Sustainability and culinary creativity are at the heart of the
German capital’s most exciting restaurant experiences, from a contemporary
Thai feast to herbs grown with cutting-edge technology. Words: Christie DietzBERLIN
EATIMAGES:^ AWLIMAGES;^ ROBERT^ RIEGERW
ith the end of my knife, I poke
the plump, creamy orb of burrata
idling before me in a red ring of
fermented tomatoes and note, not unhappily,
that I’m going to need some of Café Frieda’s
freshly baked bread.
As I sponge up the last of my luxurious
late lunch with a thick slice of sourdough,
while gazing out the window at a drizzly
square in Prenzlauer Berg, owner Samina
Raza whirls in through the door. Cheerfully
sliding into a chair beside me, she offers
coffee and a crumbly shortbread sandwich
biscuit made with homemade chestnut miso
and Franconian fig jam. Samina moved from
London to Berlin to join her now-husband,
Israeli chef Ben Zviel, whom she met in the
queue for the toilets at the German capital’s
infamous nightclub, Berghain. Together,
they opened lively neighbourhood restaurant
Mrs Robinson’s; its vibrant little sister,
Frieda, followed in the summer of 2021.
Frieda’s simple dishes showcase ingredients
of the very highest quality, and Samina isuncompromising when it comes to their
provenance: “‘I’m scrupulous when it comes
to sourcing suppliers, and I expect them to
have the same degree of integrity,” she says.
“What we have in common is craft, skill and
respect for what we do.” All the processing
and preserving of ingredients — pickling,
fermenting, baking — is done on site. The
restaurant isn’t quite zero waste, but Samina
tells me they use up what they can. “Our
kouign-amann [a buttery, Breton pastry] is
made using the offcuts from our croissants,”
she explains. “With meat, we work with the
whole animal. Our bread ends go back to the
farms we work with to feed the pigs.”
The atmosphere at Frieda is fun and
relaxed, and I ask Samina if there are
other restaurants in Berlin with a similar
vibe, while still focusing on high-quality,
sustainably sourced ingredients. She reels
off a handful of places, including Michelin-
starred Kin Dee in Schöneberg.
My journey to the Thai restaurant
— partly via crowded U-Bahn train and partlyCLOCKWISE FROM
ABOVE: Berlin Cathedral
with the famous TV
Tower in the background;
Café Frieda co-owners
Samina Raza and Ben
Zviel; kouign-amann, a
buttery, Breton pastry at
Café Frieda; retro interior
of Café Frieda; ice cream
sundae at Café Frieda66 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel