Before we left, I looked at the travel section of the New York Times online for information on the cities we would be visiting on this trip. They have a series of articles called "36 Hours in [insert name of city here]" which is great - highlighting the best hot spots and giving real (not guidebook) descriptions of them. We consulted the article on Berlin to find a restaurant for dinner last night, and it worked out really well - we were in a completely non-touristy neighborhood in a great restaurant that was incredibly reasonable and offered a very tasty menu. And it was not translated into German, so our waiter kindly went through ever dish and described them in detail.
Here are a few photos from Schneewiess, in the Friedrichshain district (similar to the Lower East Side in NYC). I highly recommend it and will definitely return there on my next visit to Berlin.
