For Better or Wurst: Zeit Berlin Marks the Latest Deutsch on the Dining Scene

There are stories behind everything, and the story behind the certain sea green color on Zeit Berlin menu lies in the rooftops of churches. Berlin’s skyline is speckled with this hue – the copper roofs slowly oxidizing until they gain their green patina. Fashioned by the passing of time, yet exceedingly contemporary and on trend, it’s an enigma of a color.

Zeit Berlin is equally an odd duck. First impressions invoked by an attractive menu are complicated by an obscure address on the first floor of an unremarkable hotel. The owners are Chinese natives who lived in Berlin since the early ‘70s and now, returned to their home country, intend to bring Berlin specialties to a scene of largely Bavarian fare.

The menu highlights notable dishes like Schweinehaxe (RMB 168), Reiseneisbein (RMB 168), and Schweinebraten (RMB 72), but also encompasses casual home-style cooking like casseroles (auflauf, RMB 78-88), pastas (RMB 68-98) and chicken and pork schnitzel (RMB 86-88). Zeit Berlin offers a lunch buffet (RMB 68), but successful ones are a feat to achieve and until it gets busy enough for turn over, skip that in favor of ordering a la carte.

As you would hope for a German restaurant, the most notable items are the numerous variations of meat and potatoes. For the protein-starved, the Schweinehaxen (grilled pork knuckle) will fix that. A massive boulder of thick, crisped skin and fatty pork, this will certainly feed two. The accompanying sauerkraut is remarkable – warm, well-balanced in acidity and flavor and studded with cloves.

The baked potato with a grilled salmon fillet (RMB 88) came recommended as something eaten at a friend’s house growing up in Berlin. It’s easy to forget how satisfying simple fare can be. This baked potato will remind you.

Expect a Germanic treatment of the salmon – no searing here, the fish is cooked through and through. For the curious or the homesick, the paragon of Berlin snack food, currywurst (RMB 78), appears with potential – though there is certainly room for growth.

Zeit Berlin 柏林时光
Daily 11am-10pm.1/F Royal Palace Hotel, 6 Xiaoyunli, Chaoyang District (6461 8842)
朝阳区霄云里6号城宝饭店
[subway] 550m northeast of Sanyuanqiao station (Line 10)

Also try: Schindler’s, Schiller’s

Read more dining reviews in the Beijinger magazine's December edition: