East Berlin's signature sour-spicy soup: long-simmered tomato-and-paprika broth packed with smoked sausages, pickled cucumbers, capers and dark olives. Finished with sour cream and lemon. The DDR-era Sunday lunch.
Soljanka is a Russian-Ukrainian classic that migrated west to East Germany through Soviet influence in the postwar GDR period; the dish became standardised at virtually every East German cafeteria, school canteen and Sunday family kitchen between 1949 and 1989. After reunification, the dish nearly disappeared from West German consciousness but remained a Berlin staple, particularly in the eastern districts of Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain and Treptow. The dish is now a Berlin Eastern-bloc-nostalgia (Ostalgie) icon, served at Zur Letzten Instanz, Mogg and most traditional East Berlin restaurants.
3 editor picks for Soljanka in Berlin, ranked by editorial score. All Berlin signature dishes · Soljanka across every city.
Max und Moritz ★ 4.2
kreuzberg · Oranienstrasse 162, 10969 Berlin
Max und Moritz on Berlin's Oranienstrasse has cooked Prussian tavern classics since 1902 in the original ceramic-tiled dining room; the Klopse and rouladen.
Lutter und Wegner ★ 4.2
mitte · Charlottenstrasse 56, 10117 Berlin
Lutter und Wegner on Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt has cooked the city's traditional Wiener Schnitzel since 1811; the wood-panelled room runs the long lunch.
Zur Letzten Instanz ★ 4.1
mitte · Waisenstrasse 14-16, 10179 Berlin
Zur Letzten Instanz in Berlin's Nikolaiviertel has cooked Eisbein and Sauerbraten in the same 1621 tavern room since Berlin itself was young.