Bötzow Privat, Mitte, Berlin

we´ve been at this spot some days ago.
a friend told us to check out these restaurants at that corner.
bad idea.
all we ate tasted either like nothing or really awful.
the soup f.e. was something between hot water and cream (spicery? - they don´t have/use/know??!)
the breakfast? - extraneous. (some kind of cheese uncharitable allotted on the plate...)
and the service: uncourteous.
maybe they don´t like tourists, maybe they can´t do better.

I had dinner with some friends at Bötzow Privat last week, on a Tuesday.
We've enjoyed the atmosphere, very cosy and friendly staff.

My friend ordered Käsespätzle, which turned out to be a big dissapointment. First of all the portion was very small, she had a pizza on the way back home...The plate resembled a bowl of porridge plus it tasted like a mixture of flour and milk.

My Schnitzel was huge and tasty though.

I felt sorry for the waiters. The tables are set so close together, one can hardly maneuver in between them.
We could hardly understand each other while talking, because the place is so cramped and loud, which is very unpleasant while having a conversation over a nice meal.

Furthermore, the toilets are a disgrace! They look like they haven't been renovated since the war, and smelled horribly! The toilets at McDonald's are much cleaner, I can assure you....and that says a lot.

I left a tip for those poor sods they did a great job, thumbs up for them, but cannot recommend this place at all!!

One star for the Schnitzel, the staff and the location.

Nan and I stopped by the other night. Fortunately, Nan reserved a table....the Privat was packed with lively and attractive people. This is the restaurant movies and magazines always show to make you want to go to Europe. Its got that look.
I had the Schnitzel with warm potato salad; Nan the Schnitzel with fried potatoes. We both inhaled our dinner and both had the house beer: finally, a strong-flavored pils.
The waitstaff were genuinely friendly...an extra star for the waitress with the tattooed arm.
The atmosphere was raucous and not the typical Berlin hushed voices. Could have stayed longer, but the beers said "Time to go".

I used to live in Berlin and Bötzow has to be one of the restaurants that most accurately depict the city for me. It just exhales Berlin from every corner: from the outer benches with idle people sipping latte macchiato on summertime, to the dazzling historic interior that warms you up on a cold winter night. It can be quiet during the day, making it cinematographically possible to have lunch while reading your book on your own and enjoying some freshly made cake; as well as pub crowded at night, making it also the right spot for having a beer, for instance the original Bötzow. Other than that, food is a major here. Everything is completely taken care of. They don't have a 15 pages menu that normally gnaws your indecisiveness, but they have something for every taste. My pick for a dish has to be the Wienerschnitzel: over generously portioned meat and awesomely tasty potatoes. They see to it that everything will be right on spot on all the courses and they reinvent the menu every once in a while, but they keep the specialties of the house. It is the 19th century wooden counter, the exquisite lightning, the incomparable dishes, the thoughtfulness of the waiters and the real berliners sitting on the restaurant, that make the atmosphere so enthralling and takes you back in time, something rare in Berlin.

We came here for lunch and it was lovely. The staff was really lovely : gentle, kind, sensitive and attentive. And cute, as a matter of interest. That bit’s not important. It has a definite German look about it and it’s really cosy and gently smart at the same time. And lively music playing too. We ordered Bouletten (meat patties), cheese Spaetle ( a Germna style noodle) and beer and kiba (cherry/banana juice). And it was delicious. The cheesy noodles were a bit too rich for me but the meatball/patties were very, very tasty. And we took the ones we didn’t manage to eat and they made tasty sarnies the next day. The cake display looked really interesting too!

Nice place to stop in for a quick bite or to sit outside and enjoy drinks. It was one of the first warmer nights of the year and we met friends here for drinks. Service was really nice and seemed well organized. Quite enjoyed our stay there but the place is definitely nothing memorable or worth making an effort to get to. Simply good if you are there and want to try something new.

Bötzow Privat is a 7/10 kind of place.

Generally not too crowded during the day, so you always seem to find a spot. And they also have a 10 EUR lunch offering which is salad, a meal, one drink and an espresso.

I flipped through the menu and it was not too exciting. At least not as exciting as their standing and setup suggest. So I ended up getting a soup which was pretty good still.

Also when you don't get the lunch deal, it's pretty pricey. For example, I paid over 12 Euros for a single espresso, two cider spritzers and the soup. Which is maybe OK for the (Berlin-)Mitte district, but too pricey in my (humble) opinion.