Trattoria Milano — Restaurant in Berlin

Sept 30-Oct 3: Nightly dinner at our favourite restaurant in Berlin!

When we first visited Berlin in January 2023, my wife accidentally discovered Trattoria Milano Anna und Antonino Amitrano. This amazing, cozy Italian restaurant left such a deep impression on us, that prior to our recent 5D/4N visit (Oct 2024) that we made dinner reservations for all four nights!

It’s hard to adequately describe this place, but you feel like you’re at home the minute you enter. Most of the guests are local residents who live in the neighborhood, including elderly Germans and Italians, and families with young children.

Trattoria Milano even has the quintessential checkered table cloths, warm family service, and incredible, down-to-earth food that I miss so much from my ancestral hometown in Italy.

It had been 21 months since we last saw the wonderful couple, Anna and Toni, who started and run this gem in Berlin’s foodie haven of Charlottenburg. When we arrived, it was like we had just seen them yesterday! We gave them huge hugs, and equally huge farewell hugs on our last night (Oct 3) when we already beginning to miss them and Berlin.

As we had dinner that week in this special place (our home in Berlin!), families celebrated their birthdays, elderly residents arrived with their mobile walkers, one very spunky, elderly lady jumped up and started dancing to the restaurant’s piped in music, and a few young German couples even chose this special place for their first dates!

The mix of local residents and other guests conversing in German and Italian always gives us a great excuse to practice… we normally end up speaking in sentences of mixed German and Italian, and perhaps only 2-3% English! 😂😂😂

Since we’ve been back to our home in Singapore, we really miss Anna, Toni, their son, and their wonderful staff, including our amazingly warm, kind, and professional server, Franco.

I’ve been going through serious food withdrawal the last two weeks, especially for Trattoria Milano’s Pizza Mista and Sicilian Cassata ice cream cake that I had with every meal!

Our dinners (overall dishes we had that week):

Drinks:

Small glass of Fanta Orange (200ml)

750ml San Pellegrino with fresh lemon

“Un Quattro” (250ml carafe) of Vino Rossa della casa Montepulciano: House red wine from Montepulciano.

Antipasti:

Freshly baked bread

Small portions of freshly-made bruschetta, meats, cheeses, and olives

Insalata Mista: Small mixed salad with virgin olive oil & balsamico

Primi & Secondi:

Ravioli di scampi al sugo di pomodoro: Handmade ravioli containing scampi, with pomodoro sauce.

Melanzane al forno ripiene di mozzarella in salsa di pomodoro: Aubergine Parmesan — eggplant baked with cheese and pomodoro (tomato) sauce.

Filetto di maiale alla pizzaiola con tagliatelle: Pork fillet pizzaiola with olives, capers, pomodoro sauce, and handmade tagliatelle pasta.

Spaghetti alla bolognese

Tagliatelle Pomodoro: Handmade tagliatelle pasta with pomodoro sauce containing olives and minced garlic.

Ravioli ripieni di scampi e gamberi in leggero sugo di pomodoro: Handmade ravioli filled with scampi and shrimp, in a light tomato sauce.

Filetto di maiale alla senape: Pork tenderloin in mustard sauce (incredible!)

Pizza Mista: Pizza mozzarella, salami, ham, mushrooms, capsicum, and extra tomato sauce.

Dolci (Desserts):

Vanilla ice cream with warm raspberry sauce

Cassata Siciliana:

Sicilian specialty ice cream with fruit — it’s so rare to find Cassata cake in Asia that I ordered a double portion for most of our meals!

Double Espresso

Limoncello

Trattoria Milano is a must-try when you’re in Berlin! Reservations highly recommended.

[Our favourite window side...

Food was decent it was warm, staff seemed dismissive once we had our mains. Could be due to not speaking local language, however could not be sure. The behaviour of staff did leave a sour taste in our mouth as we were looking forward to a dessert and another drink but was never offered any, nor where we asked if the food was ok and no attempt was made with anything hospitality wise once mains were served and it all felt rushed. The restaurant was not busy by any means and multiple other people got what they wished while we sat there twiddling our thumbs, didnt really get chance to wave...

The most I liked about the place, is the simplicity within every aspect. Even the food has just the right amount of seasoning, without being too much.

We've been greeted with a bruschetta,which was a great way to start lunch. The gentleman serving us was delightful in his reserved manner.

Just one tiny detail,a "lil hair in the soup": The salad was already seasoned with a strange sous, balsamico presumably.

If I may suggest, let the client put seasoning within the salad.

Outside that, I'd give the place...