Malatesta Caffé e Ristorante, Mitte, Berlin

Rip-off alert. Sorry, visited Easter break Apr 2011. Checked the menu on the outside. Looked at first glance like average Italian at Berlin prices. Was even worse. Pizzas as ordered on the menu were €2.00 more expensive than on the menu on the wall outside. Pizza Marguerita at an already expensive €7.50 came in at €9.50 on the final bill. Third time this has happened to me in one week. Extremely aggravating.

Waiter made a huge show of opening up the little menu case and replacing the menu with the new, more expensive one. Seems to me like they simply forgot to replace the one with Winter prices to the one with rip-off tourist-season prices. Was not offered a discount or the prices listed outside.

Oh yeah, the food was "OK", but just OK. You can get the same thing at any pizzaria in Germany. Will never go back.

Good location on a corner across from Gendamenmarkt. Good service from real Italians. However, for an upscale restaurant in an upscale area, I wasn’t all that impressed with my food. The pesto was bland, and sort of clumped together. I would give it another shot, but won’t feel an urgent need to.

Lovely restaurant, serving traditional fare that shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Italian food.

My calamaretti starter and spaghetti con vongole main course were spot on. This judgement was confirmed by an Italian in our group who said this was a close to the real deal as it got outside of Italy.

If you can, try and get a table on the first floor as your view is slightly better.

Service was excellent. The waitress was super cute, and really friendly and efficient.