a lemon-mint sauce, or one with pine nuts and balsamic-roasted figs. Chestnut-filled ravioli with pears is a favorite in winter. The lunch menu, with an appetizer and a pasta dish for only €8.50, is a great deal, especially for the area.

This welcoming Italian spot serves excellent traditional homemade pastas as well as a variety of meat and seafood dishes, including Sicilian prawns in a spicy tomato sauce. The atmosphere is casual but the service is top-notch, and the owner, Guido, and his friendly bulldog, Malesh, are always on hand to greet guests.

In the grand Berlin tradition of reinventing historical spaces, this lovely wine bar and Italian restaurant has taken over a former stamp shop (“Briefmarken” means “stamps” in German) on beautiful Karl-Marx-Allee; you can pick a regional Italian wine off the shelves (also preserved from the stamp-selling days) or leaf through the extensive list. Accompany your choice with antipasti like fresh mozzarella with speck, broccoli rabe, and marinated artichokes, or one of the daily menu of fresh pastas.

This cozy, low-key Italian restaurant serves a rotating menu of excellent pasta dishes, many featuring seafood, and the spritzes here are particularly good.

On a small winding street in an area between Kreuzberg and Schöneberg known as Rote Insel (Red Island) because of its location between two S-bahn tracks and its socialist, working-class history, this neighborhood institution was an early advocate of the slow-food movement. The food is Italian and focuses on high quality, locally sourced ingredients and everything—whether it's an innovative preparation of artichokes or beef fillet with green peppercorns—is tasty.

This bustling multilevel café opens early and closes late and offers a mind-boggling array of ice-cream dishes and other sweet and savory fare. For a quick and inexpensive meal, consider the tasty breakfasts, sandwiches, and German- and Italian-influenced items on offer.

There are plenty of places in Wedding for a quick falafel or döner but if you're looking for something different, head to Italian-inspired Café Pförtner, at the entrance to the Uferhallen on the Panke canal. The squat, brick café space may be small, but Pförtner makes good use of what there is, adding long tables out front in good weather and, in a nod to the Uferhallen's previous incarnation as a BVG garage, turning a brightly painted bus into a dining area next door.

This upscale restaurant on the far western end of Kurfürstendamm is one of the best-kept Italian secrets in Berlin; you won't find many tourists here, but the posh neighborhood's residents pack the cheerful, rustic dining room. The high-quality, straightforward cooking means incredibly fresh salads and appetizers (the bruschetta is excellent), as well as homemade bread, exquisite pasta dishes, and more-refined Tuscan and Umbrian creations.

Hidden down a side street off Hansaplatz, this neighborhood favorite is easily missed, but it’s worth seeking out for its excellent plates of vitello tonnato (cold sliced veal with a creamy tuna sauce), saltimbocca (marinated veal with prosciutto and herbs), and truffle pasta. The restaurant's intimate atmosphere, similar to grandmother's living room, extends beyond the candlelight and banquette seating to the amicable staff and spoken menu, which features many of the filling and comforting pasta, meat, and fish dishes typical of rustic Italian cuisine.

Inside a small family-run hotel done up in Black Forest decor about 4 km (2.5 miles) southwest of Triberg, the Italian owners of Inselklause create an appealing mix of Tuscan and regional Baden cuisine. Try one of their delightful pizzas, opt for a well-prepared meat dish, or peer into their stream to see the Forelle (trout) caught fresh for your plate.

Hidden away in a courtyard off a busy Neukölln street, in a space that used to contain an old launderette (hence the Italian name), Lavanderia Vecchia offers a prix-fixe-only Italian menu that includes two appetizers, a pasta or risotto primi, a meat or fish secondo, and dessert (vegetarian versions also available), accompanied by a half-bottle of wine and followed by coffee and a digestif; à la carte options, as well as three- to five-course menus, are available at lunchtime only. The white-painted industrial space is decorated with vintage kerchiefs strung along old wash lines.

On a side street between Gärtnerplatz and Isartor, Nero serves up excellent thin-crust pizzas with fresh ingredients imported straight from Italy—try the Diavolo, with spicy Neapolitan salami—as well as solid pastas and great steaks. The restaurant's high ceilings and large windows give it an open, spacious feel, or you can sit upstairs in the lounge for a cozier experience.

A long-time neighborhood favorite, Eisenstein sits inside a handsome 19th-century industrial complex turned art center and serves fantastic Italian and Mediterranean cuisine at affordable prices. Sharing space with a movie theater, the restaurant is popular with pre- and postmovie crowds and probably best known for its gourmet wood-fired pizzas like the Pizza Helsinki (salmon, crème fraîche, and onions) and the Blöde Ziege (Stupid Goat) with rosemary-tomato sauce, crispy bacon, and goat cheese.

When the Bundestag was still in town, this Bonn institution used to be cited in the press as frequently for its backroom political dealings as for its Lombardy-influenced food. Locals, prominent and otherwise, still flock to the restaurant, in an 18th-century house in the suburb of Kessenich. The style is pure Italian farmhouse, with stone walls and exposed beams, but the handmade pastas often stray from the typical, as in the salmon-filled black-and-white pasta pockets in shrimp sauce.

Munich's oldest café, dating from 1775, is home to an Italian restaurant that is serviceable, if somewhat overpriced— excepting the pizza, which is a relative bargain. The real draw is the outdoor seating, either on the terrace in full view of Theatinerkirche on Odeonsplatz or in the quiet, tree-shaded beer garden in the Hofgarten.

Traditional Italian fare is on offer here, including antipasti, pasta dishes, pizzas, and special daily offerings. The restaurant is in a central location in the main square, and in warm weather you can opt for a table outside on the cobblestones—perfect for people-watching with your meal.

In the setting of an old apothecary, diners can enjoy specialties from Venice and other northern Italian regions, such as rabbit-stuffed ravioli and whole salt-crusted sea bass, created by chef Gianni Ianniccari. Service is good-humored and conscientious, and the menu changes regularly.