This Friedrichshain bar has great atmosphere. Relax in the shabby chic surroundings (standard lamps, rugs, armchairs and wine-coloured walls) and enjoy whittling away the hours listening to the eclectic soundtrack, sipping beer for under two euros. Friendly staff and chilled out clientele. Look out for the wooden bowls of tea (bit odd and bitter).

Macondo
Boxhanger Platz, Friedrichshain

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This is a nice cosmopolitan bar with a good selection of cocktails. You can find some of the local proms here drinking.

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For those into something a little alternative (dub, indie, electronica etc), numerous small clubs around the Warschauer Strasse metro stop such as Cassiopeia and Rosis Bar are highly recommended. Relatively inexpensive with a great crowd and good music.

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What any five-star cocktail bar should be like - very friendly ambience, excellent and friendly, yet reserved, barmen. Best whiskey sour I've had.
Best cocktail bar in Europe.

Potsdamer Straße 102 • 10785 Berlin
Telefon +49.30.2575 9977
www.victoriabar.de

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It's an Irish pub showing sport. Not very exciting but friendly and convenient. A mix of ex-pats and locals.

Friedrichstrasse 112a
Berlin-Mitte
Telephone: 030 2828260
www.oscar-wilde-irish-pub.de

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I discovered this place by accident back in late autumn when I was having a break from uni. For some reason, I can't shake the place off, it left my girlfriend and I a bit jaded.

I think this place is supposed to be a political refuge or something - a front in the fight against the New World Order!

It smells quite bad so dont go in your clean holiday clothes or they will reek until you return home!

The second hand screen-printed clothing is dirty, cheap and unwearable. I haven't actually ever seen worse screen-printed clothing than this, so it's worth a look for this reason alone!

You can also pick up for next to nothing DVDs about 9/11 and NWO etc, which you can download from the net but can get here to save you time.

On the plus side, you can get a cheap drink there (coffee about 1 euro and a bottle of beer is about 1.50) and the WLAN is free, and at this time of year I guess it's somewhere to get out of the cold whilst planning to go somewhere else.

Whilst the rest of the world is moving on, here is an oasis of rebellion or something. But looking at the place I could not tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The regulars must have taken the red pill, go see for yourself.

rockstrasse, hackershermarkt strassenbahn, near Alexandreplatz bahnhof, and see for yourself thecoop.tv/

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Brilliant cocktails and live jazz radio. Berlin is the only European city with its own 24-hour FM jazz station.

JazzRadio 101.9 broadcasts live every evening from 18.00 - 24.00 from its studio in the Hotel Bar, where you can see (and hear) the show go out live, presented by the station's cool young DJs.

Inge-Beisheim-Platz 1, S-Bahn Potsdamer Platz

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One of the best Turkish Döner shops in Berlin, open until 6am.

Extremely reasonable, good quality fast food, including vegetarian options. Compared to kebab in the UK, the version here is way tastier, with lots of crispy salad.

The walls are decorated with technicolour murals of how the Pergamon altar might have originally looked in Turkey, pretty different from how it looks in the nearby museum today. Also serves beer, pizza etc.

Under the bridge at the entrance to Friedrichstr Station.

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The best place for a wild party. Open every day all night and very close to my other favourite place the Feuermelder, where you can watch football before starting the party. And on Sunday there is a very beautiful flea market around the corner. It's fantastic and budget-friendly.

Gärtnerstraße/ Friedrichshain. S-Bahn-Station Warschauerstraße or Ostkreuz

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If the list of 'stylish yet chic wine bars' listed by my fellow sandal wearing media types on GU scare you as much as it does me, go to Lemke. It's a brew pub. It has beer. It has food. It has everything except DJs, cocktails and anything that could be described as 'charming or eclectic'.

The food is German in quantity and style but really the beer is what marks it out. The dark is very nice, the porter is excellent but the wheat is even better. It's friendly, it's always busy and it's easy to get to, even if the road it's on doesn't look very promising. There is even a beer garden.

It's between Hackischer Markt and Alexanderplatz on Dirckenstraße.
www.brauerei-lemke.de

www.brauerei-lemke.de/

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The most bizarre drinking experience ever. Red wine in blood transfusion packs, electric shocks from tables, rotating bar stools, a tarantula in a glass case, a flasher at the entrance... and not too expensive either! Has to be seen to be believed.

Leibnitzstrasse 57 (50 metres from Ku'damm); U-Bahn: Adenauerplatz (U7);
tel: 030 32701466;
www.klo.de

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Prater Garten is a biergarten at Kastanienalle Prenzlauer Berg, the best bier, the best ambient for families and groups. It has great food and location, you must go.

www.pratergarten.de at prenzlauerBerg Berlin in the middle of the funky suburb of Berlin (east)

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