Lutter & Wegner (Chain)

The Basics:
A conglomerate of wine restaurants:
Charlottenstrasse 56, 10117 Berlin (near Gendarmenmarkt, U-Stadtmitte) [main, most famous]
+49-(0)30-20 29 54 0

Bellevuestrasse 1, 10785, Berlin (near S/U Potsdamer Platz)
+49-(0)30-26 39 03-72

Alte Potsdamer Strasse 5, 10785 Berlin (near S/U Potsdamer Platz)
+49-(0)30-25 29 43 50

Oranienburger Strasse 52-53, 10117 Berlin (near S Oranienburger Str. or U Oranienburger Tor)
+49-(0)30-24 78 10 78

Confused? Wait - there's more: The original restaurant has actually relocated after 1945 (war, communism, you know), as is not only located somewhere else (Schlüterstraße 55 in Charlottenburg) but is also not related to the L&W group. We will review it separately under "Lutter & Wegner seit 1811".

URL

Accessible?

Child-Friendliness?

Style:
German elite cuisine and wine house

Related Tours/Sites:
For the first branch, "Berlin's Top Sites" tour; for the second, and the third, the Weimar Berlin; and for the fourth, the Classic Jewish Berlin Tour, or any of these branches with customised Berlin tours

More:
As mentioned before, it is a bit confusing: the original Lutter & Wegner was established in 1811 in Gendarmenmarkt, and this is where the original location is. However, the original restaurant has been re-established by the family after the war in Charlottenburg, and has nothing to do with the big chain that owns these restaurants in Berlin as well as several other restaurants in Germany, owned and managed by a large wine/Sekt distributor, Henkell & Söhnlein. A bit like those "authentic" Irish pubs that Guiness has everywhere in Europe. (The original Lutter & Wegner will be reviewed under "Lutter & Wegner seit 1811")

Reviews:
Eric Asimov, the wine critic for the New York Times, writes: "At Lutter and Wegner, a traditional Berlin restaurant on Charlottenstrasse right in the center of the city, the excellent wine list included quite a few spätburgunders. I selected a 2005 Von Unserm trocken from a Rheingau producer I had never heard of, Balthasar Ress. [...] The wine was light-bodied and delicate, cherry-scented and slightly bitter. It was young and not complex but absolutely delicious, the perfect weight and flavor for my smoky potato soup and the almost comically huge schnitzel, which even with its ridges and folds dwarfed the plate it came on."

I think that Mr. Asimov knows about wine a little more than I do. However, when I was there (at the Gendarmenmarkt branch), the service was rude and slow. I have heard that the other branches are better, and if you are deeply offended by the fact that I have likened L&W to an Irish pub chain, consider this: I actually enjoy those fake Irish pubs.