Rein Icke - Berlin

Gute, faire Mittagsangebote und auch jetzt an Ostern gut besucht. Mit eingeschränkter Karte, was auf frische Zubereitung schließen lässt - so war dann auch das Essen. Durchweg gut, teilweise sehr gut, das Lamm mit leichten Abstrichen, aber noch "gut". Spargel mit Schnitzel als große Portion, lecker und günstig.Der Service war freundlich und aufmerksam. Insgesamt sicher (noch) ein Geheimtipp in der Nähe der Residenzstrasse. Zu empfehlen, 4/5, siehe Fotos

Die Kutscherstube heißt jetzt Rein Icke und ist ein liebevoll eingerichtetes Lokal mit Biergarten. Es wird ein täglich wechselnder Mittagstisch angeboten, welcher sehr lecker und zudem preiswert ist. Die Bedienung ist sehr freundlich und zügig.

After some weeks of trying various hip bars in Berlin with the propensity to charge glass deposits, cover charges, not to mention entry charges to go to the toilet and possibly inflated prices for not always cold beer sold by the bottle it was a relief to find the small wonder that is Rein-Icke/Kutscherstube.This biergarten/restaurant now known as Rein-Icke offers friendly service away from the overpriced bars of trendy and tourist areas of Berlin. Still, it is only a 25 metre walk along Pankower Allee from the Pankower Allee exit at the Franz Neumann Platz underground station on the U8 (same line as the most memorable exhibit of the Berlin Wall at U Bernauer Straße), so it's not hard to get to at all.As you will see, if you read on, Rein-Icke has lots of offerings, but for me it is about the beer. Especially Bitburger (Premium) Pils on tap which they pour delightfully. Bitburger is a pilsener brew from the Eiffel in the west of Germany, and is the most popular draft beer in Germany particularly in the Rhine region. This is the antithesis of cloudy and harsh craft brews with a super clean cereal taste, 4.8% alcohol, a very persistent pitted white foamy head and distinct but restrained bitterness and floral aromas from Saaz hops in true pilsener style. It is not as floral and bitter as the original Czech pilsener (Urquell) and so, to some tastes like mine, it is more approachable.Rein-Icke is a comfortable local style beer garden (see photos) offering 6 beers on tap and 12 beers by the bottle. I can't vouch for the other beers because I couldn't get passed the Bitburger. The other tap beers (generally 2.70 € for the biggest size and 2.00 € for the small) include Erdinger Weissbier (big only – 0.5 litre), a slightly yeast cloudy wheat beer and the local Berliner Kindl. Guinness, also on tap, is popular too with the locals who frequent Rein-Icke.From the beer garden you can watch the underside of planes flying overhead and read their livery because Rein-Icke is right under the flight path running into Berlin’s Tegel airport! So it is a great place to keep a vigil waiting for a companion to arrive into Berlin. Also it is short walk from Rein-Icke to Schӓfersee, an agreeable and pretty urban lake.To match their beers Rein-Icke serve simple local home cooking like Kohlrouladen (cabbage rolls) with a minced pork and carraway stuffing and Königsberger Klopse (meatballs in a white caper sauce) for 8.50 €, if you can resist the schnitzels. See the photo of the menu. I tried and enjoyed the cabbage rolls. The Bratkartoffeln (1 € extra for these pan-fried potatoes with onion and bacon otherwise it is served with Salzkartoffeln - plain boiled potatoes), was the highlight of the dish.Rein-Icke also offers upstairs accommodation from around 35 € per night for a single. With mainly local patrons it didn’t seem likely to get loud to me but I didn’t test the accommodation. It is about 20 minutes from the airport on local bus 128 (2.80 € for a single ticket, Bus stop U Franz Neumann Platz).Worth a try.