Tag Archives: gastro-rallye

Berlinagenten Wins Two International Awards

Henrik Tidefjärd - Berlinagenten-07

We won! We won! Yes, that was repetitive. But only because we won two awards. First: Berlinagenten has won the 2018 Luxury Travel Guide Award for „Tour Guide of the Year – Germany“! Each year LTG’s subscribers, hotel guests, travel agencies, and industry experts world wide vote on companies they feel are deserving of recognition. It seems our scheme to make people love Berlin (and us) is working out nicely! Now we’re crossing our fingers that we’ll attend the Global LTG Awards in London next year. With a little luck, we’ll take home the global award like we did in 2016, when our Gastro-Rallye concept won the award for „Culinary Experience of the Year“.

Gastro-Rallye Tour

Secondly – we were awarded „Tour Company of the Year 2018“ by Travel & Hospitality Awards. The T&H Awards is a global awards programme appreciating hotels, travel companies, restaurants, wedding planners and spas – basically all sorts of companies that make your life a little more comfortable. Just like LTG Awards, at T&H subscribers, users and guests can vote for their favourite company. We’re absolutely stoked by the love shown for Berlinagenten. You guys rock! You can learn more about LTG Awards here. More information about T&H Awards can be found here.

On Tour – Carving Ice in Paradise

When we hear “ice”, our thoughts naturally drift towards delicious cocktails and crushed ice – maybe ice cubes – with a tiny rainbow colored umbrella in it, saying “Drink me! Drink me now and love me later!”. Since we understand not all our guests share our well-known passion for cocktails and party hats, we presented them a form of ice anyone can get behind. We proudly present: Our first ice-carving workshop, fuelled entirely by the raw artistic skill of our guests (and just a little bit of mulled wine).

Overlooking the area from Amano’s roof terrace, 11 teams hacked and slashed away with sharp axes to create what we believe is some of the finest ice-carving art in history (see pictures). Of course handling the axes was a little dangerous – but then, we don’t specialise in creating day trips for pensioners but in forging unforgettable Berlin experiences!

To prove that point, our following Gastro Rallye kidnapped our guests’ taste buds and took them on a road trip of culinary delights. A journey from Paris to Tel-Aviv with Mani restaurant’s luxurious cuisine, on to Asia in Tim Raue’s Sra Bua in Adlon Hotel. The last stop was Berlin’s pioneer members’ club – Münzstudio. Münz’s Belle Etage has seen prominent guests ranging from Take That to Quentin Tarantino – just enough for our demanding customers.

With our extensive selection of award-winning tours, we’re happy to please every taste coming our way. However, we’re even more eager to create unique experiences, hand-tailored for our customers’ desires. Whatever your poison is, we’ll add a spoon of awesomeness and make sure you never forget Berlin. And us.

Berlinagenten is Global Winner at Luxury Travel Guide Awards 2016

Following our honouring as Germany’s best Culinary Experience by the Luxury Travel Guide earlier this year, we’re more than thrilled to announce our Gastro-Rallye concept was premiered global winner in the category Culinary Experience of the Year by the LTG award team last Monday (November 7th).

At the award ceremony in London’s Radisson Blu Edwardian Bloomsbury Street, nominees from around the globe competed in 30 categories to discover the best accomodations, restaurants, destinations, wedding specialists & tour companies in the world. The black tie event was moderated by guest judge and Travel Channel host Shane Green and included Sash&Fritz premium vodka from Berlin, which we took to be a good omen for winning the award ceremony.

Bringing his ravishing blue glittering blazer to full bloom, Henrik’s appearance on stage was sure to steal the show. He thanked the award team and announced it wouldn’t have been possible without his amazing team, restaurant partners and guides, but also that he wasn’t completely surprised by winning, since he already received lots of international press coverage and A-celebs signing up for his lifestyle tours in Berlin.

The award also is a recognition for the aspiring Berlin culinary scene, which now officially ranks among the best gourmet destinations in the world. The scene has come a long way and this award confirms Berlin’s fine-dining destinations have come of age. The city is ready for the world’s most demanding foodies, jet-setters and gourmets and we’re sure it will create even more buzz in the years to come. Berlinagenten already plans the launch of the successful Gastro-Rallye concept on a global stage. Stay tuned for more info.

On Tour – ICA

Berlin’s evergrowing food craze has made people from all over the world hungry for a taste of our bittersweet city! We were happy to show ICA the city’s tastiest spots with one of Berlinagenten’s infamous Cool Hunting Tours. These tours are focused on finding emerging trends, business innovations and the city’s currents of tomorrow. To make sure ICA’s needs were met perfectly, we put the tour’s emphasis on cool street food markets, delicious pop up events, charismatic bistros by the water, edgy little food shops and the emerging fine dining scene that create Berlin’s culinary diversity. 

We slipped into the role of Sherlock Holmes himself (well, a modern, food-obsessed version of Sherlock maybe). Armed with polaroid cameras and given the task to uncover the secrets of hidden concept stores, organic food stores, delicacy shops and urban fast food markets, our enthusiastic food detectives dived into a sea of tasty treats and took the journey into the city’s vivid culinary core. Our exclusive selection of hip food locations such as Neue Heimat, the legendary Turkish market at Maybachufer and organic super markets like the LPG Bio Market or Biocompany made sure the next tongue-pleasers were never far away.

Berlin takes a leading position when it comes to fresh designs and innovative food impressions and we take a special pride in leading you to the most extraordinary concept stores the city offers, just so you can take home the inspiration you need to get on with your ideas!

In the end though, it’s much more satisfying to see the delicacies on your plate than in front of your camera. For our following Riverside Gastro Rallye we handpicked restaurants like insider’s tip Volt and Sage Restaurant, where we were served one course per restaurant before hopping to the next – a wonderful way to pick up the vibe in different part of the cities.

Now we wouldn’t Berlinagenten if we hadn’t finished off the day with an appropriate portion of glamour, so after some extensive bar hopping our connections helped us jump queues and dance until we could dance no more in the famous house club Avenue! Just one Berlinagenten tour is already bound to blow your mind, but three in one day…? You’ll never look at Berlin the same away again!

On tour: Revenge of the Bloggers!

New Media is the new frontier and bloggers have become the communicators commanding mass audiences, hence the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) held their first Social Travel Summit to Leipzig on 15 and 16 April 2014. After the conference, the bloggers were dispersed around the country. Two groups were lucky enough to get Berlin and tours with Berlinagenten.

Henrik curated a special tour for four international bloggers, which included visiting four neighbourhoods in six hours. Everywhere they visited, the bloggers were Twittering, Instagramming, Facebooking their movements with the precision of the Stassi.

Highlights included trying Berlin’s famous currywurst, stepping inside the mirror room of Clärchens Ballhaus, checking out the amazing graffiti and street art along Orianstrasse and The Eastside Gallery. That evening, the group met up again for a Gastro Rallye and a Berlinagten nightlife tour.

The brief from Visit Berlin was to take the group to cool urban eateries where Berliners would hang out. We started at Volta in Wedding, before moving onto the Der Hahn ist Tot (The Hen is dead!) for our main meal before finishing with dessert at Katz Orange. Then it was off to Platoon for drinks and to check out the night-market.

Meanwhile, Lollie was guiding a group that she’d dubbed the United Nations on Gastro Rallye around East Berlin. On arrival, she made a pledge to her group, which included a Canadian, French, Brazilian and a Malay, that, by the end of the tour, they’d be so full that they’d be rolling home. She didn’t not disappoint, as they started at W derImbiss with the delightful Gordon, who brought us a selection of his famous Naan pizzas. Next, the group took a visit to District Mot, where they tried out the Steamboat, finally it was off to Mani for dessert, where the hostess convinced the entire group to knock back a Rhubarb Shot and then they all rolled happily home. The End.

On Tour with Visit Berlin and Taiwanese media and tour operators

Visit Berlin does an amazing job of exporting Berlin as a premier tourism destination all around the world. Berlinagenten partners with Visit Berlin when it comes to showing both journalists and travel industry professionals, the very best that Berlin’s gourmet scene has to offer with our famous Gastro Rallye’s.

Visit Berlin, in association with the Taiwanese office of the DB Bahn were hosting 10 of Taiwan’s top media and tourist industry professionals. The group had been travelling around Germany for a week by train. Now it was a chance to see Berlin! Berlinagenten curated a programme that showcased Berlin’s amazing culinary scene at the city’s finest restaurants.

On board for the tour was Visit Berlin’s Joyce Olivia Bernitt, who organises the programmes for incoming tour operators and Claudia Sult from the Visit Berlin Press Office.

After being picked up by a luxury bus, we started our tour at Volt, where head Chef Matthias Gleiß interprets traditional Berlin dishes and German classics into a gourmet’s delight. Next, it was onto new French hotspot Restaurant Richard for our main course before we had dessert at the trendy Sage restaurant. By the end of the night, eight out of our ten guests had fully embraced the Berlin spirit and were last seen heading into Tresor Night Club, despite having an early morning flight home! Our mission was complete!

Photos: Lollie Barr & Steven Hsu

The Scene meets Eins 44

Something is stirring in deepest, darkest Neukölln. Better known for its kebab houses than an innovative food scene, things are certain to change with the launch of the brand new restaurant Eins 44 Kantine.

Tucked away in an art deco courtyard, you would never know this place existed. Yet after Berlinagenten tested out the menu, it’s guaranteed Berliners will be heading west and hitting the backstreets of Neukölln in the hope of seeking it out. Restaurant manager Jonathan Kartenberg and head chef Sebastian Radtke, were formerly at another one of favourite restaurants, Mani. The cuisine grounds itself in French basics, yet the exciting young team have updated it and then infused it with international flavours to create something brand new.

For a new restaurant, we were impressed by the ambiance that makes this place feel like a familiar cozy neighbourhood eatery, but all the while being highly stylised. The two story building was originally a distillery, so there is a spacious modern, post industrial feel. Its original tiled walls, ceiling and impressive bar, acquired vintage lamps, wooden tables and chairs that date back 30 years combine together to create a very lived-in, cool atmosphere. Being Berlin, naturally smokers are accommodated in the form of smokers’ room, which features a massive wooden table on a turbine engine. 

We were certainly impressed by the food. To get our mouths watering, we started out with a gift from the kitchen, a dainty yet delicious mini Pork Belly Burger. First course, we decided on a delicious light crusted Golden Trout with granny smith apple and radish salad, along with a tender Beef Carpaccio with asparagus, grapefruit and a hint of coriander. For the main course, it was a speciality French pork done two ways, with a delightful cauliflower puree, and we also shared a perfectly grilled piece of prime entrecôte with potatoes and beans. Heaven arrived in the form of a 70% percent chocolate brownie cake with rosemary pineapple, mint and strawberry coulis for dessert.

Now for the very good news, despite the quality and the ambience, Eins 44 is very reasonably priced. A three course meal costs 33 euros, four courses is 42 euros and five courses just 51 euros. Or you can buy individual courses. It is complimented with a fine French and German wine list.

Eins 44 is definitely buzzing on our new Berlin restaurant radar! We honestly can’t wait to return.

HOW BERLINAGENTEN INVENTED THE GASTRO-RALLYE

Food can make or a break a visit to a new city. But how do you find the rare gems, the temples of gastronomy, the restaurants of the moment that crackle with an electric atmosphere? Well, you could always look online. However, chances are you’ll find a restaurant with good reviews but on arrival you find the waitress getting drunk on her own tears of boredom in an empty restaurant because the critiques were from 2011 before that regrettable food poisoning epidemic.

Or you spend hours traipsing around aimlessly looking into restaurant windows trying to decide on where to go, then by the time you make your decision you can’t get a table. Even worse, you consult your guide book and find yourself in a restaurant full of tourists wearing bum bags and baggy track pants complaining loudly that the food is better back home.

It was 10 years ago that Henrik started Berlinagenten after coming up with a very unique idea – the Gastro-Rallye. The idea being guests get to sample between three and four of Berlin’s finest restaurants in a one night. At each hand picked restaurant, you not only get to experience a different course but you also get pick on a different scene, a different vibe with the guarantee of fabulous food and atmosphere.

What makes it so special is your personal guide. We pride ourselves on hiring well-informed guides with big personalities. You will walk off each course between restaurants as your guide gives you an insight into the local area, as well as fabulous insider tips that will make your stay all the more special.

Due to Berlinagenten‘s contract with Visit Berlin, more than 1500 journalists have been on a Gastro-Rallye and we are constantly covered in print and on TV. Our clients include jet setters from New York’s upper East side, Hollywood types, corporates, bonding family groups, loved up couples, and everyone else in between. So it is no wonder that Berlinagenten has exported the concept to other destinations outside Germany.

Check out the Berlinagenten Tour Shop for more information.

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