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Why is normal canteen style lunch places so hard to find in Berlin?
The other alternative is some more super light café lunch, like a lentil soup or pie or a more "real" restaurant like Italian or vietnamese. then you need to wait order and bla bla, it's more of a project
But I miss a place where you just go and get a tray, they have ready made daily dishes(like, 1 meat 1 vegetarian) and some sallad buffet and bread.
Something like https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g189852-d7885929-Reviews-Ragnars_Skafferi-Stockholm.html or https://www.kvartersmenyn.se/index.php/rest/16734
Why are those so hard to find??
i think part of it is the whole mittagspause thing here is just less institutionalized. in sweden u have that strong "husmanskost" tradition where even office workers expect a hot plate lunch. berlin is more like snack culture, döner or a currywurst and ur done. that said, try the "mensa" at any uni, they're open to the public if u don't look too lost. the one at humboldt uni on unter den linden has a proper buffet with a meat and veg option daily, around 6 euro with a student card but like 8 without, and nobody checks that hard. also check "zollpackhof" near hauptbahnhof, it's a bit more restaurant-y but they do a solid "tagesgericht" with a salad bar and it's fast, no booking needed. the trick is to look for places that advertise "mittagstisch" on a chalkboard outside, not in the fancy food halls. those are usually old-school gasthäuser or even some bakeries that do a hot lunch till 3pm. not as common as stockholm, but they exist if u stick to the outer bezirke.
honestly the real issue is the worker density thing. stockholm has that whole "personalkantine" culture where even small offices subsidize a lunch spot nearby. berlin's economy is too fragmented, everyone works remote or in tiny startups so the demand just isn't there. but check out "markthalle neun" on a weekday, the street food stalls there do proper tray service till like 3pm, not the fancy weekend stuff. also the "arbeitnehmerhilfswerk" canteens, they're technically for social services staff but nobody checks, there's one on brunnenstraße that does a rotating meat and veg option plus soup for like 7 euro. and if u're near a hospital, the "mitarbeiterkantine" is usually open to visitors, charité's one on campus mitte is surprisingly decent and dead cheap. the trick is to search for "kantine" not "restaurant" on google maps. those old school places hide in basement levels of office buildings, no sign outside, just a paper menu taped to the door. once u spot one u'll never go back to overpriced bowls.
yeah this is such a berlin thing honestly. the whole "mittagstisch" culture died out here compared to sweden or even hamburg. most places figured out they can charge 15 euro for a sad bowl of quinoa and people will still queue for it. but there are a few spots left if u know where to look, like the ones in bezirksämter or big office blocks. check "tagsgericht" or "frau mittenmang" in mitte, they do proper tray service with two or three options plus a salad bar, around 8 to 10 euro. also some rewes and edekas with a "brattheke" have hot food counters that are basically canteen style, u just grab a box and go. it's not as common as stockholm, but it exists if u avoid the hipster zones.
What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.
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