I Took My Australian Parents on the Best Food Tour in Berlin. Here’s What Happened
I’ve spent years leading tours around this city. Everything from architecture tours, to deep-dive history tours, as well as the occasional stumble through Berlin’s stranger corners with visitors who thought they knew what to expect. So when my parents flew in from Australia and I wanted to show them something that wasn’t just ‘another Berlin thing,’ and not another tour with me (my parents have done all my tours several times!). So I booked The Chef Tours Berlin, led by Chef Karl Wilder, and it turned out to be one of the best nights we’ve had in Berlin together, full stop.
If you’re searching for the best food tour in Berlin and you’re tired of scrolling past the same currywurst-and-schnitzel walking tours, here’s my honest take, plus straight answers to the questions I get asked most about the experience.
The Night Itself
We met near Warschauer Straße and walked through Friedrichshain, past the Berlin Wall, through the RAW Market and up towards Boxhagener Platz. As someone who guides tours for a living, I’ve seen a lot and know a lot about the city and I learnt a lot from Chef Karl! He’s been coming to Berlin since he was four years old, which gives him this rare double perspective: he talks about the neighbourhood like a local, but he still notices and explains the things a local would walk straight past.
The walk was just the warm-up. The real evening happened afterward, in a 1920s-style East Berlin apartment Karl uses as his dining room, where he cooked us a five-course meal paired with wine. But it wasn’t traditional Berlin food, Karl built the entire menu around us. He wanted to cook something he was fairly confident three Australians had never eaten before, so he made us gumbo. My dad, who has eaten his way around plenty of cities, could not stop talking about it.
What Surprised Me Most
Honestly, how personal it was. I expected a food tour. What I got was closer to a dinner party hosted by someone who genuinely wanted to cook for us specifically, not just run through a set menu. Karl’s food background spans Italy, the Dominican Republic, France, Spain and the US, and you can taste all of it. The meal didn’t try to be ‘authentically Berlin,’ but it was authentically him. He was truly a fabulous host.
Our Favourite Food and Drink
Impossible to pick just one. My dad’s was the gumbo, no contest. Mine was a close call between the home-baked bread served with the cheese course and the smoked ribs (Karl had clearly put serious hours into that smoker, and it showed). Everything was paired thoughtfully with wine, and by the end of the night I felt as though I couldn’t have fit another crumb into my body I was so full, and yet I didn’t want to stop eating!
What Makes It Different From Other Tours
Most Berlin food tours move you between three or four restaurants or street stalls, and you’re often eating standing up, watching the clock. This isn’t that. For one, the food isn’t trying to be ‘local Berlin cuisine’. Karl draws on his own culinary history to cook something genuinely delicious, honestly better than meals I’ve had in plenty of Berlin restaurants. And instead of restaurant-hopping, you go to his apartment, which changes the entire feel of the evening. It’s slower, warmer, and far more authentic than a scripted walking tour with a group of twelve people.
The One Thing I’d Tell Someone Considering It
Come hungry, and don’t plan anything for the morning after. You will eat a lot, and you will drink a lot of wine. Nobody leaves this table still hungry so pace yourself, because you’re going to want multiple helpings of everything!
Would I Recommend The Chef Tours Berlin?
Without hesitation. And it’s not just me! My parents also did The Chef Tours’ Paris experience while they were traveling, and loved it just as much. It’s the first and only time in my life my mum has tipsy-texted me from a tour; she couldn’t stop raving about Chef PJ (who works with Chef Karl). When both a professional Berlin tour guide and two Australian retirees on separate continents come away equally obsessed, that’s a pretty good sign you’ve found the best food tour in Berlin — and worth it in Paris, too.
