Natalye R.
Yelp
For my first visit here, I expected more to this place, especially since I'd heard so many good things. But maybe it's my fault for going during the WM.
First, the good. There is a lot of seating, the area is expansive and welcoming, and it really is the perfect spot to drink a beer on a warm summer day while being lazy and catching up with friends.
Now, the bad. During the WM, they check your bags, and I knew this, so I purposely made sure not to have any food or drinks. I did have my EMPTY Nalgene, and they wouldn't let me in with it, instead suggesting I leave it in the boxes to the side. No dude, not doing that. Luckily a friend lives next door and I could leave it in her flat.
Then you get in, and the beer is pretty expensive for Berlin. €3.50 for the .4l Pils or Schwarzbier, €4 for the Hefeweizen. Plus some bottled beers and other drinks. Oh, and if you are buzzing hard and want to drink water to sober up a bit and curb an impending hangover, lucky you, you can buy "table water" from them at €3 for .4l. That's 50 cents cheaper than a beer for carbonated water. I didn't even bother asking about tap water, because a friend told me they charge for that too. Eff that noise--I filled my empty beer cup up with tap water from the bathroom because charging for tap water is not cool.
There's also food available, but it's all meat and cheese (vegans take note). I think the only things I could have eaten were almonds, olives, or a pickle. This was not that big of a bother, except that I was hoping that if you have six different kinds of meat, maybe there would be fries. So my hopes were dashed, but I had checked the menu online ahead of time, so I knew I would be SOL.
Finally they had a lot of TVs, which was awesome, but one was set up so that there was a massive glare on it for half the game. It is what it is, but I would have thought that working at a beer garden and expecting the masses to come out for a game, they would have maybe figured out by now where to put a TV so that people could actually see what's going on... never mind the technical difficulties (like when the TV just turned off mid-game).
Anyway, not a bad spot to grab a beer in the sun, but don't spend all your money in one place (this place), because your euro won't go very far.