MINA Ristorante East Side Gallery

Last year, Verōnika restaurant opened in Berlin’s new Fotografiska Museum, giving hope to the city‘s future as a cosmopolitan city: large, generously priced, flanked by two cocktail bars and international art photography. Now, with the new Mina Ristorante in the less gastronomically explored area around the East Side Gallery landmark in the former East Berlin district of Friedrichshain, behind the remnants of the Berlin Wall, there is another establishment with metropolitan flair: located directly at the Spree, with a sprawling outdoor terrace overlooking the river, an aperitivo bar, and a relaxed and sunny atmosphere that makes you feel like chilling somewhere at the Italian Riviera. Enter Mina’s gastronomic offerings which make a perfect fit with the interiors and the atmosphere: The extensive à la carte menu features Italian-Levantine dishes with a contemporary twist. No tiring tasting menus here - the overall theme is enjoying life and having a good time. The (mostly Italian) wine list is impressive and holds lots of new discoveries. The combination of Italian and Levantine cuisines might seem odd, but owner Mikhail Mnatsakanov, a Berlin-raised Russian with Armenian roots, explains it through his family background: his father, Aram Mnatsakanov, a successful restaurateur from St. Petersburg, wanted to combine his passion for Italian cuisine (and the corresponding wines) with his Armenian grandmother's cooking, as both regions are geographically close – thus the concept of the restaurant was born. For starters, you can choose from creamy hummus (with avocado and beetroot, or a very tender lamb), baba ghanoush, carpaccio, and vitello tonnato – and an extraordinary pizza: not Neapolitan style, but baked with a thin, super crispy crust, a blend of the traditional Lebanese flatbread manakish and the Sardinian pane carasau. The pizza comes in nine different varieties, including a very sumptuous truffle pizza. My favorite: mortadella and pistachios. Also excellent are the raviolini stuffed with Robiola cheese and porcini mushrooms and the maccheroncini with large chunks of fresh crab meat. All the pasta, except for the spaghetti, which come from the Southern Italian pasta mecca Gragnano, is homemade. The fusion of Italy and the Levant is wonderfully achieved with the kafta, juicy meatballs seasoned with lots of fresh herbs and served in a fruity tomato sauce. The dish comes with Sardinian fregola, cooked in an aromatic saffron broth. For dessert (homemade gelato and chocolate truffles, an amazing pistachio tiramisu, a torta della nonna just like in Italy), an old-fashioned digestif cart appears, and excursion boats pass by the terrace in the sunset. One wonders why no one thought of opening a great waterfront restaurant in Berlin sooner!